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 |
| I ndirect and Tobasco | 6 | 10 | 0 | ″ | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| NICARAGUA. WOOD. | |||||||
| Rio de la Hache, solid | 9 | 0 | 0 | ″ | 11 | 10 | 0 |
| Rio de la Hache, 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:—
| lbs. | Retained for 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 cœrulea, 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.
The object of the beating is three-fold; first, it tends to disengage a great quantity of carbonic acid present in the liquor; secondly, to give the newly-developed indigo its requisite dose of oxygen by the most extensive exposure of its particles to the atmosphere; thirdly, to agglomerate the indigo in distinct flocks or granulations. In order to hasten the precipitation, lime water is occasionally added to the fermented liquor in the progress of beating, but it is not indispensable, and has been supposed capable of deteriorating the indigo. In the front of the beater a beam is fixed upright, in which three or more holes are pierced, a few inches in diameter. These are closed with plugs during the beating, but two or three hours after it, as the indigo subsides, the upper plug is withdrawn to run off the supernatant liquor, and then the lower plugs in succession. The state of this liquor being examined, affords an indication of the success of both the processes. When the whole liquor is run off, a laborer enters the vat, sweeps all the precipitate into one corner, and enters the thinner part into a spout which leads into a cistern, alongside of a boiler, twenty feet long, three feet wide, and three feet deep. When all this liquor is once collected, it is pumped through a bag, for retaining the impurities, into the boiler, and heated to ebullition. The froth soon subsides, and shows an oily looking film on the liquor. The indigo is by this process not only freed from the yellow extractive matter, but is enriched in the intensity of its color, and increased in weight. From the boiler the mixture is run, after two or three hours, into a general receiver called the dripping vat, or table, which, for a factory of twelve pairs of preparation vats, is twenty feet long, ten feet wide, and three feet deep, having a false bottom two feet under the top edge. This cistern stands in a basin of masonry (made water-tight with Chunam, hydraulic cement), the bottom of which slopes to one end, in order to facilitate the drainage. A thick woollen web is stretched along the bottom of the inner vessel, to act as a filter. As long as the liquor passes through turbid, it is pumped back into the receiver; whenever it runs clear, the receiver is covered with another piece of cloth to exclude the dust, and allowed to drain at its leisure. Next morning the drained magma is put into a strong bag, and squeezed in a press. The indigo is then carefully taken out of the bag, and cut with a brass wire into bits, about three inches cube, which are dried in an airy house, upon shelves of wicker work. During the drying a whitish effloresence comes upon the pieces, which must be carefully removed with a brush. In some places, particularly on the coast of Coromandel, the dried indigo lumps are allowed to effloresce in a cask for some time, and when they become hard they are wiped and packed for exportation.
2. Indigo from dried leaves.—The ripe plant being cropped, is to be dried in sunshine from nine o’clock in the morning till four in the afternoon, during two days, and threshed to separate the stems from the leaves, which are then stored up in magazines till a sufficient quantity he collected for manufacturing operations. The newly dried leaves must be free from spots, and friable between the fingers. When kept dry, the leaves undergo, in the course of four weeks, a material change, their beautiful green tint turning into a pale blue-grey, previous to which the leaves afford no indigo by maceration in water, but subsequently a large quantity. Afterwards the product becomes less considerable.
The following process is pursued to extract indigo from the dried leaves:—They are infused in the steeping vat with six times their bulk of water, and allowed to macerate for two hours, with continual stirring, till all the floating leaves sink. The fine green liquor is then drawn off into the beater vat, for if it stood longer in the steeper, some of the indigo would settle among the leaves and be lost. Hot water, as employed by some manufacturers, is not necessary. The process with dry leaves possesses this advantage, that a provision of the plant may be made at the most suitable times, independently of the vicissitudes of the weather, and the indigo may be uniformly made; and, moreover, that the fermentation of the fresh leaves, often capricious in its course, is superseded by a much shorter period of simple maceration.
Production of Indigo in India
| maunds. | |
| 1840 | 120,000 |
| 1841 | 162,318 |
| 1842 | 79,000 |
| 1843 | 143,207 |
| 1844 | 127,862 |
| 1845 | 127,862 |
| 1846 | 101,328 |
| 1847 | 110,000 |
| 1848 | 126,565 |
| 1849 | 126,000 |
Average of the ten years 126,744 maunds.
The yield from the different districts in 1849, was nearly as follows:—
| maunds. | |
| Bengal | 84,500 |
| Tirhoot | 24,500 |
| Benares | 9,500 |
| Oude | 6,500 |
| 125,000 |
In 1790 the general object of cultivation in Mauritius was indigo, of which from four to five crops a year were procured. One person sent to Europe 30,000 lbs., in 1789, of very superior quality.
CEYLON.—Indigo, though indigenous in Ceylon, is still imported from the adjoining continent, but its growth in this island would be subject to none of the vicissitudes of climate, that in the course of a single night have devastated the most extensive plantations in Bengal, and annihilated the hopes and calculations of the planter at a time when they had attained all the luxuriance of approaching maturity.
The district of Tangalle, in the southern province, is the best adapted to the culture and manufacture of indigo for various reasons, such as the abundance of the indigenous varieties of the plant, the similarity of the climate to that of the coast of Coromandel, where the best indigo is produced; facility of transport by water to either of the ports of export, Galle or Colombo, during the south-east, or to Trincomalee by the south-west monsoon; every necessary material is at hand for building a first rate indigo factory, including drying yards, leaf godowns (stores), steeping vats and presses, except roof and floor tiles—which may be obtained in any quantity from Colombo, during the south-west monsoon, at a moderate rate, compared with their cost at home.
In 1817 an offer was made to the Grovernment to introduce the cultivation of indigo, on condition of a free grant of the land required for the purpose and freedom from taxation for thirty years, after which the usual tax was to be levied; and in case the cultivation were abandoned, the land was to revert to the Crown. But whether from the disturbed state of the colony at the time or from incredulity on the part of the Government, as to the capability of the colony in this respect, the application was unheeded. A subsequent proposal, emanating from a Swedish gentleman of great ability, skill and enterprise, was defeated by his death, although a company was on the point of formation to carry out the scheme. It would not be difficult, says Mr. Barrett, to select 500,000 acres, the property of the Crown, which at a comparatively small expenditure might be brought into a proper state of cultivation for the reception of indigo seed; for very little would be required to be done beyond clearing the land of weeds, burning the grass, and then lightly ploughing and levelling the ground; and whenever manure might be requisite, the fecula of the leaf affords one of the richest that could be employed. Ceylon produces two other plants from which a very valuable blue dye may be obtained by a similar process to that of making indigo. The Singhalese head men of the Tangalle district have long been anxious for the establishment of an indigo plantation there, and would readily take shares in a company established for that purpose. Indigo would seem to have been exported by the Dutch from Ceylon so late as 1794. The wild varieties of indigo which grow on the sea-shore are used by the dobies (washermen).
Indigo grows in a wild state in Siam, and all the dye used in the country is manufactured from these plants. The extensive low grounds are admirably suited for the cultivation of this plant.
A large quantity is raised in Manila, but I have no full details of the cultivation in the Philippines. However, in the first six months of 1843, 1,039 piculs of indigo were shipped to Europe, and about 650 to other quarters—equal in all to about 226,000 lbs. in the half year. In the year 1847 the exports of indigo were 30,631 arrobas, equal to about 7,658 cwt.; in 1850 the total exports from Manila were 4,225 quintals.
JAVA.—The cultivation of indigo was introduced into Java in the time of the company. It was so much neglected during the administration of Governor Daendels, that the exportation ceased. It however revived subsequently, and in 1823 the exports were close upon 17,000 lbs. In 1826 it had risen to 46,000 lbs. In the single province of Westbaglen, about 60 square miles in extent, 86 indigo factories were established in the course of seven or eight years. In 1839, the exports of this dye-stuff from Java were 588,764 kilogrammes, valued at 7½ million francs.
It has been found by experience that a good soil is essentially necessary for the plant, and the indigo transplanted from elevated grounds to the rice fields succeeds better and yields more coloring matter than when raised direct on the spot from the seed. The residencies of Cheribon, Baglen and Madura, are those in which the crop succeeds best. From being so exhausting a crop, and finding it prejudicial to their rice grounds, they are gradually abandoning indigo culture in Java, and about two-thirds of the indigo plantations have within the, last year or two been replaced with sugar.
The value of the Java indigo is set down at 250 rupees (£25) per maund. If this be the average price, and it cannot be manufactured lower, Bengal has little to fear from Javanese competition. The product of indigo rose from 276 maunds in 1825, to 28,000 in 1842, and the quantity sold by the Dutch Trading Company in the last-named year was 10,500 chests, of about the same dimensions as those usually exported from Calcutta.
Some further statistics of the culture in Java are shown in the following returns of the quantity exported:—
| lbs. | |
| 1830 | 22,063 |
| 1835 | 535,753 |
| 1839 | 595,818 |
| 1841 | 913,693 |
| 1843 | 1,890,429 |
| 1851 | 769,580 |
| 1852 | 838,288 |
The produce in 1848 was 1,151,368 lbs.
| 1840. | 1841. | |
| Residencies in which this culture is introduced | 9 | 10 |
| Number of factories | 728 | 728 |
| Families occupied with this culture | 197,085 | 192,159 |
| Extent of fields where the cutting has been made in bahas of 71 decametres | 40,844 | 38,829 |
| Quantity of bahus planted before the gathering | 317 | 538 |
| Quantity of indigo crop in pounds | 2,032,097 | 1,663,427 |
| Quantity of average pounds per bahu | 49¾ | 43 |
The extent of fields destined for the crop of 1842 was 37,970 bahus, and the amount of the crop was calculated by approximation at 1,862,000.
The gradual increase of the export in the eighteen years ending 1842, is shown as follows:—
| Maunds. | |
| 1825 | 76 |
| 1826 | 126 |
| 1827 | 109 |
| 1828 | 310 |
| 1829 | 600 |
| 1830 | 480 |
| 1831 | 563 |
| 1832 | 2,213 |
| 1833 | 2,861 |
| 1834 | 3,310 |
| 1835 | 7,023 |
| 1836 | 5,365 |
| 1837 | 10,822 |
| 1838 | 9,788 |
| 1839 | 15,680 |
| 1840 | 27,946 |
| 1841 | 24,044 |
| 1842 | 28,000 |
Total imports of indigo into the United Kingdom, and quantity retained for home consumption:—
| Imports. | Home consumption. | |
| cwts. | cwts. | |
| 1848 | 59,127 | 9,032 |
| 1849 | 81,449 | 12,270 |
| 1850 | 70,482 | 16,374 |
| 1851 | 89,994 | 27,947 |
| 1852 | 83,565 | 16,381 |
Imports of Indigo
| East Indies. | Mexico and the ports of South America. | |
| lbs. | lbs. | |
| 1831 | 6,996,062 | — |
| 1832 | 6,196,080 | 66,363 |
| 1833 | 6,315,529 | 125,264 |
| 1834 | 3,595,697 | 64,638 |
| 1835 | 3,861,853 | 88,306 |
| 1836 | 7,218,991 | 198,003 |
| 1837 | 5,706,896 | 365,091 |
| 1838 | 6,578,352 | 142,739 |
| 1839 | 4,651,542 | 363,148 |
| 1840 | 6,940,192 | 124,766 |
| 1841 | 7,451,653 | 247,031 |
| 1842 | 8,931,112 | 155,003 |
| 1843 | 6,319,294 | 130,836 |
Entered for home consumption about two millions and a half pounds annually. (“Parl. Returns No. 656, September 1843, and 426, September 1844.”)
