Ii6 Indigo in Meerut. 



indigo as a vested right from usage. We might give 

 as a parallel instance the right of shooting or hunt- 

 ing. A man who shoots on preserves is called a 

 poacher, one who builds a factory and grows indigo 

 in another factory dehdt is called an interloper. This 

 right is not so much exercised in the North-West 

 Provinces, where, consequently, free trade in indigo 

 prevails. 



That interesting work, " Garden and Field Crops," 

 published by the Agricultural Department, North- 

 Western Provinces, says : " The advance or badni 

 system was probably brought about by the assamis 

 requiring some guarantee that the indigo grown by 

 them would be purchased by the factory according 

 to the badni system. In March and April when the 

 crop is sown, the factory binds itself to purchase plant 

 at rates then agreed on ; the rates are fixed consider- 

 ably lower than they are in free competition ; but as 

 long as sixteen or eighteen rupees per 100 maunds 

 of plant is paid, the system is not more objectionable 

 than that followed by Government in furthering the 

 opium cultivation. Unfortunately one of the prin- 

 cipal objects of the factory in making advances is 

 often not so much to arrange for a crop in the pre- 

 sent as to gain a power over the cultivator as will 

 enable it to compel him to grow indigo on its own 

 terms for the future. The power once acquired may 



