Chapter XXXVIII: Section IV (2)

Edwards ("West Indies," vol. ii., p. 275, 2nd edition) reckons three
kinds of indigo--the wild, Guatemala, and French. The first is the
hardest, and the dye extracted from it of the best quality as
regards color and grain; but one or other of the two species is
commonly preferred by the planter, as yielding a greater return. Of
these the French surpasses the Guatemala in quantity, but yields to
it in fineness of grain and beauty of color. The indigo thrives
almost on any land, though the richest soils produce the most
luxuriant plants, and the longest dry weather will not kill it. The
cultivation and manufacture our author thus describes:--"The land
being prepared, trenches, two or three inches in depth, are made by
the hoe. These are ten or twelve inches asunder. The seeds are then
strewed in the trenches by the hand, and slightly covered with
mould. When the plants shoot, they are carefully weeded, and kept
constantly clean, until they rise high enough to cover the ground. A
bushel of seed is sufficient for four or five acres. The best season
for planting is March; but if the land be good, it may be sown at
any time, and in three months the plants attain maturity. In
seasonable situations, they have four cuttings in the year. The
subsequent growths from the plants ripen in six or eight weeks; but
the produce diminishes after the second cutting, so that the seeds
should be sown every second year. A species of grub, or worm, which
infests the plant on the second year is avoided by changing the
soil; or, in other words, by a rotation of crops. The produce per
acre of the first cutting is about 60 lbs. It is nearly as much in
North America; but when the thermometer falls to sixty, the returns
are very uncertain, that degree of heat being too low for the
necessary vegetation, maceration, and fermentation. The yieldings
for the subsequent cuttings somewhat diminish; but in Jamaica and
St. Domingo, if the land is new, about 300 lbs. per acre of the
second quality may be expected annually from all the cuttings
together; and four negroes are sufficient to carry on the
cultivation of five acres, besides doing other occasional work,
sufficient to reimburse the expenses of their maintenance and
clothing."

The process for obtaining the dye, according to the same author, was
conducted through the means of two cisterns, the one elevated above
the other, in the manner of steps. The higher, which was also the
longer, was named the _sleeper_--its dimensions sixteen feet square
and two and a half in depth. The second, into which the fluid was
discharged, was called the _battery_; it was about twelve feet
square, and four and a half in depth. These cisterns were of stone;
but strong timber answered remarkably well. There was also a
lime-vat, six feet square and four feet deep, the plug of which was
at least eight inches from the bottom. This was for the purpose of
permitting the lime to subside, before the lime-water was withdrawn.
The plants then being ripe, or fit for cutting, were cut with
reaping-hooks, or sickles, a few inches from the ground--six was the
minimum--and placed by strata in the _sleeper_, until it was about
three parts full. They were then pressed with boards, either loaded
with weights or wedged down, so as to prevent the plants from
floating loosely; and as much water was admitted as they would
imbibe, until it covered the mass four or five inches deep. In this
state it was allowed to ferment until the water had extracted the
pulp. To know when this had been thoroughly effected, required
extreme attention and great practical knowledge; for if the fluid
were drawn off too soon, much of the pulp was left behind; and if
the fermentation continued too long, the tender tops of the plants
were decomposed, and the whole crop lost. When the tincture or
extract was received in the battery, it was agitated or churned
until the dye began to granulate, or float in little flakes upon the
surface. This was accomplished at one period in Jamaica by paddles,
worked by manual labor, and, in the French islands, by buckets or
cylinders, worked by long poles; but subsequently--that is, at the
time Edwards wrote--convenient apparatus was constructed, the levers
of which were worked by a cog-wheel, kept in motion by a horse or
mule. When the fluid had been churned for fifteen or twenty minutes,
a small quantity was examined in a cup or plate, and if it appeared
curdled or coagulated, strongly impregnated lime-water was gradually
added, not only with a view to promote separation, but to prevent
decomposition. Browne remarks ("Civil and Nat. Hist. of Jamaica,"
art. "Indigo"), the planters "must carefully distinguish the
different stages of this part of the operation also, and attentively
examine the appearance and color as the work advances,--for the
grain passes gradually from a greenish to a fine purple, which is
the proper color when the liquor is sufficiently worked,--too small
a degree of agitation leaving the indigo green and coarse, while too
vigorous an action brings it to be almost black." The liquor being
then, as we shall suppose, properly worked, and granulation
established, it was left undisturbed until the flakes settled at the
bottom, when the liquor was drawn off, and the sediment (which is
the indigo) placed in little bags to drain, after which it was
carefully packed in small square boxes, and suffered to dry
gradually in the shade.

Such is the account, nearly word for word, which Edwards gives of
the mode of manufacturing indigo. I shall now quote his remarks upon
the outlay and gain upon the article _verbatim_.--"To what has been
said above of the nature of the plant suiting itself to every soil,
and producing four cuttings in the year, if we add the cheapness of
the buildings, apparatus, and labor, and the great value of the
commodity, there will seem but little cause for wonder at the
splendid accounts which are transmitted down to us concerning the
great opulence of the first indigo-planters. Allowing the produce of
an acre to be 300 lbs., and the produce no more than 4s. per pound,
the gross profit of only twenty acres will be £1,200, produced by
the labor of only sixteen negroes, and on capital in land and
buildings scarce deserving consideration." Yet, notwithstanding this
statement, the author informs us afterwards that he knew, in the
course of eighteen years' residence in the West Indies, upwards of
twenty persons who tried to re-establish indigo manufactories, but
failed. This appears strange, since it is plain that what has once
been done can be done again, but especially in the manufacture of an
article requiring a capital so very small in proportion to the
profits as almost to tempt the most cautious and the most timid man
to embark in it.

