e buyers, from the cigars being sold at public
auction, which, however, very seldom happens. Purchasers have no
power to secure the good quality of the cigars they buy, as on an
application being made to the director of the renta for a quantity,
he merely fills up a printed order for their delivery, and after the
money has been paid for them, but not till then, they are delivered
by the warehouse-keepers at random, as it is not allowed to select for
delivery any of the cigars under their charge, which are consequently
never seen by the purchaser until after the completion of the bargain,
when if the quality is bad he has no remedy for it, as they will not be
received back again by the Government or the money for them returned.

_Indigo._--The quantity produced is very small; that exported to the
United States being the bulk of the crop, although large quantities
of liquid indigo are also annually sent to China in casks; but I have
not been able to ascertain its amount with any degree of precision. It
is of an inferior quality to the solid dye, and sells for considerably
less money.

The dye coming from the provinces of Laguna and Pangasinan is generally
of superior quality to that produced in Ylocos and elsewhere, their
relative prices being about forty-five dollars per quintal for the
first two descriptions, and twenty-eight dollars for the other sorts
of first, second, and third qualities in proportions.

The cultivation of the plant is very precarious, as it is liable
to damage from a variety of causes; it will die if too much water
collects round it, or if too little is given to it. It generally
is grown on a dry soil, having a slight decline, to carry off the
rain. To extract the dye from the plant, the usual process is to
place it in large vessels containing lime and water, and then to
bruise it with a wooden pestle; after which, when the water becomes
still, the colouring matter will sink to the bottom of the vessel,
when the water and the plants are drained off, and the matter, which
by that time has acquired the consistency of paste, is exposed to the
air to dry upon mats: as it becomes more dry it is divided by lines
into small quadrangular pieces, and is broken up.

To secure a good quality of indigo, great attention must be paid to
the clearness of the water, and the proper mixture and quantity of
the lime, as too much or too little is equally pernicious; also the
time during which the bruising takes pla