Remonstrantie 4.5

4.5

The best comparison I can give to illustrate these three kinds of indigo is that the nauti is like a growing lad who has still to come to his prime and vigour; the ziarie is like a man in his vigorous prime; the katel is like an old, decrepit man, who in the course of his journey has had to cross many valleys of sadness and many mountains of misery, not only changed and wrinkled in the face, but falling gradually into helpless senility. I will add that the nauti far surpasses the katel in substance and quality, for while only a rupee a maund separates the ziarie from the nauti, they are worth fully double the katel. The standing indigo is liable to many more accidents or misfortunes than other crops or products. If scanty rains follow the sowing of the nauti, the seed withers in the ground, while excessive rain and lack of sunshine quickly cause the plants to rot or to be washed one over another. Sometimes after a successful nauti, excessive cold in December, January, or February, so injures the roots which should give the ziarie, that no crop can be expected; and, if this has not happened, but the rains are late, with no fall in June or the first half of July, then the roots dry up, and obtain no nourishment for the crop. Further, for the last three years in succession, locusts have appeared in such numbers during June, July and August, as sometimes to obscure the sun, and wherever they settled, they cleared the land so completely that not a blade was left.