SECTION IV.

DYES AND COLORING STUFFS, AND TANNING SUBSTANCES.

Of the several classes of materials collected at the Industrial

Exhibition in Hyde Park, in 1851, few possessed so much importance in

the eyes of the textile and leather manufacturer and chemist as the

different products used in the arts and manufactures for coloring and

tanning purposes. These were in a great measure lost sight of by the

public at large, being scattered about in small quantities in a great

number of directions; and, from the minute samples shown, were in many

instances overlooked altogether. Besides furnishing some novel and

general statistical facts, which may prove interesting, I propose also

in this section to draw attention more prominently to some of these

products, which are at present little known or appreciated.

Coloring substances for staining and dyeing are obtained indifferently

from the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms, but it is of the

last alone that I shall have to speak. The importance of a more

careful consideration of this subject will be admitted, if we consider

how much the prosperity and extent of our cotton, silk, woollen, and

leather manufactures depends on a liberal and cheap supply of dyes and

tannin, to give beauty and color to the fabrics, and substance and

utility to the skins. Even oil colors, for painters' purposes, which

do not come within the scope of my remarks, form an item in our yearly

exports of the value of £250,000, and when we calculate the large

amount of cotton, silk and wool worked up, most of which requires

various coloring agents, gums, starches, and mordants;--that nearly

30,000 tons of hides are annually imported, exclusive of those

obtained from our now slaughter-houses, besides goat, seal, and other

skins--and that the exports of our various manufactures of cotton,

linen, silk, wool and leather in 1852, setting aside our home

consumption, amounted to nearly fifty millions sterling, we shall be

able to form a better estimate of the importance of the various

subjects we are about to notice.

Great Britain does not pay less than £600,000 annually for the dried

carcasses of the tiny cochineal insect, while the produce of another

small insect, that which produces the lac dye, is scarcely less

valuable. Then there are the gall nuts used for dyeing and making

black ink. Upwards of £3,000,000 is paid for barks of various kinds

for tanners' purposes, about one million for other tanning substances

and heavy dye woods, besides about £200,000 for various extracts of

tannin, such as Gambier, Cutch, Divi-divi, and Kino. The aggregate

value of the dye stuffs and gum it is difficult to estimate.

The beautiful specimens of materials imported from China, India, New

Zealand, the Continent, and other countries, and exhibited at the

Crystal Palace, proves to us that we have yet much to learn from other

nations in the art of fixing colors and obtaining brilliant dyes. The

French are much our superiors in dyeing and the production of fast and

beautiful colors. Their chemical researches and investigations are

carried out more systematically and effectively than our own. Russia

imports dyewoods and dye-stuffs to the value of five millions and a

half of silver roubles annually.

It was well observed by the Jury Reporters at the Great Exhibition,

that "a vast number of new coloring materials have been discovered or

made available, and improved modes have been devised of economically

applying those already in use; so that the dyer of the present time

employs many substances of the very existence of which his practical

predecessors were wholly ignorant. From the increased use of many of

the vegetable colors, and from the improved modes of applying the

coloring matters, a demand has naturally sprung up for various dye

stuffs; and at the present time, many of the dyeing materials of

distant countries are beginning to excite the attention of practical

men; for though they have been acquainted with many of these

substances, it is only recently that the progress of the art has

rendered their use desirable or even practicable."

It would be quite impossible, within the limits which I have assigned

myself, to make even a bare enumeration of the various plants and

trees from which coloring substances and dye stuffs can be obtained, I

must, therefore, be content to specify only a few.

The roots of some species of Lithospermum afford a lac for dyeing and

painting. Dried pomegranates are said to be used in Tunis for dyeing

yellow; the rind is also a tanning substance.

Sir John Franklin tells us that the Crees extract some beautiful

colors from several of their native vegetables. They dye a beautiful

scarlet with the roots of two species of bed-straw, _Galium

tinctorium_ and _boreale_. They dye black, with an ink made of elder

bark and a little bog-iron ore dried and powdered, and they have

various modes of producing yellow. They employ the dried roots of the

cowbane (_Cicuta virosa_), the bruised buds of the Dutch myrtle, and

have discovered methods of dyeing with various lichens.

In the "Comptes Rendus," xxxv., p. 558, there is an account by M.J.

Persoz, of a green coloring matter from China, of great stability,

from which it appears that the Chinese possess a coloring substance

having the appearance of indigo, which communicates a beautiful and

permanent sea green color to mordants of alumina and iron, and which

is not a preparation of indigo, or any derivative of this dyeing

principal. As furnished to M. Persoz by Mr. Forbes, the American

consul at Canton, it was in thin plates of a blue color, resembling

Japanese indigo, but of a finer grain, differing also from indigo in

its composition and chemical properties. On infusing a very small

quantity of it in water, this fluid soon acquired a deep blue color

with a greenish tinge; upon boiling and immersing a piece of calico on

which the mordants of iron and alumina had been printed, it was dyed a

sea green color of greater or less intensity according to the strength

of the mordant--the portions not coated remaining white.

A berry called _Makleua_ grows on a large forest tree at Bankok, which

is used most extensively by the Siamese as a vegetable black dye. It

is merely bruised in water, when a fermentation takes place, and the

article to be dyed is steeped in the liquid and then spread out in the

sun to dry. The berry, when fresh, is of a fine green color, but after

being gathered for two or three days it becomes quite black and

shrivelled like pepper. It must be used fresh, and whilst its mixture

with water produces fermentation. The bark of _Datisca cannabina_ also

dyes yellow. It contains a bitter principle, like quassia.

A coloring matter is prepared from the dried fruit of the _Rottlera

tinctoria_, by the natives of the East, to dye orange, which is a

brilliant and tolerably permanent dye. It is apparently of a resinous

nature.

A small quantity of Alkanet root (_Anchusa tinctoria_), is imported

from the Levant and the south of France, and is used to color gun

stocks, furniture, &c., of a deep red mahogany and rosewood color. It

is brought over in packages weighing about two cwt., the price being

40s. or 50s. per cwt.

Turmeric is now imported to the extent of upwards of 800 tons, a

portion of this is used in dyeing. The culture and commerce has been

already noticed in Section III.

The bark and roots of the berberry are used in the East to dye yellow;

the color is best when boiled in ley. Some of the species of

Symplocos, as _S. racemosa_, known as lodh about the Himalaya

mountains, and _S. tinctoria_, a native of Carolina, are used for

dyeing. The scarlet flowers of _Butea frondosa_ (the Dhaktree), and

_B. superba_, natives of the Indian jungles, yield a beautiful dye,

and furnishing a species of kino (_Pulas kino_), are also used for

tanning. _Althea rosea_, the parent of the many beautiful varieties of

hollyhock, a native of China, yields a blue coloring matter equal to

indigo. Indigo of an excellent quality has been obtained in the East

from a twining plant, _Gymnema tingens_ or _Asclepias tingens_.

The juice of the unripe fruit of _Rhamnus infectorius_, _catharticus_

and _virigatius_, known as Turkey or French berries, is used for

dyeing leather yellow. When mixed with lime and evaporated to

dryness, it forms the color called sap-green. A great quantity of

yellow berries are annually shipped from Constantinople; 115 tons were

imported into Liverpool last year. The average annual imports into the

United Kingdom are about 450 tons. They come from the Levant in hair

bales weighing three and a quarter cwt., or in tierces of four to five

cwt., and are used by calico printers for dyeing a yellow color. They

are sometimes called Persian berries.

It is a subject of surprise that the common betel-nut of the East has

never been introduced for dyeing purposes. The roots of the awl tree

of Malabar and other parts of India, _Morinda citrifolia_, and of _M.

tinctoria_, found abundant in all the Asiatic islands, are extensively

used as a dye stuff for giving a red color. It is usually grown as a

prop and shade for the pepper vine and coffee tree. The coloring

matter resides principally in the bark of the roots, which are long

and slender, and the small pieces are the best, fetching 8s. to 10s. a

maund. It is exported in large quantities from Malabar to Guzerat, and

the northern parts of Hindostan, but seldom finds its way to Europe.

The wood and roots of another species, _M. umbellata_, known in the

eastern islands as "Mangkudu," are used extensively for their red dye,

in Celebes and Java. Specimens of all these, and of the Lopisip bark,

bunchong bulu wood, and the gaju gum (from undescribed plants), have

been introduced into England. They are said to furnish excellent dyes

in the Asiatic islands. Native dyes from Arracan have also been

imported, viz., thit-tel and the-dan yielding red dyes, ting-nget and

reros, affording dark purple dyes; and thit-nan-weng, a chocolate dye.

These would be worth enquiry, and particulars of the plants yielding

them, the quantities available, and the prices might be procured. Dyes

and colors from the following plants are obtained in India: several

species of _Terminalia_, _Sinecarpus Anacardium_, _Myrica Sapide_,

_Nelumbium speciosus_, _Butea frondosa_, and _Nyctanthes

arboretristis_. The bunkita barring, obtained from an undescribed

plant in Borneo, produces a dark purple or black dye. A species of

ruellia, under the name of "Room," is employed in its raw state by the

Khamptis and Lingphos to dye their clothes of a deep blue. It is

described by the late Dr. Griffiths as "a valuable dye, and highly

worthy of attention." It might, perhaps, be usefully employed as the

ground for a black dye. In Nepaul they use the bark of _Photinia

dubia_ or _Mespilus Bengalensis_ for dyeing scarlet. The bark of the

black oak, _Quercus tinctoria_ and its varieties, natives of North

America, are used by dyers under the name of quercitron.

In the south of Europe, _Daphne Gnidium_ is used to dye yellow. The

root of reilbon, a sort of madder in Chili, dyes red. A purple tint or

dye is obtained from the bark of an undescribed tree, known under the

name of "_Grana ponciana_," growing about Quito; and Stevenson

(Travels in South America) says, "if known in Europe, it would

undoubtedly become an article of commerce." Another much more

expensive species of coloring matter (red) is obtained in various

parts of South America from the leaves of the _Bignonia Chica_, a

climbing evergreen shrub, native of the Orinoco country, with large

handsome panicles of flowers. The coloring substance is obtained by

decoction, which deposits, when cool, a red matter; this is formed

into cakes and dried. Dr. Ure thinks it might probably be turned to

account in the arts of civilization. The order of plants to which it

belongs, contains a vast number of species, all natives of tropical

regions, and their value for the production of coloring substances may

be worth investigation.

It is met with in British Guiana, and the Indian tribes of that

district prepare the pigment with which they stain their skin from it;

it is called by them "Caraveru." The coloring matter is used as a dye

in the United States, and for artistical purposes would rival madder.

Sir Robert Schomburgk thinks it might form an article of export if it

were sufficiently known, as its preparation is extremely simple. The

leaves are dried in the sun, and at the first exposure, after having

been plucked from the vine which produces them, they show the abundant

feculent substance which they contain.

LANA DYE.--A beautiful bluish-black color, known as "Caruto," is

procured in Demerara and Berbice from the juice of the fruit of the

_Genipa Americana_, Linn.--a tree very common in the colony. The

Indians use it for staining their faces and persons. The Lana dye was

honorably mentioned by the jurors at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The

bluish-black color obtained from it is remarkably permanent, a fact

which has very long been known, though hardly any attempt appears to

have been made to introduce it to the notice of European dyers.

Another pigment is prepared by them from arnotto, mixed with turtle

oil, or carap oil, obtained from the seeds of the _Carapa guianensis_

(Aubl.). The wild plantain (_Urania guianensis_) and the cultivated

plantain (_Musa paridisiaca_), the Mahoe (_Thespesia populnea_), and

the pear seed of the Avocado (_Persea gratissima_), furnish dyes in

various parts of the West Indies; specimens of many of these have been

imported from British Guiana and Trinidad.

Russia produces good specimens of the wood of _Statice coriaria_, the

leaves and bark of sumach, the bark of the wild pomegranate, yellow

berries, _Madia sativa_, saffron, safflower and madder roots for

dyeing purposes.

