EARLY PRODUCTION 



CORCHORU8 



Jute 



unit, and figure of . !; /ni. (Qanja n(itiva). It* common 

 h says, is Sajor Bengala, " either because it is plentiful in Bengal or 

 because it is the chief pot-herb " of that country, where it is known an padhac. 

 miMy padhac may be a variant of the present-day name p6t. But Rum- 

 adds that it was much cultivated in Bengal, Arakan and South China, from 

 which last country the seeds had been obtained by Araboina via Butona. He 

 not say whether in Bengal it yielded a fibre as well as being a pot-herb, but 

 ( 'liiimhe remarks, " Fine white thread is made from the bark which is stronger 

 in cotton, l>ut rut her apt to curl up. It is used in the raw state or may be 

 uod by aid of lime water, then bleached in the sun." The silence preserved 

 liuinphius regarding the Bengal fibre, and his having laid special stress on its 

 im a Chinese fibre, are features of his remarks regarding <'arrii,-iiM which, 

 viewed alongside of the statement of its being the chief sag or saj (pot-horl>) 

 Bengal, aro certainly very significant circumstances. All writers seem agreed, 

 r, that if t'. />*/< be not indigenous to Southern China, it has been 

 known IUK! cultivated in that country for many centuries has, in fact, an an- 

 t ii|uit y far greater than can bo shown for it in connection with any other country. 

 riiikoiiet's description which identifies it with America must be dismissed as 

 Din' of the numerous enigmas of the literature of jute, if it be not accepted as yet 

 mthor of the many evidences of the close association of India and America 

 Jmplished by the Spaniards and the Portuguese. 



Early Production. It is a somewhat curious circumstance that 

 Juchanan-Hamilton, in the first decade of the 19th century (Slot. Ace. 

 innj., 198-9), should have expressed the hope that jute (or. as he called 

 pdt) fibre should under no circumstances be allowed to divert the at- 

 ention of the public until a fair trial had been made with saw-hemp. 

 Lt that time both Roxburgh and Hamilton were engaged in the search 

 useful substitutes for hemp, to be employed for the ropes and cordage 

 jf the Company's ships. For this purpose Hamilton deprecated an 

 aided utilisation of jute. It was not, however, till 1833 that his 

 ccount of the jute cultivation of Dinajpur was published, and he there 

 lentions that large quantities of the cloth called tat or chota were being 

 luced. With the enhancement of manufacturing enterprise in Europe 

 line the demand for foreign food supplies. This necessitated an increasing 

 provision of sacking and packing materials, which it was early recognised 

 juld be best met by an extended production of jute. In consequence, a 

 weign demand for this, the cheapest and most easily manufactured of all 

 ibres, was created and responded to by the cultivators in Eastern and 

 lorthern Bengal. The production of gunny-bags thus rapidly became 

 recognised part of the Bengal peasant's work. By and by, however, 

 European machinery began to compete with manual labour, and, as in all 

 ther parts of the world, in due time gained the day. Practically every 

 lomestead in the jute tracts may be seen to have a few bundles of jute 

 spended from a beam in the roof of the verandah. That amount of the 

 ibre is annually spun into yarn and worked up, as required, into string 

 md rope, or is woven into gunny cloth or bags. Year by year, however, 

 iis domestic craft has decreased, and it may safely be affirmed that the 

 lecline in hand-loom jute-weaving is far greater than of cotton-weaving, 

 fact, at the present day hand-loom gunnies have practically disappeared 

 the markets of the world, and yet so late as 1880-1 the returns of 

 )reign exports from India had to be divided into two sections : (a) power- 

 :>m ; and (b) hand-loom. But that the loss of the hand-loom industry 

 has not impoverished the jute districts may be inferred from the fact that 

 in no part of Bengal are the poor now clad in coarse jute sackcloth all arc 

 able to procure cotton garments. 



Area, It is impossible to give exact particulars of the. total area under 



411 



l-unti-J !,y 



Lime. 



Extended 

 Production 

 Depre- 

 cated. 



Cheapest and 

 most easily 

 manufactured 

 Fibre. 



Homestead 

 Industry. 



Domestic Craft 

 decreased. 



Hand- lot i in 

 Gunnies. 



Area. 



