Indigo bunting

“ So beautiful is his changeable silk that one half suspects him of borrowing from the peacock's wardrobe. A grain of that lordly fowl's disposition may have mixed with the dye; for if there is a pointed spruce tree near, indigo is sure to perch on the tip-top and sing until you look at him. Still, he loves beauty for beauty's sake, and is not really vain like the tanager.
That gorgeous bird actually sings, "Here pretty, pretty here!" with variations, as if all loveliness focused in his feathers. He arrives just when the tender young foliage of May will half veil his vivid scarlet coat ”

“ The feathers on his throat would ruffle as a wave of song ran upward filling the room with a delicious music.
Unlike the hermit thrush, which has silent, preoccupied hours and is given to meditation, the indigo has no indolent days and is a happy, sunny-hearted creature.
His attitudes are like the catbird's—erecting crest, flirting body and tail, or drooping the latter in the precise manner of the catbird. Judged by indigo dress-standards, this bird is in an undress uniform, quite as undress as it is uniform ”

“ At present the Indios bring the skins from the mountains in considerable numbers, their value depending on the length of the tail-plumes, which sometimes exceeds three feet. As the female is very plain, without the beautiful tail of the male, she escapes the hunters, and consequently preserves [98] the species. The wing-coverts and tail-feathers of the male are of a superb peacock-green, changing to indigo, the inner breast scarlet, and the wings very dark. ”

“ I have no hesitation in saying that the steady efforts which have been made by all the best planters to treat the ryot fairly, to give him justice, to encourage him with liberal aid and sympathy, and to put their mutual relations on a fair business footing, are now bearing fruit, and will result in the cultivation and manufacture of indigo in Upper Bengal becoming, as it deserves to become, one of the most firmly established, fairly conducted, and justly administered industries in India. ”

“ Batcham, “I travelled with a couple of men who said they were indigo planters, and so they may have been for all I know. Anyhow they spotted me to be a globe-trotter—said they knew it by the kind of hat I wore—and then they proceeded to fill me up about the country. One fellow said he didn’t own a yard of indigo land himself; always got the peasants to grow it for him; and the other went into some complicated explanation of how blue indigo was got by squeezing green leaves. ”

“ All the people referred to, are remarkable for their strength and endurance, which may be judged of by the heavy burdens they carry on their backs. The inhabitants of the table-lands are of various hues; some are olive, some brown, others of a red copper color. In the Sierras some have a bluish tint as if dyed with indigo. The natives of the tierras calientes are of a darker complexion, inclining to black. There are some called Indios Pintos, whose cuticle is of a less deep color, inclining more to yellowish and marked with dark copper-colored spots. ”

“ The ryot, in return for his cash advance, agrees to cultivate so much indigo at a certain price, for which he gets credit in his rent. Such, shortly, is our indigo system. In some villages the ryot will estimate for us without our having the lease at all, and without taking advances. He grows the indigo as he would grow any other crop, as a pure speculation. If he has a good crop, he can get the price in hard cash from the factory, and a great deal is grown in this way in both Purneah and Bhaugulpore. ”

“ The cultivation of indigo is very difficult. So much ploughing, and weeding, and carriage, there is no end to the expense; and if any of it is stained with carrying, they will not take it. If there be no gain, why do you cultivate it? ”

“ Presently the jackal—further life being predestined—managed to crawl out of the indigo vat and escaped into the forest. There all the thronging animals in his vicinity caught a glimpse of his body dyed with the juice of indigo, and crying out: "What is this creature enriched with that unprecedented color?" they fled, their eyes dancing with terror, and spread the report: "Oh, oh! Here is an exotic creature that has dropped from somewhere. ”

“ The planters bring their indigo to market about the end of the year, and frequently earlier. The merchant judges of its quality by breaking it, and observing the closeness of its grain, and its brilliant copper, or violet blue colour. The weight in some measure proves its quality, for heavy indigo of every colour is always bad. Good indigo almost entirely consumes away in the fire, the bad leaves a quantity of ashes. In water also pure and fine indigo entirely melts and dissolves, but the heterogeneous and solid parts of the bad sink to the bottom like sand. ”

“ From the same part of the Republic, as well as from several of the Upper Provinces, any quantity of indigo may be obtained, of an excellent quality. M. Bonpland, the celebrated naturalist, who has spent so many years in those parts, took the trouble years ago to draw attention to the peculiarity of the indigo found in the province of Corrientes. Speaking of those parts called the Missions, he says, "The whole of this country exceeds description; at every step one meets with things both new and useful in natural history. I have already collected 2000 plants, a large quantity of seeds, &c. ”

“ The indigo plant impoverishes the soil, where it is cultivated during a long series of years, more than any other. The lands of Maracay, Tapatapa, and Turmero, are looked upon as exhausted; and indeed the produce of indigo has been constantly decreasing. But in proportion as it has diminished in the valleys of Aragua, it has increased in the province of Varinas, and in the burning plains of Cucuta, where, on the banks of the Rio Tachira, virgin land yields an abundant produce, of the richest colour. ”

“ The central provinces of Java yield large quantities of indigo, which are exported to Holland, and thence widely distributed. The indigo prepared by the natives is of an indifferent quality, in a semi-fluid state, and contains much quicklime; but that prepared by Europeans is of a very superior quality. An inferior variety, having smaller seeds, and being of quicker growth, is usually planted as a second crop on land where one rice crop has been raised. In these situations, the plant rises to a height of about 31⁄2 ft. ”