_Avicenna tomentosa_, a species of mangrove, is very common about the

creeks of Antigua, Jamaica, and other West India islands, where it is

used for dyeing and tanning.

In New Zealand, the natives produce a most brilliant blue-black dye

from the bark of the Eno, which is in great abundance. Some of the

borders of the native mats, of a most magnificent black, are dyed with

this substance. It has been tried in New South Wales; but, as with

other local dyes, although found well suited for flax, hemp, linen,

or other vegetable productions, it could not be fixed on wools or

animal matter. Dr. Holroyd, of Sydney, some time since, imported a ton

of it for a friend near Bathurst. It is of great importance that

chemical science should be applied to devise some means of fixing this

valuable dye on wool. As the tree is so common, the bark could be had

in any quantity at about £3 10s. a ton; and our tweed manufacturers

are in great want of a black dye for their check and other cloths.

The principal heavy woods used for dyeing are fustic, logwood,

Nicaragua wood, barwood, camwood, red Sanders wood, Brazil wood, and

sappan wood. All the dyewoods are nearly £2 per ton higher than last

year.

Common Spanish fustic which in September, 1852, was only £3 10s. per

ton, now fetches £6 10s. in the Liverpool market; and there is a great

demand for all kinds of dyewoods. Tampico and Puerto Cabello fustic

are now worth £6 10s. to £7 the ton, Cuba ditto, £9 10s. to £10.

Sappan wood is £4 higher than last year; barwood has risen cent per

cent; logwoods are £2 per ton higher.

The following were the prices of the different dyewoods in the

Liverpool market, on the 1st September, 1853, per ton:--

£ s. d. £ s. d.

FUSTIC, common Spanish 5 10 0 to 6 10 0

Tampico 6 10 0 7 0 0

Puerto Cabello 6 10 0 7 10 0

Cuba 8 0 0 9 10 0

LOGWOOD, Jamaica 5 0 0 5 5 0

St. Domingo 5 5 0 5 10 0

Campeachy, direct 7 12 6 8 0 0

Indirect and Tobasco 6 10 0 7 0 0

NICARAGUA. WOOD.

Rio de la Hache, solid 9 0 0 11 10 0

" " small 6 0 0 6 10 0

Lima 12 0 0 14 10 0

BARWOOD, Angola }

Gaboon } 7 0 0 -----

CAMWOOD 25 0 0 30 10 0

RED SANDERS WOOD 5 15 0 6 10 0

SAPPAN WOOD 10 0 0 15 0 0

RED SANDERS WOOD (_Pterocarpus santalinus_), which is hard and of a

bright garnet red color, is employed to dye a lasting reddish brown on

wool. It only yields its color to ether or alcohol. The tree, which is

a lofty one, is common about Madras and other parts of India; it is

also indigenous to Ceylon, Timor, and other Eastern islands. The

exports of this wood from Madras in one year have been nearly 2,000

tons.

The imports of red Sanders wood from Calcutta and Bombay chiefly into

London are to the extent of 700 or 800 tons a year, worth £6 to £9 per

ton.

Of FUSTIC we import from 1,500 to 2,000 tons annually. We derive our

supplies from Brazil, Tampico, Puerto Cabello, Cuba, and Jamaica. The

best is obtained from Cuba; for while the common white fustic from

Jamaica and the Spanish Main fetches only £5 10s. to £6 10s. the ton,

that of Cuba realizes from £8 to £9 10s. the ton.

SAPPAN WOOD (_Cæsalpinia Sappan_) is an article of considerable

commerce in the East. It is the bukkum wood of Scinde, and is procured

in Mergui, Bengal, the Tenasserim Provinces, Malabar and Ceylon. In

1842 as much 78,000 cwts. were shipped from Ceylon, but the export

from thence has decreased. This island, however, ships dyewoods

annually to the amount of £2,000. A large quantity is exported from

Siam and the Philippine Islands; as much as 200,000 piculs annually

from the former, and 23,000 piculs from Manila. 3,524 piculs were

shipped from Singapore in 1851, and 4,074 piculs in 1852. The picul is

about one cwt. and a quarter. Sappan wood yields a yellowish color,

like that of Brazil wood (_C. brasiliensis_) but it does not afford of

dye matter so much in quantity or so good in quality.

It forms a large export from Ceylon: the shipments from thence were,

in 1842, 77,694 cwt.; in 1843, 1,692; in 1844, 2,592; in 1845, 2,854.

I have no detailed returns at hand, but in 1837, 23,695 piculs of

sappan wood, and 2,266 piculs of roots of ditto were shipped, and in

the first six months of 1843, 22,326 piculs were exported from Manila;

a large portion of this comes to Europe, but some goes to China, the

United States, Singapore, &c. 15,500 piculs were shipped from Manila

in 1844, 5,250 ditto in 1845; and 1,210 tons in 1850. About 3,000

piculs of sappan wood and the same quantity of other dye-stuffs are

annually imported into Shanghae. The price of straight sappan wood at

Shanghae in July, last year, was thirty dollars per picul.

In Calcutta, in June last year, 4,000 piculs of the root of Manila

sappan wood sold freely at about 7s. 6d. per factory maund, Siam ditto

6s.

75 tons were imported into Liverpool in 1849; and 120 tons in 1850,

from Calcutta. The imports of sappan wood into the United Kingdom, in

1850, amounted to 3,670 tons, worth £8 to £12 the ton, and this

continued the price in January 1853.

Camwood, red sanders wood, barwood, and other dye woods, are found in

great quantities in many parts of Africa. The dyes of Africa are found

to resist both acids and light, properties which no other dyes seem to

possess in the same degree. About thirty miles east of Bassia Cove, in

the republic of Liberia, is the commencement of a region of unknown

extent, where scarcely any tree is seen except the camwood. This

boundless forest of wealth, as yet untouched, is easily accessible

from that settlement; roads can be opened to it with little expense,

and the neighbouring kings would probably give their co-operation to a

measure so vastly beneficial to themselves. It is impossible to

ascertain the exact amount of export of these commodities to Europe

and the United States, but it is very great, and employs a large

amount of vessels. One Liverpool house imported 600 tons in a single

year, worth £9,000.

In 1841 upwards of 3,000 tons of dye woods were imported into

Liverpool from the western coast of Africa.

CAMWOOD (_Baphia nitida_) is used as a mordant and for producing the

bright red color seen in English bandana handkerchiefs. The imports

from Sierra Leone to Liverpool in 1849 were 216 tons, worth £20 to £25

per ton.

Gaboon barwood is another variety of this dyewood which is imported

from the west coast of Africa, in straight flat pieces, from three to,

five feet in length; the average annual import being about 2,000 tons,

of the value of £4 a ton.

The imports of barwood into Liverpool were in--

Tons.

1835 2,000

1836 1,000

1837 1,150

1838 650

1839 350

1841 2,012

1850 1,710

Dyewoods imported in 1850. Re-exported.

Logwood 32,930 4,332

Fustic 9,808 1,771

Nicaragua 7,909 112

Barwood 1,896 1,229

Sappan 3,670 --

Green Ebony, and }

Cocuswood } 1,457 --

Red Sanders 656 --

Camwood 416 --

Brazil and Brazillito 309 --

------ -----

59,051 7,444

Thus we perceive the annual consumption of heavy dyewoods in this

country, in dyeing cotton, linen, woollen and silk goods, &c., exceeds

in weight 51,000 tons.

ARNOTTO.--The plants of this family are chiefly natives of the warmest

parts of South America, the East and West Indies, and Africa. In

America the seeds are called achote or roucou. From the port of

Barcelona, in Venezuela, about 2,000 quintals are annually exported.

The species grown for its dye is the _Bixa orellana_. It is used to

impart a bright orange color to silk goods, and to afford a deeper

shade to simple yellows. The dry hard paste is also found to be the

best of all ingredients for giving a golden tint to cheese or butter.

A convenient liquid preparation is now sold to dairymen. The Spanish

Americans mix it with their chocolate, to which it gives a beautiful

rich hue.

It is of two sorts, viz.:--

1. Flag or cake arnotto, which is by far the most important article in

a commercial point of view, is furnished almost wholly by Cayenne. It

is imported in square cakes, weighing two or three pounds each,

wrapped in banana leaves, packed in casks.

2. Roll arnotto is principally brought from Brazil. The rolls are

small, not exceeding two or three ounces in weight. It is hard, dry,

and compact, brownish on the outside, and of a beautiful red color

within.

The dye is usually prepared by macerating the pods in boiling water

for a week or longer. When they begin to ferment, the seeds ought to

be strongly stirred and bruised with wooden pestles to promote the

separation of the red skins. This process is repeated several times,

till the seeds are left white. The liquor passed through close cane

sieves, pretty thick, of a deep red color, and a very bad smell, is

received into coppers. In boiling, it throws up its coloring matter to

the surface in the form of scum, which is taken off, saved in large

pans, and afterwards boiled down to a due consistence, and then made

up, when soft, into balls or cakes of two or three pounds weight.

The following description of the manufacture is from Dr. Ure:--

"The pods of the tree being gathered, their seeds are taken out and

bruised; they are then transferred to a vat, which is called the

steeper, where they are mixed with as much water as covers them. Here

the substance is left for several weeks or even months; it is now

squeezed through sieves placed above the steeper, that the water

containing the coloring matter in suspension may return into the vat.

The residuum is preserved under the leaves of the pine-apple shrub,

till it becomes hot by fermentation. It is again subjected to the same

operation, and this treatment is continued till no more color remains.

"The substance thus extracted is passed through sieves, in order to

separate the remainder of the seeds, and the color is allowed to

subside. The precipitate is boiled in coppers till it be reduced to a

consistent paste; it is then suffered to cool, and dried in the shade.

Instead of this long and painful labor, which occasions diseases by

the putrefaction induced and which affords a spoiled product, Leblond

proposes simply to wash the seeds of arnotto till they be entirely

deprived of their color, which lies wholly on their surface; to

precipitate the color by means of vinegar or lemon juice, and to boil

it up in the ordinary manner, or to drain it in bags as is practised

with indigo.

"The experiments which Vauquelin made on the seeds of arnotto imported

by Leblond, confirmed the efficacy of the process which he proposed;

and the dyers ascertained that the arnotto obtained in this manner was

worth at least four times more than that of commerce; that, moreover,

it was more easily employed; that it required less solvents; that it

gave less trouble in the copper, and furnished a purer

color."--("Dict. of Arts.")

Our imports of arnotto for home consumption are from 200,000 to

300,000 lbs. per annum. The plant is grown in Dacca and other parts of

India, and the eastern Archipelago. At the Hawaiian Islands,

Tongataboo, Rio Janeiro, Peru and Zanzibar, the arnotto is an

indigenous shrub which rises to the height of seven or eight feet,

producing oblong heavy pods, somewhat resembling those of a chesnut.

Within these there are generally thirty or forty irregularly-formed

seeds, which are enveloped in a pulp of a bright red color, and a

fragrant smell.

The imports of arnotto have been as follows:--

Retained for

lbs. home consumption.

1834 252,981 --

1835 163,421 --

1839 303,489 224,794

1840 408,469 330,490

1847 270,000 296,821

1849 162,400 145,824

1850 301,504 231,280

The price of flag arnotto in the London market, in June 1853, was 1s.

per lb.

We imported from France, in 1850, 1,924 cwt. of roll or flag arnotto,

of the official value of £21,499; and in 1851, 1,253 cwt., worth

£13,968.

Wood dye exported from Ceylon--

Value Quantity

£ cwts.

1848 1,359 --

1849 2,035 --

1850 1,766 5,206

1851 259 776

1852 770 2,396

CHAY-ROOT.--There is a plant called chay, the _Oldenlandia umbellata_,

which is extensively cultivated as a dye plant in the East, especially

on the coasts of Coromandel, Nellore, Masulipatam, Malabar, and other

parts of India. The outer bark of the roots furnishes the coloring

matter for the durable red for which the chintzes of India are famous.

