194 JUTE, HEMP 



a pure white, and when dyed they do not keep their colour ; 

 they are also easily rotted by moisture, so that fabrics wholly or 

 even partly made of jute cannot be constantly washed as cotton 

 and linen can ; it is not durable. But it can be grown and 

 manufactured at a small cost, and therefore things made of 

 it are cheap, and for that reason enormous quantities are used. 



Besides coarse materials such as Hessians, and tarpaulins, 

 and foundations for linoleum, and sail-cloth, various finer 

 fabrics are made of it. Every devout Mohammedan, no 

 matter where he may be, at certain hours of the day turns 

 his face towards Mecca, and kneels down to say his prayers. 

 He carries with him for this purpose a small prayer-mat, and 

 thousands and thousands of these small brightly -coloured 

 prayer-mats, made of jute, are sent out year by year from the 

 mills of Dundee. Besides these prayer-mats many ordinary 

 cheap carpets are nowadays made of jute. It is also often 

 made to look like silk, and either used alone or with real silk 

 to adulterate it. Towels and sheeting, too, are often made 

 partly of jute, and partly of linen or cotton. On account of 

 its cheapness it is an invaluable substance for all materials 

 where strength and durability are not essential. 



In Bengal over three million acres are under jute, and, 

 though now the mills of Calcutta manufacture all the sacks 

 that are required for Indian produce, the amount of raw jute 

 exported shows no signs of decreasing, and this is hardly 

 surprising when we remember that nearly all the sacks in the 

 world are made of it, in addition to the various other uses 

 to which it is put. 



In 1828, 364 cwt. were sent to Europe ; in 1913 we imported 

 from India 347,548 tons, and we exported more than 313 

 million yards of jute material, besides over 41 million pounds 

 weight of yarn. 



HEMP (Cannabis sativa). The hemp plant is an annual, 

 which grows to a height of from three to ten feet. It has 

 a slender rough stalk, with numerous patinate-shaped leaves 

 growing out from it. Each leaf consists generally of five 





