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change  remained  at  2d.\  in  1897  it  went  up  to  is.  l\d.  and  even 
at  this  high  rupee  price,  and  without  raising  the  European  value, 
it  was  found  profitable  to  plant  every  inch  of  even  the  very  poorest 
soil  with  indigo.  Since  1898  we  have  had  an  almost  stable  ex- 
change of  1 5-.  \\d.,  or  as  compared  with  that  of  1895  o**  1896,  20 
per  cent,  more  unfavourable  from  the  European  buyers  point  of 
view.  It  is  therefore  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  the  estates  less  dis- 
posed to  the  production  of  indigo  have  been  given  over  to  other 
culture.  It  is  quite  clear  to  the  producers  in  India  that  if  they  are 
to  compete  against  artificial  indigo  they  must  supply  a good  quality 
of  the  natural  product  at  a lo  w price^  and  j^rivate  individuals  as 
well  as  the  Indian  Government  are  doing  their  utmost  to  introduce 
impiovements  in  this  direction,  such  as  more  careful  tilling  of  the 
soil,  a more  rigorous  choice  in  the  selection  of  the  seed  employed, 
and  specially  a better  supervision  of  the  process  of  fermentation. 
These  are  all  more  or  less  coming  into  use.  The  weather  natur-^ 
ally  exerts  a great  influence  on  the  crop,  and  under  the  unfavour- 
able conditions  which  have  prevailed  during  the  last  few  years, 
especially  in  1902,  it  has  been  difficult  to  produce  indigo  at  a profit 
at  the  present  prices.  In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted  that 
up  to  the  late  autumn  of  last  year  “ indigo”  influenced  the  market 
value  of  all  fast  blues.  There  followed  the  decrease  in  price  of  the 
competetive  chemical  product  in  order  to  meet  the  reduced  price 
of  natural  indigo,  and  although  artificial  indigo  was  cheap,  it  was 
never  so  low  as  it  had  been  before  the  summer  of  1902  owing  to 
the  bad  crops  of  the  natural  product.  This  shows  that  the  enhanced 
price  not  only  caused  no  holding  back  in  buying  circles,  but  that 
already  in  the  autumn  of  1902  many  of  the  stocks  in  Europe  and 
the  new  supplies  in  India  were  sold  on  a rising  market.  The  de- 
liveries to  all  parts  of  the  world  indicate  that  the  universal  con- 
sumption did  not  kick  against  the  higher  prices;  numerous  orders 
remained  unexecuted  in  Calcutta,  because  the  stock  of  about  43,000 
maunds,  or  10,800  cases,  was  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  demand. 
Many  American  buyers,  after  trying  both  the  artificial  and  the 
natural  indigo,  have  gone  back  to  the  latter,  and  this  shows  that  it 
is  i.ot  always  the  true  blue  dye-stuff  which  ren  lers  the  best  analysis 
which  is  the  best  in  actual  practice. 
In  dyeing  circles  it  has  been  usual  to  enquire  the  analysis  of  in- 
digo, i.e.^  how  much  per  cent,  of  indigotine  is  shown  by^the  chame- 
leon or  permanganate  process,  and  whoever,  for  the  sake  of 
convenience,  only  buys  according  to  such  analysis  can  easilv  be 
deceived.  Every  practical  dyer  knows  that  different  lots  of  Bengal 
indigo,  for  example,  which  on  analysis  show,  let  us  say,  60  per 
cent.  of  iniligotine,  produce  a much  higher  percentage  than  this  in 
the  vats.  But  it  has  been  found  convenient,  althouorh  it  mav  not 
O ^ 
be  rational,  to  base  purchases  on  the  analysed  percentages,  and  not 
on  the  one  which  practical  knowledge  shows  to  exist.  Natural 
indigo  therefore  by  skilful  manipulation  would  render  a percentage 
of  indigotine  in  excess  of  the  analysed  60  per  cent.,  whereas  the 
artificial  or  synthetic  product  will  give  exactly  60  per  cent,  and  no 
more. 
