WOAD, in botany. See ISATIS.
Woad not only affords a lasting and substantial blue, which, according to the scale of the dyers, may be reduced into many different shades, but is also of great use in dyeing and fixing many other colours. But notwithstanding this, and its being a commodity of our own, the use of it is very much declined since the introduction of indigo; for the purchase of which large sums go annually out of the nation. The reason of this is, that indigo affords a more lively and pleasing colour, is managed with more ease by the dyers, and does their business more expeditiously. Yet with all these advantages, it is universally acknowledged, that the colour which indigo affords is inferior to that of woad in many respects, and particularly in permanency: for which reason, they are frequently used in conjunction; woad to give solidity and substance, and indigo to give brightness and colour. But the worst consequence that has attended the use of indigo, is not barely lessening the consumption, but abating the price and depreciating the intrinsic value of woad; so that less care is taken in the management of it; to which in a great measure the inferiority of its colour, at least in some places, is at present owing. The declension in its consumption is not the case here only, but also in other countries; for it was once the great staple of Languedoc, and was cultivated also in Normandy, and in other provinces of France; as it also is in Spain, Portugal, the Azores, and Canary islands, Switzerland, in the neighbourhood of Geneva, in different parts of Germany, and in Sweden.
Our own woad was allowed to be superior to any that we imported; and yet before indigo had so great an ascendant, it was thought necessary to lay high duties upon foreign woad, for the encouragement of the growing and manufacturing it here; which duties still subsist. If we consider, that this is a commodity in which agriculture is as much interested as our manufacturers, one cannot well doubt that the preserving and restoring it deserves great attention here, as well
as in other countries in Europe, where the support of it has been very seriously considered, from the bad effects that have attended its decline. An idea has been entertained, that by an alteration in the manner of curing of it, the inconveniences that are supposed to attend the use of it might be removed, and that woad might be brought to answer all the purposes of indigo; which, if it could be accomplished, would be most certainly a great advantage, and an advantage which every true lover of his country would wish should take place here rather than any where else. The author of the Natural History of Languedoc suggests, that woad, if cured in the same manner as indigo, might produce as lively a colour; and adds, that from some experiments made by himself, he is convinced the method would effectually answer. The celebrated Mr Du Hamel du Monceau informs us, that having proposed to Mr Fontenelle, a physician in Louvifiana, the cultivating the pastel there in the manner of indigo, that gentleman acquainted him, that by treating indigo after the manner of pastel, he had obtained a very beautiful green; but he did not say whether it was a solid and permanent as well as a lively colour.