RHEA FIBRE OF INDIA 



r 



ti 



BCEHMERIA 



NIVEA 



Cultivation 

 IHHHL 



Winter Cutting* 

 (Me below under 



Jute verrtu 

 BbM. 







Ir'nmi Se|>ti-nii"-i- traii-plani.-d plots tin- i"..l|..\Miur were given aa the oaaon 

 r uttuik' : I-' cutting in May (the worst); 2nd in June (the beat); 3rd in 

 ml 1th in August. But many cultivators pref. i \ reject the May 

 and to use it for green-manuring the plot, thus having only three Green Manuring. 

 . If transplantation takes place in April to May, there are usually only 

 thn-c cuttings already indicated. A cutting made later than August is 

 regarded as affording a very inferior lil>re. Many cultivators, nevertheless, cut 

 AH the plants once or twice during the cold season, but with a view to cause 



"PHIS simultaneous shooting for the June cutting. 



Outturn, The information procured by me on this subject was so unsatis- Yield. 

 i"i y that I hesitate to publish it. So far as I can learn, the average yield of 

 e highly rultivuted homestead lands, worked out to the acre, would not exceed 

 ll>. (say 5 to 7 maunds) per annum of roughly cleaned and dry fibre. As 

 mpared with this it may be stated that the average yield of jute might be put 

 20 maunds. It has been urged by some writers that since it gives 2, 3 

 a 4 cuttings a year, the yield of rhea is bound to be higher than the one 

 rutting afforded by jute. But jute occupies the land for, say, only a few months, 

 that is to say it is not a perennial but an annual crop ; it can be raised on much 

 cheaper and more abundant land than rhea ; it demands little or no cultivation, 

 d usually no manure ; and lastly the fibre is easily separated. With these 

 \antages, let alone the facts that it produces more stems to the acre and these 

 w to a length equal to the combined length of all the cuttings obtained from 

 , it is not to be wondered at that jute is both more popular and more profitable 

 rhea at the prices at present offered by Europe. 

 Probable Direction of Expansion. The most hopeful prospect of a future Future 



Indian expansion may be said to lie within its present area in North fSdT 

 Bcnu'iil- The overflow might then be looked for to pass east and north- 

 st into the valley of Assam rather than to go to the southern and 

 nth-western or south-eastern districts of Bengal. In fact, it would 

 ost appear as if there had been a migration north-east since the date 

 Buchanan-Hamilton's explorations in 1807. Its suitability to the 

 ngpur and Jalpaiguri districts and to the Duars, would point, however, sub-montane 

 to a possible expansion westward towards Tirhut. In other words, it Tract - 

 would almost seem as if the Indian rhea of cultivation might become 

 distributed within the belt of districts which, starting in the extreme 

 tflftt-nortb-east in Lakhimpur and passing through Sibsagar, Nowgong, 

 mrup, Goalpara, Kuch Behar, Rangpur, Jalpaiguri and the northern 

 rcmity of Dinajpur, would pass still west to Purneah, Bhagalpur, 

 bhanga, Muzaffarpur, Champaran, and possibly also to Saran. The 

 ib-montane character of this tract of country, skirting as it does the foot 

 the Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal Himalaya, may be at once admitted as 

 ry possibly possessing many physical and meteorological characters in 

 mmon. It may be said to lie between 25 30' and 27 north latitude. 

 ow far a western expansion may be possible the future alone can reveal, western 

 t it may be added that recent experiments in Tirhut and those pro- 

 in Purneah seem encouraging. No climatic difficulty would appear 

 at all events to exist in the way of an eastern distribution. Rangpur lies 

 ht in the centre of the region indicated, but, as already stated, the crop 

 s found to attain its greatest perfection in the north and the north- 

 tern divisions of that district the portions that may be said to face 

 tward towards the Brahmaputra valley. 



By way of concluding these brief observations on the Bengal rhea Calcutta 

 industry, it may be added that Sir D. M. Hamilton, of Messrs. Mackinnon 

 Mackenzie & Co., is believed to have prosecuted with fair success the 

 experimental cultivation of Bwhm<->-ht nirea for some few years in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta. It may, therefore, be said 

 that the Indian people are looking to him to prove or disprove the com- 



149 



vernu 

 Eastern Trend. 



