April 1, 1866.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



85 



plants, called respectively Corchorus olitorius and 

 Corchorus capmlaris, belonging to the same natural 

 order as the lime tree, from the inner bark of which 

 the bast is derived, so well known to horticulturists 

 as the material of " bast matting." The fibre as 

 prepared for the market might easily be mistaken by 

 the novice for hemp, but it is softer, more glossy, 

 weaker, and, under the microscope, more trans- 

 parent, more slender, and apparently with thinner 

 cell-walls. 



The Jute plant is an annual, varying in height 

 from four to twelve feet, the stems being from three- 

 quarters to an inch and a half in circumference. 

 Its leaves are alternate, elongated, and serrated at 

 the edges, the two lower serratures being length- 

 ened out into a slender thread. The flowers are 

 small, and have five yellow petals. The fruit con- 

 sists of a capsule, containing numerous seeds. It 

 is sown in April or May, and flowers in July or 

 August, when it is ready to be cut, if its fibres are 

 to be obtained. Jute is largely cultivated, especially 

 throughout the Bengal Presidency, where its do- 

 mestic manufacture occupies almost all classes of 

 Hindoos. It has been estimated that the annual 

 weight of Jute manufactured in India is not less 

 than 118,000 tons. Not less than 50,000 or 60,000 

 tons of Jute fibre are annually exported to Great 

 Britain, and the total production in India is esti- 

 mated by Dr. Eorbes "Watson at not less than 

 300,000 tons. This is, therefore, a very important 

 staple in the commerce of India. 



The great trade and principal employ of Jute in 

 India is for the manufacture of gunny chuts, or 

 chuttees, for making bags. These gunny bags are 

 the common coarse bags in which Indian produce is 

 brought to the English market, and are even more 

 familiar to us than the fact, that they are called 

 " gunny-bags," and are-made of Jute. This industry 

 pervades all classes in Lower Bengal, and penetrates 

 into every household. Men, women, and children, 

 find occupation therein. Boatmen in their spare 

 moments, husbandmen, palankeen-carriers, and do- 

 mestic servants ; everybody, in fact, being Hindoos 

 —for Mussulmen spin cotton only — pass their 

 leisure moments, distaff in hand, spinning gunny 

 twist. Its preparation, together with the weaving 

 into lengths, forms the never-failing resource of that 

 humble, patient, and despised of created beings— 

 the Hindoo widow— saved by law from the pile, but 

 condemned by opinion and custom for the remainder 

 of her days literally to sackcloth and ashes and the 

 lowest domestic drudgery, in the very household 

 where once, perhaps, her will was law. This manu- 

 facture spares her from being a charge on her 

 family— she can always earn her bread. 



There is scarcely any other article so universally 

 diffused over the globe as the Indian gunny-bag. 

 All the finer and long-stapled Jute is reserved for the 

 export trade, in which it bears a comparatively high 



price. The short staple serves for the local manu- 

 factures, and, it may be remarked, that a given 

 weight of gunny-bags may be purchased at about 

 the same price as a similar weight of raw material, 

 leaving no apparent margin for spinning and weav- 

 ing. The stems or stalks of the Jute crop are of 

 almost equal value with the fibrous portion. They 

 are beautiful white and straight stems, of a light 

 brittle wood, somewhat like willow switches, and 

 have a multitude of uses amongst the natives, such 

 as for the manufacture of charcoal for gunpowder 

 and fireworks, for the formation of fences and en- 

 closures, for pea and similar cultivation, and for the 

 construction of those acres of basket work which 

 the traveller remarks near every native village. 



That portion of the hank of fibre next the root, 

 or where it has been held in the hand during prepa- 

 ration, being always more or less contaminated 

 with bark and other impurities, is cut off for about 

 nine inches. These ends are sold to paper makers, 

 and wrought up into thick coarse fabrics. The 

 manufacture of Jute whisky from them was tried 

 experimentally, by subjecting them to the process 

 of conversion into sugar with sulphuric acid, and 

 afterwards fermenting. The produce greatly re- 

 sembled grain whisky. Old and worn-out gunny 

 bags, both in India and Great Britain, are torn up 

 and converted into most excellent white paper, 

 llauwolf states that one of the Jute plants, called 

 the Jew's mallow {Corchorus olitoriiis), is sown in 

 great quantities in the neighbourhood of Aleppo as 

 a pot-herb, the Jews boiling the leaves to eat with 

 their meat. In India, the leaves and tender shoots 

 are also eaten by the natives. Occasionally, also, 

 the dried plant is employed by the native doctors 

 in medicine. There is one little branch of industry 

 connected with Jute which was not long since men- 

 tioned in the "Technologist," and is confined, 

 doubtless, to a little knot of British speculators : — 

 "There are some people who make a good trade 

 even by buying up the bags that have held sugar, 

 and selling them again to the ginger-beer or ' pop ' 

 manufacturers, who first bod them to get out all the 

 saccharine matter to sweeten this popular beverage, 

 and then dispose of the bags to the mat makers." 

 Hence vre may reasonably conclude that it is no 

 trifling matter which is alluded to in the inquiry, — 

 " What is Jute ? " 



" It is all very well to laugh at book-students of 

 nature, but they carry that about with them which 

 gives an .interest to every flower, cloud, and stone 

 they see. They see the object, and then, by the 

 magic of association, the true beauty, fitness, history, 

 which surround and accompany it, reveal themselves. 

 A leaf or a bird is but a letter iu the great book, 

 which is read only by those who can put letters 

 together ; that is, who have the faculty of associa- 

 tion." — Jones's Holiday Tapers. 



