70 

 JUTE IX THE UNITED STATES. 



Reports of siiccessfiil tests of jute culture in this country since its in- 

 troduction through this Department have been puljlished in previous 

 issues. The following communication on the subject, under date of 

 February 28, has been received from E. H. Derby, of Boston, whose 

 interest in the subject is not of recent origin : 



I read with mncli interest the letters from Louisiana and Texas, in your report for 

 September, whicli apprises ns that the seed which you sent there in May last has pro- 

 duced plants which rose to the height of ten or fifteen feet, (the height in India,) aud 

 ripened seed, although planted as late as June last. 



It is obvious that the jute has been successfully introduced into the country, and 

 flourishes in the moist bottom lauds of the Southern States. I entertain no doubt tiiat 

 it will grow wherever the cane grows, on the moist .soils of the South, and I believe 

 that the India plant is best suited to our requirements. One of your correspondents 

 says he made no elibrt to gather the fiber. 



The process of separating the fiber from the stem is thus described in the Atlantic 

 Magazine for August, 1861, in an article in which I published some extracts from the 

 Journal of Agriculture for India. The plants are first placed for a week in standing 

 water; then "the native ojierator, standing up to his middle in water, takes as many 

 of the sticks in his hands as he can grasp, and removing a small portion of the bark 

 from the end next the roots, and grasping them tijgether, he with a little management 

 strips off the whole from end to end, Avithout breaking either stem or fiber. He then, 

 swinging the bark around his head, dashes it repeatedly against the surface of the 

 water, drawing it towards him, to wash ofi' the impurities. The filaments are then 

 hung up to dry in the sun, often in lengths of twelve feet, and when dried the jute is 

 ready for the market." 



I trust you will urge your coiTespondents to preserve and circulate the seed which 

 they have raised, and to plant it when they plant the cotton. If the Depai'tment of 

 Agriculture had done nothing else, it seems to me it has earned all the Government has 

 appropriated for it by introducing and acclimating this valuable plant. 



I deem it almost as great an acquisition to the country as cottou itself. It yields one 

 of the cheapest fibers nature produces. It is raised in India, and I presume can l>e 

 raised here for less than one-half the cost of hemp, and for one-fourth the cost of cotton. 

 It has been produced iu India for one cent iier pound of fiber. It is woven not only 

 into gunny-cloth and gunny-bags, biit enters largely into carpets and many kinds of 

 tissues. In India jute has been constantly gaining upon cotton. 



England has imported from India of this article more than 120,000,000 pounds in a 

 single year ; and we last year imported more than 19,000,000, which cost more 

 than §3,000,000, and sold at the South for $5,000,000. It is used there cliielly to envelop 

 cotton. If we had diverted that amount of labor from cotton to jute we might have 

 raised a much larger quantity at home, and at the same time have increased the valua 

 of our cotton crop. 



The jute seems to me to be a plant admirably adapted to the wants of the South. 

 The South requires it for bale cloths, also to divert labor from cotton, and to employ 

 the operatives during inclement seasons in the manufacture of cloth. 



I presume that the mechanism used in Kentucky for spinning and weaving hemji 

 will be api^ropriate for jute. In India the widow still sits on the ash-heap and weaves 

 her sackcloth. • 



I hope the Government will allow your Department ample funds to purchase some of 

 the simple machinery required for this manufacture, and that you will induce .some 

 southern i^lanters to continue the cultivation of it until its great value is generally 

 appreciated. ' 



This year demonstrates conclusively that a crop of 3,000,000 bales of cottou yield* 

 more than one of 4,000,000. Let jute be the substitute for the last million. 



