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iadigotine is already very great. One of the firms mentioned, 

 the Badische Anilin and Soda Fabrik, have sold 1,000,000 fr 

 worth (£40,000) of artificial indigo in one year in France. Both 

 firms now operating in France cannot keep pace with the 

 demand. As I have said above, both German firms are now 

 manufacturing their indigo in France. 



Conclusions. — It must be confessed that the outlook for Indian 

 growers of indigo appears black enough almost to warrant their 

 following the example of the planters in Java who have given 

 up indigo for tobacco and sugar. 



Some importers here are of opinion that the substitution of 

 artificial for natural indigo is only a matter of time. It is to 

 the interest of the consumers to favour a product that will put 

 a stop to the too great variations in prices of a dye owing to 

 the nature of the year's croo. They think that natural indigo 

 will still hold its own for some time against its competitor 

 owing to its durability as a fast dye. Madder had to give way 

 to alizarine red, and cheapness, the dangerous weapon in all 

 German competitive struggles, is an inducement very difficult 

 to resist. If the dye will last the cloth, as in cotton print and 

 woollen fabrics not exposed, like uniforms, to snn and rain, 

 what advantage can the manufacturer on the Continent find in 

 a dearer though better dye, if the cheaper be more attractive to 

 the eye and gives so much greater profit. 



The way out for Indian planters. — How is the German move 

 to be met. There is a way out. It will be fonnd in improved 

 cultivation, on scientific principles, of the plant, and in im- 

 proved methods of extracting the natural dye from the indigo 

 plant. Considerable initiative and some outlay of capital is 

 required. The old mechanical method of hand-and-foot labour, 

 as handed down from generation to generation, without any 

 thought of improvement, will have to go. The process of ex- 

 tracting the maximum quantity of pure indigotine from the 

 vats is being closely enquired into by experts, I am told. 

 Authorities in chemistry will undoubtedly succeed in obtaining 

 increased proportions of colouring matter from the plant, which 

 has hitherto not been expected to give more than 1| lbs. of 

 indigo for 100 lbs. of the plant. At the present moment experi- 

 ments are in progress in Cambodia, which will be of particular 

 interest to indigo planters in British India. I am told that one 

 Martinique planter has succeeded in obtaining a product con- 

 taining 73 per cent, of pure indigotine, at a cost of Is. Id. per 

 lb. This is a notably lower cost than that of artificial indigo 

 as stated above. 