Chay-root forms a considerable article of export from Ceylon. The wild

plant there is considered preferable; the roots, which are shorter,

yielding one-fourth part more coloring matter, and the right to dig it

is farmed out. It grows spontaneously on light, dry, sandy ground on

the sea coast; the cultivated roots are slender, with a few lateral

fibres, and from one to two feet long. The dye is said to have been

tried in Europe, but not with very advantageous effect. Dr. Bancroft

suspects it may be injured by the long voyage, but he adds that it

cannot produce any effect which may not be more cheaply obtained from

madder.

This red dye, similar to Munjeet, is used to a great extent in the

southern parts of Hindostan by the native dyers.

It is not held in very good estimation in Europe but seems to deserve

a better reputation than it at present possesses. Attention was drawn

to it as a dye-stuff in 1798, by a special minute of the Board of

Trade recommending its importation; but Dr. Bancroft, who made some

experiments with a sample of damaged chay-root, considered it inferior

to madder and hence discouraged its further importation.

The bark and root of various species of Morinda (_M. citrifolia_ and

_tinctoria_) are used in different parts of the East Indies, and

considered a very valuable red dye. The colors dyed with it are for

the most part exceedingly brilliant, and the coloring matter is far

more permanent than many other red colors are, with improved

management it would probably rival that of madder, and is, therefore,

worthy more attention from dyers.

MANGROVE BARK (_Rhizophora mangle_), is used to dye a chocolate color

in the East and West Indies. This was one of the colors introduced by

Dr. Bancroft, and for the exclusive use of which he obtained an Act of

Parliament. It is procured in plenty at Arracan, Malabar, and

Singapore in the East.

SHUMAC or SUMACH, sometimes called young fustic, is the powder of the

leaves, peduncles, and young branches of a small deciduous plant

(_Rhus coriaria_), native of the South of Europe, but which is also

grown in Syria and Palestine, for its powerful astringent properties,

which renders it valuable for tanning light-colored leather, and it

imparts a beautiful bright yellow dye to cottons, which is rendered

permanent by proper mordants. It is principally imported from the

Ionian Islands and the Morea. The species grown for the purpose in

Spain, Portugal, and Italy is _R. Cotinus_, a shrub with pale purple

flowers, whereas _R. coriaria_ has greenish yellow blossoms. They may

be propagated by cuttings of the roots and layers. _R. typhina_, and

_R. glabia_, with their varieties, are North American species, which

are also used for tanning purposes. In Montpellier and the South of

France the twigs and leaves are known under the name of _redoul_ or

_roudo_. They are gathered every year, and the shoots are chipped or

reduced to powder by a mill.

The imports into the United Kingdom were in 1846,10,256 tons; in 1847,

11,975 tons; in 1848, 9,617 tons; in 1849, 12,590 tons; in 1850,

12,929 tons, and in 1852, 9,758; which were all retained for

consumption. In 1841, we received about 9,000 tons from the port of

Leghorn. There were exported from Sicily in 1842, 123,305 tons, valued

at £68,894. It is imported in packages of about a cwt., wrapped in

cloth. America takes a large quantity of sumach. The imports into the

port of Boston alone, were 19,070 bags in 1847; 34,524 in 1848; and

30,050 in 1849.

The prices in Liverpool, duty paid, in the close of this year, are per

cwt.:--

s. d. s. d.

Sicily, Messina 10 0 to 10 6

" Palermo 12 0 " 13 0

" Trieste 7 0 " 7 6

" Verona 5 6 " 6 6

" Tyrolese 8 0 " 9 0

SAFFLOWER.--The dried flowers of _Carthamus tinctorius_ yield a pink

dye, which is used for silks and cottons, and the manufacture of

rouge; the color, however, is very fugitive. It is an annual plant,

cultivated in China, India, Egypt, America, Spain, and some of the

warmer parts of Europe; and is indigenous to the whole of the Indian

Archipelago. A large quantity is grown in and exported from Bali. The

Chinese safflower is considered the best, and that from Bombay is

least esteemed. The annual quantity exported from the district of

Dacca averages about 150 tons. The shipments from Calcutta exceed 300

tons to various quarters. Our imports are on the decline, and are now

only about 1,200 cwt. per annum. Safflower was shown in the Great

Exhibition from Celebes, Assam, the vicinity of Calcutta, Dacca, the

states of Rajpootana, and other places.

There are two species: _C. tinctorius_, which has small leaves and an

orange flower; and _C. oxyacantha_, with larger leaves and a yellow

flower, a native of Caucasus. The former is cultivated in Egypt, the

Levant, &c., where it forms a considerable article of commerce. 6,633

cwts. of safflower were imported into the United Kingdom in 1835, of

which about one-half was retained for home consumption. Of 5,352 cwts.

imported in 1840, nearly the whole came from our possessions in the

East. In 1847, about 405 tons were imported; in 1848, 506 tons; in

1849, 407 tons; in 1850, 522 tons. The price of safflower varies from

£1 to £8 per cwt., according to quality. That from Bombay is least

esteemed, fetching only 20s. to 30s.

The annual quantity of safflower, according to Dr. Taylor, exported

from the district of Dacca for eight years ending with 1839, amounted

to 4,000 maunds, or about 149 tons. The exports through the Calcutta

Custom House are occasionally large: in 1824-25 there were about 316

tons; 8,500 Indian maunds were shipped from Calcutta in each of the

years 1841 and 1842.

The prices in the Liverpool market, in January 1853, were for Bengal,

good and fine, £6 to £7 10s. per cwt.; middling, £4 to £4 10s.;

inferior and ordinary, £2 10s. to £3.

GAMBOGE is extensively used as a pigment, from its bright yellow

color. There are two kinds known in commerce, the Ceylon and the Siam.

The former is procured from the _Hebradendron Cambogoides_, Graham; a

tree which grows wild on the Malabar and Ceylon coasts, and affords

the coarsest kind. The pipe gamboge of Siam is said to be obtained

from the bruised leaves and young branches of _Stalagmites

cambogoides_. The resinous sap is received into calabashes, and

allowed to thicken, after which it is formed into rolls. Several other

plants, as the _Mangostana Gambogia_, Gaertner, and the _Hypericum

bacciferum_ and _Cayanense_, yield similar yellow viscid exudation,

hardly distinguishable from gamboge and used for the same purpose by

painters. The _Garcinia elliptica_, Wallich, of Tavoy and Moulmein,

affords gamboge, and approaches very closely in its characters to

Graham's _Hebradendron_. In like manner the Mysore tree bears an

exceedingly close resemblance to that species. It is common in the

forests of Wynaad in the western part of Mysore, and has been named by

Dr. Christison _Hebradendron pictorium_. Another gamboge tree has

recently been found inhabiting the western Burmese territories. Both

these seem to furnish an equally fine pigment. As it can be obtained

in unlimited quantity, it might be introduced into European trade, if

the natives learn how to collect it in a state of purity, and make it

up in homogenous masses in imitation of pipe gamboge, the finest Siam

variety. It seems to possess more coloring matter, more resin and less

gum than the ordinary gamboge of commerce. Gamboge owes its color to

the fatty acid. The resin must be regarded as the chief constituent,

and is most abundant in that imported from Ceylon, which contains

about 76 per cent., and is therefore best adapted for painting.

Gamboge also has its medicinal uses.

Various species of _Lecanora_, particularly _L. tartarea_, known as

cudbear, are used in dyeing woollen yarn. The _Rocella tinctoria_ and

_fusiformis_ furnish the orchil, or orchilla weed of commerce, which

is sometimes sold as a moist pulp, but usually in the form of dry

cakes, known under the name of _litmus_; it produces a fine purple

color. Our imports, which have amounted to 6,000 or 7,000 cwts.

annually, are derived chiefly from the Canary, Azores, and Cape Verd

Islands. Rock orchilla was shown at the Exhibition, from the Berlingen

Isles, from Angola, Madeira and the Cape de Verds. Orchilla weed is

very plentiful about the shores of the islands of New Zealand, some

being sent from thence to the Exhibition; but from a want of knowledge

as to the time at which it should be gathered, and the mode of

preparing it for the market, it has not yet become a saleable

commodity there. The rich varieties of lichens on the rocks and plains

of Australia have not been tested, as they ought to be, with Helot's

lichen test. Various lichens, and _Rocella tinctoria_, from Tenasserim

and other parts of India, have been introduced by the East India

Company. In the Admiralty instructions given to Capt. Sir James C.

Ross, on his Antarctic voyage, a few years ago, his attention was

specially called to the search and enquiry for substitutes for the

_Rocella_, which is now becoming scarce. A prize medal was awarded, in

1851, to an exhibitor from the Elbe for specimens of the weed, and an

extract of red and violet orchil. Specimens of varieties of the

lichens used in the manufacture of cudbear, orchil and litmus, and of

the substance obtained, were also shown in the British department,

which were awarded prize medals.

The beauty of the dyes given by common materials, in the Highlands of

Scotland, to some of the cloths which were exhibited, should lead our

botanists and chemists to examine, more closely than they have

hitherto done, the dye-stuffs that might be extracted from British

plants. Woad (_Isatis tinctoria_) and the dyers' yellow woad (_Reseda

lutea_), are both well known. A piece of tweed, spun and woven in

Ross-shire, was dyed brown and black, by such cheap and common dyes as

moss and alder bark, and the colors were unexceptionable.

Sutherlandshire tweed and stockings, possessing a rich brown color,

were produced with no more valuable dye than soot; in another piece,

beautifully dyed, the yellow was obtained from stoney rag, brown from

the crops of young heather, and purple from the same, but subjecting

the yarn to a greater action of the dye than was necessary to produce

brown. There is very little doubt but that beautiful and permanent

dyes, from brown to a very rich purple, might be cheaply procured by

scientific preparations of the common heather (_Genista tinctoria_).

The inhabitants of Skye exhibited cloth with a peculiarly rich dye,

obtained from the "crobal" moss. In the Spanish department, specimens

of vegetable dyes from many cultivated and wild plants were furnished

by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa, and of several of these it

would be important to obtain descriptions and particulars.

Gums are of essential importance to the dyer, and the imports of

these, therefore, are large, averaging about 8,000 tons.

INDIGO.

The plants which afford this dye grow chiefly in the East and West

Indies, in the middle regions of America, in Africa and Europe. They

are all species of the genera _Indigofera_, _Isatis_ and _Nerium_.

_Indigofera tinctoria_ or _coerulea_, furnishes the chief indigo of

commerce, and affords in Bengal, Malabar, Madagascar, the Isle of

France, and St. Domingo, an article of middling quality, but not in

large quantity. The _Indigofera disperma_, a plant cultivated in the

East Indies and America, grows higher than the preceding, is woody,

and furnishes a superior dye-stuff. The Guatamela indigo comes from

this species.

_Indigofera Anil_ grows in the same countries, and also in the West

Indies. The _Indigofera Argentea_, which flourishes in Africa, yields

little indigo, but it is of an excellent quality. _I.

pseudotinctoria_, cultivated in the East Indies, furnishes the best of

all. _I. glauca_ is the Egyptian and Arabian species. There are also

the _cinerea_, _erecta_ (a native of Guinea), _hirsuta_, _glabra_,

with red flowers, species common to the East, and several others.

The _Wrightia tinctoria_, of the East Indies, an evergreen, with white

blossoms, affords some indigo, as does the _Isatis tinctoria_, or,

Woad, in Europe, and the _Polygonum tinctorium_, with red flowers, a

native of China. _Baptisia tinctoria_ furnishes a blue dye, and is the

wild indigo of the United States.

SOURCES OF SUPPLY.--Indigo is at present grown for commercial purposes

in Bengal, and the other provinces of that Presidency, from the 20th

to the 30th deg. of north latitude; in the Province of Tinnevelly; in

the Madras Presidency; in Java, in the largest of the Philippine

islands, in Guatemala, Caraccas, Central America and Brazil. Bengal

is, however, the chief mart for indigo, and the quantity produced in

other places is comparatively inconsiderable. It is also still

cultivated in some of the West India islands, especially St. Domingo,

but not in large quantities. Indigo grows wild in several parts of

Palestine, but attention seems not to have been given to its

cultivation or collection. On most parts of the eastern and western

coasts of Africa, it is indigenous; at Sierra Leone, Natal, and other

places it is found abundant.