I quote the following passage from the same author, for the purpose
of showing the very loose manner in which statements are made on the
authority of others, who are as incompetent to decide the merits of
a question as the party himself chronicling their opinion. Speaking
of the twenty unfortunate indigo-planters, our author thus
writes:--"Many of them were men of foresight, knowledge, and
property. That they failed is certain; but of _the causes of their_
FAILURE _I confess I can give no satisfactory account._ I was told
that disappointment trod close upon their heels at every stop. At
one time the fermentation was too long continued, at another the
liquor was drawn off too soon; now the pulp was not duly granulated,
and now it was worked too much. To these inconveniences, for which
practice would doubtless have found a remedy, were added others of a
much greater magnitude--the mortality of the negroes, from the
vapour of fermented liquor (an alarming circumstance, that, I am
informed, both by the French and English planters, constantly
attends the process), the failure of the seasons, and the ravages of
the worm. These, or some of these evils, drove them at length to
other pursuits, where industry might find a surer recompense."--(p.
283.)

The fallacy of much of this requires no comment, as it must strike
even the most careless reader,--for if the so-called indigo-growers
did not know the process of manufacturing the commodity, then it
could not be surprising that they failed. Thus the cause of their
failure required no comment, and no explanation. Were a ploughman
taken from the field and placed at the helm of a ship, and the
vessel in consequence wrecked, would any one be astonished but at
the folly of those who placed him there? This was the case with the
indigo-growers,--they attempted what they did not understand, and,
consequently, lost their labor and their money. The mortality of the
negroes employed, stated as another reason for abandoning the
attempt, requires a somewhat more lengthy notice.

I can briefly say, that I have learned that in the Central States of
America, deaths among indigo-laborers are not more frequent than in
other branches of tropical industry; and I never heard or have read
that the _original_ growers complained of the mortality attending
the progress. The truth is, that this statement is not founded on
fact. There is nothing whatever in the manufacture of indigo, either
in the cultivation or the granulation, or even the maceration and
fermentation of the plant, which is directly or indirectly, _per
se_, injurious to human life. I have certainly never seen the indigo
plant macerated on a large scale; but I have myself steeped much of
it in water, and allowed it even to rot, and found nothing in the
mass differing in any marked degree from decomposed vegetable
matter. It seems to me that this idea of the manufacture of indigo
being especially inimical to human life, is as unfounded as the
belief, even by Humboldt, up to a very recent period, that none of
the Cerealia would grow in tropical climates. In conversing with an
old gentleman in Jamaica, some twelve years since, who had tried the
manufacture of indigo, and with every prospect of success, but
abandoned it, as he confessed, for the cultivation of the sugar
cane, since it was then more profitable, he suggested the solution,
that as the manufacture was light work, probably aged and
debilitated, in place of youthful and vigorous slaves, were too
frequently employed in the process--hence the mortality. This may be
correct to a certain extent; but I am also inclined to think that
another cause of mortality might be found in the mode and manner in
which the negro was fed and clothed, and not because aged persons
were exclusively engaged in the manufacture. I believe I may state,
without fear of contradiction, that the real cause of the decline
and consequent abandonment of the indigo plant was the monstrous
duty levied upon it by the English government. Indeed, this has been
already stated in the extract from Bridges; while the cause of the
failure of the attempt to renew it, over and above the reasons we
have given, was the greater temptation to embark capital in sugar
plantations,--the West Indies enjoying a monopoly in this article,
while they had competitors in the Southern States of America in the
other. I have, therefore, no hesitation in saying, that, with a
trifling capital, under prudent management, indigo might be
cultivated to a very great extent, and with considerable profit,
even now, in Jamaica. But the adventurer is not to expect to count
his gains, as the original growers did, by thousands; he must be
content with hundreds, if not fifties; for at the present day every
branch of industry is laden with difficulties, encumbered by
taxation, and obstructed by competition. There are two objections,
however, which I have not removed,--I allude to "the failure of the
seasons and the ravages of the worm." Very little need be said to
combat these. Seasons are mutable, and the same heaven that frowns
this year on the labors of the husbandman, may smile the next; while
a remedy for the "ravages of the worm" may be found in the mutation
of the soil, the destruction of the grub, or the rotation of
crops,--accessories to success which seem not to have entered into
the vocabularies of the twenty pseudo indigo-growers, "many of them
men of knowledge, foresight and property."

