FIBRES 



537 



the forty Calcutta jute mills is advisable to anyone in 

 search of an object-lesson regarding the mo.dern develop- 

 ments of industry in India. Not only is electricity the only 

 lighting agent, but the thousands of horse-power required 

 to drive the maze of machinery is also applied as elec- 

 tricity, which is produced by dynamos driven by turbine 

 engines of the most modern pattern. Nevertheless, the 

 Calcutta mills up to the present have confined themselves 

 to the production of the coarser classes of goods, chiefly 

 gunny bags and Hessian cloth. In Dundee, on the other 

 hand, a large proportion of work of much finer quality 

 is done. Jute now enters into the composition of material 

 for cheap clothing. It is also largely used for the manu- 

 facture of carpets, curtains, etc. Its capacity of taking 

 dyes well is a great advantage in work of this kind. 



The countries to which the chief foreign exports of raw 

 jute are made are : 



United Kingdom, 

 Germany, 

 France, 

 United States, 

 Austria-Hungary . 



Of these the imports of the European countries consist 

 chiefly of the better qualities of fibre; the exports to 

 America are said to consist largely of ''cuttings " and 

 'I rejections " destined for the manufacture of paper. 



The Indian manufactured goods consist chiefly of 

 gunny bags, gunny cloth, and a small and apparently 

 decreasing amount of twine. The latter is doubtless 

 being ousted by material of better quality made from one 

 of the other hemps whose production has increased so 

 largely in recent years. 



The chief points to which gunny bags are exported 

 are : 



(a) British Empire ... ; 



Including: Australia ... 



United Kingdom . 

 Straits Settlements 

 and Hong Kong . 

 South Africa 

 Egypt ... 

 New Zealand 



69,748,000 bags 

 33,527,000 



21,000,000 ,, 



13,000,000 ,, 



12,000,000 ,, 



8,000,000 ,, 



170,000,000 bags 