The consumption of indigo in Europe and North America in round numbers, estimated from authentic sources, is thus set down by Mr. Macculloch in 1849:—
| chests. | |||
| In | Great Britain | for home consumption | 9,820 |
| ″ | France total | for ditto | 10,400 |
| ″ | American ports from | London and Liverpool | 2,500 |
| ″ | ″ | Calcutta | 700 |
| ″ | ″ | Holland, &c. | 400 |
| Other | European countries | export from London and Liverpool. | 21,530 |
| ″ | ″ | export from Holland | 4,270 |
| ″ | ″ | export from Calcutta | 120 |
| ″ | ″ | export from France | 300 |
| 50,040 |
MADDER.
This substance, which is so extensively used in dyeing red, is the product of the long slender roots of the Rubia tinctorum, a plant of which there are several varieties. Our principal supplies of this important article of commerce are obtained from Holland, Belgium, France, Turkey, Spain, and the Balearic Isles, the Italian States, India, and Ceylon.
The plant is generally raised from seed, and requires three years to come to maturity. It is, however, often pulled in eighteen months without injury to the quality; the quantity only is smaller. A rich soil is necessary for its successful cultivation, and when the soil is impregnated with alkaline matter, the root acquires a red color; in other cases it is yellow. The latter is preferred in England, from the long habit of using Dutch madder, which is of this color, but in France the red sells at two francs per cwt. higher, being used for the Turkey-red dye. Madder does not deteriorate by keeping, provided it be kept dry. It contains three volatile coloring matters, madder purple, orange, and red. The latter is in the form of crystals, having a fine orange red color, and called Alizaine. This is the substance which yields the Turkey-red dye. The chay root is employed in the East Indies as a substitute for madder, and so is the root of Morinda citrifolia, under the name of Sooranjee.
Turkey madder roots realise about 30s. per cwt. About 1,100 tons are annually shipped from Naples, worth about £30 per ton.
Madder has become an article of great request, on account of the fine scarlet color produced from its roots, and is so essential to dyers and calico printers that without it they cannot carry on their manufactures. It is cultivated extensively in Holland, from whence it is imported in large quantities into both England and France, though it is cultivated to some extent in both countries. It has also been raised as a soiling crop, but the coloring matter is of so penetrating and subtile a character, that the flesh, milk, and even the bones of animals fed upon it are said to be tinged to a considerable degree with it. The soils best adapted, and which should be selected for its cultivation, are dry, fertile, and deep sandy loams; the roots are long and fibrous, and descend to a depth of from two to three feet. It may be propagated by seed, which, by some, is thought the best method, but the more usual mode is by the division of, and transplanting, the roots. The ground should be thoroughly and deeply pulverised, clean, and well-manured for the preceding crop, that the manure may be thoroughly rotted and incorporated with the soil: in April or May the suckers will be fit for taking from the older plantations—those of two or three years producing the best. The sets should have roots four or five inches long. Mark out rows two feet apart, with a line, and set the plant with a dibble, one foot apart in the rows. The roots should be dipped in a puddle of fine rich earth and water, beaten to the consistence of cream, previous to planting; let the crown of the plant be clearly over ground, and secure the earth well around the root, to keep out drought. The plantation requires nothing more but to be kept perfectly clean and well-hoed during the summer months; and after the top decays in the autumn, to be earthed up by the plough for the winter, each year, till the plants are three years old, when they are of the proper size and age for lifting, which must be done by trenching the land two feet deep—several hands accompanying the digger to pick out the roots, which must be thoroughly cleaned and dried on a kiln till they are so brittle as to break across, when they are fit to be packed in bags, and sold to the dye-stuff manufacturers who grind and reduce them to powder for use. The produce is variable; usually from eight to twenty cwt. per acre, but as much as 3,000 to 6,000 lbs. is frequently obtained. The forage amounts to about 15,000 lbs. the first year, and 7,500 lbs. the second year. In a new and good soil manure may be dispensed with for the first crop. Some cultivators interline and grow other crops between the rows, but the best cultivators state that such a practice is objectionable. The breadth of land under this crop in England is much reduced, in consequence of the reduction in price from the competition of the Dutch growers.
Madder is extensively grown on the central table land of Afghanistan, forming one of the leading products of Beloochistan.; and, according to Mr. Pottinger, it sells in the Kelat Bazaar at about 10 lbs. for 2s. The cultivation there pursued is as follows:—The ground is repeatedly ploughed, and laid out finally in small trenches, in which the seed is sown, covered slightly with earth, and then the whole is flooded. Whilst thus irrigated, the trenches are filled with a mixture of rich manure and earth. The plants appear in about ten days, and attain a height of three or four feet during the first summer. They are cut down in September and used as fodder for cattle. Subsequently, and until spring arrives, the ground is manured and repeatedly flooded. During the second year’s growth, the plants which are intended to produce seed are set apart, but the stems of the remainder are cut every four or six weeks, in order to increase the size and goodness of the roots.
Madder is said to repay a nett profit of 200 dollars to the acre, when properly managed. It produced on the farm of a gentleman, who has devoted some attention to this product in Ohio, at the rate of 2,000 lbs. per acre, and it may be made to produce 3,000 lbs., which is a greater yield than the average crops of Germany and Holland. Nine acres were planted by another person in the United States, in 1839, which he harvested in 1842. The labor required is said to be from 80 to 100 days work per acre.
In the third year the stems are pruned as in the two preceding, and in September the roots are dug up. The roots are fusiform and thin, without any ramifications, and usually from three to five feet long. As soon as raised, they are immediately cut into small pieces and dried, and are then merchantable.
Mr. Joseph Swift, an enterprising American farmer, of Erie county, Ohio, who occupies about 400 acres of choice land, mostly alluvial, in the valley of the Vermilion river, seven miles from Lake Erie, has detailed his practice in the “New Genesee Farmer” (an agricultural periodical), for March, 1843. His directions must be understood as intended for those who wish to cultivate only a few acres, and cannot afford much outlay of capital. Those who desire to engage in the business on an extensive scale, would need to adopt a somewhat different practice:—
Soil and preparation.—” The soil should be a deep, rich, sandy loam, free from weeds, roots, stones, &c., containing a good portion of vegetable earth. Alluvial “bottom” land is the most suitable, but it must not be wet. If old upland is used, it should receive a heavy coating of vegetable earth, from decayed wood and leaves. The land should be ploughed very deep in the fall, and early in the spring apply about one hundred loads of well-rotted manure per acre, spread evenly, and ploughed in deeply; then harrow till quite fine and free from lumps. Next plough the land into beds four feet wide, leaving alleys between three feet wide, then harrow the beds with a fine light harrow, or rake them by hand, so as to leave them smooth and even with the alleys; they are then ready for planting.
Preparing sets and planting.—Madder sets or seed roots are best selected when the crop is dug in the fall. The horizontal uppermost roots (with eyes) are the kind to be used; these should be separated from the bottom roots, and buried in sand in a cellar or pit. If not done in the fall, the sets may be dug early in the spring, before they begin to sprout. They should be cut or broken into pieces, containing from two to five eyes each; i.e., three to four inches long. The time for planting is as early in the spring as the ground can be got in good order, and severe frosts are over, which in this climate (America) is usually about the middle of April. With the beds prepared as directed, stretch a line lengthwise the bed, and with the corner of a hoe make a drill two inches deep along each edge and down the middle, so as to give three rows to each bed, about two feet apart. Into these drills drop the sets, ten inches apart, covering them two inches deep. Eight or ten bushels of sets are requisite for an acre.
After culture.—As soon as the madder plants can be seen, the ground should be carefully hoed, so as to destroy the weeds and not injure the plants; and the hoeing and weeding must be repeated as often as weeds make their appearance. If any of the sets have failed to grow, the vacancies should be filled by talking up parts of the strongest roots and transplanting them; this is best done in June. As soon as the madder plants are ten or twelve inches high, the tops are to be bent down on the surface of the ground, and all except the tip end covered with earth, shovelled from the middle of the alleys. Bend the shoots outward and inward in every direction, so as in time to fill all the vacant space on the beds, and about one foot on each side. After the first time covering, repeat the weeding when necessary, and run a single horse plough through the alleys several times to keep the earth clean and mellow. As soon as the plants again become ten or twelve inches high, bend down and cover them as before, repeating the operation as often as necessary, which is commonly three times the first season. The last time may be as late as September, or later if no frosts occur. By covering the tops in this manner, they change to roots, and the design is to fill the ground as full of roots as possible. When the vacant spaces are all full, there is but little chance for weeds to grow; but all that appear must be pulled out.
The second year.—Keep the beds free from weeds; plough the alleys and cover the tops, as before directed, two or three times during the season. The alleys will now form deep and narrow ditches, and if it becomes difficult to obtain good earth for covering the tops, that operation may be omitted after the second time this season. Care should be taken, when covering the tops, to keep the edges of the beds as high as the middle; otherwise the water from heavy showers will run off, and the crop suffer from drought.
The third year.—Very little labor or attention is required. They will now cover the whole ground. If any weeds are seen, they must be pulled out; otherwise their roots will cause trouble when harvesting the madder. The crop is sometimes dug the third year; and if the soil and cultivation have been good, and the seasons warm and favorable, the madder will be of a good quality; but generally it is much better in quality, and more in quantity, when left until the fourth year.
Digging and harvesting.—This should be done between the 20th of August and the 20th of September. Take a sharp shovel or shovels, and cut off and remove the tops with half an inch of the surface of the earth; then take a plough of the largest size, with a sharp coulter and a double team, and plough a furrow outward, beam-deep, around the edge of the bed; stir the earth with forks, and carefully pick out all the roots, removing the earth from the bottom of the furrow; then plough another furrow beam-deep, as before, and pick over and remove the earth in the same manner; thus proceeding until the whole is completed.
Washing and drying.—As soon as possible after digging, take the roots to some running stream to be washed. If there is no running stream convenient, it can be done at a pump. Take large round sieves, two-and-a-half or three feet in diameter, with the wire about as fine as wheat sieves; or if these cannot be had, get from a hardware store sufficient screen wire of the right fineness, and make frames or boxes, two-and-a-half feet long and the width of the, wire, on the bottom of which nail the wire. In these sieves or boxes, put half a bushel of roots at a time, and stir them about in the water, pulling the branches apart so as to wash them clean; then, having a platform at hand, lay them onto dry. (To make the platform, take two or three common boards, so as to be about four feet in width, and nail deals across the under side). On these spread the roots about two inches thick for drying in the sun. Carry the platforms to a convenient place, not far from the house, and place them side by side, in rows east and west, and with their ends north and south, leaving room to walk between the rows. Elevate the south ends of the platforms about eighteen inches, and the north ends about six inches from the ground, putting poles or sticks to support them—this will greatly facilitate drying. After the second or third day’s drying, the madder must be protected from the dews at night, and from rain, by placing the platforms one upon another to a convenient height, and covering the uppermost one with board. Spread them out again in the morning, or as soon as danger is over. Five or six days of ordinarily fine weather will dry the madder sufficiently, when it may be put away till it is convenient to kiln-dry and grind it.
Kiln-drying,—The size and mode of constructing the kiln may be varied to suit circumstances. The following is a very cheap plan, and sufficient to dry one ton of roots at a time. Place four strong posts in the ground, twelve feet apart one way, and eighteen the other; the front two fourteen feet high, and the other eighteen; put girts across the bottom, middle, and top, and nail boards perpendicularly on the outside as for a common barn. The boards must be well seasoned, and all cracks or holes should be plastered or otherwise stopped up. Make a shed-roof of common boards. In the inside put upright standards about five feet apart, with cross-pieces to support the scaffolding. The first cross-pieces to be four feet from the floor; the next two feet higher, and so on to the top. On these cross-pieces lay small poles, about six feet long and two inches thick, four or fire inches apart. On these scaffolds the madder is to be spread nine inches thick. A floor is laid at the bottom to keep all dry and clean. When the kiln is filled, take six or eight small kettles or hand-furnaces, and place them four or five feet apart on the floor (first securing it from fire with bricks or stones), and make fires in them with charcoal, being careful not to make any of the fires so large as to scorch the madder over them. A person must be in constant attendance to watch and replenish the fires. The heat will ascend through the whole, and in ten or twelve hours it will all be sufficiently dried, which is known by its becoming brittle like pipe stems.
