JUTE. Jute is the film. of two species of East India plants, corcharu.i capsu lath, and C' ()Writ's, the latter sometimes called Jew's mallow. The first named is considered the most valuable. They are annuals, and grow to a height of from four to twelve feet. The jute of commerce is the fiber of the plant, which somewhat resembles hemp, but is much softer and finer. The butts of jute, for about nine inches, are used for paper making, and coarse fabrics; the finer and long stapled remainder is exported, while the short staple is manufactured into y cloth, of which gunny bag,s are ruade. A= idea of this great and growing industry may be formed from the fact that the export of jute from India reaches nearly 3,000,000 bales yearly, besides giving employment to an immense multitude in that country, men, women and children. The cultivation of jute has for years attracted attention in -the South, and it is to be hoped that the cultivation and preparation of the fiber may in the end prove successful, since, if so, it will add another important crop to those of the South, and enable the country to become independent in respect to a commodity for which vast sums are annually expended by us in foreign countries. In relation to the cultiva tion of jute, the climate of Louisiana, Texas, and Florida has been found congenial to the plant, the chief difficulty in the successful following of the industry being the difficulty and cost of pre paring the fiber, machinery not yet having been able to accomplish this successfully. A Boston merchant, Mr. N. G. Fuller, living in India, gives the following account of the cultivation in India: The quantity of jute fiber and seed produced to an acre depends greatly on the richness of the land. It is planted in Serajgunge, Naranigunge (Dacca) and other northeastern districts, where about four-fifths of the total crop is raised ; the product is from two thousand to three thousand pounds of jute on an average; in some cases, however, as much as four thousand pounds are produced. The yield of seed is about one thousand to one thou sand two hundred pounds per acre. In places, say about fifty miles around Calcutta, the production of which is called dessee, or country jute, the yield is smaller, being only about six hundred to one thousand pounds of fiber, and more seed, say one thousand five hundred to one thousand six hundred pounds per acre; but on rich, damp lands the product is almost as much as in the north eastern provinces. The dessee description was used only for local consumption until about five years ago, when shipments of it to England began, and both the shipments and production of it are increasing every year. Jute is sown broadcast, and about twenty-two to twenty-eight pounds of seed is required to an acre. In the northeastern provinces it is planted in February and March, and is cut about the end of June and beginning of July. The dessee is sown in July and August and cut in August and September. On rich land it grows and ripens quicker. In the northeastern districts, when grown on rich soil, the diameter of the stalk at the bottom is from three-fourths of an inch to one and a quarter inches, and the length from seven to ten feet, and sometimes, but rarely, longer and thicker. The country jute is from fotir to seven feet long and one-half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The plants are cut about three inches above the ground, excepting dowrah, which is uprooted. The butts are cut at the time of baling the jute for export to Calcutta. When the stalks are cut they have a green bark, which, after going; through certain. processes, become fiber; the planters can not tell at the time of cutting the stalks whether any or how far from the bottom will be hard The stalks are cut about a month before the seed ripens, and the poorer plauts are generally let go to seed. Jute made of the plants producing seed is hard and barky ; the unripe seed, cut with the stalks, is of no use. It grows best on rich, moist ground, but not on low ground. Castor-oil cake is the best for it, ar.d next to that cow-manure, but the country planters, as the ground is natur ally rich, use no manure whatever. An acre of cotton costs much more than an acre of jute. Jute and cotton do not interfere with each other in the least. Cotton grows in the northwestern provinces, central and southern India, while jute is raised in Bengal. The little cotton that Bengal produces, and the little jute that the cotton districts produce, are of poor quality, and only used for local consumption. For the last few years jute has been encroaching on the lin seed-crop, as the same ground is suitable for both. The best manner of cultivating this plant, in the South, is described as follows: To obtain good fiber-crops the land must be elevated, rich, moist, and well drained, as in India ; to raise seed, low lands may be used, provided that favorable weather allows sowing and enables the growing plants to keep above the points of overflow. However, when the growth is fully started, water is not to be feared, so long as the tips remain above the surface of submersion. In
