KKK.\< II IMI.I 



INDIGOFERA 

 History 



RodMtetfi 



r..i!i. Vt \- -Hint 



arii. le. <it iiu-i-i -li.iii.li -.- ili. i.- in. -i \\ith. It is noteuoi 1 h\ ih,it he iiialuM no 



mention "I' I lid !;_". Ue are thus led In IH-IM-M- :ln- cult n at i. -n ,in>l nuinnl i 



\\liirli in time hecanie on. "I llit- t nn| > >i I .. nt ..|' K.-n-.d IIM! u*l i i. , 



could nut have ox i t.-d in i In- diMm-iK \ iMi.-d t, N Hc.l-c*. Hut \vuhuirnr 



uished in Til hut . iriu'inully l>y the Dutch, f.n- MI- read of tin ir ha 

 tln> Smu'ia coin-crn in IT'.H. It \\.nild seem, hou, -\.-i-. IIMH, '|,i\.rni. 



.iidi-o lh.. i .1 Native industry hud existed u lilll.- earli. i.irtly 



|i..rt a change W8S effected , "\\ in.- to a RoHoIutimi iif th 



if tin' K.ist India Company. Kiin .peun planter* \\ !< linni^ht from t h. 

 Indies 1 1' r..-n-_-.il to iin.lri-laki- t lie cult i\ at nm of 1 1 1. 1 1 _... In I 7 '.HI indigo factories 

 accord i iii/ly established in .lessore. Hardly, however, had the industry 



i when it uns ruined. I- I in Sir W. W. II':- 



in/ it'ir.ftt-'i r of India that " Kimlish indigo planters huve forsaken the 

 distriets i if Hu^'hli. tlie '2 1 -I'liix'anas. D.n-ea Kairdpur, itangpiir, and 1'abna, 

 ii,.\\- dott.-d vsith the sites of ruined old factories." The industry hiul thus been 



ished ivnd ruined in Bengal. 



It is perhaps hardly necessary to continue this series of quotations much 

 further l>y supplying a correspondingly detailed selection regarding Afri-a, K^vpt, 

 the West. Indies. America, ete. 'I In- following may, howovor, bo of valu.- to 



us interested in tho history of indigo manufacture: 



Koehetori (Hi.it. Nat. et Mor. dea Isles Antillc*, Iti.VS, us) speaks of the imliun 

 Iteiiiij [H-oduced from ji plant which rises only about a foot mid a half from the 

 .'id. H lias small leaves of a light green colour uhich turn yelli\v. 'I'he 

 llo\\ er is reddish. It grows from seed. Its odour is very disagreeable, unlike the 

 Madagascar species, which has small flowers of tv whitish-purple colour and a 

 pleasant smell. Poinot (Hist. Gen. dea Drog., 1094, 151-6; also Engl. ed. with 

 annot. from Lemert and Tournefort, 1712, 8iM)l) gives a brief description and an 



. ing of the plant, and these leave no doubt that it was an Indigofera. It is 

 s. . \v 1 1 , he tells us, by the Americans in holes a foot distant, and in two months 1 time 

 the plant will be ready to cut, and if left for three months will yield both flower and 

 seed. "Indigo is a meal or flour," he observes, "made by means of water and oil- niiveOU. 

 olive out of the leaves of the anil or indigo plant ; for there is a difference betwixt 

 that made of the leaves and of the small branches. The choicest of the former 

 sort is that which bears the surname of Serquisse (Sarkhej)." k" They cut the said 

 he rl> with a sickle when the leaves begin to fall upon touching them ; and after 

 thev havo stript them from the branches, they put them into sufficient quantity 

 of water, which is in a vessel called the steeping Vat, then letting them infuse Use of. Vats, 

 thirty-six hours ; after which they turn the cock in order to lot the water run off, 

 whie'h is tinged of a green colour, inclining toward blue, into a vessel of the nature 

 of a churn, which is worked by the labour of several men, by means of a Rouller 

 or Turner of Wood ; the ends of which run pointed, and are hooped with iron ; 

 this they work " till the said water abounds with a lather, then they cast into it 

 a little oil-olive ; to wit, one Pound into such a Quantity of the Liquor as will 

 yield seventy pounds of indigo, which is the quantity now sold in a barrel ; and 

 as soon as the said oil is thrown in, the Lather separates into two parts so that 

 you may observe a Quantity curdled as milk is when ready to break ; they 

 then (case churning and let it stand to settle, which when it has done some time, 

 they open the Pipe or Cock of the Churn, in order to let the water clear off, that 

 the meal which is subsided may remain behind at the Bottom of the Vessel liko 

 -lay or Lees of Wine. Having decanted it thus, they put it into straining Bags Straining, 

 of Linnen to separate what water was left, then they convey it to the Chests or 

 Boxes that are shallow to dry it, and being dried, it is what we call Indigo." 

 Pomet furnishes (plate 35) an admirable picture of an indigo factory which shows 

 the water tank, the steeping vat, beating vat and evaporating vat. The mechanical 

 contri\ anco for churning or beating the liquid is also shown, but the author 

 makes no reference in the text to his plate, and it would appear accordingly to 



l>eon copied from some still earlier author. Pere Labat ( Voy. aux Isles de 

 LSAmeriquc, 1724, i., 00-9, t. 90) gives a long ami interesting account of the indigo 

 industry which was translated into English by Philip Miller and given in his 

 (inrdcner's Dictionary (1st ed., 1731) under the name Anil, from the belief, 

 apparently, that it was fully representative of the industry as a whole. Hut 

 La hut deals very nearly exclusively with the indigo of Martinique, ami his 



iption, like that of Pomot, is more characteristic of the Antilles and 

 the West Indies than of India proper. In two months' time, says Labat, 

 the first crop of cuttings can be taken, and if the rain emit inuee, subsequent 



OG7 



Churn it IK 

 Contrivance. 



P6re Labafa 

 Account. 