Breaking and grinding.—Immediately after being dried, the madder must be taken to the barn and threshed with flails, or broken by machinery (a mill might easily be constructed for this purpose), so that it will feed in a common grist-mill. If it is not broken and ground immediately, it will gather dampness so as to prevent its grinding freely. Any common grist-mill can grind madder properly. When ground finely it is fit for use, and may be packed in barrels like flour for market.
Amount and value of product, &c.—Mr. Swift measured off a part of his ground, and carefully weighed the product when dried, which he found to be over two thousand pounds per acre, notwithstanding the seasons were mostly dry and unfavorable. With his present knowledge of the business, he is confident that he can obtain at least three thousand pounds per acre, which is said to be more than is often obtained in Germany. The whole amount of labor he estimates at from eighty to one hundred days’ work per acre. The value of the crop, at the usual wholesale price (about fifteen cents per pound), from three to four hundred dollars. In foreign countries it is customary to make several qualities of the madder, which is done by sorting the roots; but as only one quality is required for the western market, Mr. Swift makes but one, and that is found superior to most of the imported, and finds a ready sale.
Madder is produced in Middle Egypt to some extent, for the consumption of the country, principally for dyeing the tarbouche or skull caps which are universally worn. Its culture was introduced in 1825. In 1833, 300 acres in Upper Egypt, and 500 in the Delta and the Kelyout, were devoted to madder roots.
New South Wales is eminently suited to the culture of this valuable root, and as the profits upon its cultivation are very large, I would strongly recommend it to the attention of agriculturists there. The article produces to France an annual sum of one million sterling; the price of the finest quality in the English market being £60 per ton. Its yield varies from £40 to £50 per acre, and the expenses upon its proper culture should not exceed one-half that amount. The colonists would find it to their interest to turn their attention to such articles as this, for which there is an extensive demand at home, instead of confining themselves exclusively to the commoner and bulkier products, which they export at a much less profit, and which when once the market is fully supplied, may fall to a price at which they cannot afford to sell.
The following is a calculation of the expenses generally supposed to attend a crop according to the mode of cultivation practised in Vaucluse:—
| £ s. | d. | |||||
| Rent per hectare (2½ English acres), 3 years, at 165 francs | 19 | 17 | 6 | |||
| Manure, 440 francs | £17 | 12 | 6 | |||
| Carriage of ditto, 132 francs | 3 | 5 | 10 | |||
| 22 | 18 | 4 | ||||
| £42 | 15 | 10 | ||||
| These expenses may almost be dispensed with in our colonies, as the soil at Vaucluse has long been exhausted. | ||||||
| Two and a-half acres require 170 lbs. seed, at 2½d. per pound, which, with the labor afterwards bestowed, including the cost of spade trenching, will be | 30 | 0 | 0 | |||
| £72 | 15 | 10 |
The average produce per hectare is 77 cwt., which, at £1 4s. 2d. per cwt. (the price on the spot), is £93. The price is now much lower, but still it is clear a most profitable return would be derived from the first crop, and a proportionably larger one afterwards.
A considerable portion of the madder roots, instead of being ground and exported in that form, as heretofore, is now exposed, after being invested with dilute sulphuric acid, to a boiling heat by means of steam, by which the coloring matter is considerably altered and improved in quality for some dyeing processes, while the quantity rendered soluble in water is greatly increased. The madder so prepared is known as “garancine,” and forms an important branch of manufacture in the south of France, which was well illustrated at the Great Exhibition in 1851, by a collection of specimens supplied by the Chamber of Commerce of Avignon. The spent madder, after being used in dyeing, is now also converted by Mr. H. Steiner, of Accrington, into a garancine (termed garanceuse by the French) by steaming it with sulphuric acid in the same manner as the fresh madder, and thus a considerable quantity of coloring matter is recovered and made available which was formerly thrown away in the spent madder. Both varieties of garancine give a more scarlety red than the unprepared madder, and also good chocolate and black, without soiling the white ground, but are not so well fitted, particularly the garancine of spent madder, for dyeing purples, lilacs, and pinks. The value of the garancine imported from France in 1848 was £59,554, and of that imported in 1851 £93,818. This preparation of ground madder is imported into Liverpool to the extent of from 500 to 600 tons annually from Marseilles, for the use of calico printers in the manufacturing districts. The price is £7 to £8 the ton.
This important root is already cultivated to a considerable extent in Russia but not nearly in sufficient quantity to meet the local demand; so that large quantities are imported from Holland and elsewhere, every year.
The quantity of madder, madder-root, and garaneine annually imported into the United Kingdom is exceedingly large, over 15,000 tons, as is shown by a reference to the following figures:—
| Madder. | Madder roots. | Garancine. | Total. | |
| cwts. | cwts. | cwts. | cwts. | |
| 1848 | 81,261 | 139,463 | 5,955 | 276,679 |
| 1849 | 92,736 | 161,986 | 4,969 | 259,691 |
| 1850 | 100,248 | 161,613 | 5,845 | 267,706 |
| 1851 | 92,925 | 202,091 | 9,382 | 304,398 |
| 1852 | 84,385 | 179,813 | — | — |
We imported from France, duty free, the following:—
| Madder. | Official value. | Madder-root. | ||
| cwts. | £ | cwts. | £ | |
| 1848 | 54,084 | 122,851 | 25,068 | 70,749 |
| 1849 | 57,108 | 131,059 | 23,459 | 81,274 |
| 1850 | 54,559 | 123,628 | 13,693 | 55,263 |
| 1851 | 65,577 | 151,502 | 34,017 | 167,721 |
The price in the Liverpool market, in June 1853, for Bombay madder-roots was £1 18s. to £2 14s. the cwt.
INDIAN MADDER.—Rubia cordifolia, or Munjestha, a variety with white flowers, a native of Siberia, is cultivated largely in the East, particularly about Assam, Nepaul, Bombay, Scinde, Quitta, China, &c., for its dye-stuff, and is known as Munjeet. A small quantity is exported from China and India; about 338 Indian maunds were shipped from Calcutta in 1840, and 2,328 in 1841. It fetches in the London and Liverpool markets from 20s. to 25s. and 30s. per cwt., duty free; 405 tons were imported into Liverpool from Bombay and Calcutta, in 1849, and 525 tons in 1850, but none was imported in 1851 and 1852.
It was remarked by the Jury in 1851, at the Great Exhibition, that this is a valuable dye-stuff, and hitherto not so well appreciated as it deserves, for some of the colors dyed with it are quite as permanent as those dyed with madder, and even more brilliant. Its use however is gradually increasing, and it is unquestionably well worthy the attention of dyers.
LOGWOOD.—The logwood of commerce is the red heart wood, or duramen, of a fine lofty growing tree (Haematroxylon Campechianum), growing in Campeachy and the bay of Honduras, and which is also now common in the woods of Jamaica and St. Domingo. It is principally imported as a dye wood, cut into short lengths. We chip, grind, and pack it into casks and bags, ready for the dyers, hatters, and printers’ use, who esteem it as affording the most durable deep red and black dyes. It is sometimes used in medicine as an astringent. That grown in Jamaica is least valued that of Honduras, Tobasco, and St. Domingo, fetches a somewhat higher price; but that imported from Campeachy direct, is the most esteemed. The annual imports into Liverpool are about 1,300 tons from Honduras, 100 from Tobasco, and 1,800 from Campeachy.
It thrives best in a damp tenacious soil, with a small proportion of sand. It is imported in logs, which are afterwards chipped, and is of great commercial importance from its valuable dyeing properties. Old wood is preferred; it is so hard as almost to be indestructible by the atmosphere. The albumen is of a yellowish color, and is not imported. The bark and wood are slightly astringent. The imports of logwood into the United Kingdom, were 23,192 tons in 1848, 23,996 tons in 1849, and 34,090 tons in 1850, of which 3,484 tons were re-exported in 1848, and 2,307 tons in 1849. The imports in the past two years of 1852 and 1853, have averaged 20,000 tons, of which about 3,000 tons were re-exported. It is increasing in use, for in 1837, the quantity retained for home use was only 14,677½ tons. The price varies according to quality from £4 to £7 per ton.
We received from Honduras 5,401 tons in 1844; and 55,824 tons in 1845. From Montego Bay, Jamaica, 398 tons were shipped between January and July 1851.
FUSTIC.—This is the common name of a species of dye wood in extensive use, which is obtained from Maclura tinctoria, or Broussonitia tinctoria, Kunth, a large and handsome evergreen tree, growing in South America and the West Indies. The wood is extensively used as an ingredient in the dyeing of yellow, and is largely imported for that purpose. The quantity entered for home consumption in the United Kingdom was 1,731 tons in 1847, 1,653 in 1848, and 1,842 tons in 1849.
Ninety-one tons were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in the first six months of 1851.
QUERCITRON.—-This bark furnishes a yellow dye, of which about 3,500 tons are annually imported in hogsheads of from half a ton to a ton. 296 tons were imported into Liverpool from Philadelphia in 1849, and 514 tons in 1850.
BRAZIL WOOD.—This very ponderous wood is obtained in Brazil from the Cæsalpina Braziliensis, which yields a red or crimson dye, when united with alum or tartar, and is used by silk dyers. It is imported principally from Pernambuco, 1,200 quintals having been shipped to London in 1835, but about 500 tons, worth about £4 a ton, were imported from Costa Rica in 1845.
The tree is large, crooked, and knotty, and the bark is thick, and equals the third or fourth of its diameter.
The imports may be stated at about 600 tons annually, the average price being £50 per ton.
Brazil wood is found in the greatest abundance and of the best quality, in the Province of Pernambuco, but being a government monopoly it has been cut down in so improvident a manner, that it is now seldom seen within several leagues of the coast.
Among the Cuba dye woods is Copey (Clusia rosea, Linn).
Braziletto, obtained from C. Crista, is one of the cheapest and least esteemed of the red dye woods, imported from Jamaica and other West India islands to the extent of 150 tons per annum, fetching £6 to £8 per ton. 2,361 tons of Nicaragua wood were imported in 1848, 2,701 tons in 1849, and 6,130 tons in 1850.
Spain exhibited various vegetable dyes obtained from cultivated and wild plants furnished by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa.
LICHENS.
The chief lichens employed in the manufacture of orchil and cudbear are the following:—
Angola weed (Ramalina furfuracea).
Mauritius weed (Rocella fusiformis), which comes also from Madagascar, Lima, and Valparaiso, and then bears the distinctive commercial name of the port of shipment.
Cape weed (Rocella tinctoria), from the Cape de Verd Islands.
Canary Moss (Parmelia perlata).
Tartareous Moss (Parmelia tartarea).
Pustulatus Moss (Umbilicaria pustulata).
Velvet Moss (Gyrophora murina).
The last three are imported from Sweden.
Of these lichens, the first, which is the richest in coloring matter, grows as a parasite upon trees; all the remainder upon rocks.
Rocella corallina, Variolaris lactea and dealbata, have been also resorted to.
About 130 tons of cudbear are imported annually from Sweden.
These lichens are found on rocks, on the sea coast. The modes, of treating them for the manufacture of the different dyes is the same in principle, though varying slightly in detail. They are carefully cleaned and ground into a pulp with water, an ammoniacal liquor is from time to time added, and the mass constantly stirred in order to expose it as much as possible to the air. Peculiar substances existing in these plants are, during this process, so changed by the combined action of the atmosphere, water, and ammonia, as to generate the coloring matter, which, when perfect, is pressed out, and gypsum, chalk, or other substances, are then added, so as to give it the desired consistency; these are then prepared for the market under the forms of cudbear or litmus.
HENNA (Lawsonia inermis), is an important dye-stuff, and the distilled water of the flowers is used as a perfume. The Mahomedan women in India use the shoots for dyeing their nails red, and the same practice prevails in Arabia. In these countries the manes and tails of the horses are stained red in the same manner. The Genista tomentosa yields red petals used in dyeing, and containing much tannic acid.
