124 THE BLUE DYES OF CHINA AND INDIA. 



vat. The fecula at the bottom is then removed to the boiler. It is brought 

 to the boiling point as quickly as possible, and kept there for five or six 

 hours. While boiling, it is stirred to keep the indigo from burning, and 

 skimmed with a perforated ladle. When sufficiently boiled, it is run off 

 to the straining table, where it remains twelve or fifteen hours draining. 

 It is then taken to the presses and gradually pressed. This process takes 

 twelve hours. It is then ready to be taken out, cut, stamped, and laid in 

 the drying house to dry. 



A good sized steeping vat is 16 feet by 14 feet, by 4£ feet in depth. The 

 beating vat is somewhat shallower. Two hundred maunds of the plant 

 (16,400 lbs.) do very well to yield one maund of indigo (82 lbs.). A vat 

 of the above size holds about 100 maunds of plants. The plant sown in 

 June is cut three months afterwards and manufactured. A second crop 

 will be taken from it in the following August. This cutting produces the 

 largest quantity and best quality. 



In former years the usual mode of extracting indigo as practised in 

 Southern India was from the dry leaf, but this is now almost entirely 

 superseded by the better system of green leaf manufacture detailed above, 

 which is followed in all the indigo growing districts of the Madras Presi- 

 dency, save the province of South Arcot. In the latter the dry leaf process 

 is still persevered in, but it is likely that it is only so from the distance to 

 which the leaf has generally to be carried before it reaches the factory, and 

 the consequent partial drying that takes place on the journey. 



The imports of East India indigo into London, and the deliveries for 

 home use and consumption, in the last eight years, have been as follows, in 

 chests : — 



Imports. Deliveries. 



1852 33,052 34,102 



1853 24,919 30,883 



1854 27,277 27,060 



1855 22,495 30,222 



1856 30,388- 25,782 



1857 24,169 24,746 



1858 22,826 23,505 



1859 19,444 24,748 



The quantity sold at the quarterly sales, and the stocks held, were : — 



Chests sold. Stock, Dec. 31. 



1854 24,500 23,488 



1855 27,709 15,750 



1856 20,900 20,356 



1857 21,200 19,779 



185S 18,200 19,044 



1859 18,200 13,738 



A fine indigo has been manufactured experimentally in India from 

 Indigofera ccerulea. We are not aware of any of the commercial indigos of 



