INDIGO. 
October 3d, 1845. ‘ 
ORANGEBURG, 
My Dear Sir:—In fulfilment of the promise I made to you, I herewith send a brief statement of the 
method of cultivating and manufacturing Indigo, together with a few specimens of such as is made in this Dis- 
trict. I am, Sir, very respectfully, your ob’dt. serv’t., 
THOMAS W. GLOVER: 
Indigo was planted in South Carolina at an early period, and was extensively cultivated, and constituted an 
important item in the exports of the Colony, till rice, in the lower country, and cotton, almost every where, 
superceded it. 
In Orangeburg District it has never been abandoned, and the following exhibit will shew the number of 
acres planted and the amount made in three several years : 
Years. Acres planted. Amount made. 
1831 953 27,700 Ibs. 
1841 1091 34,150 Ibs. 
1842 1337 35,935. Ibs. 
The average production per acre, therefore, was, 29 Ibs. in 1831, 31 Ibs. in 1841, and 26 lbs. in 1842. Some 
planters, however, in 1842, made upwards of 60 Ibs. per acre. 
The price of Carolina Indigo varies from 40 to 80 cents, and much of it is vended in the interior or in the 
neighboring States. 
Light and sandy land, which will not yield more than 500 Ibs. seed cotton per acre, is generally appropriated 
to this culture, the better soils being reserved for cotton. 
Two species of Indigo have been cultivated here—the tame, which is an annual plant, and the wild, which 
is septenial. The latter, re-producing seven years successively, and affording a better and finer dye, has almost 
entirely supplanted the former. 
The seed is planted about the 15th of April, in trenches 18 inches asunder, made sometimes with the plough, 
and it is afterwards worked with the hoe. The wild Indigo may be cut once during the first year; but it is 
frequently not touched till the second. The ground is hoed over every subsequent year, about the last of 
March, and before the plant appears. One bushel of seed is enough and is used for four acres planted in drill. 
The weed is cut (after the first year,) twice annually—early in June, and again in September ; and the hoe jis 
used, even after the second cutting, that the land may be left free of grass. 
MANUFACTURE. 
Three vats or tanks, made of wood, and water tight, are employed in the manufacture of Indigo. First, 
the Steeper, which is sixteen feet square and twenty-six inches deep ; second, the Beater, sixteen feet by twelve, 
and four feet deep, and third the Lime Vat, which is ten feet square and three feet deep, into which is put two 
bushels of lime, and, in the process of manufacturing, one half of a bushel is added to each subsequent vat 
made. When the plant begins to bloom, it is cut with hooks, early in the morning, and two wagon loads are 
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