ORCHILLA WEED.—The fine purple color which the orchilla weed yields, is in use as an agent for coloring, staining, and dyeing. About 30,000 lbs. is obtained annually in the island of Teneriffe. 460 arrobas (or 115 cwt.) of orchilla were exported from the Canary Isles in 1833. In 1839, 6,494 cwts. paid duty, and 4,175 cwts. in 1840. The average imports of the three years ending with 1842, was 6,050 cwt. A little comes in from Barbary and the islands of the Archipelago.
Dr. W.L. Lindley, in a very interesting paper, read before the Botanical Society of London, in December, 1852, on the dyeing properties of the lichens, stated—
The subject of the colorific and coloring principles of the lichen has, within the last few years, attracted a due share of that attention which, has been increasingly devoted to organic chemistry. Since 1830, Heeren, Kane, Schunck, Rochleder and Heldt, Knop, Stenhouse, Laurent and Gerhardt, have published valuable papers on these principles; but, here again, we have to regret the great discrepancy in the various results obtained, and there is therefore, here also, imperatively demanded re-investigation and correction before any of the results already published can he implicitly relied upon, and before we can have safe data from which to generalise. I have no doubt that a great proportion of the obscurity overhanging this subject depends on the circumstance that many of the chemists, who have devoted attention to the color-educts and products of the lichens, were not themselves botanists, and have therefore probably, in some cases at least, analysed species under erroneous names, and also because their investigations have comprehended a much too limited number of species.
Their utility in the arts, and especially in dyeing—including the collection of a series of the commercial dye lichens, i.e., those used by the manufacturers of London, &c., in the making of orchil, cudbear, litmus, and other lichen dyes. While investigating the dyeing properties of the lichens, I made experiments, with a view to test their colorific power, on as many species as I could obtain in sufficient quantity, to render it at all useful to operate on—that number, however, being very limited (between forty and fifty).
Dr. Lindley adds, many parties may be able to aid his investigations, by furnishing information on their economic uses, and on their special applications in dyeing and other arts—(particularly on their employment, as dye agents, by the natives of Britain and other countries)—with specimens of the lichens so used, and their common names—specimens of fabrics dyed therewith—notes of the processes employed for the elimination of the dyes, &c. Parties resident in, or travelling through our western Highlands and Islands, the northern Highlands, Ireland, Wales, Norway, Iceland, and similar countries, are most likely to be able to afford this description of information—many native lichens being still used by the peasantry of these countries to dye their homespun yarn, &c.
He proceeded to treat—1. The vast importance of this humble tribe of plants in the grand economy of nature, as the pioneers and founders of all vegetation. 2. Their importance to man and the lower animals, as furnishing various articles of food. 3. Their importance in medicine, and especially in its past history, at home and abroad. 4. Their importance in the useful and fine arts, and especially in the art of dyeing. 5. Their affinities and analogies to other cryptogamic families, and to the Phanerogamia. 6. Their value as an element of the picturesque in nature; and, 7. Their typical significance.
He then adverted more especially to the subject of his communication, under the ten following heads:—
I. The colors of the Thallus and apothecia of Lichens—their causes, and
the circumstances which modify and alter them.
II. History of the application of their coloring matters to the art of dyeing.
III. Chemical nature and general properties of these coloring matters.
IV. Tests and processes for estimating qualitatively, and quantitatively the
colorific powers of individual species—with their practical applications.
V. Processes of manufacture of the Lichen-dyes, on the large and small
scale in different countries—with the principles on which they are founded.
VI. Nomenclature of the dye-Lichens, and of the Lichen-dyes.
VII. Botanical and commercial sources of the same.
VIII. Special applications of the Lichen-dyes in the arts.
IX. Commercial value of the dye-Lichens, and their products.
X. Geographical distribution of the dye-Lichens—with the effect of climate;
situation, &c., on their colorific materials.
Of the four first sections of his paper, the following is a very short summary or synopsis:—
Under the first head, the author spoke of chlorophylle and various organic and inorganic substances, which enter into the formation of the colors of the thallus and apothecia of lichens, and of the modifications of these colors depending on various degrees of—1. Exposure to air and light. 2. Temperature. 3. Moisture, &c. 4. Atmospheric vicissitudes. 5. Season of the year. 6. Nature of the Gonidic reproduction (i.e., gemmation). 7. Nature of habitat. 8. Organic decomposition. 9. Coalescence of parts, monstrosities, &c.
Under the second section, he traced historically the manufacture of Lichen-dyes, and the native use of Lichens as dye agents, among different nations, from the times of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, down to the present day, sketching briefly the ancient end modern history of orchil, cudbear, and litmus, and specifying the native use of lichen-dyes in different, countries of Europe, Asia, and America. He alluded more particularly to their application to the dyeing of yarns, &c., by the Scotch Highlanders, under the name of “Crottles.” “The process of the manufacture of the various crottles, generally consisted in macerating the powdered lichen for two or three weeks, in stale urine, exposing the mass freely to the air by repeated stirring, and adding lime, salt, alum, or argillaceous and other substances, either to heighten the color or impart consistence. To such an extent did this custom at one time prevail, that, in several of our northern counties each farm and cottage had its tank or barrel of putrefying urine, a homely but perfectly efficient mode of generating the necessary amount of ammonia. In the county of Aberdeen, in particular, every homestead had its reservoir of “Graith,”53 and the “Lit-pig,”54 which stood by every fireside, was as familiar an article of furniture in the cots of the peasantry, as the “cuttie-stool,” or the “meal girnel.” So lately as 1841 (and I presume the practice continues to the present day), Mr. Edmonston stated that, of four or five native dyes, used by the Shetlanders to color cloth and yarns, two at least were furnished by lichens, viz., a brown dye from Parmelia saxatilis, under the name of “Scrottyie,” and a red one from Lecanora tartarea, under that of “Korkalett.” It is very probable, however, that steam and free trade have gradually dispelled this good old custom, even in the remoter corners of our island; machinery-made articles being now readily supplied, at a rate so extraordinarily cheap, as to render it absolutely expensive (as to time, if not also as to money) to prepare colors, even by a process so simple and inexpensive as that just mentioned.”
Under the third head, he examined, in a general way, the chemistry of the colorific and coloring matters of the lichens and the results to which it has led, avoiding as much as possible the technicalities inseparable from such a subject, and giving a short vise of the researches of Heeren, Kane, Rochleder, and Heldt, Stenhouse, Schunck, Laurent, and Gerhardt, and others. “Our untaught senses should undoubtedly lead us to expect the lichens, whose thallus exhibits the brightest tints, to yield the finest dyes, and these, too, of a color similar to that of the thallus, but experience teaches us that the beautiful reddish or purplish coloring-matters are producible in the greatest abundance by the very species from which we should least expect to derive any, viz., in those most devoid of external color. This, though at first sight very remarkable, is easily explicable, when we remember that, in most of the so-called dye-lichens, colorific principles exist in a colorless form, and only become converted into colored substances under a peculiar combination of circumstances.
“Some lichens contain coloring matters, ready formed, and these exhibit themselves in the tint of the thallus of the plants, e.g. chrysophanic [or parietinic] acid in Parmelia parietina, and vulpinic acid in Evernia vulpina. In other species we find principles, which, while in the plant, and unacted on by chemical re-agents, are colorless, but which, when the lichens are exposed to the combined influence of atmospheric air, water, and ammonia, yield colored substances. This series of colored products is usually comprehended more for convenience sake than on account of chemical identity, under the generic term orceine.”
The whole subject of the chemistry of these bodies is at present in a most unsatisfactory condition, demanding fresh investigation and research, in illustration of which, the author exhibited tables of the colorific and coloring principles, so far as they are at present known, showing their chemical formulæ and the authority therefor, and various relative information. “It is highly probable that when the chemistry of the lichens has been more fully studied, and the whole subject of their color-educts and products better understood, we shall begin to reduce the present confused mass of complex substances, and find the same principles more extensively diffused through different lichen species.” Dr. L. entered somewhat minutely on the chemical reactions of the better known colorific and coloring principles, and their derivatives, so far at least as these throw any light on the production and transmutation of the red or purple colors extracted from what may be termed par excellence, the dye-lichens. After a few remarks on the chemical constitution of orchil and litmus, as given by Kane, Gelis, Pereira, and others, he discussed the subject of decolorisation of weak infusions of orchil and litmus by exclusion of atmospheric air, and by various deoxidising agents, and the different theories as to the causation of this phenomenon. “I have repeatedly had occasion to notice that, when weak infusions of these substances are excluded for some time from atmospheric air, in a bottle, with a tightly fitting cork, they gradually lose color, but rapidly regain it on re-exposure. It is curious that both orchil and litmus are what are called transient or false colors, i.e., they slowly lose their bloom and tint by long exposure to the atmosphere; the coloring matter, therefore, appears to be decolorised both by exposure to, and exclusion from the air, phenomena apparently of very opposite characters. The cause of the latter phenomenon has never, so far as I am aware, been quite satisfactorily explained; but it has been variously supposed to be due:—
1. To the mere negation of oxygen.
2. To the development, in the liquids, of various substances, capable of exerting a decolorising influence on the coloring matter.
3. To deoxidation of the coloring matter by substances, which have a great tendency to become oxidised or peroxised; e.g. hydrogen, in the case of decolorisation by sulphuretted hydrogen, nascent hydrogen, and the protoxides of iron and tin, &c.
4. To the fixation of an additional amount of hydrogen in a new colorless body, formed by the union of the sulphuretted hydrogen or other substances with the coloring matter of the liquid. This view is chiefly supported by Kane, who says, “that precisely as the coloring matters combine with water, to form different shades of red-colored bodies—with ammonia to produce a series of bodies, which are blue and purple—so they combined with sulphuretted hydrogen to form colorless compounds in solution, which, if solid, very probably would be white.” He supposes, in a word, that for every colored substance existing in orchil and litmus, there is a corresponding white one, producible by the action of sulphuretted hydrogen, &c.; and, in proof of this theory, he mentions having obtained from Azolitmine and Betaorceine colorless bodies, to which he gave the respective names of Leuco-litmine and Leuco-orceine.
The author then gave a short summary of Dr. Westring’s experiments on the dyeing powers of the Swedish lichens, which he found might be conveniently divided into four classes, according to the degree of heat employed in their maceration, viz.:—
1. Lichens, whose coloring matter was easily extractable by cold water alone.
2. Those which required for the elimination of their coloring matter, maceration in tepid water (i.e. below 258 degs. Swedish thermometer).
3. Those which required maceration in warm water (i.e.between 50 and 60 degs. Swedish thermometer).
4. Those requiring boiling water alone, or with the aid of solvents.
“It must be admitted that our knowledge of the true nature of the colorofic and coloring principles of the lichens is, as yet, very imperfect and confused, and one great cause of the dubity and obscurity overhanging the subject, is the fact that different analysts have arrived at most opposite results, even in the examination of the same species. For instance, in Rocella tinctoria, which has, of all the dye-Lichens, been most frequently selected for analytical investigation, on account of its important product orchil, the discrepancies between the results obtained are very striking. In it Heeren discovered his Erythrine; Kane his Erythriline; Schunk his Erythric acid; and Stenhouse three different substances in as many varieties of the plant; all of these bodies differing more or less from each other in composition and properties (at least, if we are to assume, as correct, the descriptions given of them by their respective discoverers”).
“I have already hinted that there is no ratio between the external and internal color or structure of a lichen, and the kind or amount of coloring matter it will be found to yield. It is exceedingly natural to suppose that such a ratio should exist; but, proceeding for some time on this supposition, I was frequently disappointed in my results—the most showy and brilliantly colored lichens often furnishing the dullest and most worthless colors. For instance, the bright yellow thallus of Parmelia parietina, and the beautiful scarlet apothecia of Scyphophorus cocciferus, instead of producing a rich yellow in the one case, and a deep crimson in the other, yielded, respectively, only dirty greenish-yellow and brownish colors. As a general rule I should almost be inclined to say that the finer the color of the thallus of any given lichen, the more is that lichen to be suspected of poverty in valuable coloring matters; and that, on the other hand, the palest pulverulent or crustaceous species, especially such as are saxicolous, may be expected to yield the most beautiful and valuable pigments (e.g. the Rocellas and Lecanoras). In such circumstances it is necessary to have some test, of easy applicability, of the kind and amount of colorific properties of any lichen, and this fortunately is readily attainable.”
