The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-20

By the last of June or the first of July the plans begin to bloom and the nrst crop is harvested. The plants are cut of close to the ground with a short. sharp machete tied in bundles and carried to the sleeping vats. Almost immediately new shoots start from the old roots. and in two months more another but smaller crop is secured. Still a third crop Is cut in November, after which the roots die.
 The bundles of freshly cut glquislete are packed in huge vats.' It is then weighted down with heavy wooden beams and large stones, and enough water Is let in to just cover 1t. In from ten to twelve hours fermentation begins, so much gas being released that the great bubbles ris-
 ing to the top give the mater the ap- pearance of boiling.
 In a short time the water becomes light green in color, when 1t is drained on by pipes running from the bottom of the vat into another place at lower level. More water is then run into the upper vat, and this becomes green. like the first.
 In the second vat the green liquid is violently agitated by being beaten with rods or sometimes by paddles run by power in order to separate the grain, as they express 1t. Agitation causes the liquid to change its color from green 10 q bright blue and to deposit sediment In the bottom of the vessel. After being all lowed to settle for some hours the sedi- ment is drawn off into a third vat at q still lower level, from which 1t is pumped into q boiler.
 After being slightly heated the liquid is again allowed to settle. clear water rising to the top. As much of this as possible Is skinned off, and the residue Is then brought to the boiling point. It Is then poured upon very fine cloth stretcnea over a wooden framework and allowed to drip. When drained to the consistency of thick cream, it Is removed and sub jected to enormous screw pressure. caus- ing it to become about as hard as cheese. It Is then cut by brass wires into cubes three inches square. and when these are dried and polished they are ready for market. .
 The finest indigo is packed in 'serons. . which are rude, shapeless cases made or dried OK skins. It Is claimed that no oth- CT method of packing for shipment pre- vents deterioration of quality so well as this, well made serons being perfectly air tight and moisture proof
 Twenty years ago the exports of indigo from Central America exceeded 3,500,000 pounds, valued at approximately Sz.fooVVO. Exact statistics of production at the pres ent time are unobtainable. but probably the exports are not more than one-twen- tietb of what they were at the period above stated. The reason Is to be found, not in a falling off in the demand for indigo dyes. but in the discovery Of a method of compromising these dyes in the laboratory at a less expense than that necessary to extract them from the gi'
 Twenty years ago or thereabouts pr Bayer of Munich discovered a method oi extracting indigo from coal tar. and iron that time forward the cultivation of gi uuislete has steadily declined. The arti ficial product is almost identical chemi caIly. with the natural and is secured al little expense from what was formerly regarded not merely as useless but as ( nuisance.
 However. the advance of science canno convert the native Central American tt the use of any substitute for natura gIquslete dyes: and until the native racei | of Aztec. Toltec and Indian descent be come entirely extinct this branch of trop | ical agriculture will remain of consider | able local importance.