304 JOURNAL OP THE TRINIDAD 



devote say 50 to 200 acres to Indigo cultivation and 

 manufacture it by the Sayers and Olpherts' processes, it could 

 be sure at the very least to get 60 lbs. of the best Indigo per 

 acre (and probably three times that quantity) which at say 

 $1.00 per lb. would pay handsomely, as the cultivation and 

 manufacturing expenses on ready cleared land would amount 

 to comparatively little. The next season fresh land would be 

 put into Indigo (so as to avoid insects, &c.) and a crop or two of 

 Dal (or Indian lentils, for example " Bari tuvai Cytisus Cajan, 

 or Miing Dal' Phaseolus Mongo, &c.) might be taken off the 

 first before growing a second crop of Indigo on it. These Dais, 

 could be sold at a profitable rate on the spot, in place of some 

 part of the large quantities which are annually imported. They 

 are a favourite food grain amongst all classes of natives in India. 



If the Indigo seed necessary to begin with could not be 

 gathered here, it no doubt could be got easily from Venezuela, 

 where there is still, I believe, some Indigo cultivation in the 

 Northern provinces. The apparatus for working the crop of 

 say 200 acres would not be expensive and for the most part 

 would be constructed on the Estate. Dal seed would probably 

 have to be imported, or procured from the importers from India. 

 There are plenty of coolies in the Island who have been engaged 

 in Indigo cultivation in India, who would require no teaching, 

 and who would in all probability be very pleased to take a hand 

 in 'Nil-Ki-Kam ' as they call it, again, in fact, a few months ago 

 a coolie drew my attention to some Indigo growing wild in a 

 field beside the road, and asked me why, since it grew so strongly 

 in this country, did no one cultivate and manufacture it ? But 

 there are two peculiarities of Indigo which deserve mention ; one 

 is that with the exception of Tobacco there is perhaps no other 

 crop which is so preyed upon by insects, but this is minimised 

 to a great extent by never taking a crop two years in succession 

 off the same ground. The second is, out of every three years it 

 gives two average crops, and one bumper or extraordinary crop 

 which is usually a matter of great congratulation when it comes 

 off. 



One more suggestion for the use of abandoned estates and 

 I am done. You will smile at this one, perhaps, more than at 

 any of the rest. I was asked some time ago by a corres- 

 pondent in London whether " Pinones " were grown in 

 Trinidad, and if I could give a quotation for the seed. It took me a 

 day or two to discover that " Pinones " is a Spanish or Portuguese 

 name for the seed of the common angular leaved Physic nut 

 (Jatropha curcas). It seems that large quantities of the seed of 

 this plant are imported from the Cape de Verde Islands to 

 Lisbon and Marseilles, — according to Spon about 350,000 