The fourth section of the paper was devoted to the consideration of the various tests of colorific power, which have been recommended by different authors. “Of these, the greater number proceed on the principle of developing the coloring matter by some alkali, in conjunction with the decomposing action of atmospheric oxygen and water; others are founded on the reaction between colorific principles of certain of the dye lichens and some of our ordinary chemical re-agents.” The author noticed in particular—
| 1. Helot’s test, | } }qualitative. } |
| 2. Westring’s tests, | |
| 3. Stenhouse’s test, | |
| 4. Stenhouse’s test, | quantitative. |
Helot’s test consists in digesting the dried and powdered lichen or a few hours, at a temperature of 130 degs., in a weak solution of ammonia, sufficiently strong, however, to be tolerably pungent. One that is fit for the dyer will yield a rich violet red liquor.
Dr. Westring recommended simply macerating three or four drachms of the lichen in cool spring water, assisting, perhaps, the solvent action of the water by minute quantities of common salt, nitre, quicklime, sulphate of copper or iron, or similar re-agents. If these means failed, after a sufficient length of time had been allowed for the development of color, he digested a fresh portion of the pulverised lichen in water, containing small quantities of sal-ammoniac and quicklime [in the proportion of 25 parts of water, 1-10th lime, and 1-20th sal-ammoniac for every part of lichen], for a period varying from eight to fourteen days, and by this process, he says, he never failed to develop all the color which the plant was capable of yielding.
Dr. Stenhouse, of London, one of our latest and best authorities on the chemistry of the lichens, adds to an alcoholic infusion of the lichen, a solution of common bleaching powder (chloride of lime), whereby, if it contain certain colorific principles capable of developing, under the joint action of air, water, and ammonia, red coloring matters, a fugitive but distinct blood-red color will be exhibited. The amount of this colorific matter may be estimated quantitatively by noting the quantity of the chloride of lime solution required to destroy this blood-red color in different cases: or the same result may be obtained by macerating for a short period in milk of lime—filtering—precipitating the filtered liquor by acetic or muriatic acid—collecting this precipitate on a weighed filter—drying at ordinary temperatures and again weighing.
The author entered into a full analysis of these tests and processes—pointing out their respective advantages and disadvantages—and showing their practical value and applications. He stated that he had made use of these, and various other tests, in upwards of 300 experiments, and the one which he employed to the greatest extent, because most uniformly applicable, was Helot’s ammonia test. The following combination is that most favorable for the development of the coloring matter of the lichens—viz., the presence
1. Of water as a solvent menstruum.
2. Of atmospheric oxygen.
3. Of ammonia, in the state of vapor or in solution, and
4. Of a moderate degree of heat;
And according as the proportion of these combining elements varies, so do the kind and amount of color educed by them. This combination is the foundation of all the processes for the manufacture of the lichen dyes throughout the world, however different these may appear to be in detail or results.
I believe it may come to be a matter of great commercial importance to discover, at home or abroad, some cheap and easily-procurable substitute for the Roccellas, which are gradually becoming scarce, and consequently valuable in European commerce, having sometimes fetched, in times of scarcity, no less than £1,000 per ton. No plants can be so easily collected and preserved as lichens—requiring merely to be cleaned, dried, pulverised, and packed; and if their bulk be an objection to transport, their whole colorific matter may be collected in the way I have already mentioned. Ascending to the verge of eternal snows, and descending to the ocean level—with a geographical diffusion that is co-extensive with the surface of our earth, it is difficult to say where lichens shall not be found. There are myriads of small rocky islets in the boundless ocean, and there are thousands of miles of barren rocky coast and sterile mountain range in every part of the world, which, though at present unfit to bear any of the higher members of the vegetable kingdom, are yet carpeted and adorned with a rich covering of lichens, and of those very species too, which I have already spoken of as prolific in colorific materials. I sincerely believe, therefore, that a more general attention to the very simple tests just enumerated, would ultimately result in a greatly extended use of the lichens as dye agents. What renders it very probable that efforts in this direction are likely to meet with success is the great similarity of species found all over the world. It has been repeatedly noticed that the European species, which, of course, are best known, differ little from those of North America. Dr. Robert Brown remarked the same fact with regard to New Holland species, and Humboldt also recognised the similarity in natives of the South American Andes. Of a large collection made by Professor Royle, in the Himalayas, Don pronounced almost every one to be identical with European species. From examining the raw vegetable products, sent by different countries to the Great Exhibition of 1851, I am satisfied that, even now, there are many fields open for the establishment of an export trade in Roccellas and other so-called orchella weeds.” I there saw specimens of good dye lichens from almost every part of the world, including our own young colonies; and as a single instance of their probable value, I may introduce here the copy of a note appended to a specimen of orchella weed from the island of Socotra, contained in the Indian collection of that exhibition, “abundant, but unknown as an article of use or commerce. Also abundant on the hills around (Aden) and might be made an article of trade.” Roccellas from this source are estimated as worth £190 to £380 per ton. I believe that a similar statement might be made with regard to the countless islands of the broad Atlantic and Pacific, which may, at some future period, perhaps not far distant, be found to be rich depots of orchella weeds, just as some of them are, at present, rich fields of guano, and may, as such, become new nuclei of British commerce and enterprise. Even at home, in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh, or, to restrict our limits still more narrowly, within the compass of Arthur’s Seat, there are not a few very good dye-lichens, which require merely to be scraped with an old knife or similar instrument, from the rocks to which they adhere, and subjected to the ammonia process already mentioned. Of twelve specimens thus collected at random one morning, I found no less than three yielded beautiful purple-red colors, apparently as fine as orchil or cudbear, while the others furnished rich and dark tints of brownish-red, brown and olive-green.
Dr. Lindley’s communication was illustrated with specimens of coloring matters yielded by various lichens collected in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, &c.
BARKS FOR TANNING.
Let us now take a brief review of the sources from whence tanning materials may be obtained, which will also enable us to form a fair estimate of the prospect of future supplies. Only one medal was awarded, at the Great Exhibition, for tanning substances, viz., to Messrs. Curtis, Brothers (United Kingdom, No. 126), but honorable mention was made of the following competitors:—One from Tunis, one from Van Diemen’s Land, one from New Zealand, one from Belgium, one from the Cape of Good Hope, one from Canada, and one from the United Kingdom.
The substance from which pure tannin is most frequently obtained for chemical purposes is nutgalls, for tannin constitutes above 40 per cent, of their weight. It may be procured also from several other sources, such as oak, horse chestnut, sumach, and cinchona barks, catechu, kino, &c.
The basis of the skins of animals is composed of a substance to which the name of gelatine is given. One of the properties of this substance is, that when combined with tannin, it forms the compound of tannate of gelatine, or leather, a substance which is so useful to mankind. From time immemorial, the substance employed to furnish the tannin to the hides of animals, in order to convert them into leather, has been oak bark. But as the purpose for which oaks are grown is their timber, and not their bark, the supply of oak bark cannot be calculated upon, and this is, perhaps, one of the causes why tanning as an art is in such a backward state.
The consumption of tannin required in the leather manufacture may be estimated from the fact that more than 672,000 cwts. of raw hides were imported in 1851, besides the hides of the cattle, &c., consumed in the United Kingdom. On the Continent and in the United States the consumption of bark for this purpose is also considerable.
The imports of bark for the use of tanners and dyers has amounted yearly to the very large quantity of 380,674 cwt., besides what we obtain at home. Oak bark contains usually the largest proportion of tannin, and according to Davy’s experiments eight-and-a-half pounds of oak bark are equivalent for tanning purposes to two-and-a-quarter of galls, three of sumach, seven-and-a-half of Leicester willow, eleven of Spanish chesnut, eighteen of elm, and twenty-one of common willow bark. Tannin obtained from these sources, however, differs materially in some of its characters. The tannin of nutgalls, which is that generally employed for chemical purposes, is sometimes called gallo-tannic acid, to distinguish it from other species.
Notwithstanding the number of different substances which have from time to time been introduced for the use of tanners, it is, nevertheless, pretty generally acknowledged that there is nothing superior, or even equal, to good oak bark, and that all attempts to hurry the process beyond a certain point by the use of concentrated solutions of tan, &c., are for the most part failures, as the manufacture of good leather, to a great extent, depends on the process being conducted in a slow and gradual, but—at the same time—thorough and complete matter.
Oak bark is, however, by no means the only astringent bark well suited to the use of the tanner, and in various parts of the world other similar substances are used with very great success. All these tanning materials, though they may not be considered by the English tanner equal to the best oak bark, are, nevertheless, of great value to him; they may be employed in conjunction with oak bark, or even as a substitute in times of scarcity, or when the price of oak bark is high; in fact the very existence of such substances tends to keep down and equalise the price of bark, and to prevent it from undergoing those great fluctuations in value which would necessarily occur were it the only tanning material available to our manufacture—(“Prof. Solly in Jury Reports of Great Exhibition.”)
There are a vast number of bark and other substances useful for tanning purposes, which are found in the tropics, that are comparatively unknown or little regarded in Europe; but which might be readily obtained in large quantities and at a trifling cost. The bark of many species of Acacia furnishes the tanning principle in a great degree, particularly that of A. arabica, which, under the name of Babul wood, is largely used about Scinde, Biliary, Gruzerat, and other parts of India; where it is regarded as a powerful tonic. The fruit of A. vera, termed Egyptian and Senegal “bablah,” has been employed in tanning and dyeing. Numerous species of this tribe are found abundant in New South Wales and the Cape Colony, and these, particularly the wattle bark of Australia, are in common use for tanning, from their astringent properties. The bark and rind of the fruit of the pomegranate (Pumica Granata) have similar properties.
The bark of Avicenna tomentosa is in great use in the Brazils for tanning. So are the curved pods of Cæsalpinia Coriari, in the East and West Indies, under the name of Divi-divi. Coriaria myrtifolia is not only used in tanning leather, but also for staining black. It is worth £9 to £10 per ton. Pterocarpus marsupium furnishes about Tellicherry the concrete exudation called kino, a powerful astringent used for tanning.
The plants of the mangrove tribe, Rhizophora Mangle, and other allied species, have frequently an astringent bark, which is in many cases used for tanning and dyeing black. This tree is very common in most tropical countries, where it forms dense thickets on the muddy banks of rivers and the sea shores. The bark of Bauhinia variegata, is made use of in Scinde and other parts of Asia. The bitter astringent bark and the galls of several of the Tamarisk tribe are also well suited for the purpose.
Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum, one of the numerous indigenous species of the Cape, is used in making morocco leather.
The extract procured from the bark of the Butea, that of the Buchanania latifolia, the Scyzgium (Calyptranthes), Jambolana, &c., are likely to be of consequence to the tanners, and could be produced in India in large quantities. Specimens of these, and of the bark of the Saul tree, of Nychanthes arbortrista, Terminalia angustifolia, and of the gaub fruit (Diospyros glutinosa), were shown by the East India Company. The bark of the hemlock tree is extensively employed for tanning in New Brunswick.
The bark of yellow hercules (Xanthoxylum ochroxylon), and the pods of Acacia tortuosa are used for tanning in the West Indies.
In the instructions given by the Admiralty to Sir James Boss, when proceeding on his Antarctic Expedition, his attention was particularly called to the astringent substances adapted for tanning, and to the various extracts of barks, &c., imported into England from our Australian settlements, and which are employed by the tanner. Little sterling information has as yet been obtained as to the qualities of the astringent gums, barks, and dyes, yielded in such abundance by the trees of those colonies, and the proportion of tannin they contained.
