22 SOME ASPECTS OF THE INDIGO INDUSTRY IN BIHAR 
at first did so well in Bihar. To enable the changes in botanical composition 
which have taken place in recent years, to be understood, some reference to 
the methods of seed supply in Bihar is necessary. Up to very recent years, 
the method of raising seed in vogue was to allow the best of the fields to flower 
after the second cut of leaf was taken in August. This involved the production 
of seed from plant greatly diminished in vigour, both by the growth of two 
cuts of leaf and by the unfavourable soil conditions set up by the monsoon. 
The result wes insufficient seed and moreover the wrong type of seed. This 
arose from two causes. In the first place, the early, rapidly growing types in 
the mixture flowered in September and early October, when the air was too 
damp for fertilization to take place. These naturally became suppressed. 
Consequently, the bulk of seed was obtained from the later deep-rooting types. 
The method of seed growing, therefore, rapidly altered the botanical compo-, 
sition of the crop and favoured deep-rooting unthrifty types. A shortage of 
seed resulted which necessitated a considerable amount of importation. At 
first, this was obtained from Java, not however, from the Dutch planters, 
who had by this time practically given up indigo, but from the natives who 
naturally paid no attention either to the type or to selection. It was no 
surprise, therefore, to find in 1916, that the Java crop in Bihar contained such an 
extraordinary range of types. It consisted of every gradation between 
rapidly-growing surface-rooted annuals and slow-growing deep-rooted peren- 
nials. The range in the type of foliage and in the proportion of leaf to stem 
was considerable. Weak, procumbent types like the wild indigo of Java, 
were met with as well as forms resembling Presi indigo. Besides, a host of 
intermediates occurred which, when sown separately, yielded a wide range of 
types. Examination of the plants raised from a sample of seed from Java, 
imported by one of the planters in 1916, showed that the admixture of forms 
was even greater than that met with in the ordinary Bihar crop. The only 
conclusion that could be arrived at was that the natives of Java, who for many 
years had been supplying the Bihar planters with their indigo seed, had been 
in the habit of growing together all kinds of indigo found in Java and that a 
great deal of natural crossing had taken place in consequence. In the process, 
the original type grown by the Dutch planters had become altered almost 
beyond recognition. The methods of seed growing in Bihar and the entire 
absence of selection did nothing to improve matters. 
These facts and observations fully explain the degeneration which has 
taken place in Java indigo. While continuous selection was practised by the 
Dutch planters a type of plant suitable for growth in heavy rice soils was 
maintained and this seed naturally did well under Bihar conditions and. was 
