466 



DYES AND COLOEING STUPPS. 



they break across when doubled flat, denote a state of maturity. But 

 this character is somewhat fallacious, aud depends upon the poverty 

 or richness of the soil. When much rain falls, the plants grow 

 too rapidly, and do not sufficiently elaborate the blue pigment. 

 Bright sunshine is most advantageous to its production. 



The first cropping of the plants is the best ; after two months 

 a second is made ; after another interval a third, and even a fourth ; 

 but each of these is of diminished value. 



Gidture in India, — Eor the following excellent account of the 

 modes of culture, and practice, &c., in Bengal, and other parts of 

 India, I am indebted to Mr. W. J olmson, one of the corre- 

 spondents of my " Colonial Magazine." Mr. Johnson, besides 

 his own Indian experience, has consulted all the best authorities, 

 and the opinions of contributors to the leading periodicals of 

 Calcutta on this important subject : — 



When America became known to Europeans, its indigo became to them a 

 principal object of cultivation, and against their skill the native Hindostanee 

 had nothing to oppose, but the cheapness of his simple process of manufacture. 

 The profit and extent of the trade soon induced Europeans to bra ve the perils of 

 distance and climate to cultivate the plant in Hindostan ; but these obstacles, 

 sdded to the superior article manufactured by the French and Spaniards in the 

 West Indies, would long have held its produce in India in subordination, if the 

 anarchy and wars incident to the French Eevolution, especially when they 

 reached St. Domingo, had not almost annihilated the trade from the West, and 

 consequently proportionally fostered that in the East. The indigo produce of 

 St. Domingo was nearly as large as that of all the other West India islands 

 together. From the time that the negroes revolted in that island, the cultivation 

 of indigo has increased in Hindostan, until it has become one of its principal 

 exports, and the quality of the article manufactured is not inferior to that of any 

 other part of the world. 



The most general mode of obtaining the necessary supply of weed, as it is 

 called by the planter, is as follows : — The land atached to the factory is parcelled 

 out among the ryots or farmers, who contract to devote a certain portion of their 

 farm to the cultivation of indigo, and to deliver it, for a fixed price per bundle^ 

 at the factory ; a sum of money, usually equal to half the probable produce, 

 has to be advanced to the ryot by the planter, to enable him to accomplish the 

 cultivation, and to subsist upon until the crop is ready for cutting. 



If, as is generally the case, sufiicient land is not attached to the factory to 

 supply it with plant, the owner obtains what he requires by inducing the ryots 

 in his vicinity to cultivate it upon a part of their land. Yet it is with them far 

 from a favorite object of cultivation ; and, indeed, if it were not for the money 

 advanced to each ryot by the planter, to provide seed, &c., and which gives him 

 a little ready money, bearing no interest, it is doubtful whether he would engage 

 in the cultivation at all. Even this advance of money does not induce him to ap- 

 propriate it to any but the worst part of his farm, nor to bestow upon it more than 

 the smallest possible amount of labor. The reasons for this neglect are valid, 

 for the grain crops are more profitable to the ryot, and indigo is one of the most 

 precarious of India's vegetable products. 



In Bengal the usual terms of contract between the manufacturer and the ryot 

 are, that the latter, receiving at the time a certain advance of money, perhaps one 

 rupee (23.) per biggah, with promise of a similar sum at a more advanced period of 

 the season, undertakes to have a certain quantity of land suitably and seasonably 

 prepared for sowing, to attend and receive seed whenever occasion requires, and to 

 deliver the crop, when called upon, at the factory, at a specified price per bundle 

 or 100 bundles. The particular conditions of these contracts vary generally in 

 Bengal ; they amount to advancing the ryot two rupees for every biggah of 

 land, furnishing him with seed at about one-third its cost, on an engagement 