The following passage from Bryan Edwards will corroborate much that
I have endeavored to enforce. It furnishes not only a solution which
has been hinted at before, of the enigma why indigo ceased to be
cultivated in Jamaica, but also _an incentive_ to re-introduce the
culture. He says (p. 444), "It is a remarkable and well-known
circumstance, after the cultivation of indigo was suppressed by an
exorbitant duty of near £20 the hundred-weight, Great Britain was
compelled to pay her rivals and enemies £200,000 annually for this
commodity, so essential to a great variety of her most important
manufactures. At length, the duty being repealed, and a bounty some
time after substituted in its place, the States of Georgia and South
Carolina entered upon, and succeeding in the culture of this
valuable plant, supplied at a far cheaper rate than the French and
Spaniards (receiving too our manufactures in payment) not only the
British consumption, but also enabled Great Britain to export a
surplus at an advanced price to foreign markets."--It is therefore
plain that the manufacture of indigo was lost to Jamaica, not from
any difficulty in growing the plant, or from any loss of life
attending the process of manufacturing it, but from the ruinously
heavy duty of £20 the hundred-weight--and that now, when no duty
exists, it might be again cultivated with great advantage.

The cultivation of indigo has been repeatedly attempted in Cuba, but never with much success; although the shrub called the Xiquilite, from which it is extracted, grows wild in several districts of the island, but more especially towards the eastern extremity. The first _anileria_, or manufactory of indigo, was established in 1795, under the patronage of the _Ayuntamento_ of the Havana, who made an advance of 3,500 dollars, without interest, to the party engaging in the speculation, in order to encourage the enterprise; but the undertaking proved unsuccessful, and the same fate has befallen every subsequent attempt to introduce this branch of industry. In 1827, the whole produce amounted only to 56 arrobas. In 1837 the imports of indigo greatly exceeded the exports; the former having amounted to 121,350 lbs., and the latter to 82,890 lbs. In 1833, 5,184 lbs. reached the United Kingdom from the Havana, and in 1843, 62,675 lbs.

In 1826 British Honduras exported 358,552 lbs.; in 1830, 2,650 serons; in 1844, 1,247 serons; and in 1845, 1,052 serons.

The indigo shrub is one of the most common bushes in Trinidad, where it grows wild on almost all the indifferent soils. In 1783, there were several plantations and manufactories of indigo established in Trinidad; these were subsequently abandoned, on account of a supposition that they were unhealthy. Prior to 1783, the colonists had a kind of simple process by which they extracted sufficient coloring matter to serve domestic consumption. This process is at present unknown, hence all the indigo used there is imported from Europe, although the plant from which it can be made vegetates in every direction.

In 1791 Hayti imported 930,016 lbs. of indigo, while in 1804 the export had dwindled to 35,400 lbs.

Indigo, as I have already stated, was once a most important crop in South Carolina, some attention has recently again been given to it by an individual or two in Louisiana, and the enterprise is said to promise success; enough might undoubtedly be raised in the United States to supply the home market. Some indigo produced at Baton Rouge was pronounced to have been equal to the best Caraccas, which sells at two dollars per pound; and the gentleman who cultivated it remarks, that one acre of ground there, well cultivated, will yield from 40 to 60 lbs.; that it requires only from July to October for cultivating it; that there is not connected with it one-third of the expense or time that is generally required for the cultivation of cotton.

I take the following from Smyth's "Tour in the United States."

"This plant is somewhat like the fern when grown, and when young is hardly distinguishable from lucern grass, its leaves in general are pinnated, and terminated by a single lobe; the flowers consist of five leaves, and are of the papilonaceous kind, the uppermost petal being longer and rounder than the rest, and lightly furrowed on the side, the lower ones are short and end in a point; in the middle of the flower is formed the style, which afterwards becomes a pod containing the seeds.

"They cultivate three sorts of indigo in Carolina, which demand the same variety of soils. First, the French or Hispaniola indigo, which striking a long tap root will only flourish in a deep rich soil, and therefore, though an excellent sort, is not so much cultivated in the maritime parts of the State, which are generally sandy, but it is produced in great perfection one hundred miles backwards; it is neglected too on another account, for it hardly bears a winter so sharp as that of Carolina. The second sort, which is the false Guatemala, or true Bahamas, bears the winter better, is a more tall and vigorous plant, is raised in greater quantities from the same compass of ground, is content with the worst soil in the country, and is therefore more cultivated than the first soil, though inferior in the quality of its dye.

"The third sort is the wild indigo, which is indigenous here; this, as it is a native of the country, answers the purposes of the planter best of all, with regard to the hardiness of the plant, the easiness of the culture, and the quantity of the produce. Of the quality there is some dispute not yet settled amongst the planters themselves; nor can they distinctly tell when they are to attribute the faults of their indigo to the nature of the plant, to the seasons, which have much influence upon it, or to some defect in the manufacture.

"The time of planting the indigo is generally after the first rains succeeding the vernal equinox; the seed is sown in small straight trenches, about eighteen or twenty inches asunder; when it is at its height, it is generally eighteen inches tall. It is fit for cutting, if all things answer well, in the beginning of July.

"Towards the end of August a second cutting is obtained, and if they have a mild autumn, there is a third cutting at Michaelmas. The indigo land must be weeded every day, the plants cleansed from worms, and the plantation attended with the greatest care and diligence. About twenty-five hands may manage a plantation of fifty acres, and complete the manufacture of the drug, besides providing their own necessary subsistence and that of the planter's family.

"Each acre yields, if the land be very good, 60 or 70 lbs. weight of indigo, at a medium the produce is 50 lbs. This however, is reckoned by many skilful planters but a very indifferent crop.