In our settlements of Honduras, Demerara, and various portions of the

American continent, it would amply reward the labor of the cultivator;

several inferior sorts of Indigofera being found there indigenous, and

only requiring care and culture to improve them.

The quality of indigo depends upon the species of the plant, its

ripeness, the soil and climate of its growth, and the mode of

manufacture. The East India, and Brazilian indigo arrives here packed

in chests, the Guatemala in ox-hides, called serons.

The indigo imported from the western hemisphere was for some time

considered superior in quality to that of the East. Its cultivation,

however, has been neglected, and the Bengal indigo is preferred at

present to any imported from South America, where it is now only

cultivated by the Brazilians and Colombians. If proper attention were

paid to the cultivation of the plant, and to the preparation of the

dye, it is very likely part of that important trade would be brought

back. It thrives best in a moist climate, and the interior of Guiana,

chiefly newly-cleared land, would be well adapted for it.

The late Mr. Dunlop ("Travels in Central America") gives an

interesting description, which, at the risk of repetition in some

points, I shall give entire.

"Several vessels generally arrive at the Union from South America at

the time of the periodical fairs, where nearly all the indigo (the

only produce of any importance), is disposed of; formerly it reached

10,000 bales, but at present it does not at most exceed 3,000 bales of

150 lbs. each.

The indigo well known in Europe by the name of Guatemala indigo, was

never cultivated in that province (in the same manner as not a grain

of the Honduras cochineal is grown there), being entirely grown in the

state of San Salvador, in the vicinity of San Miguel, San Vicenti, and

the City of Salvador, with the exception of a small quantity of very

superior quality grown in the state of Nicaragua, and a few bales in

Costa Rica, which is all consumed in the State. Under the government

of Spain, the produce of the state of San Salvador alone had reached

10,000 bales, and that of Nicaragua 2,000; the produce of San Salvador

in 1820, two years before its independence, being 8,323 bales. But

since 1822 the annual produce had gradually declined, and in 1846 it

did not exceed 1,000 to 1,200 bales, nearly all the indigo estates

being abandoned, partly, no doubt, from the great fall in the price of

the article, but more on account of the impossibility of getting

laborers to work steadily.

The plant cultivated in Central America for the manufacture of indigo,

is the triennial plant, supposed to be a native of America; but there

is also an indigenous perennial plant, abounding in many parts of

Central America, which produces indigo of a very superior quality, but

gives less than half the weight which is produced by the cultivated

species. The ground for sowing the indigo seed is prepared in

April,--a piece of good forest land near one of the towns being

selected, a part is cut to make a rude fence, and the remainder burnt,

which is easily accomplished, as everything is very dry at that

season; and the ground is afterwards scratched with two sticks,

fastened crosswise, to resemble somewhat the shape of a plough, and

the seed scattered over it by hand. The rainy season always commences

early in May, and the indigo is ready for cutting about the middle of

July, taking about two and a half months to come to perfection. The

growing crop somewhat resembles lucerne, and is in the best state for

making indigo, when it becomes covered with a sort of greenish farina.

The crop of the first year is small, and sometimes not worth

manufacturing; that of the second year is the best, and the third is

also very good, if it has been carefully weeded; but many indigo

fields have lasted more than ten years without being re-sown, as the

seed which falls naturally springs up again, and where the land is

good yields nearly as large a crop as a new sown field. When the plant

is ready for manufacturing, a number of men are collected, each of

whom is either provided with, or brings his own mule or horse, if he

has one. Two men always go together, cut the plant, then about the

height of full-grown red clover, and take it to the vats, which are

large tanks made of brick and lime, holding at least 1,000 gallons,

and some as much as 10,000. Into these the plant is thrown till they

are nearly full, when weights are put above it to prevent its

floating; and the vats filled with water till it covers the mass of

the indigo plant. After remaining from twelve to twenty-four hours,

according to the state of the plant, weather, and other circumstances

(the time required being determined by the color which the water

assumes), the herb is taken out, and the water beaten with paddles in

the very small vats, and by a wheel suspended above and turned by men

or horses in the larger ones, till it changes from a green color,

which it has acquired ere the removal of the herb, to a fine blue,

when it is allowed to stand for some hours, till the coloring matter

has settled to the bottom of the tank, a process which is generally

hastened by throwing in an infusion of certain herbs to facilitate its

settlement, or as the natives term it curdle (_cuajar_) the colored

water. As soon as all the color has settled, the water is drawn off,

and the blue, which is of the consistency of thick mud, is taken out

of the vat and spread upon cotton, or coarse woollen cloth, and dried

in the sun. The color in a great measure depends upon removing the

herb exactly at the proper time, and upon properly beating the water,

neither too long, or too short. Unless these processes are properly

performed, the indigo will not be of first-rate quality; but some

estates will never produce the best indigo, whatever care may be

bestowed on the manufacture.

A _mansana_, of 100 yards square, which is nearly two British statute

acres, produces generally about 100 to 120 lbs. of indigo, the

carriage and cutting of the herb costing about twenty dollars, and the

cleaning of the field and all other expenses connected with it,

including the manufacture of the indigo, about as much more.

The indigo of Central America is not put into moulds when drying, as

that of Bengal, but is allowed to remain in the rough shape in which

it dries, and without further preparation is ready for baling and

exportation.

The bales are generally made up in 150 lbs. each, and the quality is

classed by numbers, from 1 to 9; Nos. 1 to 3 being of the quality

called _cobres_ in Europe; Nos. 4 to 6 of that called _cortes_, and

Nos. 7 to 9 of that called _flores_; Nos. 1 to 6 do not at present pay

the expenses of manufacture, and are never intentionally made. No

doubt, with a little more skill in the manufacture, the whole might,

as in Bengal, be made of the quality called _flores_; but such

improvements cannot be expected till a new race of people inhabit

Central America. At present about one-half of the indigo produced is

under No. 7, and as the cultivation is said not to pay at the present

prices--and, indeed, hardly can be supposed to compete with Bengal, a

country where labor is so much cheaper, and capital abundant--it is

probable, that the cultivation will shortly be entirely abandoned,

unless the price should again rise in Europe." In 1846, 21,933 lbs. of

indigo were exported from Angostura.

The following particulars were contributed to my "Colonial Magazine,"

by the late Dr. Edward Binns, of Jamaica:--

The species generally cultivated is the _I. tinctoria_, which

requires a rich moist soil and warm weather. The seed, which is at

first sight not unlike coarse gunpowder, is sown three or four

inches deep, in straight lines, twelve or fifteen inches apart. The

shoots appear above ground in about a week; at the end of two months

the plant flowers, when it is fit for cutting, which is done with a

pruning knife. It must be mentioned that great care is requisite in

weeding the indigo field when plants first shoot through the earth.

In the State of St. Salvador, large vats made of mahogany, or other

hard wood, are constructed for the reception of the plant, where it

is allowed to undergo maceration and fermentation. In a short time

the water becomes greenish, and emits a strong pungent smell, while

carbonic acid gas is freely evolved. In about twenty-four hours it

is run off into large flat vessels, and stirred about until a blue

scum appears, when additional water is added, and the blue flakes

sink to the bottom. The supernatant water has now acquired a

yellowish tinge, when it is run off carefully, and the blue deposit

or sediment put into bags to drain. It is subsequently dried in the

shade, or sometimes in the sun, then placed in cotton bags and

carried to the indigo fair, or forwarded to the city of Guatemala.

The East Indian mode of manufacturing the indigo differs materially,

and many suppose it preferable to the Salvador. It consists in

_steaming_ the fermented mass in large pipes enclosed in huge

boilers. I am inclined to believe this to be the most economical, if

not the best way of manufacturing indigo. From Guatemala alone, it

is computed that from 6,000 to 8,000 serons of indigo are exported

annually; while San Miguel, Chalatenaugo, Tejulta, Secatecolnea, St.

Vincent, Sensuntepepe, not only, it is said, produce a larger

quantity, but the four last-mentioned places have the advantage as

to quality. The _Belize Advertiser_ stated, some time since, that

the value of this dye from one State in 1830 produced 2,000,000

dollars, the minimum of an immense sum which has been most unjustly

and unwisely wrested from the people of Jamaica, and the West India

islands.

Bridges ("Annals of Jamaica," p. 584, Append.), speaking of the vast

returns of an indigo plantation, says, "The labour of a single negro

would often bring to his owner £30 sterling per annum clear

profit,--a sum which was at the time the laborer's highest price. It

continued the _staple_ of Jamaica till an intolerable tax oppressed

it, while its price was lowered by the competition of other

colonies.

Its cultivation immediately declined throughout them all, but

nowhere so rapidly as here. The financial error was quickly

discovered,--a remedy was attempted by a bounty; but it came too

late, the plantations were thrown up, and the planters, attracted by

the temporary gain, abused the tardy boon, by introducing, as of

their own growth, large quantities of foreign indigo." As Bridges

may be said in this passage to be merely a commentator on Edwards,

who has entered more largely upon the subject, I shall condense from

the latter, statements connected with the manufacture and decay of

this branch of industry, once the staple of Jamaica.

Edwards ("West Indies," vol. ii., p. 275, 2nd edition) reckons three

kinds of indigo--the wild, Guatemala, and French. The first is the

hardest, and the dye extracted from it of the best quality as

regards color and grain; but one or other of the two species is

commonly preferred by the planter, as yielding a greater return. Of

these the French surpasses the Guatemala in quantity, but yields to

it in fineness of grain and beauty of color. The indigo thrives

almost on any land, though the richest soils produce the most

luxuriant plants, and the longest dry weather will not kill it. The

cultivation and manufacture our author thus describes:--"The land

being prepared, trenches, two or three inches in depth, are made by

the hoe. These are ten or twelve inches asunder. The seeds are then

strewed in the trenches by the hand, and slightly covered with

mould. When the plants shoot, they are carefully weeded, and kept

constantly clean, until they rise high enough to cover the ground. A

bushel of seed is sufficient for four or five acres. The best season

for planting is March; but if the land be good, it may be sown at

any time, and in three months the plants attain maturity. In

seasonable situations, they have four cuttings in the year. The

subsequent growths from the plants ripen in six or eight weeks; but

the produce diminishes after the second cutting, so that the seeds

should be sown every second year. A species of grub, or worm, which

infests the plant on the second year is avoided by changing the

soil; or, in other words, by a rotation of crops. The produce per

acre of the first cutting is about 60 lbs. It is nearly as much in

North America; but when the thermometer falls to sixty, the returns

are very uncertain, that degree of heat being too low for the

necessary vegetation, maceration, and fermentation. The yieldings

for the subsequent cuttings somewhat diminish; but in Jamaica and

St. Domingo, if the land is new, about 300 lbs. per acre of the

second quality may be expected annually from all the cuttings

together; and four negroes are sufficient to carry on the

cultivation of five acres, besides doing other occasional work,

sufficient to reimburse the expenses of their maintenance and

clothing."

The process for obtaining the dye, according to the same author, was

conducted through the means of two cisterns, the one elevated above

the other, in the manner of steps. The higher, which was also the

longer, was named the _sleeper_--its dimensions sixteen feet square

and two and a half in depth. The second, into which the fluid was

discharged, was called the _battery_; it was about twelve feet

square, and four and a half in depth. These cisterns were of stone;

but strong timber answered remarkably well. There was also a

lime-vat, six feet square and four feet deep, the plug of which was

at least eight inches from the bottom. This was for the purpose of

permitting the lime to subside, before the lime-water was withdrawn.

