SAFPLOWEK. 



377 



on the subject, the yellow is soluble in cold water, is removed by- 

 repeated washings, and the residue yields the red colour by digestion 

 in a cold solution of carbonate of potash, from which it is precipitated 

 by weak citric acid. The red colour, or " carthamic acid " as it is 

 called by some chemists, exceeds in beauty the colour of cochineal, 

 but cloths dyed with it will not stand the action of soap nor exposure 

 to the sun for a long time. 



Safflower, one of the great staples of Eastern Bengal, is a sure 

 source of income to the ryot. Land subject to annual inundation is 

 the best fitted for the plant, and if it has remained fallow for a time, 

 the crop gives a good return for three years. The yield is good in 

 the first year, and then somewhat less and less. The soil is then 

 given up, and rotation practised, as the crop is exhaustive. After 

 ploughing, the seed, about four or five seers in weight, is either sown 

 broad-cast or put into the ground by means of pressure with the 

 finger. The field is divided into compartments in order to enable 

 the ryot to go on with weeding. Eain, when the tree is a foot high, 

 does it good, but after the appearance of the flower rain injures it, and 

 washes away the colour. One beegah yields about 1 maund 10 seers 

 of flower, the price being about jRs.105 per maund of 82 tolahs — 

 10 annas to the seer. 



The flower, after being gathered in, is trodden down in mats in 

 order to expel the viscid juice which it contains, and then taken to 

 the river and washed three days three times ; the more the flower is 

 w^ashed, the better is the colour, river water being preferred to tank 

 water. This substance is then made up into flat balls, about a dollar 

 in shape. Males and females both work alike at the manufacture. 

 There are picking cycles of three days in the same field. The stalks 

 of the plant are used as fire wood. When the stalks are burnt they 

 supply a potash for bleaching cloths. 



The plant flowers in three and a half months, and the flowers 

 mature in about fifteen days. Thus the produce of seed sown in 

 December is gathered at the end of March, while the flowers of 

 plants sown a month later are not plucked till the end of April. The 

 corollas only of the flower are gathered, as they mature after intervals 

 of two or three days, and the pluckings take place generally four or 

 five times. The first flowers are generally undeveloped, and being 

 deficient in colour, yield dye of an inferior quality. The last pluck- 

 ings are also inferior, as the plant is then old and dried up, and the 

 coloui- often entirely void of that deep crimson which is so much 

 valued. The operation of plucking is principally carried on by 

 women, who are often employed in this manner for eight houi's a day 

 and receive two annas (3d.) for each day's work. Some skill and 

 much attention are required to ascertain when the flowers are ready 

 for plucking, and a sufficient number of hands must be employed to 

 gather all the matured petals in one day, otherwise the colouring 

 matter will be injured by delay, and indeed may eventually vanish 

 altogether. The corollas of the flower when gathered are placed on 

 a mat in the shade and kneaded with the feet for about an hour on 

 the evening of the day they are plucked, and then left for the night 

 in baskets, no water being used on the first day. Next morning they 



