------------------------------------------------------------- [4] A reply by Mr. D. R. Whitney, an extensive indigo importer, to a letter of inquiry, enables us to correct some errors in our former article, under the head of “commerce in indigo.” The value of export from India in 1862–63, stated in dollars, through a typographical error, should have been pounds sterling; thus, instead of $2,126,814, read £2,126,814. It is stated in our first article that the telegrams show a decline of price of indigo in the Indian trade of from 50 to 75 per cent; “per cent” should read “rupees,” which would make a decline of from 25 to 30 per cent. The reason for the decline, as stated by Mr. Whitney, is the unusually large crop of this year. The average crop of indigo in Bengal is about 100,000 maunds. The crop of this year is 135,000 maunds, about 30 to 35 per cent above the average.
According to Mr. Whitney, the consumption of Bengal indigo in the United States was 2,458 cases of 270 lbs. to a case on an average, in 1871; and in 1872, 1,802 cases. Guatemala indigo, 3,132 serroons in 1871, and 2,578 serroons in 1872.
[5] See notes on “sickness” of vats in Appendix. -------------------------------------------------------------
With the real difficulties which attend the process, it is hard for indigo dyeing to sustain itself in the face of cheap substitutes of easy application, such as the Nicholson blue. It is exceedingly difficult to piece dye with indigo and preserve a uniform hue upon the cloth. Hence indigo dyes are generally given in the wool. The wool absorbing the foreign material of the dye is more difficult to work in the operations of carding and spining. In other words, a finer and costlier wool is required. A great _desideratum_ therefore is a means of piece dyeing with indigo so as to preserve a perfect uniformity of hue throughout the piece. This, we are happy to say, has been recently successfully accomplished by one of the largest and most faithful of our cloth-making establishments. It would be premature, before the patents are secured for this invention, to explain the ingenious and expensive apparatus devised for this purpose, which constitutes in fact a battery of vats so arranged that the operation may be continuous. The experiments authorize the statement that bottom dyes of indigo, so desirable for a great variety of colors, can be applied with no other additional cost than that of the dyeing material. When this establishment, as it proposes, stamps upon the cards which designate goods, already so admirable in material and texture, “Warranted indigo dyed,” we shall regard it as an era in the American card-wool manufacture.