INDIGO. 
194 
when it arrives, the cultivator is frequently repaid 
by an abundant crop for all his trouble. 
The proper time for sowing the seeds of the in- 
digo plant varies according to the situation of the 
place and the season of the year. In the flat part 
of the Cape they begin the most essential operation 
in November or December, in the time of the 
norths . In this part of the colony they give this 
appellation to the rains which fall at that season, 
and which come from that point of the horizon. 
These rains are soft and fine, resembling those which 
refresh our lands in the month of May, and their 
coming is announced to the cultivator by several in- 
fallible signs. They prepare the land for the re- 
ception of the seed, and the manner in which the 
natives proceed to this part of the business is as fol- 
lows *. 
The majority of the negroes employed for this 
purpose arrange themselves in a row ; and being 
provided with hoes, they together make shallow 
holes in the ground, for each of which one blow 
with the hoe is sufficient ; after the first blow is 
struck, they move backwards and repeat the opera- 
tion, going alternately from right to left and hom 
left to right. Whilst this is about, others placed 
before them sow the grain with their hands, put- 
ting, at a guess, about eight or ten seeds into each 
hole. This part of the employment falls to the 
share of the old and feeble negroes of both sexes. 
A third party follow these, and cover the seeds 