the first case, jute is sown broadcast; in the second, in drills five feet apart. That interval is to facilitate the branching, and, at the same time, the destruction by plowing of the tall weeds which generally occupy low lands. In. both methods the soil must be as well prepared as for ramie; plowed as deep as possible in January or February, then left exposed to atmospherical influences until the planting period. That period commences with April and termi nates with June, in monthly succession. To prepare for sowing a second plowing is required, and as fine a harrowing as can be effected. The circular pulverizer, applied before the harrow, shortens the labor. Then the solving for fiber crop is performed with a broadcast sower. • The quantity of seed required for each acre is front twelve to fifteen pounds. That is amply suffi cient, and if the Hindoos put more in their land, there must be some accountable MIS011 for that excess. Either the condition of their seed or of their land is inferior to that of America, or they are singularly prone to go to waste. We have repeatedly observed that, when the growth is thicker than what is allowed by the aforesaid quantum of seed, some natural destructive agent enters into the stand and thins the space to the limit demanded by the plant. This fact was verified in several spots of a jute plantation in Louisiana. Therefore no advantage at all can be derived from prodigality in sowing. The equal distribution obtained by the mechanical sower may account also for the economical difference existing between us and the Hindoo planters, who, having no raachinery whatever, do all their work by hand. The ground being well tilled and the seed properly sown, on wet days if possible, the jute is left alone like wheat. No other care than that of drainage is necessary until maturity. The cost of that first operation can not exceed $4 per acre, if the material is adequate and the management judicious. That expense, of course, does not include the value of the seed, because, after the first outlay, planters will pro vide themselves with it from the low lands, or from the weak spots of the plantation. In the bottoms. when we plant in drills for seed, a sub sequent plowing or two will be necessary in the intervals to neutralize the encroachments of grass. In Louisiana that labor is a necessity principally for the purpose of combating the tall weed called wild indigo, which occupies the low grounds. That tall weed, which is also fibrous, is the only vegetable that keeps pace in growth vvith jute; all other plants are distanced and smothered by the shade of the corchorus. In the field planted broadcast no parasite can resist the vigorous and absorhing influence of jute. Even the hardy and noxious , gramineal plant. commonly called coco in Louisiana, is destroyed after two seasons of broadcast cultivation. Another peculiar advantage of jute planting is the antagonistic influence it exerts over insects, especially the lepidoptera tribe which generates the caterpillar. It having been stated in some reports of the Department of Agriculture that cotton-fields surrounded by jute-plantations were respected by the devouring worms, the director of the Ramie-Planting Association made special experiments to test the reported fact. Three different fields, planted with various sorts of cotton, were belted by jute. None of them were visited by the caterpillar, while the cotton of adjacent plantations was partly destroyed by the insect. That protection is attributed to the above-mentioned influence hostile to insects. It was observed that flies and butterflies kept away from jute-fields, especially at the blossoming period. The peculiar odor of the flower and the bitter exudation of the leaves seem to be strongly repulsive to them, if not poisonous. So impor tant fact deserves to be demonstrated once more on a larger scale. It would cost but little to plant belts of jute around the regular cotton plantations which have been heretofore invaded by these injurious insects. The best period for cutting good crops of jute is during the stage that precedes the blossoming, or, at least, the seeding. The fiber is then fine, white, and strong. The monthly sowing graduates the maturing of the successive crops, which facili tates labor. April planting can be harvested in July, May planting in August, and June plant ing in September. Any late growth can he harvested in October, and even after, if no frost interferes. The plant stands green until frost dries it up; but even then it can furnish a good material for paper. The cutting operation is done with a mower or a reaper. The albumen of the plant makes it easier to cut than dry wheat. The reaper gathering the stems, bundles are made and carried as fast as possible to the mill where the textile is rapidly separated as described in our notice on raraie. ,Then comes the rotting. operation. As fast as the fiber is turned out by the decorticating machine it is plunged into large vats filled with pure water and left exposed to the heat of the atmosphere.