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which make it necessary to treble the outlay, so that the cost of 
labour and land is now proportionately much smaller. It is this 
change which enables Ceylon planters to take up indigo cultivation 
with every chance of success and profit. The increased outlay is 
chiefly due to the cost of scientific methods of manufacture, and the 
very large additional outturn of dye obtained thereby has reduced 
the cost of natural indigo of average quality (60 per cent, indigotine) 
to Is. per lb. whereas the synthetic dye costs is. 6d. to manufacturer 
and is sold at present at 8d. per lb. of 20 per cent paste equal to 2s. 
per lb. of 6o per cent, indigotine. 
The way is, therefore, open for a revival of the natural indigo- 
industry on a better basis than ever before, for it is well-known that 
the cost of the synthetic dye cannot be further reduced. It is gene- 
rally acknowledged that natural indigo has better dyeing properties 
than the synthetic product, and dyers will give preference to the 
natural dye if they can get it at the same price of a standard quality 
and in the more convenient form of a paste. Such a standard natural 
indigo paste of keeping qualities has now been produced ; it has been 
tested by practical dyers, it has met with the approval of Mincing 
Lane brokers, and it finds a ready demand and sale at a remunerative 
price. 
It will, of course, take some time before an indigo industry on 
these up-to-date lines is established even in Behar. But a beginning 
has been made there and it is to be hoped Ceylon will follow suit, for 
here there is no lack of enterprising nen with a command of credit and 
ready money, which is essential. The climate is favourable, the soil is 
suitable, and, in short, we have here all the elements that should en- 
sure success. 
The indigo plant grows better in Ceylon than in Behar. It 
grows wild in the low-country and at high altitudes, it is found up to 
5,000 feet, it grows in the dry districts and in the wet districts, and 
there are some sixteen varieties of Indigofer a indigenous to the Island. 
The plant grows in Ceylon for the greater part of the year (excepting 
the very dry districts), and will jdeld three to four cuttings in the 
twelve months; whereas in Northern India, where there are four 
months of cold weather and three months of drought, only one good 
cutting can be obtained, the second cutting depending much on the 
season, and, at the best, yielding only a half crop. 
Mr. Teixeira de Mottos, General Secretary of the Midden Java 
Planters’ Association, has given me the crop outturn of Indigofera 
arrecta in Java as amounting per acre to 32,000 lb. per year for three 
cuttings, the yearly outlay being Rs. 100 per acre. This crop outturn 
of green could, I feel certain, be reached here also in Ceylon, when- 
ever the rainfall is over 60 inches for the year, and where the fall is 
well divided bet ween the south-west and north-east monsoons. 
In the dry districts of the Island, with only one monsoon, and a 
rainfall of only about 40 inches spread over four to five months of 
the year, we can only expect two cuttings, which might be estimated 
to yield about 20,000 lb. of crop per acre, for in Behar I have the 
