n 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 v