"When the plant is beginning to blossom it is fit for cutting, and when cut great care ought to be taken to bring it to the steeper without pressing or shaking it, as great part of the beauty of the indigo depends upon the fine farina, which adheres to the leaves of this plant. The apparatus for making indigo is inconsiderable and not expensive, for besides a pump, the whole consists only of vats and tubs of cypress wood, common and cheap in this country.

"The indigo, when cut, is first laid in a vat, about twelve or fourteen feet long and four feet deep, to the height of about fourteen inches, to macerate and digest; then this vessel, which is called the _steeper_, is filled with water; the whole having laid from about twelve to sixteen hours, according to the weather, begins to ferment, swell, rise, and grow sensibly warm. At this time spars of wood are run across, to mark the highest point of its ascent; when it falls below this mark, they judge that the fermentation has attained its due pitch, and begins to abate; this directs the manager to open a cock, and let off the water into another vat, which is called the _beater_; the gross matter that remains in the first vat is carried off to manure the ground, for which purpose it is excellent, and new cuttings are put in, as long as the harvest of the weed continues. When the water, strongly impregnated with the particles of indigo, has run into the second vat or beater, they attend with a sort of bottomless buckets, with long handles, to work and agitate it, when it froths, ferments, and rises above the rim of the vessel that contains it. To allay this violent fermentation, oil is thrown in as the froth rises, which instantly sinks it. When this beating has continued for twenty, thirty, or thirty-five minutes, according to the state of the weather (for in cool weather it requires the longest continued beating), a small muddy grain begins to be formed; the salts and other particles of the plant united, dissolved, and before mixed with the water, are now re-united together, and begin to granulate. To discover these particles the better, and to find when the liquor is sufficiently beaten, they take up some of it from time to time on a plate, or in a glass; when it appears in a hopeful condition, they let loose some lime water from an adjacent vessel, gently stirring the whole, which wonderfully facilitates the operation; the indigo granulates more fully, the liquor assumes a purplish color, and the whole is troubled and muddy; it is now suffered to settle; then the clearer part is permitted to run off into another succession of vessels, from whence the water is conveyed away as fast as it clears on the top, until nothing remains but a thick mud, which is put into bags of coarse linen. These are hung up and left for some time until the moisture is entirely drained off.

"To finish the drying, this mud is turned out of the bags, and worked upon boards of some porous timber, with a wooden spatula; it is frequently exposed to the morning and evening sun, but for a short time only; and then it is put into boxes or frames, which is called the curing, exposed again to the sun in the same cautious manner, until, with great labor and attention the operation is finished, and the valuable drug fitted for the market. The greatest skill and care is required in every part of the process, or there may be great danger of ruining the whole; the water must not be suffered to remain too short or too long a time, either in the steeper or beater; the beating itself must be nicely managed, so as not to exceed or fall short; and in the curing the exact medium between too much or too little drying is not easily attained. Nothing but experience can make the overseers skilful in these matters. There are two methods of trying the goodness of indigo; by fire and by water. If it swims it is good, if it sinks it is inferior, the heavier the worse; so if it wholly dissolves in water it is good. Another way of proving it, is by the fire ordeal; if it entirely burns away it is good, the adulterations remain untouched."

Indigo to the extent of 220,000 lbs. per annum is grown in Egypt. The leaves are there thrown into earthen vessels, which are buried in pits and filled with water; heat is applied, and the liquid is boiled away until the indigo becomes of a fit consistence, when it is pressed into shape and dried. Many Armenians have been invited from the East Indies to teach the fellahs the best mode of preparation, and, in consequence, nine indigo works have been established belonging to the government.

The indigo plant is found scattered like a weed abundantly over the face of the country in the district of Natal, Eastern Africa. It is said that there are no less than ten varieties of the plant commonly to be met with there. Mr. Blaine submitted, in 1848, to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, a small specimen of this dye-stuff, which had been extracted by a rude process from a native plant, which was pronounced by good authority to be of superior quality, and worth 3s. 4d. per pound. Mr. W. Wilson, a settler at Natal, in a letter to the editor of the _Natal Witness_, thus speaks of the culture:--

"My attention was first forcibly drawn to the cultivation of indigo
by some seed imported by Mr. Kinlock, from India. This seed, on
trial, I found to grow luxuriantly; and after a few experiments I
succeeded in manufacturing the dye. The success which thus attended
my first attempts has encouraged me to try indigo planting on a more
extensive scale. For this purpose I am allowing all the plants of
this season to run to seed, and intend to plant equal quantities of
Bengal and native indigo.

While my attention was engaged in these preliminary experiments, I
observed that the country abounded in a variety of species of
indigo, and by a series of experiments found it rich and abundant,
and have since learnt that it is known and in use among the natives,
and called by them Umpekumbeto.

This of course induced further inquiry, and on consulting different
works I find that the Cape of Good Hope possesses more species of
indigo than the whole world besides. Now I take it for granted that
if Providence has placed these materials within our reach, it was
evidently intended that we should, by the application of industry,
appropriate them to our use. It becomes, then, a matter of necessity
that indigo must thrive, this being its native soil and climate; and
the experiments I have successfully made, go to support me in the
opinion that the cultivation of indigo will bring an ample reward.
Indeed it seems contrary to the laws of nature that it should be
otherwise.