The plants then being ripe, or fit for cutting, were cut with

reaping-hooks, or sickles, a few inches from the ground--six was the

minimum--and placed by strata in the _sleeper_, until it was about

three parts full. They were then pressed with boards, either loaded

with weights or wedged down, so as to prevent the plants from

floating loosely; and as much water was admitted as they would

imbibe, until it covered the mass four or five inches deep. In this

state it was allowed to ferment until the water had extracted the

pulp. To know when this had been thoroughly effected, required

extreme attention and great practical knowledge; for if the fluid

were drawn off too soon, much of the pulp was left behind; and if

the fermentation continued too long, the tender tops of the plants

were decomposed, and the whole crop lost. When the tincture or

extract was received in the battery, it was agitated or churned

until the dye began to granulate, or float in little flakes upon the

surface. This was accomplished at one period in Jamaica by paddles,

worked by manual labor, and, in the French islands, by buckets or

cylinders, worked by long poles; but subsequently--that is, at the

time Edwards wrote--convenient apparatus was constructed, the levers

of which were worked by a cog-wheel, kept in motion by a horse or

mule. When the fluid had been churned for fifteen or twenty minutes,

a small quantity was examined in a cup or plate, and if it appeared

curdled or coagulated, strongly impregnated lime-water was gradually

added, not only with a view to promote separation, but to prevent

decomposition. Browne remarks ("Civil and Nat. Hist. of Jamaica,"

art. "Indigo"), the planters "must carefully distinguish the

different stages of this part of the operation also, and attentively

examine the appearance and color as the work advances,--for the

grain passes gradually from a greenish to a fine purple, which is

the proper color when the liquor is sufficiently worked,--too small

a degree of agitation leaving the indigo green and coarse, while too

vigorous an action brings it to be almost black." The liquor being

then, as we shall suppose, properly worked, and granulation

established, it was left undisturbed until the flakes settled at the

bottom, when the liquor was drawn off, and the sediment (which is

the indigo) placed in little bags to drain, after which it was

carefully packed in small square boxes, and suffered to dry

gradually in the shade.

Such is the account, nearly word for word, which Edwards gives of

the mode of manufacturing indigo. I shall now quote his remarks upon

the outlay and gain upon the article _verbatim_.--"To what has been

said above of the nature of the plant suiting itself to every soil,

and producing four cuttings in the year, if we add the cheapness of

the buildings, apparatus, and labor, and the great value of the

commodity, there will seem but little cause for wonder at the

splendid accounts which are transmitted down to us concerning the

great opulence of the first indigo-planters. Allowing the produce of

an acre to be 300 lbs., and the produce no more than 4s. per pound,

the gross profit of only twenty acres will be £1,200, produced by

the labor of only sixteen negroes, and on capital in land and

buildings scarce deserving consideration." Yet, notwithstanding this

statement, the author informs us afterwards that he knew, in the

course of eighteen years' residence in the West Indies, upwards of

twenty persons who tried to re-establish indigo manufactories, but

failed. This appears strange, since it is plain that what has once

been done can be done again, but especially in the manufacture of an

article requiring a capital so very small in proportion to the

profits as almost to tempt the most cautious and the most timid man

to embark in it.

I quote the following passage from the same author, for the purpose

of showing the very loose manner in which statements are made on the

authority of others, who are as incompetent to decide the merits of

a question as the party himself chronicling their opinion. Speaking

of the twenty unfortunate indigo-planters, our author thus

writes:--"Many of them were men of foresight, knowledge, and

property. That they failed is certain; but of _the causes of their_

FAILURE _I confess I can give no satisfactory account._ I was told

that disappointment trod close upon their heels at every stop. At

one time the fermentation was too long continued, at another the

liquor was drawn off too soon; now the pulp was not duly granulated,

and now it was worked too much. To these inconveniences, for which

practice would doubtless have found a remedy, were added others of a

much greater magnitude--the mortality of the negroes, from the

vapour of fermented liquor (an alarming circumstance, that, I am

informed, both by the French and English planters, constantly

attends the process), the failure of the seasons, and the ravages of

the worm. These, or some of these evils, drove them at length to

other pursuits, where industry might find a surer recompense."--(p.

283.)

The fallacy of much of this requires no comment, as it must strike

even the most careless reader,--for if the so-called indigo-growers

did not know the process of manufacturing the commodity, then it

could not be surprising that they failed. Thus the cause of their

failure required no comment, and no explanation. Were a ploughman

taken from the field and placed at the helm of a ship, and the

vessel in consequence wrecked, would any one be astonished but at

the folly of those who placed him there? This was the case with the

indigo-growers,--they attempted what they did not understand, and,

consequently, lost their labor and their money. The mortality of the

negroes employed, stated as another reason for abandoning the

attempt, requires a somewhat more lengthy notice.

I can briefly say, that I have learned that in the Central States of

America, deaths among indigo-laborers are not more frequent than in

other branches of tropical industry; and I never heard or have read

that the _original_ growers complained of the mortality attending

the progress. The truth is, that this statement is not founded on

fact. There is nothing whatever in the manufacture of indigo, either

in the cultivation or the granulation, or even the maceration and

fermentation of the plant, which is directly or indirectly, _per

se_, injurious to human life. I have certainly never seen the indigo

plant macerated on a large scale; but I have myself steeped much of

it in water, and allowed it even to rot, and found nothing in the

mass differing in any marked degree from decomposed vegetable

matter. It seems to me that this idea of the manufacture of indigo

being especially inimical to human life, is as unfounded as the

belief, even by Humboldt, up to a very recent period, that none of

the Cerealia would grow in tropical climates. In conversing with an

old gentleman in Jamaica, some twelve years since, who had tried the

manufacture of indigo, and with every prospect of success, but

abandoned it, as he confessed, for the cultivation of the sugar

cane, since it was then more profitable, he suggested the solution,

that as the manufacture was light work, probably aged and

debilitated, in place of youthful and vigorous slaves, were too

frequently employed in the process--hence the mortality. This may be

correct to a certain extent; but I am also inclined to think that

another cause of mortality might be found in the mode and manner in

which the negro was fed and clothed, and not because aged persons

were exclusively engaged in the manufacture. I believe I may state,

without fear of contradiction, that the real cause of the decline

and consequent abandonment of the indigo plant was the monstrous

duty levied upon it by the English government. Indeed, this has been

already stated in the extract from Bridges; while the cause of the

failure of the attempt to renew it, over and above the reasons we

have given, was the greater temptation to embark capital in sugar

plantations,--the West Indies enjoying a monopoly in this article,

while they had competitors in the Southern States of America in the

other. I have, therefore, no hesitation in saying, that, with a

trifling capital, under prudent management, indigo might be

cultivated to a very great extent, and with considerable profit,

even now, in Jamaica. But the adventurer is not to expect to count

his gains, as the original growers did, by thousands; he must be

content with hundreds, if not fifties; for at the present day every

branch of industry is laden with difficulties, encumbered by

taxation, and obstructed by competition. There are two objections,

however, which I have not removed,--I allude to "the failure of the

seasons and the ravages of the worm." Very little need be said to

combat these. Seasons are mutable, and the same heaven that frowns

this year on the labors of the husbandman, may smile the next; while

a remedy for the "ravages of the worm" may be found in the mutation

of the soil, the destruction of the grub, or the rotation of

crops,--accessories to success which seem not to have entered into

the vocabularies of the twenty pseudo indigo-growers, "many of them

men of knowledge, foresight and property."

The following passage from Bryan Edwards will corroborate much that

I have endeavored to enforce. It furnishes not only a solution which

has been hinted at before, of the enigma why indigo ceased to be

cultivated in Jamaica, but also _an incentive_ to re-introduce the

culture. He says (p. 444), "It is a remarkable and well-known

circumstance, after the cultivation of indigo was suppressed by an

exorbitant duty of near £20 the hundred-weight, Great Britain was

compelled to pay her rivals and enemies £200,000 annually for this

commodity, so essential to a great variety of her most important

manufactures. At length, the duty being repealed, and a bounty some

time after substituted in its place, the States of Georgia and South

Carolina entered upon, and succeeding in the culture of this

valuable plant, supplied at a far cheaper rate than the French and

Spaniards (receiving too our manufactures in payment) not only the

British consumption, but also enabled Great Britain to export a

surplus at an advanced price to foreign markets."--It is therefore

plain that the manufacture of indigo was lost to Jamaica, not from

any difficulty in growing the plant, or from any loss of life

attending the process of manufacturing it, but from the ruinously

heavy duty of £20 the hundred-weight--and that now, when no duty

exists, it might be again cultivated with great advantage.

The cultivation of indigo has been repeatedly attempted in Cuba, but

never with much success; although the shrub called the Xiquilite, from

which it is extracted, grows wild in several districts of the island,

but more especially towards the eastern extremity. The first

_anileria_, or manufactory of indigo, was established in 1795, under

the patronage of the _Ayuntamento_ of the Havana, who made an advance

of 3,500 dollars, without interest, to the party engaging in the

speculation, in order to encourage the enterprise; but the undertaking

proved unsuccessful, and the same fate has befallen every subsequent

attempt to introduce this branch of industry. In 1827, the whole

produce amounted only to 56 arrobas. In 1837 the imports of indigo

greatly exceeded the exports; the former having amounted to 121,350

lbs., and the latter to 82,890 lbs. In 1833, 5,184 lbs. reached the

United Kingdom from the Havana, and in 1843, 62,675 lbs.

In 1826 British Honduras exported 358,552 lbs.; in 1830, 2,650 serons;

in 1844, 1,247 serons; and in 1845, 1,052 serons.

The indigo shrub is one of the most common bushes in Trinidad, where

it grows wild on almost all the indifferent soils. In 1783, there were

several plantations and manufactories of indigo established in

Trinidad; these were subsequently abandoned, on account of a

supposition that they were unhealthy. Prior to 1783, the colonists had

a kind of simple process by which they extracted sufficient coloring

matter to serve domestic consumption. This process is at present

unknown, hence all the indigo used there is imported from Europe,

although the plant from which it can be made vegetates in every

direction.

In 1791 Hayti imported 930,016 lbs. of indigo, while in 1804 the

export had dwindled to 35,400 lbs.

Indigo, as I have already stated, was once a most important crop in

South Carolina, some attention has recently again been given to it by

an individual or two in Louisiana, and the enterprise is said to

promise success; enough might undoubtedly be raised in the United

States to supply the home market. Some indigo produced at Baton Rouge

was pronounced to have been equal to the best Caraccas, which sells at

two dollars per pound; and the gentleman who cultivated it remarks,

that one acre of ground there, well cultivated, will yield from 40 to

60 lbs.; that it requires only from July to October for cultivating

it; that there is not connected with it one-third of the expense or

time that is generally required for the cultivation of cotton.

I take the following from Smyth's "Tour in the United States."

"This plant is somewhat like the fern when grown, and when young is

hardly distinguishable from lucern grass, its leaves in general are

pinnated, and terminated by a single lobe; the flowers consist of five

leaves, and are of the papilonaceous kind, the uppermost petal being

longer and rounder than the rest, and lightly furrowed on the side,

the lower ones are short and end in a point; in the middle of the

flower is formed the style, which afterwards becomes a pod containing

the seeds.

"They cultivate three sorts of indigo in Carolina, which demand the

same variety of soils. First, the French or Hispaniola indigo, which

striking a long tap root will only flourish in a deep rich soil, and

therefore, though an excellent sort, is not so much cultivated in the

maritime parts of the State, which are generally sandy, but it is

produced in great perfection one hundred miles backwards; it is

neglected too on another account, for it hardly bears a winter so

sharp as that of Carolina. The second sort, which is the false

Guatemala, or true Bahamas, bears the winter better, is a more tall

and vigorous plant, is raised in greater quantities from the same

compass of ground, is content with the worst soil in the country, and

is therefore more cultivated than the first soil, though inferior in

the quality of its dye.

"The third sort is the wild indigo, which is indigenous here; this, as

it is a native of the country, answers the purposes of the planter

best of all, with regard to the hardiness of the plant, the easiness

of the culture, and the quantity of the produce. Of the quality there

is some dispute not yet settled amongst the planters themselves; nor

can they distinctly tell when they are to attribute the faults of

their indigo to the nature of the plant, to the seasons, which have

much influence upon it, or to some defect in the manufacture.

