Jute grows best on alluvial or clay loam soils retentive of moisture, and where the air is warm and moist during the growing period. It will grow well on second bottoms or on low lands not subject to inundation. The land should be well plowed and harrowed to induce a rapid and uniform growth of the seedlings and thus prevent their being over topped by weeds. The seed is sown in spring, broadcast, at the rate of twelve to twenty-five pounds per acre. Plants from thick seeding pro duce finer but weaker fiber.
The crop is harvested when in flower, about three months after sowing. The stalks are cut with a knife or sickle, or pulled by hand. They are cured in gavels or shocks, or often taken immediately to be retted in ponds or slow-running streams. The retting process, lasting one to three weeks, requires close watching to prevent over-retting. The fiber is stripped by hand from the wet stalks, cleaned by drawing it through the hands and whipping it on the water, washed, dried, and then packed in bales of about 400 pounds each for market. The coarse, flaggy fiber from the ends of the stalks, five to fifteen inches long, is often cut off and baled sepa rately, and sold as "jute butts." The yield of fiber ranges from 700 to 3,000 pounds per acre.
The jute crop of India, chiefly in the province of Bengal, occupies 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 acres each year, and the annual product amounts to 2,000,000,000 to 3,200,000,000 pounds. The prices in New York in ten years ended December 31, 1906, have ranged from three to six and three fourth cents per pound for long fiber, and one to three cents for jute butts. The importations of jute, including jute butts, in these ten years, have ranged from 50,000 to 140,000 tons, valued at $1,500,000 to $6,500,000. In this period there has been a general tendency to increased acreage in India, increased importations, and an upward tendency in prices.
Jute is used most extensively for gunny sacks, wool sacks, cotton bale covering, grain sacks (es pecially on the Pacific coast), for wool twine and wrapping twine, and either alone or with other fibers in carpets and rugs. It is the cheapest, most easily spun, and most extensively used of the soft fibers. It is not so strong as flax or hemp. Its most important defect is its rapid deterioration.
Repeated experiments have demonstrated that jute can be grown successfully in the south Atlantic and Gulf coast regions, but until mechanical methods have been devised for preparing the fiber it is not likely that the cultivation could be prac ticed with profit in this country.
China jute.
China jute is a rather coarse grayish white, soft fiber imported in limited quantities from China. It is derived from the bast of the Ch'ing ma, Abutilon Avieennce, an annual malvaceous plant native in Asia and cultivated in eastern China. The plant has become widely introduced in the United States, where it is regarded as a troublesome weed and is called Indian mallow, velvet-leaf and butter print. It grows three to eight feet tall, and has large heart-shaped, velvety leaves and small yel low flowers.
In China this plant is sown broadcast on upland or alluvial soils, and the fiber is prepared by ret ting the stalks in water, then breaking and clean ing by hand. The fiber is similar to jute, but slightly stronger and coarser, and as commonly prepared, more flaggy, making it more difficult to spin on machinery. It takes dyes very readily, a quality of importance in jute rugs, but owing to the difficulty of working it, and its rapid deterio ration, there is little demand for it. The prices paid for it in this country are usually a fraction of a cent Mow those paid for jute.
The plant grows well on alluvial and sandy loam soils from New Jersey to Kansas and Nebraska, but without mechanical methods for preparing the fiber it could not be cultivated with profit.
Ramie (Fig. 394).
Ramie, Bcrhincria siren, Hook and Arn., is a per ennial-rooted, herbaceous plant belonging to the Urticarere or Nettle family. The rather slender stalks, bearing heart-shaped leaves green above and white beneath, attain a height of three to eight feet. When the plants are crowded thickly, as they should be for fiber production, they bear no branches. When cut during the growing season, new shoots spring up from the roots, so that two to four crops may be had each season.
Ramie is native in Asia, and is cultivated com mercially in China, Formosa, southern Japan and to a less extent in India. It has been widely intro duced in experimental cultivation in the warmer temperate zones of both hemispheres. The plant may be grown without difficulty, but it has not been demonstrated that the fiber may be produced profitably outside of Asia.