I have obtained from the 140th part of an acre the proportion of 300
lbs. of indigo per acre. That the plant will cross successfully, I
have also ascertained."

_Cultivation in India._--During the nine years which preceded the opening of the trade with India in 1814, the annual average produce of indigo in Bengal, for exportation, was nearly 5,600,000 lbs. But since the ports were opened, the indigo produced for exportation has increased fully a third; the exports during the sixteen years ending with 1829-30, being above 7,400,000 lbs. a year.

The consumption in the United Kingdom has averaged, during the last ten years, about 2,500,000 lbs. a year.

In 1839-40 the export of indigo from Madras amounted to 1,333,808 lbs. A small quantity is also exported from the French settlement of Pondicherry. In 1837 the export from Manila amounted to about 250,000 lbs. The export from Batavia in 1841 amounted to 913,693 lbs., and the production in 1843 was double that amount. The annual exports of indigo, from all parts of Asia and the Indian Archipelago, were taken by M'Culloch, in 1840, to be 12,440,000 lbs. The imports are about 20,000 chests of Bengal, and 8,000 from Madras annually, of which 9,000 or 10,000 are used for home consumption, and the rest re-exported.

The total crop of indigo in the Bengal Presidency has ranged, for the last twenty years, at from 100,000 to 172,000 factory maunds; the highest crop was in 1845. The factory maund of indigo in India is about 78 lbs.

In the delta of the Ganges, where the best and largest quantity of indigo is produced, the plant lasts only for a single season, being destroyed by the periodical inundation; but in the dry central and western provinces, one or two _ratoon_ crops are obtained.

The culture of indigo is very precarious, not only in so far as respects the growth of the plant from year to year, but also as regards the quantity and quality of the drug which the same amount of plant will afford in the same season.

The fixed capital required, as I have already shown, in the manufacture of indigo, consists simply of a few vats of common masonry for steeping the plant, and precipitating the coloring matter; a boiling and drying house, and a dwelling for the planter. Thus a factory of ten pair of vats, capable of producing, at an average, 12,500 lbs. of indigo, worth on the spot £2,500, will not cost above £1,500 sterling. The buildings and machinery necessary to produce an equal value in sugar and rum, would probably cost about £4,000.

The indigo of Bengal is divided into two classes, called, in commercial language, Bengal and Oude; the first being the produce of the southern provinces of Bengal and Bahar, and the last that of the northern provinces, and of Benares. The first class is in point of quality much superior to the other. The inferiority of the Oude indigo is thought to be more the result of soil and climate, than of any difference in the skill with which the manufacture is conducted. The indigo of Madras, which is superior to that of Manila, is about equal to ordinary Bengal indigo. The produce of Java is superior to these.

Large quantities of indigo, of a very fine quality, are grown in Scinde. I have to acknowledge the receipt, from the Indian Government, of an interesting collection of documents on the culture and manufacture of indigo in Upper Scinde. The papers are chiefly from the pen of Mr. Wood, Deputy Collector of Sukkur, though there are several others, perhaps of much value, from various other of the revenue officers of Scinde.

Mr. Wood is of opinion that Scinde is much better suited than Bengal for the production of this dye-stuff--the alluvial soil on the banks of the Indus is equal in richness to that on those of the Ganges, and the climate seems equally well suited for the growth of the plant. But in two years out of three, the crops of the Bengal planter are injured by excessive inundations, while the work of gathering and manipulation is necessarily performed, during the rainy season, under the greatest imaginable disadvantages. In Scinde, on the other hand, the inundation of the river is produced almost solely from the melting of the snows in the Himalayas, and it is not liable to those excessive fluctuations in amount, or that suddenness in appearance peculiar to inundations chiefly arising from falls of rain. The Granges sometimes rises ten feet in four-and-twenty hours, and at some part of its course its depth is at times forty feet greater during a flood than in fair weather, while the Indus rarely rises above a foot a day, its extreme flood never exceeding fifteen feet, the limits and amount of the inundation being singularly uniform over a succession of years. Moreover, as rain hardly ever falls in Scinde, and when it does so only continues over a few days, and extends to the amount of three or four inches, no danger or inconvenience from this need be apprehended. Mr. Wood mentions that hemp may be grown in profusion on the indigo grounds, and that were the production of the dye once introduced, it would bring hundreds of thousands of acres now barren into cultivation, and secure the growth or manufacture of a vast variety of other commodities for which the country is eminently fitted. An experimental factory might, it is believed, be set up for from two to three thousand pounds, but this appears to be an amount of adventure from which the Government shrinks.

The districts of Kishnagar, Jessore, and Moorshedabad, in Bengal, ranging from 88 to 90 degs. E. latitude, and 22½ to 24 degs. N. longitude, produce the finest indigo. That from the districts about Burdwan and Benares is of a coarser or harsher grain. Tirhoot, in latitude 26 degs., yields a tolerably good article. The portion of Bengal most propitious to the cultivation of indigo, lies between the river Hooghly and the main stream of the Ganges.

