INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, EOIl' 1913-14. 3 > 



Coimbatore. This has since been published in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Indian Tea Association. 



Indigo. — The present position of the indigo investiga- 

 tions has been dealt with, in detail, in a report to the Bihar 

 Planters' Association published in January last. 



The area under Java indigo in Bihar has fallen since 

 1909-10 from 70,000 to about 15,000 bighas in 1913. 

 During this period, the area under Sumatrana indigo has 

 remained constant at about 45,000 bighas. The decline in 

 the area under Java indigo has been a serious blow to the 

 planting community in Bihar. As is well known, this 

 species is much richer in indican than Sumatrana which 

 latter was exclusively grown in Bihar till the introduction 

 of Java indigo in 1898. The rapid increase in the area 

 under the Java plant gave rise to the hope that the decline 

 of the natural indigo industry would at least be arrested. 

 Difficulties, however, arose after the cycle of dry seasons 

 came to an end in 1908. The crop showed signs of falling 

 off in vigour, the yield of leaf became less and difficulties in 

 growing the crop for seed were 6f frequent occurrence. 

 The poor seed sown gave rise to still more weakly crops 

 with the result that the area declined eighty per cent, in 

 four years. The cause of the trouble is regarded locally as 

 a disease to which the name of ' wilt ' has been given. The 

 nature of the disease has been investigated both by the 

 Sirsiah Experiment Station and also by the Mycological, 

 Entomological and Bacteriological Sections of the Pusa 

 Research Institute. In all cases the results obtained were 

 negative. The matter was also referred to the Botanical 

 Section at Pusa. It was found that the wilting of Java 

 indigo, which takes place after the first cut in July, was 

 due to the loss of the active root system of the plant, result- 

 ing from a long continued wet condition of the soil. 

 Similar wilting is common in Bihar in crops like patwa 

 (Hibiscus cannabinus) and sanai (Crotalaria juncea) when 

 sown at the beginning of the monsoon for seed purposes. 

 All these deep-rooted crops are sensitive to a constantly wet 



