APRIL, 1912.] 



299 



Dye Stuffs* 



not been heavy within the past few 

 weeks, and refiners, too, are willing to 

 wait until the future is more clearly 

 outlined. There has also been a scarcity 

 of press cloth and a considerable advance 

 in price, which has to some extent in- 

 terfered with crushing operations, and 

 has now and then caused temporary 

 suspensions. 



The whole industry is therefore in 

 some confusion. With the present de- 

 mand excellent and with future prices 

 low, there is still a hesitancy about 

 making extensive commitments. Lack 

 of definite information as to the output 

 is engendering a spirit of caution into 

 both crushers and refiners. It seems to 

 many a good time to avoid hurry. 



DYE STUFFS. 



INDIGO IN CEYLON. 

 By Baron Schrottky. 



[Paper read at the Meeting of the Board 

 of Agriculture. March 6, 1912.] 

 The object of the paper on Indigo, 

 which you have permitted me to read to 

 you to-day, is to arouse interest in an 

 industry which, for some time past, has 

 been considered moribund, if not dead. 

 The natural indigo industry, at one time 

 one of the most prosperous industries in 

 the Bast, has been practically ruined by 

 the competition of a synthetic dye. 

 Adolf von Bayer discovered in 1880 a 

 method of producing from coal tar pro- 

 ducts a substance identical in every 

 respect with indigotine, the chief dyeing 

 principle in the indigo of commerce, in 

 which it is found to the extent of about 

 60 per cent. The Badische Soda and 

 Aniline Pabrick acquired Bayer's pa- 

 tents, and in 1897 brought into the market 

 a synthetic indigotine at a price low 

 enough to compete with the natural dye. 

 The Badische_Company was able to sell 

 their product at a profit at the cost price 

 of natural indigo, then about Rs, 120 to 

 Rs. 150 per maund of 74 lbs. This com- 

 petition naturally resulted in the closing 

 of most indigo factories in Bengal and 

 Northern India which were dependent 

 for financial assistance on Calcutta 

 houses, and only those planters who had 

 land of their own, on which they could 

 very profitably utilize the excellent 

 manure which indigo refuse yields, were 

 able to keep their heads above water. 

 The export of indigo, which in 1896 was 

 187,337 cwt., valued at nearly £4,000,000 



sterling, had fallen in 1910 to 18,061 cwt., 

 valued at a little over £200,000 sterling, 

 Indigo continued to be grown in Behar 

 and elsewhere in India, but chiefly for 

 the sake of the manure it yields, the dye 

 coming to be looked upon almost as a by- 

 product. It was at the darkest period 

 of the Indian indigo industry that Sir 

 Edward Law, Finance Member of the 

 Indian Council, in his Budget speech, 

 March, 1904, spoke hopefully of a possible 

 revival of the industry, if planters 

 would only put their factories on a 

 sounder financial basis, practise economy 

 in the management of their estates, 

 select the best yielding variety of the 

 indigo plant, and adopt more scientific 

 methods of manufacture. It is due to a 

 few of the more enterprising planters of 

 Behar that progress has been made in 

 these directions. A great advance was 

 made by the introduction into India of 

 a new variety of plant, the Indigofera 

 arrecta, a native of Natal, which not only 

 yields a larger crop per acre than the old 

 variety, but is also a hardier plant, with- 

 stands prolonged drought better, and 

 does not need to be re-sown every year. 

 It will cop for at least three years, and 

 I have seen plants in Behar which have 

 been cat twice every year for five years. 

 Indigofera arrecta yields also a greater 

 percentage of dye than the old variety, 

 and its introduction was spoken of by 

 the Pioneer in 1907 as " by far the most 

 important improvement in the agricul- 

 ture of indigo within recent years." But 

 this improvement was not sufficient in 

 itself to enable the planter to compete 



