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 L30 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 im