The quantity of jute and seed produced on an acre depends greatly on the richness of the soil on which it is planted. The plant will not thrive on a lateritic, or on a hungry, gravelly, or sandy soil. Seed planted under such conditions springs up and grows well at first, but for want of mois ture and plant-food soon withers away. The plant stands excess of wet better than drought ; on rich, loamy lands it thrives perfectly ; clayey soils, mixed with a little sand, give a fair return, and even under the conditions of partial sub mersion the crop is not destroyed.
The same crop will not, of course, yield fibre and seed. It should be cultivated for one or the other. For the former, the plant should be cut just when it is in flower. It is then in its prime, and the fibre will be fine, silky, and glossy ; but if left for the seed to ripen, the plant will have begun to decay, and the fibre to get stringy, barky, and coarse.
The seed would be better if sown in drills, as is done in America and in Mysore. It would enable manuring, weeding, planting, and thinning to be carried on better, and a longer and better fibre would probably be the result, and induce more attention to be paid to the growth and selection of seed, on both which points the ryots are said (as may be easily supposed) to be most careless. A commission suggested improvement in this matter, and in the better rotation of crops, and cutting and steeping the fibre, preparatory to its extraction ; but the addition of suitable manure, , all other conditions being favourable, would enable a farmer to grow the exhausting crop on the same soil annually without alternating it, or letting the land be fallow, as is now so uneconomic ally done.
It is now successfully grown in America, where a better mode prevails of clearing the bark, and paper is there made of the refuse, which is also a good manure. Jute water has a high value as a manure. Castor-oil cake and cow-dung are its best manures. It has been found that jute does not flourish in the cotton districts of the United States, nor does cotton where jute grows best.
No doubt the fibre can be greatly improved by attending to some essential points. Higher prices would be given for the best kinds that had been cut at the proper time, and carefully cleaned and dried, so as to produce the strength, fineness, silkiness, and gloss so much sought for.
To improve the-jute fibre, two things are neces sary to be looked after ; the first' is the process of fermentation, and the second is allowing the time for decomposition of the vegetable matter, and to avoid stagnant pools and ponds for the purpose, which, though it facilitates the object; injures the fibre very much. The process of fermentation is necessary to be carefully looked after, because if this be:neglected, instead of obtaining the fibre with a fine, silky, glossy appearance, the whole of the produce becomes of a dark lead or black muddy colour, which is considered bad or inferior in quality.
The next point to be carefully attended to is the time allowed to steep the whole for the pur pose of permitting the vegetable matter to de compose ; this part of the process, unless properly attended to, does not yield fibre of the usual size, but results as an inferior article, because it yields fibre of a coarse quality. The tender fibre, which otherwise is retained, rapidly decays, and is broken into threads and washed off when ex tracting the fibres from the stalk. When the bundles are steeped down after the fermenting process, they should be so arranged that the stems are first immersed in water with the top branches above its surface, and allowed to remain for a time, which is considered as sufficient for the stems to be partially decomposed, when the whole is properly steeped down, for the entire stalk to be decomposed at the same time. If this be not attended to, as stated above, the result is a short and coarse fibre, without any silky, glossy appearance.
The next point is to avoid pressing down the bundles with clods of earth, as at the time the decomposition is about to be perfected the mineral substances, being washed down, mix with the fibre, destroying the vegetable substance, and giving the fibre a red, muddy appearance. Stag nant tanks are likewise to be avoided for the impurities they contain, though the decomposition is much facilitated. Native cultivators can rarely avoid these two injuries for want of means and proper resources ; but if they be avoided, no doubt the fibre extracted will yield a superior texture.