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

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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.

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A Stephen King fan has published an 80-page version of the book which novelist Jack Torrance obsessively writes during King's The Shining, where his descent into madness is revealed when his wife discovers that his work consists of just one phrase, endlessly repeated.

Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in terrifying form in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, is a frustrated writer who goes with his wife and son to spend the winter in the isolated Overlook Hotel in an attempt to get the novel he has always wanted to write started. But the hotel's grisly past and unquiet ghosts have their way with him, and his wife Wendy eventually finds that the manuscript he has been working on actually only contains the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", typed over and over again.

Now New York artist Phil Buehler, who describes himself as "a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King", has self-published a book credited to Torrance, repeating the phrase throughout but formatting each page differently, using the words to create different shapes from zigzags to spirals.

"The idea has probably been marinating for years, because I loved the movie and the Stephen King book," said Buehler. "I'd just finished my own obsessive art project [and] it was an idea I had over the Christmas holidays."

He said he decided to stick to type and formatting that could have been created on a typewriter, with the first ten pages duplicating shots of Torrance's work from the film. "I thought 'if he continues to get crazier, what would those pages look like?'" he said. "I hit writer's block about 60 pages in, and I had to get to 80 - that went on for about a week." His fiancée, who had neither read the book nor seen the film, became a little concerned about his actions. "I finally showed her the movie, and she realised I wasn't really losing it," said Buehler.

He's included a spoof review from the blog OverThinkingIt.com on the book's back jacket, which compares it to "the best of Beckett" in its "lack of forward momentum", and considers the struggles of the author, "heroically pitting himself against the Sisyphusean sentence". "It's that metatextual struggle of Man vs. Typewriter that gives this book its spellbinding power," the review says. "Some will dismiss it as simplistic; that's like dismissing a Pollack canvas as mere splatters of paint."

So far, Buehler says that around 1,000 people have viewed the book, for sale on Blurb.com for $8.95 in paperback, or $22.95 in hardback, and he's sold "a few" copies, with sales now starting to pick up steam. "A few people have asked me to sign it - they're looking it as a piece of art rather than a funny thing to give to a Kubrick fan," he said. "If you're not a Kubrick or King fan, you might not even get it."

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