In 1846, 563 tons of bark for tanning were exported from Port Phillip.
A large quantity of tannin is extracted from various species of Eucalyptus, the gigantic gum trees in Australia and Van Diemen’s Land (of which quarter all the species are natives), and sent to the English market; it is said to be twice as powerful in its operations as oak bark. Some of these trees attain a height of 200 feet. Their bark separates remarkably into layers. A sort of kino gum, an astringent resinous-like substance, is also extracted from E. resinifera, the brown gum-tree of New Holland, which is sold in the medicine bazaars of India. It exudes in the form of red juice from incisions in the bark. A single tree will often yield 60 gallons. In Brazil they use the bark of Luhea panicata, an evergreen climber, for tanning leather; and in Peru the bark of some species of Weinmaunia serve the same purpose. Among other powerful astringents I may notice the root of a species of Sea Lavender (Statice Caroliniana), Myrica cerifera, and Heuchera Americana, all natives of North America. Also the petals of Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, a native of Asia.
The sea-side grape (Coccolaba uvifera) yields an astringent substance, known as Jamaica kino.
The bark of the Cassia auriculata, and the milky juice of the Asclepias gigantea, are used for tanning in India.
The red astringent gum obtained from Butea frondosa, a middling size tree, common in Bengal and the mountainous parts of India, is used by the natives for tanning. English tanners, however, object to its use on account of the color which it communicates to the leather.
The barks of the Mora excelsa, Benth; Courida (Avicenna nutida), cashew (Anicardium occidentale), guava and hog-plum (Spondius lutea, Linn.), have all been successfully used for tanning in Demerara and the West India Islands, where they are very abundant. Specimens were sent from British Guiana.
The root of the Palmetto palm (Chaemaerops Palmetto) is stated to be valuable for the purposes of tanning. The leaves of Nerium Oleander contain tannic acid. The bark of a species of Malphigia is much used by the Brazilians.
The panke (Gunnera scabra) is a fine plant, growing in Chili, on the sandstone cliffs, which somewhat resembles the rhubarb on a gigantic scale. The inhabitants eat the stalks, which are subacid, tan leather with the roots, and also prepare a black dye from them. The leaf is nearly circular, but deeply indented on its margin. Mr. Darwin measured one which was nearly eight feet in diameter, and therefore no less than twenty-four in circumference. The stalk is rather more than a yard high, and each plant sends out four or five of these enormous leaves, presenting together a very noble appearance.
The barks replete with the tanning principle should be stripped with hatchets and bills from the trunk and branches of trees in spring, when their sap flows most freely. The average quantity of oak bark obtained from our forests is estimated at 150,000 tons annually, of which Ireland and Scotland furnish but a very small quantity.
The following table, given by Dr. Ure, shows the quantity of extractive matter and tannin yielded by different substances:—
| In 480 parts | In 100 parts | |
| by Davy. | by Cadet. | |
| Sicilian sumach | 78 | — |
| Malaga ditto | 79 | — |
| Souchong tea | 48 | — |
| Green tea | 41 | — |
| Bombay catechu | 261 | — |
| Bengal ditto | 231 | — |
| Nutgalls | 127 | 46 |
| Bark of pomegranate | — | 32 |
| Bark of Virginian sumach | — | 10 |
| Bark of Carolina sumach | — | 5 |
Catechu and Gambier are very valuable for tanning, and are alluded to under the heads GAMBIER and ARECA PALM.
CATECHU is obtained from the Acacia Catechu, an arboreous tree growing from fifteen to twenty feet high, with a brown and scabrous bark. The interior wood is brown, dark red or blackish, and the exterior white, one or two inches thick. It inhabits various parts of the East Indies, of which it is a native, and is also now common in Jamaica. It bears whitish or pale yellow flowers.
The catechu obtained from this tree in Pegu, is celebrated throughout India, and fetches £4 to £5 more per ton than gambier and other astringent extracts. When of good quality, catechu is more powerful as an astringent than kino. Of all the astringent substances we know, catechu appears to contain the largest proportion of tannin, and Mr. Purkis found that one pound was equivalent to seven or eight of oak bark for tanning leather.
The term catechu, observes Dr. Pereira, is applied to various astringent extracts imported from India and the neighbouring countries. A few years ago the terms catechu, terra japonica, and cutch were employed synonymously; they are now, however, for the most part used in trade somewhat distinctively, though not uniformly in the same sense. The manufacture of catechu from the Acacia catechu as practised in Canara and Behar, has been described by Mr. Kerr (“Med. Obs. and Inquiries,” vol. v.), and Dr. Hamilton (“Journey through Mysore,” &c., vol. iii.), while Professor Royle has explained the process followed in Northern India. According to the last-mentioned gentleman, “the kutt manufacturers move to different parts of the country in different seasons, erect temporary huts in the jungles, and selecting trees fit for their purpose, cut the inner wood into small chips. These they put into small earthen pots, which are arranged in a double row, along a fireplace built of mud; water is then poured in until the whole are covered; after a considerable portion has boiled away, the clear liquor is strained into one of the neighbouring pots, and a fresh supply of the material is put into the first, and the operation repeated until the extract in the general receiver is of sufficient consistence to be poured into clay moulds, which, in the Kheree Pass and Doon, where I have seen the process, are generally of a quadrangular form. This catechu is usually of a pale red color, and is considered there to be of the best quality. By the manufacturers it is conveyed to Saharunpore and Moradabad, whence it follows the course of commerce down the Ganges, and meets that from Nepaul, so that both may be exported from Calcutta.”
GAMBIER.
The Gambier plant (Uncaria Gambler, Roxburgh, Nauclea Gambir, Hunter), has been described by Rumphius under the name of Funis uncatus. It is a stout, scandent, evergreen shrub, which strongly resembles the myrtle. It is generally cultivated in the same plantation with pepper, as the leaves and shoots, after undergoing the process by which their juice is extracted, to furnish a kind of catechu, are found to be an excellent manure for the pepper vines. The leaves and young shoots of the gambier plant are collected as soon as they have attained a sufficient size, and boiled in iron pans until the juice acquires the consistence of treacle. The decoction is poured out into narrow troughs, dried, and afterwards cut up into small cakes, and packed in baskets for exportation. The gambier extract, which is of a yellowish brown color, and has the consistence of hard cheese, is much esteemed by the Malays for mixing with the preparation of betel, which they are in the habit of chewing; and considerable quantities have lately been imported to this country, where it is used for dyeing colors, and for tanning leather. The demand for gambier here is on the increase; and when better known to our chemists, it will probably be found applicable to many other purposes than those to which it is at present applied.
There were, in 1850, 400 gambier and pepper plantations on the island of Singapore; each measures or occupies on an average an area of 500 fathoms square, and employs eight to ten hands to cultivate and manufacture the gambier and pepper. There are some pepper plantations in addition, and they have been found to answer very well without any gambier being cultivated with them. Gambier cultivation is generally a losing undertaking, but it is adopted to obtain the refuse of the leaves for manuring the pepper vines, and also to employ the people in the plantations; it besides affords the proprietors the means of getting monthly sums to carry on the cultivation of pepper, which affords two crops yearly. There were formerly 600 plantations in Singapore, but the reason already assigned, and the formation of spice plantations contiguous have caused the abandonment of all those near the town. Each plantation must have an equal extent of forest land to that cultivated with gambier and pepper, to enable the manufacture of the gambier being carried on, and each gambier plantation, of 500 fathoms square, contains about 3,500 pepper vines, which yield on an average two catties per vine, or 70 piculs of pepper, and about 170 piculs of gambier annually;—a good plantation will, however, yield sometimes as much as 120 piculs of pepper, and 200 piculs of gambier, and a bad one as little as 40 to 50 piculs of pepper, and 60 to 80 piculs of gambier. Were it not for the enormous commission charged by the agents of these plantations, from whom the cultivators get all the advances, it would prove a profitable cultivation. The rates of commission charged generally are as follows:—Per picul of gambier, fifteen to twenty-five cents; per picul of pepper, thirty to forty cents; and if the price of the former is below one-and-a-half dollars, and the latter below three-and-a-half dollars per picul, a small reduction is made in the rates of commission. On every picul of rice supplied to the planters twenty to twenty-five cents commission is charged; this includes the interest of money advanced, which is never charged. A gambier and pepper plantation is valued or estimated at about 400 dollars on an average. The following is supposed to be a correct estimate, on an average, of the yearly expenditure and returns of a gambier and pepper plantation of 500 fathoms square, viz:—
| EXPENDITURE. | |||||
| drs. | c. | men. | drs. | c. | |
| Eight men at 3½ dollars and 7 Java rupees per month, wages for headman and labourers respectively | 22 | 70 | .. 12.. | 272 | .40 |
| Five piculs of rice, including commission, say | 6 | 50 | .. 12.. | 81 | 60 |
| Fish, &c. | 5 | 00 | .. 12.. | 60 | 00 |
| Boat or cart hire to carry rice and produce | 1 | 75 | .. 12.. | 21 | 00 |
| 435 | 00 | ||||
| PRODUCE. | |||||
| 170 piculs of gambier, valued at l dollar 45 cents per picul, less 15 cents commission chargeable, nett | 221 | 30 | — | — | |
| 70 piculs of pepper, at 4½ dollars, less 40 cents per picul commission, nett | 287 | 00 | 508 | 00 | |
| Yearly profit, 73 dollars, or about £15. | |||||
Several gambier and pepper plantations have been abandoned in Singapore, partly from the ground being impoverished, but more particularly from the exhaustion of the forest adjacent to their estates. The exhaustion of the trees by yearly consumption deprives the planters of the necessary fire wood which is used for the boiling down of the gambier. A gambier plantation gets exhausted in fifteen years, either from the want of firewood or the land getting impoverished.
There are about 200 plantations at Johore, and the produce of gambier for the season of 1851 was calculated at 30,000 piculs.
This shrub was, at one period, cultivated with success at Pinang and other places to the eastward, but as Java was the principal market for the produce, and the Dutch had levied a duty of twelve Java rupees per picul on it, the cultivation at the former island did not repay its cost, and it was accordingly abandoned. Prices have been lately advancing, and the Chinese are talking of trying it again. The plant is partial to hilly land or slopes at the skirts of hills. Two hundred plants are usually placed on one orlong of land, being six feet asunder. They are raised from seed, and are topped to eight or ten feet, when the gambier is to be prepared. The Chinese dry the seed slightly, and sow in rainy weather.
The seeds vegetate in forty days, and are planted out in the second or third month afterwards.
At the expiration of fourteen months, the first cutting of the branches, with the leaves on, is made. These are put into a boiler, and when the juice has been extracted, the branches and refuse are thrown away, and the boiling is continued until the liquor has obtained the proper consistence, when it is put into shallow troughs, dried, and cut into slices for sale. The second cutting takes place eight months subsequently to the first. The plant now grows strong and admits of frequent cropping, and it will endure for twenty years. No manure is used, but the plantation is kept clean.
Estimated cost of cultivating ten orlongs, about 13 acres, according to Colonel Low:—
| Spanish dollars. | |
| Value of cleared land, ten orlongs | 200 |
| Six laborers per annum | 360 |
| Quit rent | 7 |
| Boilers, firewood, and implements | 20 |
| Houses | 50 |
| Incidental | 30 |
| Total first year | 667 |
| Second year | 397 |
| 1,064 |
The six laborers on the plantation will, after the above period, be constantly employed in cutting and preparing the gambier: the average product will be 15 piculs monthly, which, at two dollars per picul, will be 30 dollars monthly, or 360 dollars per annum. This is the account obtained by collating different Chinese statements.
