It was in 1870 that the United States Depart ment of Agriculture began to show an interest in the question of growing Indian jute upon American soil. Experiments were conducted in Louisiana and other Southern States, with en couraging results. The climate and soil proved to be well adapted to the growth of jute;. and it was found that, when planted around cotton fields, the jute was of great service in affording to the cotton plant protection from the ravages of insects ; while a most luxuriant growth could be obtained on rice and pine lands.
Notwithstanding, however, the success which has attended the cultivation of jute in America, it has made no perceptible difference in the Indian trade, unless, perhaps, in the matter of gunny cloth. During the last eight years the export business with the United States in raw jute and gunny bags, more especially in the latter, has progressed most satisfactorily. Although the culti vation of jute has passed out of the experimental stage in America, the product has not been able to compete successfully with the Bengal article, owing to the high cost of manuallabour employed in the separation of the fibre from the stalk, as compared with the cheap labour available in India. The great need is a cheap and effective mechanical process for this operation. The want
of a• really good machine for such a purpose is felt very much more in America than in British India, where the manual process of cleaning and preparing the fibre is simple and inexpensive. The plants are steeped in water until the bark begins to rot and the resinous substance in it is washed away. Tho bark is then stripped off by beating the stalks against the surface of the water, much in the same way as a dhobi washes clothes. Experiments have been tried, both in India and America, with machines for performing this operation, but the difficulty lies in the ex pense. From a report, dated Washington, 7th April 1881, which is to be found in the Calcutta Gazette of the 19th July, on the cultivation of jute and other fibrous plants in the State of Louisiana, it appears that a new machine for preparing jute and rami fibre has been invented in America, from which very profitable results are expected.—Imp. Gaz.; Dr. Hunter in Ed. New Phil. Journ. No. 2, x. October 1859; Dundee Advertiser; Annals Ind. Administration ; Royle's Fibrous Plants, p. 244; J. Manuel in Indian Field, No. 25, 18th September 1858 ; &dec. Records Government of India Foreign Dept. No. 9, p. 25; .211`Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, p. 401; Drs. Mason, Stewart, Royle ; M. E. J. Rep.