INDIGO. 
195 
either with a rake, or with a broom made on pur- 
pose. 
The distance between each hole is generally 
about six or seven inches. When the seed is in 
good condition, and the rains favourable, the plants 
commonly make their appearance above-ground in 
three or four days, after which they are carefully 
weeded every fifteen or twenty days, till the indigo 
is high enough to shade the ground beneath it, and 
prevent the noxious plants from rising to its preju- 
dice. The negroes weed the indigo with a kind of 
sickle, cutting off all those that are calculated to 
prove injurious to the young crop. In two or three 
months, if every thing goes on in a favourable man- 
ner, the plants will have arrived at maturity, and 
be fit to cut for the purpose of making indigo. 
