USEFUL PROJECTS. 



261 



them into charcoal. Even the spray- 

 wood, here calied chats, which is 

 too small to be ma « into charcoal, 

 and which is now sold tor sixpence 

 a curt, or more generally left on 

 the ground, might be made into 

 fagots, and mixed with wood of a 

 larger size, so that no part of the 

 coppice would be lost. In Sussex, 

 they use GOO fagots, cut in the 

 winter, and weighing, v/hen diy in 

 the spring, thirty-six pounds eacli, 

 for the burning of 'tSO Winchester 

 bushels of hme. 



On the manufacture of Indigo at Ain- 

 bore, by lieutenant-colonel Claude 

 Martin ; from th'. Transactions of 

 the Asiatic Society. 



I Present the society with a short 

 description of the process ob- 

 served in the culture and manufac- 

 ture of inoigo, in this part of India. 

 The Ambore district is comprised 

 within a range of surrounding hills 

 of a moderate height : the river 

 Pallar, declining from its apparent 

 southerly direction, enters this dis- 

 trict about three miles from the east- 

 ward, washes the Arpbore Pettah, 

 a small neat village, distant three 

 miles to the southward of the fort 

 of that name, situated in a beautiful 

 valley ; the skirts of the hills co- 

 vered with the Palmeira and Date 

 trees, from the produce of which 

 a considerable quantity of coarse 

 sugar is made. This tract is fertili- 

 zed by numerous nils of water, con- 

 ducted from the river along the 

 margin of the heights, and through- 

 out the intermediate extent ; this 

 element being conveyed in these 

 artificial canals (three feet deep), 

 affording a pure and crystal current 

 of excelJeut water for the supply of 



the rice-fields, tobacco, mango, an4 

 cocoa-nut, plantations; the highest 

 situated lands affording indigo, ap- 

 parently without any artificial wa- 

 tering, and attaining maturity at 

 this season, notwithstanding the in- 

 tenseness of the heat, the thermo- 

 meter under cover of a tent rising 

 to 100, and out of it to 120; the 

 plant affording even in the dryest 

 spots good foliage, although more 

 luxuriant in moister situations, i 

 am just returned from examining 

 the manufacture of this article.-^ 

 Fia'st the plant is boiled in earthen 

 pets of about eighteen inches dia- 

 meter, disposed on the ground ia 

 excavated ranges from twenty to 

 thirty feet long, and one broad, ac- 

 cording to the number used. Wlien 

 the boiUng process has extracted all 

 the colouring piatter ascertainable 

 by the colour exhibited, the extract 

 is immediately poured into an a<J? 

 joining small jar fixed in the ground 

 for its reception, and is thence ladled 

 in small pots into larger jars, disp.o- 

 sedon adjoining higher ground, be- 

 ing first filtered through a cloth ^ 

 the jar, when three-fourths full, is 

 agitated with a split bamboo exr 

 tended into a circle, of a diameter 

 from thirteen to twenty inches, the 

 hoop twisted with a sort of coarse 

 straw, with which the manufacturer 

 proceeds to beat or agitate the ex- 

 tract, until a granulation of the fe- 

 cula takes place, the operation con- 

 tinuing nearly for the space of three- 

 fourths of an hour; a precipitant 

 composed of red earth and water, 

 in the quantity of four quart bot- 

 tles, is poured into the jar, which, 

 after mixture, is allowed to stand 

 the whole night, and in the morn- 

 ing the superincumbent fluid is 

 drawn off through three or four a- 

 perlures, practised in the side of the 



