INDIGO. 287 



lest the powder should be shaken off, on 

 which the beauty and value of the indigo de- 

 pend. The cutting is repeated in about six 

 weeks, and is performed a third time if the 

 weather is favourable. The plant is suffered 

 to remain two years in the ground, when it is 

 found to have exhausted the juices necessary 

 for its nourishment. It is a plant that re- 

 quires to be kept quite free from weeds and 

 worms, on which account it employs about 

 twenty-five negroes to manage a plantation 

 of fifty acres, allowing them time to provide 

 their own necessary subsistence. Good land 

 will yield from sixty to seventy pounds weight 

 of indigo per acre; at a medium the produce 

 is about fifty pounds. 



The indigo plantation is as subject to ca- 

 sualties as that of rice or other crops. Some- 

 times the plant becomes dry, and is destroyed 

 by an insect that frequents this herb. At 

 other times, the whole of the leaves, which 

 are the valuable part of the plant, are de- 

 voured in the space of twenty-four hours by 

 caterpillars. This has given rise to the say- 

 ing, " that the indigo planter goes to bed 

 rich, and rises in the morning totally ruined. 



In Carolina the wild native indigo is found 

 to answer the best, on account of its hardi- 



