FLAX. 



107 



Burlaps 



Ot-naburg3 



Duck 



Other manufactures 

 Urunanufactured . . . 

 Tow 



Total 



1859. 



8106,396 



24.202 



731 



3,387 



298,030 



405,173 



13,719 



851,638 



ISGO. 



$77,810 



12,258 



595 



20,952 



657,520 



325,846 



7,857 



1,102,838 



1861. 



$63,215 

 21,9^2 



16,748 

 490,537 

 253,601 



15,063 



861,156 



In 1862 the import of Russian hemp was $264,356 ; Manilla, $871,017; jute 

 and coir, $122,369 ; Sisal grass and other cordage material, 823,635 ; yarns of 

 different fibres, $32,144; cordage, $29,195; gunny cloth and bags, $234,201 ; 

 hemp carpeting, $42,114; burlaps, $537,911; sail-duck, $228,606; Eussia 

 sheetings, $126,060 ; grass cloth, $47,505 ; other manufactures, $254,796. 

 Total, $2,813,909. 



JUTE, 



the use of which has increased wonderfully in the past year or two, is a fibre 

 produced by the Corchorus olitorius and C. cap-mlaris. It is grown mainly in 

 India. It is an annual, with smooth stems, growing five or six feet, and some- 

 times attaining a height of ten or twelve feet ; has small yellow flowers, succu- 

 lent leaves, sometimes used as pot-herbs. They are thus used in Egypt and 

 in Asia Minor ; hence the name "Jew's mallow." It has a low habit in Judea 

 compared with its magnificent proportions in India. It is sown in April or May, 

 flowers in the rainy season, and ripens its seed in October and November. It 

 has long been cultivated in India and China for its fibre, which is separated by 

 maceration, and used not only for cordage and gunny-cloih, but for paper-making. 

 It produces from 400 to 700 pounds per acre, and a winter crop of tobacco or 

 mustard-seed follows it, when the soil and elevation are suitable. It was for- 

 merly sold at a very low price, realizing in the English market about $75 

 per ton. 



The export of jute from Calcutta in 1851 was 29,000 tons, valued at $875,873, 

 and of gunny-cloth an amount still greater in value, or nearly two millions. 

 The increase since that date has been very rapid. Our jute imports (as seen 

 in the paragraph on hemp) amounted in 1862 to about one-third of a million 

 of dollars. The imports of jute into England for the same year Avere 969,943 

 cwts., valued at $4,698,730, or $96 per ton. Besides, imports of jute manu- 

 factures amounted to $1,154,605. Thus a fibre almost unknown a generation 

 ago has increased its products from thousands to nearly as many millions. 

 Jute and its manufactures have almost attained the magnitude, in the English 

 schedules of imports, of the hemp interest. 



The price of jute in England, at last advices, ranged within $100 and $145 

 per ton. 



SUNN. 



The true hemp is little grown for fibre in India, except to some extent in 

 the mountainous region. It is everywhere cultivated, however, for its intoxi- 

 cating quality. By "hemp" is sometimes meant Bixnn, fCrotolaria junceaj 

 and sometimes the brown hemp, or Hibiscus cannahinus. The latter is the 

 "Indian hemp," though this name is incorrectly applied to sunn. The exports 



