| Great Britain | 1,214,380 | kilograms | (2,683,779) | lbs. |
| France | 912,915 | „ | (2,017,542) | „ |
| United States | 130,000 | „ | (277,300) | „ |
| Other countries | 2,435,473 | „ | (5,382,395) | „ |
| Total | 4,692,768 | kilograms | (10,362,016) | lbs. |
The approximate consumption in 1859 is stated as follows:—
| Great Britain | 800,000 | kilograms | (1,768,000) | lbs. |
| France | 800,000 | „ | (1,768,000) | „ |
| United States | 400,000 | „ | (884,000) | „ |
| Russia | 860,000 | „ | (1,900,600) | „ |
| The Zollverein | 1,250,000 | „ | (2,762,500) | „ |
| Switzerland | 150,000 | „ | (331,500) | „ |
| Austria | 400,000 | „ | (884,000) | „ |
| Other countries | 300,000 | „ | (663,000) | „ |
| Total | 4,960,000 | kilograms | (10,961,600) | lbs. |
The average production in 1859 is estimated as follows:—
| Bengal, Madras, &c. | 3,500,000 | kilograms | (7,735,000) | lbs. |
| Java | 550,000 | „ | (1,215,500) | „ |
| Central America | 300,000 | „ | (884,000) | „ |
| Other sources | 100,000 | „ | (221,000) | „ |
| Total | 4,450,000 | kilograms | (9,834,500) | lbs. |
As the maximum annual consumption in 1859 is set down at 5,000,000 kilograms, the author concludes that the average production at that time did not surpass the requirements of the dyers of the whole world.
FORMER PRODUCTION IN THE CAROLINAS.
As pertinent to the commercial branch of our subject, we must briefly notice the remarkable facts of the sudden growth and equally sudden and extraordinary extinction of the production of indigo in the Carolinas. Indigo was for many years the second great staple of South Carolina. So highly was this staple estimated that the historian of the State declares that “it proved more really beneficial to Carolina than the mines of Mexico or Peru are or ever have been to Old or New Spain.” Its introduction was the happy result of a woman’s culture and energy. In the early part of the last century, the indigo plant had been extensively cultivated in the West India Islands, which then furnished the chief supply of Europe. The governor of Antigua, George Lucas, whose home plantation was at Wappoo in Carolina, having observed the fondness of his daughter, Miss Eliza Lucas, afterwards the mother of General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, for the culture of plants, was in the habit of sending to her tropical seeds to be sowed on his plantation at Wappoo. Among others, he sent her some seeds of the indigo plant cultivated in the West Indies. She planted them for two years; but the seeds failed to germinate, or were killed by the frost. On the third year’s trial, in 1741 or 1742, she was successful. Governor Lucas, on hearing that the plants had ripened and produced seed, sent from Montserrat a person skilled in making indigo. Vats were built on Wappoo Creek, and there the first American indigo was manufactured. The attempts of the expert to conceal his processes were defeated by the vigilance of Miss Lucas. The process of manufacture was made known. Seeds from the Wappoo plantation were freely distributed and successfully planted; and the culture of indigo became common. In 1747, a considerable quantity of indigo was sent to England, which induced the merchants trading with Carolina to petition parliament for a bounty on Carolina indigo. In 1748, an act of parliament was passed granting a bounty of sixpence per pound on indigo raised on British-American plantations and imported directly to Britain from its place of growth. This act stimulated the planters of Carolina to double vigor in the production of this new material for export. “Many of them,” says Dr. Ramsay, “doubled their capital every three or four years by planting indigo.” In the year 1754, the export of indigo from the province amounted to 216,924 lbs., and in the years 1772 and 1773 the export had risen to 1,107,661 lbs. The production was greatly checked by the war of the Revolution. Near the close of the century the large importations from India lowered the price, so as to make the planting unprofitable. In the mean time, the culture of cotton had sprung up under the protective tariff of 1789. The grounds suitable for indigo planting were equally fitted for cotton, and were for the most planted with the new staple. It is curious to observe how the former was displaced by the latter staple. The export of indigo from Charleston in 1797 was 96,121 lbs.: in 1800, it fell to 3,400 lbs. During the same years, the exports of cotton rose from one million to six and a half million pounds. The production of American indigo appears to have revived from time to time up to 1829. A writer of that period in Silliman’s Journal of Science estimates—although it would seem on doubtful authority—the production of indigo in the United States at 20,000 lbs. The price of the American article had fallen, owing to the great quantity of extractive which it contained, to fifty cents per pound, while the Bengal indigo was worth $1.15 per pound. We have no data as to its production at the present time, but infer, from the fact that no reference has been made to this product in the Government Agricultural Reports for many years past, that the production, if any, is too unimportant to be noticed.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION OF INDIGO.
All the applications of indigo require that the material should first be reduced to an impalpable powder. It is better to grind it with water, to prevent the loss of material in the form of powder, although the dry pulverization is necessary when the indigo is to be used for the manufacture of the sulphate. To facilitate the grinding the material into a paste, it should be previously soaked in hot water from one to three hours. The grinding on a small scale may be done by a very simple apparatus. This is a hemispherical vessel of copper or cast-iron, eighteen inches in diameter, furnished at the edge with two handles. The workman, sitting astride a bench, places the vessel before him, in which he places three heavy cast-iron balls, the indigo which has been softened, and a sufficient quantity of water. Holding the basin by the handles, he gives it a circular oscillatory movement, in such a manner that the balls, following this movement, crush the indigo which surrounds them; after which the contents are poured into another vessel, water is added, and the material is stirred. The portions incompletely ground are made to reunite themselves at the bottom by means of regular blows with a hammer on the rim of the vessel. The upper liquid is decanted, and the deposit is submitted to a new manipulation in the basin.