The Nauclea Gambir is placed by Jussieu under the natural order Rubiaceæ; it is a shrub attaining the height of six to eight feet, branchy; the leaves are ovate, pointed, smooth, waving, distinctly veined transversely underneath, of dark green color, and, when chewed, they have a bitter astringent taste, leaving however, afterwards, a sweetish taste in the mouth, not unlike liquorice; the flowers are aggregate, globular, composed of numerous florets, crowded on a globular naked receptacle; tubes of the corolla of a pinkish color; the upper part of the corolla fine, cleft, and of a greenish yellow color; the staminæ are five in number, and short; the pistil is longer than the corolla; the flowers are destitute of fragrance; the capsules (as correctly stated by Mr. Hunter) are stalked oblong, incrusted, and crowned with a calyx; tapering to a point below; two celled, two valved, the valves adhering at the apex, splitting at the sides; seeds very numerous, oblong, very small, compressed, furnished at both ends with a membraneous pappus.
The gambier plant is propagated either by seeds or cuttings, but the latter are preferred. It is cultivated to some extent at Singapore, but it is said that the gambier can be imported cheaper from the islands in the vicinity, more especially at the Dutch settlement at Rhio. The extract is used extensively by the natives of India, Eastern Archipelago, Cochin-China, and Cambodia, as a masticatory, wrapped up with the betel.
There are three different qualities of extract; the first and best is white, brittle, and has an earthy appearance when rubbed between the fingers (which earthy appearance gave it the name of Terra Japonica, being supposed, at first also, to come from Japan), and is formed into very small round cakes. This is the dearest sort, and most refined, but it is not unfrequently adulterated with sago; this kind is brought in the greatest quantity from the island of Sumatra. The second quality is of a brownish yellow color, is formed into oblong cakes, and, when broken, has a light brown earthy appearance; it is also made into a solid cube form; it is sold in the bazars in small packets, each containing five or six. The third quality contains more impurities than the preceding, is formed into small circular cakes, and is sold in packages of five or six in the bazar.
The method employed in preparing the extract is thus correctly related by Finlayson:—“The leaves are collected three or four times a year; they are thrown into a large cauldron, the bottom of which is formed of iron, the upper part of bark, and boiled for five or six hours, until a strong decoction is obtained; the leaves are then withdrawn, and allowed to strain over the vessel, which is kept boiling for as many hours more, until the decoction is inspissated; it is then allowed to cool, when the catechu subsides, The water is drawn off; a soft soapy substance remains, which is cut into large masses; these are further divided by a knife into small cubes, about an inch square, or into still smaller pieces, which are laid in frames to dry. This catechu has more of a granular, uniform appearance than that of Bengal; it is, perhaps, also less pure.”
The younger leaves of the shrub are said to produce the whitest and best gambier; the older, a brown and inferior sort. There are other species of Nauclea indigenous to Singapore, but they do not produce any extract.
Dr. Bennett has particularised four qualities of gambier:—
1. Small round cakes, about the size of a small lozenge. Color pale, purplish, yellowish, white.
2. Cubes, in which shape it is principally imported into England, and square prisms, or oblong pieces.
3. Circular discs, or short cylindrical pieces.
4. Cubical amylaceous pieces, of a darker brown than the other kinds.
Gambier is one of the most powerful of the pure astringents.
The chief places of manufacture are Saik, Malacca, Singapore, and Rhio or Bintang. Bennett, in his “Wanderings,” says there are 60,000 plantations of gambier on this island. After that of Rhio, the next best gambier is that of Lingin. That used by the Malays, with the leaves of betel, in the same manner as cutch in other parts of India, is the finest and whitest; the red being stronger tasted and rank, is exported to Batavia, China, and England, for the purposes of tanning and dyeing. It is frequently adulterated with sago powder, but it may be detected by solution in water.
Large quantities of gambier are imported, under the corrupted name of cutch, into Calcutta, from Pegu. The quantity of gambier produced in Rhio, by the Chinese settlers, amounts to about 4,600 tons a year, about 2,000 of which are exported for the consumption of Java, the rest being sent to Cochin-China and other neighbouring countries.
Two methods of obtaining gambier are described. One consists in boiling the leaves in water, and in inspissating the decoction; the other, which yields the best gambier, consists in infusing the leaves in warm water, by which a fecula is obtained, which is inspissated by the heat of the sun, and formed into cakes.
The injudicious practice adopted by the Land Office in Singapore, of granting indiscriminate licenses, or “cutting papers” as they are formed, seems open to objection, and is driving many of the Chinese cultivators to the neighbouring island of Johore, where they readily obtain permission to cultivate, without obstruction, this important article of commerce. Parties of 300 or 400 at a time left in 1846. It appears that, under his permissive license, the squatter obtains permission to clear as much land as he possibly can, but the order does not define any extent beyond which no cutting should take place. The squatter clears as much land as the means at his disposal will allow, in the hope and expectation that the jungle contiguous to the cleared ground will be at his command for fuel—a supply of fuel, easy of access, and adequate to the number of plants grown, being indispensable to the culture and manufacture of gambier. When the time for gathering the leaves arrives, another squatter (perhaps from motives of envy or malice) obtains a “cutting paper,” and commences clearing in close proximity to the already-formed gambier plantation; obviously depriving the owner of the fuel he has reasonably calculated upon. The established planter cannot of course eject the intruder from the land, since the latter possesses an equal right to it, in virtue of his “cutting paper,” which, as it specifies no limits, leaves him the disposer or destroyer of the crop of the industrious planter. Instead of the present system, a better practice ought to be introduced, defining the boundaries to be included in a “cutting paper,” and effectually preventing a trespass on the fuel-land of the industrious planter. This might easily be effected by specifying the number of acres, as well as the direction, in every clearing paper granted.
The average produce of gambier in Singapore is between 7,000 and 8,000 piculs monthly. The ordinary price is about 1¼ dollars per picul. A deficiency of rain, labor, or other causes, will occasionally reduce the annual produce from 90,000 or 100,000 piculs, to 60,000 or 70,000, and this diminished supply will raise the market price of the article probably 35 cents per picul. But, in addition to the effect occasioned by a deficient supply, there are other causes in operation exercising a powerful influence in reducing prices. Gambier was first exported in 1830, from Singapore, to the extent of 2,587 piculs, at 4½ dollars per picul. As a rival to bark it failed at so costly a price to meet with encouragement; the culture and manufacture consequently declined until 1834, when 1,858 piculs were shipped to England at a somewhat lower rate. The demand then became active, the exportations were at first multiplied, then doubled every succeeding year, until they reached, in 1846-47 no less than 173,117 piculs. The price has gradually declined to 1¼ dollars per picul, at which rate it displaces its rival, bark. This price, however, is unremunerative to the grower, so that, unless more encouragement offers, the supply will decline.
The number of Chinese employed in the cultivation, &c., of gambier and pepper in Singapore is about 11,000. Their rate of wages fluctuates with the price of gambier. If a picul of gambier realizes 1½ dollars, the monthly pay will be about three dollars; if gambier fetches two dollars, their pay will amount to four dollars in the month. The workmen who clean the plantation always receive a dollar less than those who cut and boil the gambier.
A good deal of gambier seems now to be grown in Java, for 58,305 piculs were exported from that island in 1843. A small quantity is taken by the Chinese ports, but whether as a masticatory or for tanning and dyeing I am not aware.
Value of the Terra Japonica Imported Into Ceylon
| £ | |
| 1840 | 611 |
| 1841 | 1,053 |
| 1842 | 768 |
| 1843 | 471 |
| 1844 | 1,153 |
| 1845 | 537 |
| 1846 | 824 |
| 1847 | 1,549 |
| 1848 | 1,095 |
| 1849 | 896 |
| 1850 | 265 |
| 1851 | 386 |
In the Customs’ returns of imports to this country, two articles are enumerated, under the separate names of cutch and terra japonica; the former is catechu and the latter the produce of the gambier plant. The imports of gambier were, in 1836, 970 tons; 1837, 2,738 tons; 1838, 1,600 tons; 1839, 5,213 tons.
| Cutch. | Terra Japonica. | ||
| tons. | tons. | ||
| 1848 | Imported to the United Kingdom | 1,186 | 5,623 |
| ″ | Retained for home consumption | 765 | 5,102 |
| 1849 | Imported | 1,636 | 6,851 |
| ″ | Retained for home consumption | 869 | 5,400 |
| 1850 | Imported | 1,172 | 4,585 |
| ″ | Home consumption | 787 | 3,655 |
| 1851 | Imported | 2,401 | 4,783 |
| ″ | Home consumption | 2,020 | 4,431 |
| 1852 | Imported | 2,236 | 3,244 |
| ″ | Home consumption | 1,708 | 3,003 |
Catechu, imported under its Indian name of cutch, is brought over in bales or baskets of from one to four cwt., the price being £18 to £25 per ton. About 450 cwt. of terra japonica or gambier is annually imported into Hull from the East Indies. The imports of the two substances into Liverpool is about 900 tons. Gambier is only worth £13 to £14 the ton; a few years ago it fetched 26s. the cwt. The imports into the port of London average 1,500 tons annually.
4,679 bales, and 14,436 baskets of terra japonica were imported into Liverpool in 1851, and 14,000 bales and baskets in 1852. The imports of cutch were 10,290 bags, and 2,592 baskets, in 1851, and 11,873 bags and baskets in 1852; the prices, which were from 16s. 6d. to 18s. per cwt. for each article, in 1851, were rapidly run up in Liverpool, in 1853, owing to short supplies, to 25s. for gambier, and 22s. to 24s. per cwt. for cutch, or catechu.
Exports of Gambier From Singapore, With the Official Value in Rupees
| Piculs. | Value in rupees. | ||
| 1840-41 | Exported | 79,508 | 457,560 |
| ″ | Growth of Singapore | 59,325 | |
| 1841-42 | Exported | 93,340 | 470,790 |
| ″ | Growth of Singapore | 47,696 | |
| 1842-43 | Exported | 148,746 | 548,281 |
| ″ | Growth of Singapore | 110,151 | |
| 1843-44 | Exported | 139,050 | 584,449 |
| ″ | Growth of Singapore | 121,791 | |
| 1844-45 | Exported | 157,654 | 539,978 |
| ″ | Growth of Singapore | 134,528 | |
| 1845-46 | Exported | 110,766 | 425,643 |
| ″ | Growth of Singapore | 75,797 | |
| 1846-47 | Exported | 173,117 | 591,943 |
| ″ | Growth of Singapore | 143,795 |
The exports of gambier from Singapore were as follows:—
| To England. | To the Continent. | Total. | |
| piculs. | piculs. | piculs. | |
| 1849 | 134,546 | 6,121 | 140,667 |
| 1850 | 87,611 | 16,166 | 103,777 |
| 1851 | 68,365 | 11,639 | 80,004 |
| 1852 | 68,045 | 9,006 | 77,051 |
The exports of cutch from Pinang, in the last four years, have been:—1849, 3,693 piculs; 1850, 900; 1851, 4,143; 1852, 3,880; or, on an average, 197 tons.
DIVI-DIVI is the commercial name for the curved pod of a leguminous shrub, Cæsalpinia coriaria, which is sometimes imported from Carthage. Its tannin differs materially from that of nutgalls. The quantity of mucilage which it contains precludes it from the use of dyers; but, as it furnishes nearly 50 per cent. of tannin, it is largely used by curriers. It is imported into Liverpool from Rio de la Hacha, Maracaibo, and Savanila. 400 tons of the seed pods and bark of the Algaroba, or Locust-tree (Prosopis pallida) were imported in 1849 into Liverpool from Valparaiso, as a substitute for divi-divi in tanning. 3,200 lbs. of divi-divi were exported from the port of Augostara, in 1846.
Specimens of divi-divi which had been raised at Calcutta were shown in the Indian department of the Great Exhibition.
Dr. Hamilton states that, according to some admirably conducted experiments of Mr. Rootsey, of Bristol, undertaken at his request, the pods of divi-divi contain above 50 per cent. of tannin. It appears also, from trials made, that one part of divi-divi is sufficient for tanning as much leather as four parts of bark, and the process occupies but one-third of the time.
The average produce of pods from a full-grown tree has been estimated at 100 lbs. weight, one-fourth of which consists of seeds or refuse, leaving about 75 lbs. of marketable matter.