In the East Indies, after having ploughed the ground in October, November, and the beginning of December, they sow the seed in the last half of March and the beginning of April, while the soil, being neither too hot nor too dry, is most propitious to its germination. A light mould answers best; and sunshine, with occasional light showers, are most favorable to its growth. Twelve pounds of seed are sufficient for sowing an acre of land. The plants grow rapidly, and will bear to be cut for the first time at the beginning of July; nay, in some districts so early as the middle of June. The indications of maturity are the bursting forth of the flower buds, and the expansion of the blossoms; at which period the plant abounds most in the dyeing principle. Another indication is taken from the leaves, which, if they break across when doubled flat, denote a state of maturity. But this character is somewhat fallacious, and depends upon the poverty or richness of the soil. When much rain falls, the plants grow too rapidly, and do not sufficiently elaborate the blue pigment. Bright sunshine is most advantageous to its production.

The first cropping of the plants is the best; after two months a second is made; after another interval a third, and even a fourth; but each of these is of diminished value.

_Culture in India._--For the following excellent account of the modes of culture, and practice, &c., in Bengal, and other parts of India, I am indebted to Mr. G. W. Johnson, one of the correspondents of my "Colonial Magazine." Mr. Johnson, besides his own Indian experience, has consulted all the best authorities, and the opinions of contributors to the leading periodicals of Calcutta on this important subject:--

When America became known to Europeans, its indigo became to them a
principal object of cultivation, and against their skill the native
Hindostanee had nothing to oppose, but the cheapness of his simple
process of manufacture. The profit and extent of the trade soon
induced Europeans to brave the perils of distance and climate to
cultivate the plant in Hindostan; but these obstacles, added to the
superior article manufactured by the French and Spaniards in the
West Indies, would long have held its produce in India in
subordination, if the anarchy and wars incident to the French
Revolution, especially when they reached St. Domingo, had not almost
annihilated the trade from the West, and consequently proportionally
fostered that in the East. The indigo produce of St. Domingo was
nearly as large as that of all the other West India islands
together. From the time that the negroes revolted in that island,
the cultivation of indigo has increased in Hindostan, until it has
become one of its principal exports, and the quality of the article
manufactured is not inferior to that of any other part of the world.

The most general mode of obtaining the necessary supply of _weed_,
as it is called by the planter, is as follows:--The land attached to
the factory is parcelled out among the ryots or farmers, who
contract to devote a certain portion of their farm to the
cultivation of indigo, and to deliver it, for a fixed price per
bundle, at the factory; a sum of money, usually equal to half the
probable produce, has to be advanced to the ryot by the planter, to
enable him to accomplish the cultivation, and to subsist upon until
the crop is ready for cutting.

If, as is generally the case, sufficient land is not attached to the
factory to supply it with plant, the owner obtains what he requires
by inducing the ryots in his vicinity to cultivate it upon a part of
their land. Yet it is with them far from a favorite object of
cultivation; and, indeed, if it were not for the money advanced to
each ryot by the planter, to provide seed, &c., and which gives him
a little ready money, bearing no interest, it is doubtful whether he
would engage in the cultivation at all. Even this advance of money
does not induce him to appropriate it to any but the worst part of
his farm, nor to bestow upon it more than the smallest possible
amount of labor. The reasons for this neglect are valid, for the
grain crops are more profitable to the ryot, and indigo is one of
the most precarious of India's vegetable products.

In Bengal the usual terms of contract between the manufacturer and
the ryot are, that the latter, receiving at the time a certain
advance of money, perhaps one rupee (2s.) per biggah, with promise
of a similar sum at a more advanced period of the season, undertakes
to have a certain quantity of land suitably and seasonably prepared
for sowing, to attend and receive seed whenever occasion requires,
and to deliver the crop, when called upon, at the factory, at a
specified price per bundle or 100 bundles. The particular conditions
of these contracts vary generally in Bengal; they amount to
advancing the ryot two rupees for every biggah of land, furnishing
him with seed at about one-third its cost, on an engagement from
him to return whatever his lands may produce (which, as has been
said, is generally none at all), at the price charged, and receiving
the plant from him at six, seven, eight, or sometimes nine bundles
for a rupee--much oftener the former than the latter rates. A ryot
cultivating alluvial lands, and having no seed, can hardly ever
repay his advances; but it does not follow that he has been a loser,
for he, perhaps, could not value his time, labor, and rent
altogether at half the amount; and as long as this system is kept
within moderate bounds, it answers much better than private
cultivation to the manufacturer, and has many contingent advantages
to the cultivator.

In Tirhoot similar engagements are entered into with the ryots, who
are there called _Assamees_. These engagements with Assamees are
generally made in the month of September, on a written instrument
called a _noviskaun_, by which they agree for a certain quantity of
land, for five years, to be cultivated with indigo plant, and for
which they are to be paid at the rate of six rupees per biggah, for
every full field of plant measured by a luggie or measuring-rod. The
luggie, it must be observed, varies in size throughout the district.
In the southern and eastern divisions of Tirhoot and Sarun it is
eight-and-a-half to ten feet long; and in the northern and western
from twelve to fourteen feet. The Assamee receives, on the day of
making his _bundobust_, or settlement, three rupees advance on each
biggah he contracts for, another rupee per biggah when the crop is
fit to weed, and the remaining two rupees at the ensuing settlement
of accounts. Exclusive of the price of his maul or plant, the
Assamee is entitled to receive two or three rupees per biggah (as
may be agreed on) for gurkee, or lands that have failed, as a
remuneration for his trouble, and to enable him to pay his rent. The
foregoing are the principal stipulations of the noviskaun, but the
Assamee further engages to give you such land as you may select,
prepare it according to instructions from the factory, sow and weed
as often as he is required, cut the plant and load the hackeries at
his own cost, and in every other respect conform to the orders of
the planter or his aumlah (managing man). The Assamee is not charged
for seed, the cartage of his plants, or for the cost of drilling. I
should mention that a penalty is attached to the non-fulfilment of
the Assamees engagements, commonly called _hurjah_, viz., twelve
rupees for every biggah short of his agreement, and this for every
year that the noviskaun has to run. This is, however, seldom
recoverable, for if you sue the Assamee in court and obtain a decree
(a most expensive and dilatory process), he can in most instances
easily evade it by a fictitious transfer of his property to other
hands.

