The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

P >> P. L. Simmonds >> The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90

"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 L2,500, will not cost above
L1,500 sterling. The buildings and machinery necessary to produce an
equal value in sugar and rum, would probably cost about L4,000.

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 221/2 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.