INDIGO. 



465 



Bengal for the production of this dye-stuff — the alluvial soil on 

 the banks of the Indus is equal in richness to that on those of 

 the Granges, and the climate seems equally well suited for the 

 growth of the plant. But in two years out of three, the crops 

 of the Bengal planter are injured by excessive inundations, while 

 the work of gathering and manipulation is necessarily performed, 

 during the rainy season, under the greatest imaginable disad- 

 vantages. In Scinde, on the other hand, the inundation of 

 the river is produced almost solely from the melting of the snows 

 in the Himalayas, and it is not liable to those excessive fluctuations 

 in amount, or that suddenness in appearance peculiar to inunda- 

 tions chiefly arising from falls of rain. The Granges sometimes 

 rises ten feet in four-and-twenty hours, and at some part of its 

 course its depth is at times forty feet greater during a flood than 

 in fair weather, while the Indus rarely rises above a foot a day, 

 its extreme flood never exceeding fifteen feet, the limits and amount 

 of the inundation being singularly uniform over a succession of 

 years. Moreover, as rain hardly ever falls in Scinde, and when 

 it does so only continues over a few days, and extends to the amount 

 of three or four inches, no danger or inconvenience from this 

 need be apprehended. Mr. "Wood mentions that hemp may be 

 grown in profusion on the indigo gTounds, and that were the pro- 

 duction of the dye once introduced, it would bring hundreds of 

 thousands of acres now barren into cultivation, and secure the 

 growth or manufacture of a vast variety of other commodities for 

 which the country is eminently fitted. An experimental factory 

 might, it is believed, be set up for from two to three thousand 

 pounds, but this appears to be an amount of adventure from 

 which the Government shrinks. 



The districts of Kishnagar, Jessore, and Moorshedabad, in 

 Bengal, ranging from 88 to 90 degs. E. latitude, and 22^ to 

 24 degs. N. longitude, produce the finest indigo. That from the 

 districts about Burdwan and Benares is of a coarser or harsher 

 grain. Tirhoot, in latitude 26 degs., yields a tolerably good 

 article. The portion of Bengal most propitious to the cultivation 

 of indigo, lies between the river Hooghly and the main stream of 

 the Granges. 



In the East Indies, after having ploughed the ground in 

 October, November, and the beginning of December, they sow 

 the seed in the last half of March and the beginning of April, 

 while the soil, being neither too hot nor too dry, is most pro- 

 pitious to its germination. A light mould answers best ; and 

 sunshine, with occasional light showers, are most favorable to its 

 growth. Tvvelve pounds of seed are sufficient for sowing an acre 

 of land. The plants grow rapidly, and will bear to be cut for the 

 first time at the beginning of July ; nay, in some districts so early 

 as the middle of June. The indications of maturity are the 

 bursting forth of the flower buds, and the expansion of the 

 blossoms ; at which period the plant abounds most in the dyeing 

 principle. Another indication is taken from the leaves, which, if 



2 H 