The planter generally finds it his interest to get the Zemindar of
the village in which he proposes cultivating, to join in the
noviskaun, as a further security; or he engages with a jytedar, or
head Assamee, having several others subordinate to him, and for
whose conduct he is responsible. But a still better system is lately
gaining ground in this district, I mean that of taking villages in
ticka, or farm, by far the best and cheapest plan that has ever been
resorted to for the cultivation of indigo.

When the planter cultivates the ground himself, it is called in
Tirhoot _Zerant_ cultivation. _Zerants_, or _Neiz_, are taken on a
pottah or lease for five years, at the average rent of three rupees
per biggah. The heavy cost attending this cultivation has occasioned
its decrease in most factories in Tirhoot and particularly since the
fall in prices. About a third, I believe, was the proportion it
formerly bore to the whole cultivation of the district, but of late
such factories only have retained it as cannot procure sufficient
good land under the Assamewar system; but now that the plan of
taking villages in farm is becoming more and more prevalent here, it
is very likely that Zerants will be entirely abandoned. From all the
information I have been able to collect, the cost of a biggah of
Zerant (ten feet luggie) may be estimated at sixteen rupees; that of
Assamewar is generally twenty-five per cent. less, both exclusive of
interest, agents' charges, and private expenses.

It can only be the reluctance of the ryot to cultivate indigo that
induces a manufacturer to grow it himself, for it has been found an
expensive plan, profitable only when the dye is at its highest rate,
and even then scarcely furnishing an adequate return. They not only
could not cultivate so cheaply as the native laboring husbandman,
but ordinarily had to engage extensive tracts of land, much of
which was not suitable for their purpose, or, perhaps, for any
other, and consequently, although the average rate of rent was even
low on the whole, it constituted a very heavy charge on the portion
from which they obtained their return.

In Oude there are three systems of obtaining a supply of the plant,
viz., _Kush Kurreea_, _Bighowty_, and _Nij_; but the latter is a
mere trifle in proportion to the others, and is, therefore, not
worth mentioning. On the _Bighowty_ system, which prevails chiefly
in the Meerut and Mooradabad districts, the planter advances for a
biggah of _Jumowah_ (irrigated sowings) nine rupees, and for a
biggah of _Assaroo_ (rain sowings) five rupees four annas. The next
year's plant, or _khoonti_, becomes his on an additional payment of
eight annas per biggah. He also supplies the seed at the rate of six
seers per biggah, being almost double the quantity made use of in
Bengal, but which is necessary to make up for the destruction of the
plant the year following by the frost, white ants, hot winds, grass
cutters, and, I may add, the village cattle, which are let loose to
graze on the khoonte during the latter period, when not a blade of
grass or vegetation is to be seen anywhere left.

The Bighowty system is a sadly ruinous one, as, independently of the
attempts to assimilate Assaroo, at five rupees four annas, with
_Jumowah_, at nine rupees per biggah, which is very easily effected
if the planter is not very vigilant, he is obliged to maintain an
extensive and imposing establishment of servants, not only to
enforce the sowings, weeding, and cutting, but also to look after
his khoonte, and protect it from being destroyed by bullocks and
grass cutters, or from being ploughed up clandestinely by the
Zemindars themselves.

The Kush Kurreea system again has its evils, as the planter never
gets plant for the full amount of his advances, and hence often
leads to his ruin.

_Soils._--Indigo delights in a fresh soil; new lands, of similar
staple to others before cultivated, always surpass them in the
amount and quality of their produce. Hence arises the superior
productiveness of the lands annually overflowed by the Ganges, the
earthy and saline deposits from which in effect renovate the soil.
The further we recede from the influence of the inundation, the less
adapted is the soil for the cultivation of indigo. The staple of the
soil ought to be silicious, fertile, and deep. Mr. Ballard, writing
on the indigo soils of Tirhoot, says that high "soomba," or light
soils, are generally preferred, being from their nature and level
less exposed to the risk of rain or river inundation; but they are
difficult to procure, and, moreover, require particular care in the
preparation. Next in estimation is "doruss," a nearly equal mixture
of light earth and clay; a soil more retentive of moisture in a dry
season than any other. "Muttyaur," or heavy clay soils, are
generally avoided, although in certain seasons, with mild showers of
rain, they have been known to answer. The safest selection I should
conceive to be an equal portion of soomba and doruss. In a country,
however, interspersed with jheels and nullahs, it is difficult to
form a cultivation without a considerable mixture of low lands, more
or less, according to the situation of the Assamee's fields. Great
care should be taken, at all events, to guard against oosur lands,
or such as abound with saltpetre; these can be most easily detected
in the dry months. _Puchkatak_, that is, lands slightly touched with
_oosur_, have been known to answer, as partaking more of the nature
of _doruss_ soil; but the crop is generally thin, although strong
and branchy.

