So Indigo in Bengal. 



almost unfit for manufacture with the finer and 

 cleaner plant ; the cart-wheels, scrubbing against 

 it, tear away the plant and plaster with mud what 

 is left at the sides. The Assistant will find travel- 

 ling about in his bhowlea not at all unpleasant, as 

 these boats are comfortably fitted up (like the sketch 

 given) and contain every accommodation ; in fact, they 

 are very pleasant, except for the heat during the 

 middle of the day. But as this is the time when 

 everyone stops work for a while, the boat can be 

 anchored, or tied up to some convenient tree, or in 

 some shady nook, or by the side of a village on the 

 bank, and the three or four most sultry hours of the 

 day passed in comparative comfort. There is always 

 a breeze on the water, and the boat will be pretty 

 quiet, as the men will, generally, at this time, be on 

 shore cooking their food for the mid-day meal. In 

 fact, the Assistant must learn to look upon his boat 

 as his moving home for the time being, and will, of 

 course, take stores, tea, sugar, etc., and his cook and 

 khitmatgar about with him. During the sowings the 

 bhowlea is to the Lower Bengal Assistant what the 

 bamboo-cart is to his confrere of Tirhoot. Although 

 the sowings in Lower Bengal would, in many instances, 

 horrify a Behar planter, yet for quality and colour the 

 Lower Bengal indigo will always be better than the 

 up-country made indigo in the North-West Provinces., 



