180 



is in the hands of a company that paid 5i per cent, dividend in 1872, 

 and Gi per cent, in 1873. They have thirteen steam chain-boats, and 

 forty-seven miles laid with chain, and in 1872 transported 2,727,045 

 cwt. an average of 17 miles, and in 1873 2,945,027 cwt. an average dis- 

 tance of 20.17 miles. 



California tobacco. — The early attempts to grow tobacco in Cali- 

 fornia, according to methods in use east of the Rocky Mountains, proved 

 futile; though the i^lants grew luxuriantly, the product was very indiffer- 

 ent. Within the last three or four years a planter in Santa Clara County, 

 after several years of study and experiment, succeeded in producing a 

 fair merchantable article. A patent was taken out for the new process 

 of culture and preparation, and a company of caj^italists was formed for 

 operations under it. The first crop, in 1872, amounted to a few thou- 

 sand pounds; in 1873 it rose to 500,000 pounds, and to about 1,500,000 

 pounds in 1874, including other parties using the process under permis- 

 sion. A portion of the crop was from Havana seed adapted to cigar- 

 making, the remainder being from Florida seed, better adapted to pipe- 

 smoking and chewing tobacco. The manufacturers, having no confidence 

 in the quality of the new produ(it, refused to take it, and the company 

 were compelled to manufacture their own material. They are now mak- 

 ing 200,000 cigars per month, besides packing about 10,000 pounds of 

 smoking-tobacco. Tbey have recently determined to enlarge their pro- 

 duct a million cigars per month, and 1,500 pounds of smoking-tobacco 

 per day. The area suited to the growth of tobacco under this process 

 in California is said to be unlimited. 



American jute. — Mr. E. Lefranc, of New Orleans, who has devoted 

 much attention to the culture of the jute in this country, informs the 

 Department that he has succeeded in raising tUe first regular crop in 

 America, of which he recently shipped nineteen bales to the markets of 

 Saint Louis and New York, to be tested by the manufacturers. His 

 crop was raised in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, and he believes the 

 cultivation of the fiber will be rapidly multiplied by other planters of 

 that section. Mr. Lefranc writes to the Department as follows : 



As explained before, this jute fiber was decorticated from dried plants which had already 

 given their seed. It is the second product of the stalks, and for that reason the staple may 

 not be highly classed in comparison with the India article worked in green. But I have 

 put enough of good quality in the bales to prove that we can advantageously compete 

 against foreign jute. The decorticating machine cleans it more thoroughly and secures a 

 larger quantum of strong filament than the ordinary hand-work of Hindostan. The refuse 

 of the machine is good for paper. 



Regarding the economy of this new industry, I am now practically satisfied that the fig- 

 ures of cost 1 have given in my treatise were sufficiently nigh. Our expenses for cultiva- 

 tion scarcely reach $4.7.5 per acre ; for manipulation, flo. These are still subject to im- 

 provement wherever a closer organization can bo established. 



The yield is also satisfactory. Wherever the stand was normal, we obtained the propor- 

 tion of one ton per acre. In average the lint is of over two pounds per foot high on the 

 surface of an acre, and the plant averages ten feet in any favorable season, and in rich, 

 moist land. 



Mr. Lefranc speaks very confidently of his success in organizing the 

 labor of this new and promising industry. His machine, he says, is 

 actually a producing fact. It works very well, and on dried stalks, 

 which have first furnished their seed, as well as on green plani?., thus 

 securing the important result of obtaining both seed and fiber from the 

 crop. The fiber obtained is strong and fiue enough to bring from four 

 and a half to five cents a pound, in gold. Tlie faculty of working the 

 plant dried is important, as it extends the manipulating period through 

 the dull winter season, when labor is abundant and cheap. Mr. Lefranc 

 remarks : 



