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LIN ae !@ Jv Li! 
SOME ASPECTS OF THE INDIGO INDUSTRY 
IN BIHAR. 
PAG 
THE WILT DISEASE OF INDIGO IN BIHAR. 
BY 
ALBERT HOWARD, C.LE., M.A., 
Imperial Economic Botanist ; 
AND 
GABRIELLE L. C. HOWARD, M.A., 
Second Imperial Economic Botanist. 
(With the assistance of Chowdhary Ram Dhan Singh and Maulvi Abdur Rahman 
Khan, Assistants to the Imperial Economic Botanist.) 
[Received for publication on 23rd November, 1919.] 
When the Indigo Research Station at Sirsiah was closed on March 31st, 
1913, investigations on the agricultural and botanical aspects of this industry 
were transferred to the Botanical Section of the Agricultural Research Institute 
at Pusa. About this time, the cultivation of Java indigo in Bihar had 
reached its lowest point, having fallen from 70,000 to about 15,000 bighas 
between 1910 and 1914, largely on account of the wilt disease and the difficulty 
of obtaining seed. These and other aspects of the industry have been under 
investigation during the last six ears. An account of the earlier results 
appeared in Bulletins 51, 54 and 67 of the Agriculturai Research Institute, 
Pusa. The present paper deals with the causes of indigo wilt and with its 
prevention. 
Java indigo (Indigofera arrecta Hochst.) is a perennial tropical crop which 
was first introduced into Bihar from Java in 1898. The climate of Bihar is 
] 
