458 



JUTE AND JUTE-BUTTS. 



second time, and served from May, 1871, to 

 May, 1872. Still a third canvass in his favor 

 was successful, and he served another year. 

 Immediately upon the close of his third term, 

 in 1873, he was appointed by President Grant 

 United States Minister to Russia, where he was 

 of great service to American interests. Dis- 

 covering that frauds were practiced, in imita- 

 tions of American manufactures (as sewing- 

 machines, scales, axes, etc.), he negotiated with 

 the Russian Government a trade-mark treaty, 

 and carried it through to completion. He 

 also investigated the process by which " Rus- 

 sia leather " is produced, and ascertained that 

 the peculiar scent which this leather has is ob- 

 tained by the use of birch-bark tar in tanning. 

 The result has been that this kind of leather is 

 now manufactured in the United States as suc- 

 cessfully as in Russia. 



In July, 1874, he returned home and was 

 appointed Postmaster- General. He began at 

 once a policy of reform against notorious 

 "straw bids" and other corrupt practices in 

 Texas and Alabama, and succeeded in suppress- 

 ing a number of these. He established fast 

 mail trains, and avowed his determination to 

 conduct the department on proper business 

 principles, as he or any other upright merchant 

 would do in his own affairs. The " ring " poli- 

 ticians were active against him, and finally suc- 

 ceeded in their efforts ; so that, early in July, 

 1876, the President demanded his resignation. 



He returned to Hartford, and devoted him- 

 self again to business. He was placed at the 

 head of the Republican National Committee, 

 was very earnest and efficient in discharging 

 its duties, and spoke frequently to large meet- 

 ings in the Garfield campaign. Besides the 

 business of his own firm, he was interested in 

 numerous other enterprises with his brothers, 

 and held posts of trust in several banks, insur- 

 ance companies, etc. He was a Congregation- 

 alist from early life and retained his commun- 

 ion with that denomination to the last. He 

 entertained a deep and sincere hatred of slav- 

 ery, and during the civil war he gave all his 

 influence, and expended freely of his means, to 

 support the Union. 



In 1852 he married Esther, daughter of Will- 

 iam Dickinson, of Newburg, N. Y., who, with 

 two daughters, survives him. He was a man 

 of fine personal appearance, an able speaker, 

 and of genial spirit and manners. His health 

 was always good, and he had hardly known by 

 personal experience what sickness was. He 

 died of acute pneumonia. 



JORDAN CANAL. See ENGINEERING. 



JUTE AND JUTE-BUTTS. The jute and jute- 

 butts received in this country from India and 

 China are the fibers of two Indian annuals of 

 the order Tiliacece, Corchorm capsularis and 

 G. olitorius. What is imported here under the 

 name of "Mexican jute" is not the fiber of 

 any species of Corchorus, though it probably 

 belongs to an allied family. The jutes differ 

 from whau is known commercially as " hemp " 



in the soft and woolly character of the fiber, 

 its ability to absorb moisture readily, its in- 

 ferior strength, and the difficulty of bleaching 

 it without destroying the tenacity and dura- 

 bility of the goods made from it. Still, for 

 many purposes it is valuable. The Indian jute 



JUTE (Corchorus capsularis). 



is cultivated on the lower lands along the 

 Ganges and elsewhere in India, flourishing best 

 in a rich alluvial soil and in a hot, moist atmos- 

 phere, with a heavy rainfall. In 1872 there 

 were 921,000 acres of it under cultivation in 

 India. The acreage has since undoubtedly in- 

 creased materially, as the export demand is 

 constantly enlarging, that of Great Britain and 

 the United States alone having nearly doubled 

 in ten years, and the number of manufactories 

 of gunny-bags and other jute goods in India hav- 

 ing greatly multiplied. In India the jute grows 

 to the height of from five to ten feet, and the 

 stalks are of the thickness of a man's finger. 

 The plant is utilized in many ways. The tops 

 serve for pot-herbs, the leaves for manure, the 

 stalks for fences, the seed for oil-cake, the 

 butts and roots for cheap bagging and paper, 

 and the inner bark for fiber. It has been long 

 and successfully cultivated in China, and at- 

 tempts have been made to acclimatize it in 

 Algierg, in Mississippi and Louisiana, in Aus- 

 tralia, and in England. In the last two conn- 

 tries the attempt has been unsuccessful ; in 

 the former, on account of the uncertainty of 

 the rainfall, in the latter from the coolness of 

 the climate. It may be safely said that no 

 climate where the mean temperature of May, 

 June, July, and August is lower than 68 Fahr., 

 and the rainfall for the same months less than 

 twenty inches, can be sure of a uniformly suc- 

 cessful crop of jute. 



Mississippi, Louisiana, and indeed the Gulf 

 States .generally, seem to fulfill these condi- 

 tions, and may be considered suitable ground 

 for the cultivation of this crop. Mississippi has 

 made a successful beginning. It has been as- 



