292 REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, 



strengthen hope into an assurance that jute can be successiully culti- 

 vated in the Gulf States and in Southern California. 



The conditions of soil and climate and the practical tests of experi- 

 ment are here so favorable as seriously to alarm the government of 

 India. The official report of an Indian commission appointed by the 

 state has expressed a grave apprehension of American competition in 

 the culture of jute. 



It is to be hoped that the enterprise of the South will prove that this 

 apprehension was well grounded. 



The economic importance of this culture to the United States is incal- 

 culable. 



No country in the world is capable of deriving so vast a benefit from 

 this industry as our own. The magnitude of our grain and cotton crops 

 is unparalleled in other lands. 



In 1870 the quantity of cereals and vegetables produced in the United 

 States, and requiring to be sacked before they could be sent to market, 

 was largely more than 1,500,000,000 bushels. Ultimately this vast mass 

 was handled in bulk by elevators, barges, canal-boats, railroads, and 

 steamships; but before it could be brought from the various points of 

 production to these facilities of transportation it had to be inclosed in 

 bags. If it were necessary to renew these bags every year, it would 

 now cost the United States $100,000,000 annually for its grain, pulse, 

 and potato sacks. This calculation is based upon the assumption that 

 all the bags are made of jute. If the material were cotton, flax, or 

 hemp, the expense would be still greater. But as the sacks last several 

 years, the annual cost is not probably one-fifth of the above aggregate. 

 In 187C, the cotton-crop of the United States was about 4,500,000 bales, 

 and at the ruling rates the cost of the gunny-cloth in which this cotton 

 was sent to market was not less than $3,900,000. 



Unlike the grain-sacks, the jute baling cannot be used a second time, 

 and therefore a wholly fresh supply is necessary every year.. Our native 

 production of fibers is greatly inadequate to meet the demand. In 

 1808, the United States paid $23,000,000 for imported flax, hemp, and 

 jute. In 1870, the cost of imported fibers was more than $30,000,000 in 

 gold. The quantity of jute alone imported in 1870 was upward of 

 19,000,000 pounds. Yet these figures, although large, but imperfectly 

 indicate the demand which there would bo for jute if it were a domestic 

 production. The cheaper fiber would, of course, bo substituted for the 

 more costly wherever it was possible, and accordingly jute, in conse- 

 quence of its comparative inexpensiveuess, would supplant hemp and 

 flax in the manufacture of carpets and many other fabrics. For bagging 

 and cotton-baling, jute lias already almost entirely superseded the use 

 of the other fibers. But possibly it will be found better, in order more 

 fully to meet the varying needs of commerce, to interweave jute with 

 cotton, flax, and hemp; and in that event the introduction of jute, 

 instead of depressing, would stimulate the culture of these fibers. But 

 the vast need of our country for grain-sacks, cotton-bale covers, and a 

 cheap v/arp for a woof of other textile materials will create a corre- 

 spondingly vast demand for home-grown jute. It will indicate alack of 

 southern enterprise if xVmerican jute does not yet rise to a textile im- 

 Xiortance second only to that of American cotton. 



Heretofore the agriculture of the South has been restricted to the pro- 

 duction of a very few staples. This narrow limitation of southern 

 industry is an essentially false policy. The South has made the grave 

 mistake of confining its activities almost exclusively to one pursuit. 

 But no country can realize its highest possibilities of material greatness 



