IN THE EAST AND WEST INDIES.                             431
that the planters of indigo went to bed rich, and rofe book
in the morning totally ruined.                                      ,   v ' ..
This produdion ought to be gathered in with great
precaution, for fear of making the farina that lies on
the leaves, and which is very valuable, fall off by
Shaking it. When gathered, it is thrown into the
Steeping vat, which is a large tub filled with water.
Here it undergoes a fermentation, which in twenty-
four hours at farthest is completed. A cock is then
turned, to let the water run into the fécond tub, cal-
led the mortar or pounding-tub. The Sleeping-vat
is then cleaned out, that freffi plants may be thrown
in ; and thus the work is continued without inter-
ruption.
The water which hath run into the pounding-tub,
is found impregnated with a very fubtile earth, which
alone constitutes the dregs or blue fubftanee that is
the objed of this procefs, and which muft be fepa-
rated from the ufelefs fait of the plant, becaufe this
makes the dregs fwim on the furface. To effed this,
the water is forcibly agitated with wooden buckets
that are full of holes, and fixed to a long handle.
This part of the procefs requires the greateft precau-
tions. If the agitation be difcontinued too foon, the
part that is ufed in dying, not being fufficiently fe-
parated from the fait, would be loft. If, on the other
hand, the dye were to be agitated too long after the
the complete feparation, the parts would be brought
together again, and form a new combination ; and
the fait re-ading on the dregs would excite a fécond
fermentation, that would alter the dye, fpoil its co-
lour, and make what is called burnt indigo. Thefe
accidents are prevented by a clofe attention to the
leaft alterations that the dye undergoes, and by the
precaution which the workmen take to draw out a
little of it from time to time in a clean veffel. When'
they perceive that the coloured particles colled by
Separating from the reft of the liquor, they leave off
Shaking the buckets, in order to allow time to the blue
dregs to precipitate to the bottom of the tub, where
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