“ Although there are a great many fields in which the indigo grows wild, and settlements in which it was once extensively cultivated still exist, yet at this period but very little is produced. Its cultivation requires the greatest care, for it has to go through a very long process, from the picking of the leaves on which the blue is found until it is fit to be removed into chests. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And while these joyful Planters are thus rejoicing, the indigo is growing silently all round. While they play, Nature works for them. So does the patient black man; he smokes his huqqa and keeps an eye on the rising crop.
You will have learnt from Mr. Caird that indigo grows in cakes (the ale is imported) ; to his description of the process of manufacture I can only add that the juice is generally expressed in the vernacular. ”

“ They carry on an extensive traffic with the wild tribes of the neighbouring mountains. Indigo is grown in considerable quantity, as are rice and tobacco. The weaving of blankets, handkerchiefs, and cotton and silk cloths constitutes quite an important industry. ”

“ The only hope of rescuing the industry from total disappearance lies in the fact that the natural indigo gives a faster dye than the manufactured product, while an effort has also been made to introduce the Java-Natal seed into India, which gives a much heavier yield, and so may be better able to compete in price with synthetic indigo. ”

“ Dark grayish green, clover-like leaves, and small, bright yellow flowers growing in loose clusters at the ends of the branches of a bushy little plant, are so commonly met with they need little description. A relative, the true indigo-bearer, a native of Asia, once commonly grown in the Southern states when slavery made competition with Oriental labor possible, has locally escaped and become naturalized. But the false species, although, as Doctor Gray says, it yields "a poor sort of indigo," yields a most valuable medicine employed by the homoeopathists in malarial fevers. ”

“ Many varieties of indigo grow luxuriantly and wild in the colony; almost justifying the thought that on this side of Africa the plant is indigenous, although we are aware that on the west coast it was introduced by the Jesuits, and perhaps also, by way of the Zambesi, into the interior.
Large factories are being erected for the manufacture of indigo; and, in order that it may be thoroughly successful, arrangements have been made for the introduction of persons who have been already acquainted with its manufacture in the island of Java. ”

“ The lands in our northern colonies are too much exhausted to raise a sufficient quantity of hemp for their own consumption: and indigo does not grow to the north of Cape Fear river, in North Carolina, on account of the coldness of the climate. And as it grows only in rich lands, it is liable to be devoured the second year by swarms of grasshoppers, and its roots are of so penetrating a nature, as not only to impoverish the ground, but requires more new fertile land than the planters can allow; so that in a short time, that product will cease of course in South Carolina, and Georgia. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We had, this year, as a part of our crop, ten acres of indigo. This plant is worked nearly after the manner of rice, except, that it is planted on high and dry ground, whilst the rice is always cultivated in low swamps, where the ground may be inundated with water; but notwithstanding its location on dry ground, the culture of indigo is not less unpleasant than that of rice. When the rice is ripe, and ready for the sickle, it is no longer disagreeable ”

“ Now, had the Southern States the capacity to produce indigo? The soil and climate of those States were well suited to the culture of the article. At the commencement of the Revolution our exports of the article amounted to no less than 1,100,000 lbs. The whole quantity now imported into the United States is only 1,150,000 lbs.; so that the capacity of the country to produce a sufficient quantity of indigo to supply the wants of the manufacturers is unquestionable. It is true that the quantity now produced in the country is not great. ”

“ She saved the whole crop for seed,—and it takes about a bushel of indigo seed to plant four acres,—and she planted the Pinckney plantation at Ashepoo, and gave to her friends and neighbors small quantities of seed for individual experiment; all of which proved successful. The culture of indigo at once became universal, the newspapers were full of instructions upon the subject, and the dye was exported to England by 1747, in such quantity that merchants [Pg 79] trading in Carolina petitioned Parliament for a bounty on Carolina indigo. ”

“ Why do so many naked natives paint only the face, though living in the neighbourhood of those who paint the whole body?* (* The Caribs, the Salives, the Tamanacs, and the Maypures.)
We are struck with the observation, that the Indians of the Orinoco, like the natives of North America, prefer the substances that yield a red colour to every other. Is this predilection founded on the facility with which the savage procures ochreous earths, or the colouring fecula of anato and of chica? I doubt this much. Indigo grows wild in a great part of equinoctial America. ”

“ Three species, however, are very abundant, and one fairly so, in Northern India, during the cold weather. Buntings are not often seen south of Bombay. As they find plenty of grain in northern latitudes, there is no necessity for them to penetrate into the tropics. The grey-necked, the red-headed and the black-headed are the three commonest species. The grey-necked bunting (Emberiza buchanani) is an ashy-brown bird with a reddish tinge in its lower plumage, and a whitish ring round the eye. It is a bird that is apt to pass unnoticed unless looked for. ”

“ It contains about 5000 inhabitants, but like most African towns, is dirty and ill-constructed. Here they saw the method used by the natives for dying cloth with indigo, which is extremely rude and inartificial; and the effect seems to be produced solely by the superior quality of the indigo, and the quantity employed. Little ivory is exposed for sale in the market, cloth, and provisions forming the chief articles of traffic. ”