CULTIVATION OF INDIGO. 



tainly 20 per cent, more in advances that never can be 

 recovered. And it is usual on reading an advertisement of 

 an indigo factory for sale, say for one which may be valued 

 at 30,000 dollars, to see the statement, the balances due 

 on the factory of money advanced, of 40,000 or 50,000 

 dollars. The value of indigo factories is fictitious. The 

 buildings of a factory worth 30,000 dollars might be 

 worth possibly 400 dollars (not including the residence, 

 which is sometimes a palace, sometimes a bungalow, 

 which may cost for building 300 to 500 dollars). Indigo 

 presses are nothing more than a few strong posts of 

 iron with screws on the ends, and nuts, with a wrench 

 to screw down the nut, and may cost 100 to 200 

 dollars, for a set; the best indigo boiler would cost 

 100 dollars, or perhaps 150 dollars. Therefore the 

 capital required to establish a good large factory where 

 a planter could make some 200 monds (mond of indigo 

 called factory mond is 75 Ibs., the bazar mond is 80 Ibs. 

 The bazar mond is the one generally used except in the 

 case of indigo,) which would sell, if good quality indigo, 

 for 15,000 dollars, at present prices, if very good or best 

 quality, nearly 20,000 dollars. The whole of that fac- 

 tory could be constructed in America, buildings, presses, 

 boilers, &c., for 1000 dollars, or less. 



I cannot give the produce per acre of indigo. From 

 our mode of conducting business in East India, it could 

 not be obtained without some difficulty. The ryots cul- 

 tivate sometimes in little patches, sometimes they join in 

 cultivating some extent of land, the measurement of 

 which they know not, and is only ascertained on another 

 occasion, that of paying rent for it. The measurement 

 is per " biggah," which varies very much ; and to ascer- 



