Cultivation, Manuring, Measuring, etc. 53 



days the seeds germinate, generally on or about the 

 third day, and the two first leaves of the plant peep 

 forth. 



As the lands become exhausted year, by year, a por- 

 tion of them is taken up and trench-manured with 

 seet, which is the refuse plant after the indigo is 

 extracted. This refuse is carted out and thrown in 

 large heaps in regular lines and intervals over the 

 land, and dug-in in lines or trenches and well covered 

 over by the kodal or native spade. All the refuse in- 

 digo plant of a factory which is taken out of the vats 

 after steeping, is, however, not used in this way, owing 

 to a large proportion of it at least half at each factory 

 being set aside, to be dried as fuel, and then stacked 

 near the boiler for future use in manufacturing the 

 coming season's indigo. It is, in fact, a valuable com- 

 modity both as manure and fuel, and is guarded 

 from theft, as far as possible, by the planters, though 

 a good deal of it is " sneaked " by the poorer classes 

 of natives employed about the factory during the cold 

 months to warm themselves with at night; for blankets 

 and warm covering are scarce with them, and fuel also. 



This system of manuring is quite unknown in 

 Lower Bengal, where the alluvial deposit from the 

 yearly overflow of the Ganges takes its place and 

 renders it unnecessary, for it would in all probability 

 be washed away. But further up-country where these 