"The time of planting the indigo is generally after the first rains

succeeding the vernal equinox; the seed is sown in small straight

trenches, about eighteen or twenty inches asunder; when it is at its

height, it is generally eighteen inches tall. It is fit for cutting,

if all things answer well, in the beginning of July.

"Towards the end of August a second cutting is obtained, and if they

have a mild autumn, there is a third cutting at Michaelmas. The indigo

land must be weeded every day, the plants cleansed from worms, and the

plantation attended with the greatest care and diligence. About

twenty-five hands may manage a plantation of fifty acres, and complete

the manufacture of the drug, besides providing their own necessary

subsistence and that of the planter's family.

"Each acre yields, if the land be very good, 60 or 70 lbs. weight of

indigo, at a medium the produce is 50 lbs. This however, is reckoned

by many skilful planters but a very indifferent crop.

"When the plant is beginning to blossom it is fit for cutting, and

when cut great care ought to be taken to bring it to the steeper

without pressing or shaking it, as great part of the beauty of the

indigo depends upon the fine farina, which adheres to the leaves of

this plant. The apparatus for making indigo is inconsiderable and not

expensive, for besides a pump, the whole consists only of vats and

tubs of cypress wood, common and cheap in this country.

"The indigo, when cut, is first laid in a vat, about twelve or

fourteen feet long and four feet deep, to the height of about fourteen

inches, to macerate and digest; then this vessel, which is called the

_steeper_, is filled with water; the whole having laid from about

twelve to sixteen hours, according to the weather, begins to ferment,

swell, rise, and grow sensibly warm. At this time spars of wood are

run across, to mark the highest point of its ascent; when it falls

below this mark, they judge that the fermentation has attained its due

pitch, and begins to abate; this directs the manager to open a cock,

and let off the water into another vat, which is called the _beater_;

the gross matter that remains in the first vat is carried off to

manure the ground, for which purpose it is excellent, and new cuttings

are put in, as long as the harvest of the weed continues. When the

water, strongly impregnated with the particles of indigo, has run into

the second vat or beater, they attend with a sort of bottomless

buckets, with long handles, to work and agitate it, when it froths,

ferments, and rises above the rim of the vessel that contains it. To

allay this violent fermentation, oil is thrown in as the froth rises,

which instantly sinks it. When this beating has continued for twenty,

thirty, or thirty-five minutes, according to the state of the weather

(for in cool weather it requires the longest continued beating), a

small muddy grain begins to be formed; the salts and other particles

of the plant united, dissolved, and before mixed with the water, are

now re-united together, and begin to granulate. To discover these

particles the better, and to find when the liquor is sufficiently

beaten, they take up some of it from time to time on a plate, or in a

glass; when it appears in a hopeful condition, they let loose some

lime water from an adjacent vessel, gently stirring the whole, which

wonderfully facilitates the operation; the indigo granulates more

fully, the liquor assumes a purplish color, and the whole is troubled

and muddy; it is now suffered to settle; then the clearer part is

permitted to run off into another succession of vessels, from whence

the water is conveyed away as fast as it clears on the top, until

nothing remains but a thick mud, which is put into bags of coarse

linen. These are hung up and left for some time until the moisture is

entirely drained off.

"To finish the drying, this mud is turned out of the bags, and worked

upon boards of some porous timber, with a wooden spatula; it is

frequently exposed to the morning and evening sun, but for a short

time only; and then it is put into boxes or frames, which is called

the curing, exposed again to the sun in the same cautious manner,

until, with great labor and attention the operation is finished, and

the valuable drug fitted for the market. The greatest skill and care

is required in every part of the process, or there may be great danger

of ruining the whole; the water must not be suffered to remain too

short or too long a time, either in the steeper or beater; the beating

itself must be nicely managed, so as not to exceed or fall short; and

in the curing the exact medium between too much or too little drying

is not easily attained. Nothing but experience can make the overseers

skilful in these matters. There are two methods of trying the goodness

of indigo; by fire and by water. If it swims it is good, if it sinks

it is inferior, the heavier the worse; so if it wholly dissolves in

water it is good. Another way of proving it, is by the fire ordeal; if

it entirely burns away it is good, the adulterations remain

untouched."

Indigo to the extent of 220,000 lbs. per annum is grown in Egypt. The

leaves are there thrown into earthen vessels, which are buried in pits

and filled with water; heat is applied, and the liquid is boiled away

until the indigo becomes of a fit consistence, when it is pressed into

shape and dried. Many Armenians have been invited from the East Indies

to teach the fellahs the best mode of preparation, and, in

consequence, nine indigo works have been established belonging to the

government.

The indigo plant is found scattered like a weed abundantly over the

face of the country in the district of Natal, Eastern Africa. It is

said that there are no less than ten varieties of the plant commonly

to be met with there. Mr. Blaine submitted, in 1848, to the Manchester

Chamber of Commerce, a small specimen of this dye-stuff, which had

been extracted by a rude process from a native plant, which was

pronounced by good authority to be of superior quality, and worth 3s.

4d. per pound. Mr. W. Wilson, a settler at Natal, in a letter to the

editor of the _Natal Witness_, thus speaks of the culture:--

"My attention was first forcibly drawn to the cultivation of indigo

by some seed imported by Mr. Kinlock, from India. This seed, on

trial, I found to grow luxuriantly; and after a few experiments I

succeeded in manufacturing the dye. The success which thus attended

my first attempts has encouraged me to try indigo planting on a more

extensive scale. For this purpose I am allowing all the plants of

this season to run to seed, and intend to plant equal quantities of

Bengal and native indigo.

While my attention was engaged in these preliminary experiments, I

observed that the country abounded in a variety of species of

indigo, and by a series of experiments found it rich and abundant,

and have since learnt that it is known and in use among the natives,

and called by them Umpekumbeto.

This of course induced further inquiry, and on consulting different

works I find that the Cape of Good Hope possesses more species of

indigo than the whole world besides. Now I take it for granted that

if Providence has placed these materials within our reach, it was

evidently intended that we should, by the application of industry,

appropriate them to our use. It becomes, then, a matter of necessity

that indigo must thrive, this being its native soil and climate; and

the experiments I have successfully made, go to support me in the

opinion that the cultivation of indigo will bring an ample reward.

Indeed it seems contrary to the laws of nature that it should be

otherwise.

I have obtained from the 140th part of an acre the proportion of 300

lbs. of indigo per acre. That the plant will cross successfully, I

have also ascertained."

_Cultivation in India._--During the nine years which preceded the

opening of the trade with India in 1814, the annual average produce of

indigo in Bengal, for exportation, was nearly 5,600,000 lbs. But since

the ports were opened, the indigo produced for exportation has

increased fully a third; the exports during the sixteen years ending

with 1829-30, being above 7,400,000 lbs. a year.

The consumption in the United Kingdom has averaged, during the last

ten years, about 2,500,000 lbs. a year.

In 1839-40 the export of indigo from Madras amounted to 1,333,808

lbs. A small quantity is also exported from the French settlement of

Pondicherry. In 1837 the export from Manila amounted to about 250,000

lbs. The export from Batavia in 1841 amounted to 913,693 lbs., and the

production in 1843 was double that amount. The annual exports of

indigo, from all parts of Asia and the Indian Archipelago, were taken

by M'Culloch, in 1840, to be 12,440,000 lbs. The imports are about

20,000 chests of Bengal, and 8,000 from Madras annually, of which

9,000 or 10,000 are used for home consumption, and the rest

re-exported.

The total crop of indigo in the Bengal Presidency has ranged, for the

last twenty years, at from 100,000 to 172,000 factory maunds; the

highest crop was in 1845. The factory maund of indigo in India is

about 78 lbs.

In the delta of the Ganges, where the best and largest quantity of

indigo is produced, the plant lasts only for a single season, being

destroyed by the periodical inundation; but in the dry central and

western provinces, one or two _ratoon_ crops are obtained.

The culture of indigo is very precarious, not only in so far as

respects the growth of the plant from year to year, but also as

regards the quantity and quality of the drug which the same amount of

plant will afford in the same season.

The fixed capital required, as I have already shown, in the

manufacture of indigo, consists simply of a few vats of common masonry

for steeping the plant, and precipitating the coloring matter; a

boiling and drying house, and a dwelling for the planter. Thus a

factory of ten pair of vats, capable of producing, at an average,

12,500 lbs. of indigo, worth on the spot £2,500, will not cost above

£1,500 sterling. The buildings and machinery necessary to produce an

equal value in sugar and rum, would probably cost about £4,000.

The indigo of Bengal is divided into two classes, called, in

commercial language, Bengal and Oude; the first being the produce of

the southern provinces of Bengal and Bahar, and the last that of the

northern provinces, and of Benares. The first class is in point of

quality much superior to the other. The inferiority of the Oude indigo

is thought to be more the result of soil and climate, than of any

difference in the skill with which the manufacture is conducted. The

indigo of Madras, which is superior to that of Manila, is about equal

to ordinary Bengal indigo. The produce of Java is superior to these.

Large quantities of indigo, of a very fine quality, are grown in

Scinde. I have to acknowledge the receipt, from the Indian Government,

of an interesting collection of documents on the culture and

manufacture of indigo in Upper Scinde. The papers are chiefly from the

pen of Mr. Wood, Deputy Collector of Sukkur, though there are several

others, perhaps of much value, from various other of the revenue

officers of Scinde.

Mr. Wood is of opinion that Scinde is much better suited than 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 Ganges, 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 disadvantages. 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 inundations

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

grounds, and that were the production 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 22½ 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 Ganges.

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 propitious to its germination. A

light mould answers best; and sunshine, with occasional light showers,

are most favorable to its growth. Twelve 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

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

this character is somewhat fallacious, and 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.

_Culture in India._--For the following excellent account of the modes

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

am indebted to Mr. G. W. Johnson, one of the correspondents 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 brave the perils of distance and climate to

cultivate the plant in Hindostan; but these obstacles, added 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

Revolution, 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 attached 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, sufficient 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 appropriate 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 (2s.) 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 from

him to return whatever his lands may produce (which, as has been

said, is generally none at all), at the price charged, and receiving

the plant from him at six, seven, eight, or sometimes nine bundles

for a rupee--much oftener the former than the latter rates. A ryot

cultivating alluvial lands, and having no seed, can hardly ever

repay his advances; but it does not follow that he has been a loser,

for he, perhaps, could not value his time, labor, and rent

altogether at half the amount; and as long as this system is kept

within moderate bounds, it answers much better than private

cultivation to the manufacturer, and has many contingent advantages

to the cultivator.

In Tirhoot similar engagements are entered into with the ryots, who

are there called _Assamees_. These engagements with Assamees are

generally made in the month of September, on a written instrument

called a _noviskaun_, by which they agree for a certain quantity of

land, for five years, to be cultivated with indigo plant, and for

which they are to be paid at the rate of six rupees per biggah, for

every full field of plant measured by a luggie or measuring-rod. The

luggie, it must be observed, varies in size throughout the district.

In the southern and eastern divisions of Tirhoot and Sarun it is

eight-and-a-half to ten feet long; and in the northern and western

from twelve to fourteen feet. The Assamee receives, on the day of

making his _bundobust_, or settlement, three rupees advance on each

biggah he contracts for, another rupee per biggah when the crop is

fit to weed, and the remaining two rupees at the ensuing settlement

of accounts. Exclusive of the price of his maul or plant, the

Assamee is entitled to receive two or three rupees per biggah (as

may be agreed on) for gurkee, or lands that have failed, as a

remuneration for his trouble, and to enable him to pay his rent. The

foregoing are the principal stipulations of the noviskaun, but the

Assamee further engages to give you such land as you may select,

prepare it according to instructions from the factory, sow and weed

as often as he is required, cut the plant and load the hackeries at

his own cost, and in every other respect conform to the orders of

the planter or his aumlah (managing man). The Assamee is not charged

for seed, the cartage of his plants, or for the cost of drilling. I

should mention that a penalty is attached to the non-fulfilment of

the Assamees engagements, commonly called _hurjah_, viz., twelve

rupees for every biggah short of his agreement, and this for every

year that the noviskaun has to run. This is, however, seldom

recoverable, for if you sue the Assamee in court and obtain a decree

(a most expensive and dilatory process), he can in most instances

easily evade it by a fictitious transfer of his property to other

hands.

