INDIGOFERA 



Cultivation 



THE INDIGO PLANT 



Cultiva- 

 tion. 



Occupation of 

 Soil. 



Soil 

 Improvement. 



Area and 

 Yield. 



\Cf. Schunck, Formation of Indigo Blue, Phil. Mag., 1885, x., 74; xv., 127; 

 Goppert, Bot. Zeit., 1871, xxix., No. 24, 399; Muller-Thurgan, Landw. Jahrb., 

 1880, ix., 157-66; Molisch, Sitzb. der Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien., 1893, i., ciii., 269; 

 Zeitschr. des Allgem. besterr. Apofh-Vereines, 1893, xlvii., 523 ; Sitzb. der Kais. 

 Akad. Wiss. Wien, 1898, i., cvii., 747 ; Sitzb. der Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien, 1899, 

 i., cviii., 479 ; Berichte der Deut. Bot. Gesell., 1899, xvii., 288 ; Br6audat, Gomptes 

 Rendus, 1898, cxxvii., 769; Beijerinck, Proc. Roy. Acad. Sc. Amsterdam, 1899, 

 ii., 120; 1900, ii., 495; iii., 101; Hazewinkel, Proc. Roy. Acad. Sc., Amsterdam, 

 1900, ii., 512 ; Plowright, Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc., 1901, xxvi., 1 ; Bergtheil, 

 Journ. Chem. Soc. Trans., 1904, Ixxxv., 877 ; Bloxam and Leake (with the 

 assistance of Finlow), Ace. Research Work in Indigo (Calc., The Bengal Secretariat 

 Book Depot, 1905) ; Mollison, Indigo Seed Select., Agri. Journ. Ind., 1907, ii., 

 pt. iii., 296-7.] 



CULTIVATION. 



Area and Production. Perhaps one of the most surprising features of 

 indigo cultivation is the variation of the period of occupation of the soil. 

 In some localities the crop is obtained in three months from time of sowing, 

 and from this as a minimum up to as much as eighteen months every 

 possible period is manifested. Speaking generally it may be said that 

 the system of taking several cuttings a year and allowing the plant to 

 occupy the soil for two or even three years seems to have been dis- 

 continued possibly as a consequence of the change that has taken place 

 in the stock now chiefly grown. In the upper provinces, especially where 

 irrigation prevails, indigo occupies the soil in annual rotation with wheat 

 or rice, and is regarded as a catch crop that greatly improves the soil. 

 So much is this the case that indigo has often been recommended as a green 

 manure to be grown temporarily and ploughed into the soil. But in Lower 

 Bengal, on the other hand, the spring-sown crop calls for attention at the 

 very time of the principal rice sowings, and it is therefore an unpopular 

 crop with many cultivators. But a far more serious difficulty has arisen 

 in the production of artificial indigo. The seriousness of this aspect may 

 be at once exemplified by the figures of area and yield. In 1892-3 the 

 area in all India was 1,218,766 acres and the yield 179,056 cwt. ; in 1894-5 

 the corresponding figures were 1,688,042 acres and 237,494 cwt. ; in 1896-7, 

 1,608,901 acres and 168,673 cwt. ; in 1898-9, 1,010,318 acres and 139,320 

 cwt. ; in 1900-1, 990,375 acres and 148,029 cwt. ; in 1902-3, 645,511 acres 

 and 79,207 cwt. ; in 1904-5 the area was 473,757 acres and the outturn 

 56,200 cwt. Thus in twelve years the area under the crop and the yield 

 decreased te one -third their former magnitude. The most recent forecasts 

 indicate that the area decreased still further in 1905-6, viz. to 583,600 acres 

 with a yield of 46,500 cwt., but the estimated area for 1906-7, namely 

 452,800 acres, has shown a slight improvement in yield of dye 69,700 cwt. 



Land Tenure. " It is impossible, in the space at disposal, to do more 

 than touch upon the system of land tenure. There are commonly three 

 systems throughout the indigo district of Bihar at present under European 

 control. In the first of these the planter is the absolute possessor of the 

 land, known as zerat lands. In the second, as the result of the lease by 

 the zamindars to the planters of certain villages, the factory claims some 

 portion usually two to three cottas per bigha of the highlands for the 

 cultivation of indigo. The portion assigned for indigo is usually changed 

 every two or three ye*ars. In both these cases the cultivation is effected by 

 labour hired by the factory. In the third, the raiyat, under no compulsion, 

 puts a portion of his land into indigo and sells to the factory the plant 

 either on a valuation of the standing crop or measurement of the amount cut. 



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