INDIGOFERA TINCTORIA. 



or sugar, which is said to deteriorate the quality of the cake, but which forms the basis 

 of a process recently patented by a European planter, by which the amount of dye mat- 

 ter extracted is said to be increased by 25 per cent. But the manufacture is conducted 

 as a rule in a slovenly manner, and the dye not properly strained or cleaned, although the 

 resulting gddli seems suited to the requirements of country dyers. It is occasionally 

 purchased by the larger factories and worked up into pucka (or boiled) indigo cake. 



The extension of canal irrigation seems leading to a great increase in the number of 

 indigo factories. The construction of new factories appears, however, to be now con- 

 fined to native enterprise, and the annual fluctuations in the number worked by Euro- 

 peans indicates merely the occasional extension of operations to outlying branch factories, 

 which return no profit except in favorable years. An indication of the extent of indigo 

 manufacture during the last two years is furnished by the following figures : — 



Year. 



European or Native. 



Number of 

 factories 

 \^orkillg. 



Number of vats 

 in use. 



Amount of 

 pltint used. 



Approximate 

 outturn of dye, 

 (in factory 

 maunds). 



1880 



European, 

 Native, 





156 

 1,008 



1,352 

 6,291 



24,83,227 ' 

 79,70,119 



8,339 

 26,413 







Total, 



1,224 



7,643 



1,04,53,346 



34,752 



1881 



European, 

 Native, 





176 



1,328 



1,366 

 7,574 



34,10,278 

 1,01,82,348 



9,610 

 36,334 







Total, 



1,504 



8,940 



1,95,92,626 



45,944 



The relations between factory and cultivator are such an important feature in the 

 agricultural conditions of the Provinces, that some notice of them here may not be out 

 of place. In some instances, — very few in these Provinces, — the plant is grown by the 

 factory direct on land either belonging to it or rented from the proprietors or cultiva- 

 tors for the purpose. But the system usually followed is for the factory to purchase 

 the plant from cultivators, at a price which may be fixed either when the crop is sown, 

 or when it is ready for delivering. When the first factory is started in a district, it is 

 evident that no cultivators will grow plant unless assured before hand of its purchase 

 at a fiiir price, since, the crop being useless to him unless taken by the factory, the 

 latter could make its own terms if no agreement was come to before the plant was on 

 the ground. This was very possibly one of the causes which led to the adoption of 

 the advance (or hadni) system under which the greater portion of indigo plant is grown. 

 In March or April when the crop is sown the factory binds itself to purchase plant at 

 a price then fixed upon, and the bargain is always clinched if not altogether eflfected 

 by the factory making an advance in cash to the cultivator, in consideration of which the 

 price to be paid for plant is fixed at a considerably lower figure than what free competition 

 would result in. But so long as the price is not below Es. 16 or Es. 18 per 100 maunds, 

 the system is not more objectionable than that followed by (government in further- 

 ing opium cultivation. Unfortunately, however, one of the principal objects of the 

 factory in making advances is often not so much to arrange for a crop in the present 

 as to gain such power over the cultivator as will enable it to compel hira to grow indigo 



