

JUTE 193 



Like flax, jute must be retted in order to separate the 

 fibre from the other parts of the stem. It is also passed between 

 rollers, so that the hard parts may be thoroughly broken. 

 In order to soften the whole mass, oil and water are sprinkled 

 upon it before the rolling takes place. 



' Every homestead in Bengal has suspended from a beam 

 in the roof of the verandah a few bundles of jute fibre, which 

 while talking pleasantly with a neighbour the peasant twists 

 into twine of varying thickness intended for domestic purposes 

 or for the yarn from which the women prepare the homespun 

 cloth or gunny-bags' l 



At one time all the poorer people of India were clothed in 

 material woven by their own hands from jute, but nowadays 

 all this is changed, and cheap, brightly- coloured, machine- 

 made cotton goods have largely taken the place of their own 

 jute fabrics. Besides clothes, they made coarse sacks to put 

 their grain into ; these are called gon, or guni, hence oair 

 word gunny. 



When our ships began to bring some of this grain to England, 

 we needed sacks to bring it in, and we bought these jute 

 gunny-bags from the peasants of India. Later on, when grain 

 from America, and Australia, and Africa was added to the 

 world's supply of food, more and more bags were needed by 

 us and by other countries, and the making of jute gunny-bags 

 became an industry by itself. 



It was in 1832 that a Dundee manufacturer found that jute 

 could in many cases be used as a substitute for hemp, and from 

 that time onward it began to be imported in increasing 

 quantities. Gunny-bags were made by machinery in Dundee 

 and exported all over the world. During the Crimean War, 

 when supplies of flax from Russia were cut off, Dundee con- 

 centrated her attention more and more closely upon jute, so 

 that now its manufacture is carried on on a gigantic scale. 



There are very many different qualities of jute fibre, but 

 they all have certain drawbacks ; they cannot be bleached 



1 Dr. Watt, Dictionary of Economic Products. 



