389 



JDTE IN LOUISIANA. 



Mr. E mile Lefranc, president of the Southern Eamie Association, at 

 iiTew Orleans, as is known, has been for a considerable period very 

 actively engaged in the culture of jute, as well as in perfecting a decor- 

 ticating machine for cleaning and preparing the fiber for the market 

 and for manufacturing. His experiments, which have been conducted 

 on an adequate scale, have confirmed the impression that the cultiva- 

 tion of this valuable fibrous plant will eventually become a very profit- 

 able industry, especially in the southern portion of this country. 



In a recent letter to the Commissioner, Mr. Lefranc states that, in spite 

 of the difficulties and drawbacks which he has had to encounter the 

 present season from diluvial rains, overflows, and droughts, he will have 

 150 acres of jute to harvest, if the weather be not too unfavorable, in 

 September. Some of the fields he describes as splendid, growing 8 feet 

 high, and as thick as wheat. 



Mr. Lefranc's jute-cleaning machine, a description of which, with illus- 

 trative drawings, may be found in the forthcoming Annual Report of the 

 Department, for 1873, has been improved, as he states, by unceasing 

 researches and numerous applications, from which the best have been 

 selected. It is said to work well, and to produce over a ton of clean 

 fiber per day, with four attendants only. It cleans jute, ramie, and 

 okra radically and without waste, and it is believed that hemp and flax 

 may be as well treated by it. Mr. Lefranc says : " We treat jute with- 

 out leaving butts or refuse, and we can treat hemp and flax without 

 having the loss of tow." If this be so, the machine will effect an im- 

 portant reform in our textile trade, and exert an influential ageucy in 

 developing our hemp and flax production. 



Mr. Lefranc mentions a curious fact in connection with his experience 

 in the culture of jute. A piece of land that i)roduced jute-seed last 

 year is now in full growth of jute again, though none was planted there 

 this year. The seed which dropped last year was sufficient for a new 

 crop. 



AGRICULTURE IN INDIA. 



C. Samba Siva, secretary of the Native Association of Mayaveram, 

 Madras, furnishes this Department with a very interesting account of 

 the state of agriculture in the rice-producing district of Tanjore, and of 

 improvements about to be set on foot. He says : 



There lias been formed an association in Mayaveram, a town in the district of 

 Tanjore, in the Madras Presidency, the chief object of which is the introduction of 

 improvements in the art of agricnlture. Mayaveram is situated on the banks of the 

 Cavery, and from its position it will bo seen that it occupies the center of the delta of 

 the Cavery, which has, not inaptly, been called " the Eden of Southern India." The 

 population almost entirely subsists by agriculture ; and here, as in many other parts 

 of this large country, the art, though practiced perhaps from the very origin of civil- 

 ized life, remains in the same state. The cultivator depends entirely on the fertility 

 of the soil, which is every year renewed by the Cavery. The government has done 

 much to economize the supply of water, and a large extent of land has been brought 



