induced to use up-country seed, because, coming from a colder climate, it vegetates, and the plants ripen rapidly, so as to be harvested more certainly before the annual inundation, but they employ one-fourth more.  Three seers per Bengal biggah are sufficient, if it is “Dassee” seed; but four is not too much if it is up-country seed.  A Bengal biggah is only a third of the size of that of Tirhoot.  If the weather is dry, the seed very often does not germinate until the occurrence of rain, and it has been known in a dry, light soil, to remain in the ground without injury for six weeks.  If seasonable showers occur, the plants make their appearance in four days, or even less; and they must be watched, in order that they may be weeded on the earliest day that they are sufficiently established to allow the operation to be safely performed.  In dry weather, it must not be done while they are very young, otherwise many of the seedlings will have their roots disturbed, and perish from the drought.  However, not more than a fortnight should be allowed to pass, after the seedlings have appeared, before the weeds are carefully removed, and this clearing should be frequently repeated until the plants so overshadow the ground that they of themselves keep back the advance of the weeds.  The first weeding is best performed immediately after a shower of rain.

Irrigation is rarely adopted for the indigo crops in the lower provinces of Bengal, unless they happen to be grown in some situation very favorable to the operation, such as the bank of a river.  It is much more attended to in the western provinces, and in Oude, the water being obtained from wells, which are dug in nearly every cultivated plot.  In Oude, Mr. Ballard says that a biggah of land employs three persons to irrigate it, and occupies never less than six days.  The ryot, or cultivator, requires for the work a pair of bullocks, which cost him at least 32s., a bucket made of a white bullock hide, at 2s., and a rope for 2s. more, both of which do not last him above a year.  He never pays less than 8s. for the rent of a biggah of land near a well.

In Bengal the plant requires three months to attain its highest state of perfection for manufacturing, but is often cut, from necessity, within half that time; for the approach of the river compels the premature removal of the crop, unless, indeed, its growth has been so retarded that it would not pay the expense of working.  Most indigo factories have consequently to begin in June, or early in July, whenever they may have effected their spring sowings, and the labors of the season are commonly terminated by the middle or end of August.

When the plants begin to flower is considered the best time for cutting them, and this is just what the botanist would have suggested, because then the proper sap of all plants is most abundant, and most rich in their several peculiar secretions.  A vividly green, abundant and healthy foliage,