and Magazine oj the Ceylon Agricultural Soeiety.— September, 1911. 279 



INDIGO AND INDIGO PROSPECTS. 



Thb Outlook for an Indian Industry 

 whioh, Despite Synthetic Competition, 



is said to Possess Possibilities. 

 The virtual effacement of the Indian indigo 

 industry some ten years ago constitutes one of 

 the tragedies of commerce. The cultivation 

 of the indigo plant and the subsequent extrac- 

 tion of the dye of that name had been for cen- 

 turies one of the standard industries of India. 

 To the cultivation and treatment of the plant 

 British commercial enterprise took very kindly 

 early in the last century, and for years par- 

 ticipation in the industry was almost synony- 

 mous with a justifiable claim to fortune, or even 

 to great wealth. During the latter quarter of 

 the nineteenth century, it is true, the mono- 

 poly which India had held as the main source 

 of the world's supply of indgodye had been 

 challenged by planters in the Dutch colonies, 

 and these, calling to their aid the assistance of 

 skilled scientists, were obviously working along 

 lines which were calculated to make their com- 

 petition with the Indian producer effective. 

 The staggering blow to the Indian Industry, 

 however, was not to be administered by the 

 Dutch planter, but by the German chemist. 

 The possibility of obtaining an indigo dye from 

 the main by-product resulting from the manu- 

 facture of coal gas had been proved fully thirty 

 years before a serious attempt was made to deal 

 witk this discovery on strictly commercial lines. 

 Experimental production of synthetic indigo- 

 dye on a more or less commercial scale had to 

 be conducted, however, over a fairly lengthy 

 term of years before it could be said that in 

 matter of price the artificial product could com- 

 pete with the natural. Although it was gene- 

 rally admitted that this reduction was merely a 

 matter of time, it would appear that the 

 Indian indigo planters declined to loon upon 

 the challenge before them as serious. They, at 

 at any rate, took no steps to improve the 

 quality of the natural product for which their 

 plantations and their factories was responsible, 

 and made no attempt to restrict cost of pro- 

 duction, so that when competition from a com- 

 paratively cheaply-obtained synthetic indigo 

 actually commenced they would be able to carry 

 on a contest on fairly equal terras. Just ten 

 years ago Professor Meldola, in a lecture ou the 

 synthesis of indigo, delivered at the Society of 

 Arts, after, it may be mentioned, the artificial 

 product had achieved what was regarded as a 

 phenomenal success, dealt with this very laxity 

 on the part of those interested in the Indian 

 industry. Holding out to the Indian planters 

 no hope that they could meet successfully the 

 competition of the German factory, but at the 

 same time declining to describe their cause as a 

 forlorn one, the Professor said the planters had 

 allowed twenty years' activity on the part of 

 the chemists to pass by with apathy and indif- 

 ference, only condescending to turn to the expert 

 for assistance and guidance at the eleventh hour. 



Early Efforts at Improvement. 

 The speaker, indeed, drew a very dark pic- 

 ture of the then position of the Indian indigo 

 industry and its prospects, and incidentally 



dealt with the more capable efforts which had 

 been made by the Dutch East Indian planters 

 not only to improve their indigo product in 

 competition with that of India, but to put 

 themselves in a better position to combat the 

 commercial advent of the German factory. The 

 Indian planter found himself face to face with 

 competition which could ignore climatic con- 

 ditions in the matter of production, and was 

 in a position to offer the user of the dye a 

 commodity which gave guaranteed results. 

 Here in only two of the many points naturally 

 associated with production he was beaten, in 

 Mr. Roosevelt's phrase, to a frazzle, and the 

 dawn of the present century might bo taken as 

 indicating that, so far as indigo-dye went, India 

 was no longer a factor of any importance what- 

 soever. The valueiof the exports of the commod- 

 ity from India fell from millions sterling per 

 annum to about half-a-million sterling, and, to 

 all appearances, what still survived of a oine 

 prosperous industry would in time die with the 

 deaths of the few surviving conservative users of 

 natural indigo left in Europe. The Indian Gov- 

 ernment, however, rendered what can only be 

 described as belated and somewhat parsimo- 

 nious aid to those planters who clung on to the 

 cultivation of the indigo plant and the prepara- 

 tion of the dye therefrom. Experiments were 

 initiated for the cultivation of what is known 

 as the Java or Natal indigo plant, and some 

 earlier results achieved gave considerable ground 

 for hoping a revival of the industry in India by 

 this means was possible. It was claimed, and, 

 perhaps, with justice, so far as the Dutch colo- 

 nies are concerned, that this Java plant gave an 

 increased yield of indigo, which was obtained 

 at a cost no greater than was entailed in the 

 cultivation of the indigenous plant. This claim 

 seems to have been made good so far as some 

 of the Indian plantings of the Java variety 

 were concerned, but troubles with disease, 

 which are only too frequently associated with 

 the cultivation of any non-indigenous agricul- 

 tural growth under tropical climatic condi- 

 tions, considerably damped the earlier en- 

 thusiasm among some of the remaining planters, 

 while the success which has attended the pro- 

 duction of an Indian-Java hybrid plant has not 

 been overwhelming. It is probable, however, 

 that some of these adverse judgments passed on 

 the Java variety have been over-nasty, and that 

 time will show ways not only of successfully 

 combating the tendency to disease already noted 

 but of making more of this particular plant in 

 the future. The actual cultivation of the Java 

 variety would appear to be more economical, in- 

 asmuch as sowing each year, as is the case with 

 Indian indigo, is unnecessary. At least two years' 

 crops can be obtained from the roots, or four 

 crops in all, and, as the branches are longer and 

 the number of leaves larger, the advantages of 

 cultivating the Java variety, given, of course, 

 the yield of indigo in the matter of quality is 

 equally good when compared with that trom the 

 indigenous plant, would seem fairly obvious. 

 Improved Production Methods : Reduced 

 Costs. 



More important, however, to the future of the 

 Indian indigo industry was the necessity of 

 speedily arriving at improved methods of dye- 