At an interval of six feet apart, an acre of ground will contain 1,210 trees, yielding an average of 810 cwts., and 30 pounds, or above 40½ tons of marketable matter, worth, at only £5 per ton, £200. Should the interval between the trees be extended two feet more, we shall still have 680 to the acre, the produce of which would not improbably be increased by the increased space given for the extension of the branches.
The ground in which this tree admits of being cultivated is that which is least adapted to the staple products of tropical agriculture; guinea grass may be profitably raised beneath its shade and as with the exception of the three years which precede the commencement of its bearing, there is hardly any deduction to be made from its returns, it promises to be among the most valuable objects of a planter’s attention.
Jacquin describes the Cæsalpinia coriaria as a handsome branching tree, of about fifteen feet in stature, covered with a dark spotted bark. Its leaves are doubly pinnate, and the leaflets of twelve pair without a terminal one; they are oblong, obtuse, smooth, very entire. The flowers are disposed in spikes issuing from the extremities of the branches; they are small, yellowish, and slightly fragrant. To these succeed oblong, compressed, somewhat obtuse pods, curved laterally, the inner side being concave and the other convex. The seeds rarely exceed three or four in each pod, and are of a brownish color.
Divi-divi resembles a dried pea-shuck curled up, filled with yellow powder, and a few dark brown seeds. The price ranges from £8 to £13 per ton.
The imports into the United Kingdom in 1844, were 3,900 tons; in 1845 and 1846, about 1,400 tons each year; during the subsequent three years the imports were merely nominal, but in 1850 a renewed demand seems to have sprung up, for 2,770 tons were imported into Liverpool, and a few tons into London.
CORK-TREE BARK (Quercus suber) has been imported into Ireland to a considerable extent, frequently to the amount of 1,500 tons annually. The quantity of cork imported annually into the United Kingdom is about 3,000 tons. It is brought from Spain, Italy, and Barbary. Oak bark and valonia being very cheap and plentiful, the price of cork hark is only nominal, being, for Spanish cork-tree bark, £7 10s. to £8 per ton; Leghorn ditto, £6 to £7 per ton. It is less astringent than oak bark, and is more generally useful for stoppers of bottles and bungs for casks. 160 tons of cork-tree bark were imported into Liverpool from Rabat in 1849, and 150 tons in 1850.
1,867 cwts. of bark for tanning were imported from Chili in 1844, of which 292 were Quillai bark.
MIMOSA BARK.—The bark of the Mimosa decurrens, which abounds in Australia and Van Diemen’s Land, is found to be a very powerful tanning agent.
The first shipment of tannin was made from Sydney to England as far back as 1823, in the shape of an extract of the bark of two species of mimosa, which was readily purchased by the tanners at the rate of £50 per ton. One ton of bark had produced four cwts. of extract of the consistency of tar.
In 1843, 3,078 tons of mimosa bark was shipped from Port Phillip to Great Britain. The price then realised in the London market was £12 to £14 per ton, but it has since declined to £8 a ton. The quantity of this bark to be procured in the colony is quite inexhaustible. The price of chopped mimosa bark in Australia, for export, in the close of 1846, was £2 5s. per ton. Bark valued at £912 was exported from Van Diemen’s Land in 1848.
The imports of mimosa bark have only been to a limited extent within the last few years, reaching 350 tons in 1850, against 110 tons in 1849, 230 tons in 1848, and 600 tons in 1847. The prices realised were £10 to £11 for chopped, £12 to £12 10s. for ground, and £8 to £9 per ton for unchopped bark. Whilst the imports were 3,900 tons in 1814, they dwindled to less than 400 tons in 1850.
From an experiment, conducted by Professor Brandt, the strength of the mimosa bark, as compared with that of young English oak bark, is found to be in the proportion of 57 to 39, so that the mimosa bark is half as strong again as the best English bark.
Mr. Samuel Mossman, in a communication to the Botanic Society of Edinburgh, in 1851, stated that the bark of A. dealbata pays to ship to England, notwithstanding the distance, from the fact of its containing a greater per centage of tannin than any other bark. It is a handsome tree, from fifteen to thirty feet high, forming luxuriant groves on the banks of streams, most abundant in Port Phillip and Twofold Bay, between the parallels of latitude 34 and 30 degrees.
New Zealand is rich in barks and dyes. The bark of the Tanahaka (Phyllodadus trichomanoides, of Don) is used by the natives as a red dye for the ornamental parts of their kaitahas, their best border garments. There is also another red dye, called Tawaivwai, the bark of which is very profuse. A black dye is procured from the hinau. They are of a rich hue, and exceedingly fast colors. The barks are to be found all over the colony. The hinau and tanahaka are employed in tanning, all the leather used in the colony being tanned either at the Bay of Islands or Port Nicholson.
The bark of the Rimu or red pine (Dacrydium Cupressinum, of Solander), a very common tree, possesses tanning qualities far superior to any of the Australian barks. One pound of the bark yields 85 grains of extract.
The native tanning barks of New Zealand are various and easily obtained. Specimens of the bark and dye, &c., of most of these trees were sent home to the Great Exhibition. One pound of the Tanahaka bark is said to yield 63 grains of tannin. The sails of boats are dyed with it to preserve them. The Towai (Licospermum racemosum, of Don, Weinmaunia racemosa, Decandole), is supposed to be valuable for the purposes of the tanner, and is said to yield 104 grains of tannin for every pound of bark. The bark of the Pohutu kawa of the natives, the Metrosideros tomentosaof Richard, and Callistemon ellipticum of Allan Cunningham, would also be useful for tanning, one pound of it furnishing about 60 grains of tannin.
The bark of the Hino tree, the Elæocarpus hinau of Cunningham, the Dicera dentata of Forster, is used by the natives for dyeing black.
The black mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) is a tree attaining an altitude of from 30 to 50 feet, and occupying marshy situations in the vicinity of the sea. Almost every part of the mangrove—the bark, roots, and the fruit more particularly—abounds in an astringent principle, which is successfully applied to the purposes of tanning. As the tree is so abundant within the tropics, it might be worth the while of some practical speculator to make an extract on the spot, and introduce it into the English market, for the use of tanners and dyers. For tanning, the mangrove is said to be infinitely superior to oak bark, completing in six weeks an operation which with the latter occupies at least six months, and the sole-leather so tanned is said to be more durable than any other. The bark and leaves, which contain nearly as much tannin as the oak, are made use of in the West Indies, as well as in Scinde and other parts of Asia.
3,713 piculs of mangrove bark, valued at £819, were shipped from Shanghae, one of the Chinese ports, in 1849.
MYROBALANS.—This is a name applied to the almond-like kernels of a nut or dried fruit of the plum kind, of which there are several sorts known in the East. They are the produce of various species of Terminalia, as T. Bellerica, chebula, citrina, and angustifolia. They vary from the size of olives to that of gall nuts, and have a rough, bitter, and unpleasant taste. Many of the trees of this tribe, which are all natives of the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America, are used for tanning, and some for dyeing. They are highly valued by dyers, creating, when mixed with alum, a durable dark brown yellow. Myrobalans fetch in the Bombay market 8s. to 26s. the Surat candy of 821 lbs. The bark and leaves of T. Catappa yield a black pigment, with which Indian ink is made; the seeds are eaten like almonds. A milky juice is said to flow from T. angustifolia, which, when dried, is fragrant, and, resembling Benzoin, is used as a kind of incense in the Catholic churches in the Mauritius. The fruit of T. Bellerica, and of T. Chebula, both useful timber trees, indigenous to the East Indies, are used medicinally as a tonic and astringent. 117 cwts. of myrobalans were shipped from Ceylon in 1845.
The annual imports of myrobalans into Hull, amount to about 1,600 cwts. The quantity which arrived at Liverpool was 185 tons in 1849, 851 tons in 1850; 27,212 bags in 1851, and 19,946 bags in 1852; they come from Calcutta and Bombay, and are also used for dyeing yellow and black. The price in January, 1853, was 6s. to 12s. per cwt. The average annual imports into the United Kingdom may be taken at 1,200 tons.
KINO.—The Kino, of Botany Bay and Van Diemen’s Land, is the produce of the iron bark tree, Eucalyptus resinifera. White (“Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales”), says this tree sometimes yields, on incision, 60 gallons of juice. Kino is imported in boxes. The tincture of kino is used medicinally, but an inconvenience is frequently found to arise, from its changing to the gelatinous form. Dr. Pereira seems to think this species of kino consists principally of pectin and tannic acid. That chiefly used as East Indian kino, is an extract formed by inspissating a decoction of the branches and twigs of the gambler plant. Vauquelin analysed it, and found it to consist of, tannin and peculiar extractive matter, 75; red gum, 24; insoluble matter, 1.
The East Indian kino, imported from Bombay and Tellicherry, is the produce of Pterocarpus marsupium, a lofty, broad-spreading forest tree, which blossoms in October and November. The bark is of a greyish color, and is upwards of half an inch in thickness on the trunk. When cut, a blood-red juice speedily exudes and trickles down; it soon thickens, and becomes hard in the course of fifteen or sixteen hours. The gum is extracted in the season when the tree is in blossom, by making longitudinal incisions in the bark round the trunk, so as to let the gum ooze down a broad leaf, placed as a spout, into a receiver. When the receiver is filled it is removed. The gum is dried in the sun until it crumbles, and then filled in wooden boxes for exportation.
P. erinaceus, a tree 40 to 50 feet in height, a native of the woods of the Gambia and Senegal, furnishes kino, but none is collected in or exported from Africa. Butea frondosa, or the dhak tree of the East Indies, furnishes a similar product, in the shape of a milky, colored, brittle, and very astringent gum. Kino is used as a powerful astringent, and is administered in the form of powder and tincture. Some specimens of Butea kino, analysed by Prof. Solly, after the impurities had been separated, yielded 73¼ per cent. of tannin.
VALONIA is the commercial name of the cupula or cup of the acorn, produced by the Quercus ægilops and its varieties, the Balonia or Valonia oak, natives of the Levant, from whence, and the Morea, they form a very considerable article of export; containing abundance of tannin they are largely used by tanners. The tannin differs materially from that of nutgalls. The bark of Q. tinctorea, a native of North America, yields a yellow dye.
The quantity of valonia imported for home consumption, in 1836, was 80,511 cwts., of which Turkey furnished 58,724 cwts., and Italy and the Ionian islands 7,209 cwts. Of 163,983 cwts. imported in 1840, 143,095 cwts. were brought from Turkey, 15,195 cwts. from Italy, and the residue from Greece and the Ionian Islands. The entries for home consumption in the three years ending with 1842, amounted to about 8,200 tons a year. The increase since has been considerable, the imports having been, in 1848, 10,237 tons; in 1849, 16,671 tons; in 1850, 12,526 tons; in 1851, 10,639 tons; in 1852, 13,870 tons. We receive about 14,000 to 20,000 cwts. annually from Leghorn. The imports into the port of Hull are 3,900 cwts. per year.
The prices of Smyrna valonias are from £13 to £14 per ton; those of picked Morea, £10 per ton. The duty received on valonias imported in 1842 was about £4,000.
The annual produce is sufficient to meet the wants of all Europe. It can be had in Turkey to any extent and at all periods. Many cargoes are sent to Dublin, and the German markets. A little valonia is exported from Manila, the shipments having been about 150 tons per annum.
Camata and Camatina are two varieties of very young valonias, which are found more valuable for some processes of tanning than the common kinds.
Extensive as has been the enumeration of the vegetable substances used in the various branches of art and manufacture which have formed the principal subjects of this section, it is probable that with the progress of knowledge, of scientific experiment, and of investigation into the properties of given commodities, the list will be indefinitely increased. What I have stated will suffice to give the reader an idea of the surprising variety of sources from which we receive the raw materials which enable us to perfect some of the most elegant processes of manufacturing skill and ingenuity, and will further afford some criterion—though, of course, not a perfect one—for estimating the relative importance of the tanning and dyeing substances.