The planter generally finds it his interest to get the Zemindar of

the village in which he proposes cultivating, to join in the

noviskaun, as a further security; or he engages with a jytedar, or

head Assamee, having several others subordinate to him, and for

whose conduct he is responsible. But a still better system is lately

gaining ground in this district, I mean that of taking villages in

ticka, or farm, by far the best and cheapest plan that has ever been

resorted to for the cultivation of indigo.

When the planter cultivates the ground himself, it is called in

Tirhoot _Zerant_ cultivation. _Zerants_, or _Neiz_, are taken on a

pottah or lease for five years, at the average rent of three rupees

per biggah. The heavy cost attending this cultivation has occasioned

its decrease in most factories in Tirhoot and particularly since the

fall in prices. About a third, I believe, was the proportion it

formerly bore to the whole cultivation of the district, but of late

such factories only have retained it as cannot procure sufficient

good land under the Assamewar system; but now that the plan of

taking villages in farm is becoming more and more prevalent here, it

is very likely that Zerants will be entirely abandoned. From all the

information I have been able to collect, the cost of a biggah of

Zerant (ten feet luggie) may be estimated at sixteen rupees; that of

Assamewar is generally twenty-five per cent. less, both exclusive of

interest, agents' charges, and private expenses.

It can only be the reluctance of the ryot to cultivate indigo that

induces a manufacturer to grow it himself, for it has been found an

expensive plan, profitable only when the dye is at its highest rate,

and even then scarcely furnishing an adequate return. They not only

could not cultivate so cheaply as the native laboring husbandman,

but ordinarily had to engage extensive tracts of land, much of

which was not suitable for their purpose, or, perhaps, for any

other, and consequently, although the average rate of rent was even

low on the whole, it constituted a very heavy charge on the portion

from which they obtained their return.

In Oude there are three systems of obtaining a supply of the plant,

viz., _Kush Kurreea_, _Bighowty_, and _Nij_; but the latter is a

mere trifle in proportion to the others, and is, therefore, not

worth mentioning. On the _Bighowty_ system, which prevails chiefly

in the Meerut and Mooradabad districts, the planter advances for a

biggah of _Jumowah_ (irrigated sowings) nine rupees, and for a

biggah of _Assaroo_ (rain sowings) five rupees four annas. The next

year's plant, or _khoonti_, becomes his on an additional payment of

eight annas per biggah. He also supplies the seed at the rate of six

seers per biggah, being almost double the quantity made use of in

Bengal, but which is necessary to make up for the destruction of the

plant the year following by the frost, white ants, hot winds, grass

cutters, and, I may add, the village cattle, which are let loose to

graze on the khoonte during the latter period, when not a blade of

grass or vegetation is to be seen anywhere left.

The Bighowty system is a sadly ruinous one, as, independently of the

attempts to assimilate Assaroo, at five rupees four annas, with

_Jumowah_, at nine rupees per biggah, which is very easily effected

if the planter is not very vigilant, he is obliged to maintain an

extensive and imposing establishment of servants, not only to

enforce the sowings, weeding, and cutting, but also to look after

his khoonte, and protect it from being destroyed by bullocks and

grass cutters, or from being ploughed up clandestinely by the

Zemindars themselves.

The Kush Kurreea system again has its evils, as the planter never

gets plant for the full amount of his advances, and hence often

leads to his ruin.

_Soils._--Indigo delights in a fresh soil; new lands, of similar

staple to others before cultivated, always surpass them in the

amount and quality of their produce. Hence arises the superior

productiveness of the lands annually overflowed by the Ganges, the

earthy and saline deposits from which in effect renovate the soil.

The further we recede from the influence of the inundation, the less

adapted is the soil for the cultivation of indigo. The staple of the

soil ought to be silicious, fertile, and deep. Mr. Ballard, writing

on the indigo soils of Tirhoot, says that high "soomba," or light

soils, are generally preferred, being from their nature and level

less exposed to the risk of rain or river inundation; but they are

difficult to procure, and, moreover, require particular care in the

preparation. Next in estimation is "doruss," a nearly equal mixture

of light earth and clay; a soil more retentive of moisture in a dry

season than any other. "Muttyaur," or heavy clay soils, are

generally avoided, although in certain seasons, with mild showers of

rain, they have been known to answer. The safest selection I should

conceive to be an equal portion of soomba and doruss. In a country,

however, interspersed with jheels and nullahs, it is difficult to

form a cultivation without a considerable mixture of low lands, more

or less, according to the situation of the Assamee's fields. Great

care should be taken, at all events, to guard against oosur lands,

or such as abound with saltpetre; these can be most easily detected

in the dry months. _Puchkatak_, that is, lands slightly touched with

_oosur_, have been known to answer, as partaking more of the nature

of _doruss_ soil; but the crop is generally thin, although strong

and branchy.

There is another description of land that should be cautiously

avoided. It goes by the name of _jaung_, and is a light soil, with a

substratum of sand from six to twelve inches below the surface. The

plant generally looks very fine in such fields till it gets a foot

high, when the root touching the sand, and having no moisture to

sustain it, either dies away altogether, or becomes so stunted and

impoverished as to yield little or nothing in the cutting. Of the

_daub_ or _dearab_ (alluvial) land, says Mr. Ballard, there is

scarcely any in the district except what falls to the lot of my own

factories, being situated on the banks of the Ganges and Great

Gunduck. Of _bungur_, a stiff reddish clay soil, there is little in

Tirhoot; it pervades the western provinces, and is best adapted for

Assaroo sowings, which do not succeed in Tirhoot.

_Preparation of the soil._--The root of the indigo plant being

fusiform, and extending to about a foot in length, requires the soil

to be loosened thoroughly to that depth at least. Experience

teaches that the fineness of the tilth to which the soil is reduced

previously to the seed being committed to it, is one very

influential operation for the obtaining a productive crop. Yet in

some districts of Bengal, particularly about Furudpore, the sowing

is performed without any previous ploughing. This is where the

river, when receded, has left the soil and deposit so deep, that

about October, or a little later, the seed being forcibly discharged

from the sower's hand, buries itself, and requires no after covering

by means of the rake or harrow.

In Tirhoot they are indefatigable in this first step of the

cultivation. Mr. Ballard says, that the preparation of indigo lands

should commence in September, as soon as the cessation of the rains

will permit; and as we do not rely on rain for our sowings (as is

the custom in Bengal and elsewhere, and irrigation is never resorted

to, from the heavy expense attending it), our principal aim is to

preserve as much moisture in the fields as possible. They should

receive, for this purpose, not less than eight ploughings, besides a

thorough turning up with the spade, after the fourth ploughing, to

clear the field from stubble, grass and weeds. It is absolutely

indispensable to get all this done on our light soils, especially

before the end of October, and have the land carefully harrowed

down, so as to prevent the moisture escaping.

Should there be heavy rains between the interval of preparing and

sowing, it will be necessary to turn the fields up with either one

or two ploughings, and harrow them down as before. If only a slight

shower, running the harrow over them will be sufficient to break the

crust formed on the surface, and which, if allowed to remain, would

quickly exhaust the moisture. This, with the occasional use of the

weeding-hook, is all that the lands will require till the time of

sowing.--("Transactions of the Agri.-Hort. Society of Calcutta,"

vol. ii., p. 22.)

_Sowing_.--The time when the seed is committed to the soil varies in

different parts of India, and, even in the same place, admits of

being performed at two different seasons. The periods of sowing in

Bengal are first immediately after the rains, from about the latter

end of October. The rivers are then rapidly retiring within their

beds, and as soon as the soft deposit of the year has drained itself

into a consistency, though not solid enough to keep a man from

sinking up to his knees in it, they begin to scatter the seed

broadcast. This is continued until the ground has become too hard

for the seed to bury itself; the plough is then used to loosen the

crust, and the sowing continued to about the middle, or even the end

of November, from which period the weather is considered too cold,

until February. These autumnal sowings are called October sowings,

from the month in which they generally commence. Much of the plant

perishes during the months of December and January, and more again

in the spring, unless there are early and moderate showers. The crop

that remains is not so productive ordinarily in the vat, as that

obtained from spring sowings, and some think the quality of the

produce inferior. But there is no expense of cultivation, and the

liabilities of the crop to failure are such a discouragement to cost

and labor in rearing it, that the October sowing is followed by most

planters who can obtain suitable land. The second period of sowing

is the spring, with the first rains of March, or even the end of

February. The land having been measured and placed under its slight

course of tillage during the two or three preceding mouths, is sown

broadcast as soon as the ground has been well moistened, or even in

prospect of approaching rain. The quantity of seed used for this

autumn sowing is generally more than what is considered requisite

for spring sowing; six seers at the former and four at the latter

season per biggah, in Bengal, is the quantity usually allowed.

Some cultivators commence the autumn sowing as early as at the close

of September, or as soon as the low lands are in a state to permit

the operation after the inundation has subsided. This seed time may

be said to continue until the end of December, and the crops from

these sowings often yield an average produce, if the lands are not

very low and wet. If they are, the sowing had better be delayed

until January, or even February, for the crops from these latter

sowings are usually the most productive, and the dye obtained from

them the finest. The object for thus delaying the sowing is, that

the young plants may have a more genial season for vegetation. Those

who prefer sowing earlier, and yet are aware of the importance of

saving the young plants as much as possible from the comparative low

temperature of the season, sow some other crop with their indigo.

Til, the country linseed, is good for this purpose in high lying

soils. But I never knew an intermixture of crops that was not

attended by inconveniences and injuries more than was compensated by

the advantages gained.

The success of sowings during March and April is very doubtful. It

depends entirely upon the occurrence of rain, which in those months

is proverbially uncertain. If the season should be sufficiently wet,

the sowing may be performed in May; but a June sowing is very rarely

remunerating. The rains setting in during the latter part of this

month so promote the growth of weeds, that the young plants are

choked and generally destroyed. The exceptions only occur in high

lands, in unusually propitious seasons, and ought never to be relied

upon except when the earlier sowings have failed. To protract the

manufacturing season, some planters begin sowing upon low lying

lands in the hot season, for the chance of a crop at the

commencement of the rains; and they sow at the close of the rains

with the hope of, as it were, stealing another in the next year. In

the western provinces sowing necessarily occurs in the dry weather,

usually in March and April, though occasionally either a little

earlier or later.

In Tirhoot the sowings commence about the latter end of February or

the beginning of March, if by that time there is sufficient warmth

in the atmosphere to ensure a healthy vegetation. Light soils are

sown on one close ploughing; heavy soils on two, with from four to

eight seers of seed, in proportion to the size of the biggah. After

strewing the seed, the field should be harrowed down by two turns of

the harrow, and then again by two turns more after the third day. In

case of rain before the plant appears (which it ought to do on the

sixth or seventh day), if a slight shower, the harrow should be used

again; if very heavy, it were best to turn up the ground and re-sow.

