540 FIBRES 



jute, but there has not been a corresponding expansion 

 in the tract of country over which jute is produced. In 

 other words, nearly all the districts which now produce 

 jute did so years ago, only on a much smaller scale. In 

 recent years, therefore, the proportion of jute to other 

 crops in these areas has increased considerably, but the 

 process cannot go on indefinitely. There is more than 

 one point which would influence the limit to which jute 

 cultivation can extend in the present districts which 

 produce it. The most important of these is undoubtedly 

 that of the food supply. There can be no doubt that 

 any further large extension of jute cultivation in the 

 present districts must be at the expense of food crops, 

 such as paddy or sugar-cane. 



In the second place, the foreign demand on India and 

 Burma for rice has been greater of late than usual, partly 

 on account of famines in other countries, but partly also 

 on account of scarcity in other parts of India, with the 

 result that high prices have ruled for rice as well as for 

 jute. Whether the large demands for rice will be per- 

 manent or not remains to be seen, but so long as they 

 last their tendency is towards the restriction of the 

 cultivation of jute at the expense of rice. The third point 

 is of greater importance than it may appear at first sight, 

 viz., how far the present labour supply is capable of 

 dealing with a largely increased substitution of jute for 

 other crops in the present jute-growing tracts, for it 

 cannot be doubted that jute cultivation involves consider- 

 ably more labour than rice. People who have been in 

 the jute trade for many years are almost unanimous in 

 believing that the quality of the jute brought into the 

 market has not been so good in recent years.- Of course, 

 there are spasmodic variations in quality which are due 

 to seasons which are suitable or otherwise; but there is 

 a strong and general impression that outside this there 

 is a tendency towards continuous deterioration. That 

 this is not due to the plant is certain. It is possible to 

 grow as good jute to-day as ever it was, and, given good 

 retting water and careful preparation, the results are 

 entirely satisfactory. It is certainly a crop which 