There is another description of land that should be cautiously
avoided. It goes by the name of _jaung_, and is a light soil, with a
substratum of sand from six to twelve inches below the surface. The
plant generally looks very fine in such fields till it gets a foot
high, when the root touching the sand, and having no moisture to
sustain it, either dies away altogether, or becomes so stunted and
impoverished as to yield little or nothing in the cutting. Of the
_daub_ or _dearab_ (alluvial) land, says Mr. Ballard, there is
scarcely any in the district except what falls to the lot of my own
factories, being situated on the banks of the Ganges and Great
Gunduck. Of _bungur_, a stiff reddish clay soil, there is little in
Tirhoot; it pervades the western provinces, and is best adapted for
Assaroo sowings, which do not succeed in Tirhoot.

_Preparation of the soil._--The root of the indigo plant being
fusiform, and extending to about a foot in length, requires the soil
to be loosened thoroughly to that depth at least. Experience
teaches that the fineness of the tilth to which the soil is reduced
previously to the seed being committed to it, is one very
influential operation for the obtaining a productive crop. Yet in
some districts of Bengal, particularly about Furudpore, the sowing
is performed without any previous ploughing. This is where the
river, when receded, has left the soil and deposit so deep, that
about October, or a little later, the seed being forcibly discharged
from the sower's hand, buries itself, and requires no after covering
by means of the rake or harrow.

In Tirhoot they are indefatigable in this first step of the
cultivation. Mr. Ballard says, that the preparation of indigo lands
should commence in September, as soon as the cessation of the rains
will permit; and as we do not rely on rain for our sowings (as is
the custom in Bengal and elsewhere, and irrigation is never resorted
to, from the heavy expense attending it), our principal aim is to
preserve as much moisture in the fields as possible. They should
receive, for this purpose, not less than eight ploughings, besides a
thorough turning up with the spade, after the fourth ploughing, to
clear the field from stubble, grass and weeds. It is absolutely
indispensable to get all this done on our light soils, especially
before the end of October, and have the land carefully harrowed
down, so as to prevent the moisture escaping.

Should there be heavy rains between the interval of preparing and
sowing, it will be necessary to turn the fields up with either one
or two ploughings, and harrow them down as before. If only a slight
shower, running the harrow over them will be sufficient to break the
crust formed on the surface, and which, if allowed to remain, would
quickly exhaust the moisture. This, with the occasional use of the
weeding-hook, is all that the lands will require till the time of
sowing.--("Transactions of the Agri.-Hort. Society of Calcutta,"
vol. ii., p. 22.)

_Sowing_.--The time when the seed is committed to the soil varies in
different parts of India, and, even in the same place, admits of
being performed at two different seasons. The periods of sowing in
Bengal are first immediately after the rains, from about the latter
end of October. The rivers are then rapidly retiring within their
beds, and as soon as the soft deposit of the year has drained itself
into a consistency, though not solid enough to keep a man from
sinking up to his knees in it, they begin to scatter the seed
broadcast. This is continued until the ground has become too hard
for the seed to bury itself; the plough is then used to loosen the
crust, and the sowing continued to about the middle, or even the end
of November, from which period the weather is considered too cold,
until February. These autumnal sowings are called October sowings,
from the month in which they generally commence. Much of the plant
perishes during the months of December and January, and more again
in the spring, unless there are early and moderate showers. The crop
that remains is not so productive ordinarily in the vat, as that
obtained from spring sowings, and some think the quality of the
produce inferior. But there is no expense of cultivation, and the
liabilities of the crop to failure are such a discouragement to cost
and labor in rearing it, that the October sowing is followed by most
planters who can obtain suitable land. The second period of sowing
is the spring, with the first rains of March, or even the end of
February. The land having been measured and placed under its slight
course of tillage during the two or three preceding mouths, is sown
broadcast as soon as the ground has been well moistened, or even in
prospect of approaching rain. The quantity of seed used for this
autumn sowing is generally more than what is considered requisite
for spring sowing; six seers at the former and four at the latter
season per biggah, in Bengal, is the quantity usually allowed.

Some cultivators commence the autumn sowing as early as at the close
of September, or as soon as the low lands are in a state to permit
the operation after the inundation has subsided. This seed time may
be said to continue until the end of December, and the crops from
these sowings often yield an average produce, if the lands are not
very low and wet. If they are, the sowing had better be delayed
until January, or even February, for the crops from these latter
sowings are usually the most productive, and the dye obtained from
them the finest. The object for thus delaying the sowing is, that
the young plants may have a more genial season for vegetation. Those
who prefer sowing earlier, and yet are aware of the importance of
saving the young plants as much as possible from the comparative low
temperature of the season, sow some other crop with their indigo.
Til, the country linseed, is good for this purpose in high lying
soils. But I never knew an intermixture of crops that was not
attended by inconveniences and injuries more than was compensated by
the advantages gained.