If rain fall after the appearance of the plant, and before it has

got past four leaves, and attained sufficient strength to resist the

hard crust before alluded to, immediate recourse must be had to

drilling. In fact, the closest attention is required to watch the

state of the young crop for a month at least after the sowings; if

it yield the least, or assume a sickly appearance, drills are the

only resource. These, if applied in time, in all March, for

instance, or before the middle of April at latest, are generally

successful, not only in restoring plants, but recovering such as may

have become sickly from want or excess of moisture, or any other

cause. In dry seasons they have been known to give a crop when

broadcast sowings have failed. Each drill, with a good pair of

bullocks, should do five biggahs a day. They are regulated to throw

from three to four seers per biggah, but the quantity can be

increased or diminished at pleasure. The natives do not employ them

in their grain sowings, but commonly adopt a contrivance with their

own plough for sowing in furrows, whenever their fields are

deficient in moisture. The drill employed in Tirhoot resembles

considerably the implement known by that name in England. It is

found not only to effect a great saving of seed, ten seers being

there sown broad-cost on a biggah of 57,600 feet square, and only

seven seers by this drill; but also materially to improve the

quality and regularity of the growth of the plant. Experience has

demonstrated, that the more lateral room the plants have, the more

abundant is their produce of leaves, in which the coloring matter

chiefly resides. The seed employed should always be as new as

possible, for though, if carefully preserved, it vegetates when one

year old, and even when nearly two years old has produced a moderate

crop, yet this has been under circumstances of an unusually

favorable season and soil. The plants from old seed rarely attain a

height of more than a foot before they wither and die. As frauds are

very likely to be practised by giving old seed the glossiness and

general appearance of new, great circumspection should be shown by

the planter, who does not grow his own, in obtaining seed from known

parties.

Planters in the lower provinces are induced to use up-country seed,

because, coming from a colder climate, it vegetates, and the plants

ripen rapidly, so as to be harvested more certainly before the

annual inundation, but they employ one-fourth more. Three seers per

Bengal biggah are sufficient, if it is "Dassee" seed; but four is

not too much if it is up-country seed. A Bengal biggah is only a

third of the size of that of Tirhoot. If the weather is dry, the

seed very often does not germinate until the occurrence of rain, and

it has been known in a dry, light soil, to remain in the ground

without injury for six weeks. If seasonable showers occur, the

plants make their appearance in four days, or even less; and they

must be watched, in order that they may be weeded on the earliest

day that they are sufficiently established to allow the operation to

be safely performed. In dry weather, it must not be done while they

are very young, otherwise many of the seedlings will have their

roots disturbed, and perish from the drought. However, not more than

a fortnight should be allowed to pass, after the seedlings have

appeared, before the weeds are carefully removed, and this clearing

should be frequently repeated until the plants so overshadow the

ground that they of themselves keep back the advance of the weeds.

The first weeding is best performed immediately after a shower of

rain.

Irrigation is rarely adopted for the indigo crops in the lower

provinces of Bengal, unless they happen to be grown in some

situation very favorable to the operation, such as the bank of a

river. It is much more attended to in the western provinces, and in

Oude, the water being obtained from wells, which are dug in nearly

every cultivated plot. In Oude, Mr. Ballard says that a biggah of

land employs three persons to irrigate it, and occupies never less

than six days. The ryot, or cultivator, requires for the work a pair

of bullocks, which cost him at least 32s., a bucket made of a white

bullock hide, at 2s., and a rope for 2s. more, both of which do not

last him above a year. He never pays less than 8s. for the rent of a

biggah of land near a well.

In Bengal the plant requires three months to attain its highest

state of perfection for manufacturing, but is often cut, from

necessity, within half that time; for the approach of the river

compels the premature removal of the crop, unless, indeed, its

growth has been so retarded that it would not pay the expense of

working. Most indigo factories have consequently to begin in June,

or early in July, whenever they may have effected their spring

sowings, and the labors of the season are commonly terminated by the

middle or end of August.

When the plants begin to flower is considered the best time for

cutting them, and this is just what the botanist would have

suggested, because then the proper sap of all plants is most

abundant, and most rich in their several peculiar secretions. A

vividly green, abundant and healthy foliage, downy at the back, is

the surest intimation of the plants being rich in indigo. Plants

that are ready for cutting in July and August, are usually the most

productive.

In the western provinces from sixteen to twenty maunds of plant is

considered a good produce per biggah. In the upper provinces the

produce of the best crop, which is sown directly the rains commence,

is not more then ten maunds per biggah. The factory maund is equal

to about seventy-eight pounds. One thousand maunds of plant are

considered as producing quite an average quantity of indigo if this

amounts to four maunds. Adopting another mode of estimate, Mr.

Ballard says, that in Bengal an average crop may he considered to be

from ten to twelve bundles, over an extensive cultivation, in a good

season, from each Bengal biggah; the sheaf or bundle being measured

by a six-feet cord or chain. Speaking of the produce in Tirhoot, the

same gentleman says the "luggie," or measuring rod, varies

throughout the district. The common Tirhoot biggah, is, I believe,

equal to two-and-a-half or three Bengal biggahs (about an English

acre). Its produce varies according to the size of the luggie, the

fertility of the soil, and accidents of season; eight to ten hackery

loads, however, is generally considered a good average return. South

and east of Tirhoot, one hundred maunds from six hundred biggahs,

including "khoonti," or a second cutting, is reckoned a successful

result. In another part of the district, including Sarun, where the

"luggie" is larger, the average produce is about one-third better.

As we measure our plant on the ground (he adds), the bundle system

is unknown here; but, I believe, forty-five or fifty Tirhoot hackery

loads of plants (estimated to yield a maund of dry indigo), will be

found equal to two hundred Bengal bundles.--("Trans. Agri. Hort.

Soc., vol. ii. p. 23.")

In Oude the _jamowah_, or crop sown in May, yields on an average

twenty maunds, or say thirteen bundles, per biggah (160 feet

square). The "assaroo," or rain sowings, producing a very inferior

plant, the average return is not more than three maunds, or two

bundles. The "khoonti," or crop of the next year from the same

plants, averages fifteen maunds, or ten bundles per biggah.

In Central and Western India, the plants are allowed to produce the

second and even the third year, according to some statements; but in

Bengal the same stocks are rarely suffered to yield a second crop:

being nearly all on lands that are under water in the height of the

inundation, the stock is rotted in the ground. Mr. Ballard, speaking

of the duration of the plant, says that, as for three years' plant

and "khoonti," it is a mere chimera, like the many others with which

the planters have hitherto deluded themselves, and which it only

requires a little reflection to overthrow. A biggah may be cut here

and there, on an extensive cultivation, but it can never be relied

upon as forming a part of the cultivation.

The uncertainty of the indigo crop has been already noticed, and is,

indeed, as proverbial as that from the hop plant in England. In

Bengal the crop is particularly subject to be destroyed by the

annual inundation of the river, if it occurs earlier than usual. A

storm of wind, accompanied by rain and hail, as completely ruins the

crop as if devoured by the locust; neither from this latter scourge

is the crop exempt.

This proneness to injury extends throughout its growth. The

seedlings are liable to be destroyed by an insect closely resembling

the turnip-fly, as well as by the frog. Caterpillars feed upon the

leaves of older plants, and the white ant destroys them by consuming

their roots. To these destructive visitations are to be added the

more than ordinary liability of the plant to injury, not merely from

atmospheric commotions, but even from apparently less inimical

visitations. Thus not only do storms of wind, heavy rains, and hail,

destroy the indigo planter's prospects, but even sunshine, if it

pours out fervently after showers of rain, is apt, as it is properly

termed, to _scorch_ the plants; and if it occurs during the first

month of their growth, is most injurious to their future advance.

The reason of this effect appears to be the violent change from a

state of imbibing to a rapid transpiration of moisture. No human

invention or foresight can preserve the crop from the atmospheric

visitations. To destroy and drive away the little coleopterous

insects which attack the seedlings, it would be a successful method

to spread dry grass, &c., over the surface intended to be

cultivated, and to burn the litter immediately before the sowing.

The heat and smoke produced has been found perfectly efficacious

against the turnip-fly in England. To destroy the caterpillar,

slacked lime dusted over the leaves, while the dew is upon them, is

an effectual application. The white ants may be driven away or

destroyed by frequent hoeings, which is the best preventive of the

scorching, for hoeing preserves the soil in an equable and fitting

state of moisture.

The great supply of seed for Bengal cultivation is obtained from the

western provinces, and forms an article of trade of no

inconsiderable magnitude. The stubble in the low lands of Bengal is

generally submerged before it has time to throw out fresh shoots, on

which the blossom and subsequent seed-pod are formed. There are,

however, some high tracts reserved for that purpose, and on these

the plant is found well in flower in September, and the seed fit to

gather in November or early in December.

Two methods are pursued to extract the indigo from the plant; the

first effects it by fermentation of the fresh leaves and stems; the

second, by maceration of the dried leaves; the latter process being

most advantageous. They are thus described by Dr. Ure, in his

"Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures:"--

1. _From the recent leaves._--In the indigo factories of Bengal,

there are two large stone-built cisterns, the bottom of the first

being nearly upon a level with the top of the second, in order to

allow the liquid contents to be run out of the one into the other.

The uppermost is called the fermenting vat, or the steeper; its

area is twenty feet square, and its depth three feet; the lowermost,

called the beater or beating vat, is as broad as the other, but

one-third longer. The cuttings of the plant, as they come from the

field, are stratified in the steeper, till this be filled within

five or six inches of its brim. In order that the plant, during its

fermentation, may not swell and rise out of the vat, beams of wood

and twigs of bamboo are braced tight over the surface of the plants,

after which water is pumped upon them till it stands within three or

four inches of the edge of the vessel. An active fermentation

speedily commences, which is completed within fourteen or fifteen

hours; a little longer or shorter, according to the temperature of

the air, the prevailing winds, the quality of the water, and the

ripeness of the plants. Nine or ten hours after the immersion of the

plant, the condition of the vat must be examined; frothy bubbles

appear, which rise like little pyramids, are at first of a white

colour, but soon become grey, blue, and then deep purple red. The

fermentation is at this time violent, the fluid is in constant

commotion, apparently boiling, innumerable bubbles mount to the

surface, and a copper colored dense scum covers the whole. As long

as the liquor is agitated, the fermentation must not be disturbed,

but when it becomes more tranquil, the liquor is to be drawn off

into the lower cistern. It is of the utmost consequence not to push

the fermentation too far, because the quality of the whole indigo is

deteriorated; but rather to cut it short, in which case there is,

indeed, a loss of weight, but the article is better. The liquor

possesses now a glistening yellow color, which, when the indigo

precipitates, changes to green. The average temperature of the

liquor is commonly 85 deg. Fahr.; its specific gravity at the

surface is 1.0015; and at the bottom 1.003.

As soon as the liquor has been run into the lower cistern, ten men

are set to work to beat it with oars, or shovels four feet long,

called _busquets_. Paddle wheels have also been employed for the

same purpose. Meanwhile two other laborers clear away the

compressing beams and bamboos from the surface of the upper vat,

remove the exhausted plant, set it to dry for fuel, clean out the

vessel, and stratify fresh plants in it. The fermented plant appears

still green, but it has lost three-fourths of its bulk in the

process, or from twelve to fourteen per cent. of its weight, chiefly

water and extractive matter.

The liquor in the lower vat must be strongly beaten for an hour and

a half, when the indigo begins to agglomerate in flocks, and to

precipitate. This is the moment for judging whether there has been

any error committed in the fermentation, which must be corrected by

the operation of beating. If the fermentation has been defective,

much froth rises in the beating, which must be allayed with a little

oil, and then a reddish tinge appears. If large round granulations

are formed, the beating is continued, in order to see if they will

grow smaller. If they become as small as fine sand, and if the water

clears up, the indigo is allowed quietly to subside. Should the vat

have been over-fermented, a thick fat-looking crust covers the

liquor, which does not disappear by the introduction of a flask of

oil. In such a case the beating must be moderated. Whenever the

granulations become round, and begin to subside, and the liquor

clears up, the beating must be discontinued. The froth or scum

diffuses itself spontaneously into separate minute particles, that

move about the surface of the liquor, which are marks of an

excessive fermentation. On the other hand, a rightly fermented vat

is easy to work; the froth, though abundant, vanishes whenever the

granulations make their appearance. The color of the liquor, when

drawn out of the steeper into the beater, is bright green; but as

soon as the agglomerations of the indigo commence, it assumes the

color of Madeira wine; and speedily afterwards, in the course of

beating, a small round grain is formed, which, on separating, makes

the water transparent, and falls down, when all the turbidity and

froth vanish.