JUTE. The jute of commerce is a fiber produced from two species of tiliacea, the and corchorus capsularis, two plants, alike in qualities, though slightly different in appearance, and sown indiscriminately; the first having round seed-pods and reddish stalk, the latter long seed-pods and bright green stalk. From the fiber which is the cheapest known are produced gunnies, gunny-cloth and cordage. and from the finer qualities carpets, shirting, coat-linings, etc., are made. It is extensively used for mixing with silk, cotton, and woolen fabrics, and also in paper-making,, while the leaves are eaten in ninny places as food.
Although indigenous to the tropics, Bengal being the largest jute-growing country, the plant grows in most climates and on all kindsof soil, rich alluvial lands, and lands subject to salt-water tidal influences particularly favoring its production. It is an exhausting crop for the soil. The plant, if weeded once. requires no more attention till cutting time. It grows to a height of 12 ft., having a single stalk without branches or leaves till near the top, and will flourish though flooded with 2 ft. of water for a mouth at a time. In Bengal the plant is cut while in flower, about three months after sowing. Cut close to the ground, stripped of leaves and branches, it is tied in bundles and steeped from 10 to 20 days in water, to loosen the fiber by rotting the outer bark. After steeping, the plant is beaten till the fiber only remains, which is cleaned, dried, and made into "drums" of •0 or 80 lbs. if for exportation, it is pressed into bales of 300 lbs. and upwards. Fine jute has a beautiful glossy golden appearance, and is soft and silky to the touch. Great importance attaches to length and strength of fiber.
The first mention of the word jute is in 179G, in the manuscript commercial index of the court of directors of the East India company. It is the Bengali name used by the natives of Cuttack and Balasore, where the first European manufactories were estab lished in the middle of last century. In 1829 the total export from Calcutta was 20 tons, value £60. In 1833 it had increased sixteenfold, and about 1801-05 the increased demand caused jute cultivation to extend to other districts. the exportation iu 1872-73 Teaching the enormous amount of 300,000 tons, value £3,500,000.
England, Bombay, and America originally divided the exports of jute. and up to the time o`f the civil war North America took the largest share of the gunnies (see GUNNY BAGS). Jute and gunnies are now exported from Bengal largely to France, Australia,
and other parts of the world. Jute grown in England is not remunerative. It has been successfully grown in small quantities in America, however.
Gunnies are classed as Nos. 1, 2, and 3. No. 1, thick and close woven, is used for sugar, fine grains such as linseed or rape-seed, and similar products; No. 2, also close woven, but thinner, for rice and the larger grains; No. 3, thick, coarse, and open, is principally suited for the outer covering of double bags. The manufacture of gunny with primitive looms is a common form of convict labor in Bengal. Near the Hima layas, in north-eastern Bengal, the natives wear a fine cloth of their own manufacture, made of jute, or jute and cotton.
Increased demand has lately induced jute production in Burmah, Italy, Queensland, and America, etc.; and a European company has been started to cultivate jute in British Burundi on a large scale. The manufacture, again, is largely carried on in Great Britain, and is the chief industry of Dundee and Belfast. In Bengal jute valued at 7 about a million sterling is annually manufactured, mostly for local consumption, the bulk being turned out by the English mills, of which there are several near Calcutta, employing thousands of hands. the Gauripore and Barnagore mills being the principal. Additional mills on a large scale are being erected, so that it remains to be seen whether the advantages of locality and cheap labor in India, over enterprise, cheap machinery, and established trade at Dundee and Belfast, will cause the present supremacy of the hitter places to wane.
• A coarse paper has been made for centuries back in Bengal out of jute, by beating the fiber into a pulp with lime, drying it in sheets, sizing with rice starch, and polishing With a stone or shell.
New Zealand flax (formium, tena.e) is a rival fiber. Elea or China grass (urtiert tenacissimus), which grows wild in rank luxuriance in the tropics, is so fine and strong as to rival silk, hut there is great difficulty in separating the fiber from the wood and bark. The Indian government offer :C45,000 for a cheap invention for this purpose; and tiil this is discovered Bengal jute is likely to maintain its supremacy among the cheap fibers of the world.