461 DYES AND COLORING STUFFS. 



In 1839-40 the export of indigo from Madras amounted to 

 1,333,808 Ibs. A small quantity is also exported from the French 

 settlement of Pondicherry. In 1837 the export from Manila 

 amounted to about 250,000 Ibs. The export from Batavia in 

 1841 amounted to 913,693 Ibs., and the production in 184:5 \\iix 

 double that amount. The annual exports of indigo, from all parts 

 of Asia and the Indian Archipelago, were taken by M'Culloch, in 

 1840, to be 12,440,000 Ibs. The imports are about 20,000 chests 

 of Bengal, and 8,000 from Madras annually, of which 9,000 or 

 10,000 are used for home consumption, and the rest re-exported. 



The total crop of indigo in the Bengal Presidency has ranged, 

 for the last twenty years, at from 100,000 to 172,000 factory 

 maunds; the highest crop was in 1845. The factory maund 

 of indigo in India is about 78 Ibs. 



In the delta of the Ganges, where the best and largest quantity 

 of indigo is produced, the plant lasts only for a single season, 

 being destroyed by the periodical inundation; but in the dry 

 central and western provinces, one or two ratoon crops are 

 obtained. 



The culture of indigo is very precarious, not only in so far as 

 respects the growth of the plant from year to year, but also as 

 regards the quantity and quality of the drug which the same 

 amount of plant will afford in the same season. 



The fixed capital required, as 1 have already shown, in the 

 manufacture of indigo, consists simply of a few vats of common 

 masonry for steeping the plant, and precipitating the coloring 

 matter ; a boiling and drying house, and a dwelling for the planter. 

 Thus a factory of ten pair of vats, capable of producing, at an 

 average, 12,500 Ibs. of indigo, worth on the spot 2,500, will 

 not cost above 1,500 sterling. The buildings and machinery 

 necessary to produce an equal value in sugar and rum, would 

 probably cost about 4,000. 



The indigo of Bengal is divided into two classes, called, in com- 

 mercial language, Bengal and Oude ; the first being the produce 

 of the southern provinces of Bengal and Bahar, and the last that 

 of the northern provinces, and of Benares. The first class is 

 in point of quality much superior to the other. The inferiority 

 of the Oude indigo is thought to be more the result of soil and 

 climate, than of any difference in the skill with which the manu- 

 facture is conducted. The indigo of Madras, which is superior 

 to that of Manila, is about equal to ordinary Bengal indigo. The 

 produce of Java is superior to these. 



Large quantities of indigo, of a very fine quality, are gro\\n in 

 Scinde. I have to acknowledge the receipt, from the Indian 

 Government, of an interesting collection of documents on the 

 culture and manufacture of indigo in Upper Scinde. The papers 

 are chiefly from the pen of Mr. Wood, Deputy Collector of 

 Sukkur, though there are several others, perhaps of much value, 

 from various other of the revenue officers of Scinde. 



Mr. Wood is of opinion that Scinde is much better suited than 



