90 i'Ki;sii)i:xTiAi. .\1)I)ki-:ss — skctiox i:. 



In i>>y=f'ijG the acreage under cultivation was approximately 

 1,400,000 acres, and on Deceniljer 31st. 1915. the Indian Trade 

 Journal (Calcutta) jmblished an estimate that the total area in 

 1915 was 314,300 acres, as compared with 148,400 acres in 1914, 

 this increase being due to the high prices ruling on account of 

 the war and the cessation of the German industry. The total 

 yield w^as estimated at 39,000 cwt., as against ^5,200 cwt., the 

 revised estimate for 1914-15. and the average output per acre 

 14 lb., as against 19 lb. in the preceding year. The price of indigo 

 ( 100 per cent.) in tS»;7 was sixteen shillings per kilo, and in 1913 

 seven shillings. 



The success of the synthetic industry, as had been also fore- 

 seen, would probajjly not stop here, and the following quotation 

 from Professor Frankland will show this : — 



B}' varying the ingTcliLius in the indigo svtithesis, many very valuable 

 flyc.s related to indigo have been ol)tained. Thus the chlorine and bromine 

 sub.stituted indigos are manufactured as ciba blue, l)rilliant indigo, and 

 bromo-indigo. Again with sulphur instead of oxygen, thio-indigo-red and 

 tiiio-indigo-scarlet. Moreover, Iw using the anthracene grouping in the 

 indigo sj'nthesis, a number of the most important colours have been 

 obtained, r.^'., Indanthrenes of extraordinary fastness to light; Alizarin 

 indigo; Algol colours ( Rolicrt E. Schmidt >, in all varieties of colour 

 and of the greatest fastness to light." 



The knowledge of what was l)eing done in (iermany ])rior 

 to the advent of the marketing of synthetic indigo was not un- 

 known to the Indian ])lanters, but they were sceptical of the 

 results, many believing that it was an impossibility to prepare 

 the sub.stance from coal tar, with the result that, practically speak- 

 ing, they took no steps whatever to improve either the yield per 

 acre or the quality of their finished ]iroduct. Having thus lulled 

 themselves to sleep, their awakening in t8c;7, when synthetic 

 indigo was placed on the market at a i)rice much below that de- 

 manded for the natural substance, was somewhat of a bolt from 

 the blue. ( )wing to the stress of the competition, which they 

 at la.st realised would take place, they attemjited some improve- 

 ments ; but, as seen above, they were somewhat belated. It is 

 difficult to predict with any degree of accuracy whether the natural 

 product would have Ix'en entirely ousted had there been no war, 

 i^ecause tradition is liard to kill, and there are still dyers who 

 |)refcr to use the natural dye. On the other hand, there can be 

 no doubt that the production of the latter would have been insig- 

 nificant in comparison with that of the synthetic material, as hap- 

 pened in the previously well-known and analogous case of the 

 dye alizarin, formerly extracted from madder root. The ind go 

 fields would have shared the same fate as those of the madder. 



The tannin industry in this Province is in a similar position 

 lo that in which the indigo industry found itself abotil i<S8o-82. 

 The master synthesis of tannin was effected in 1(^13 b\ Professor 

 Emil Fischer and Dr. Karl Freudenberg i;i Merlin. I low this 

 has 1)een accomplished will be dealt with fully in a separate paper 

 before this Section. The formula of tannin is now^ known with 

 a great degree of certainty, and the researches are still being 



