JUTE AND JUTE-BUTTS. 



459 



certained, by repeated experiment, that on 

 good lands at least one ton of fiber of the best 

 quality, worth at the plantation not less than 

 four cents a pound, can be produced from 

 an acre at a cost of not more than $13 for 

 cultivation ; while the cutting, hauling, decor- 

 ticating, washing, and baling of the fiber, on 

 an estimated yield of fifteen tons of green 

 stalks to the acre, can be done in the best way 

 at a cost of less than $30 an acre, the net yield 

 being a full ton of fiber prepared for use. 



These processes are conducted by American 

 machines recently invented, and tested in the 

 field, by means of which three persons perform 

 more labor in a day than 160 Hindoo laborers 

 who strip and wash the fiber by hand. This 

 estimate of a cost of $43 to the acre, against a 

 ralue of $80 for a ton of the fiber, is claimed 

 be excessive, but it leaves a net profit of 

 57 to the acre. To this are to be added the 

 value of the leaves for manure, of the seed for 

 planting and for oil-cake, and of the butts and 

 roots for cheap bagging and paper. Our manu- 

 ^turers are importing these jute-butts at not 

 less than $35 a ton, and the yield would be 

 lore than a ton to the acre. The manufac- 

 irers pay from $95 to $100 a ton for the best 

 idia jute, and the quality produced in Missis- 

 sippi is acknowledged to be superior in every 

 >ect to the best imported. 

 r or the total export from India and China 

 we are obliged to go back about ten years, 

 "lough we know that there has been a great 

 3rease both of production and export since 

 iat time. In 1872-'73 the amount exported 

 ras 354,046 tons, of which Great Britain took 

 197,773 tons, and exported 37,752 tons of this 

 Hint, reserving 160,000 tons for her own 

 In 1880 the export to Great Britain had 

 iched 295,329 tons, valued at $21,850,160. 

 the same year there were imported into the 

 fnited States the greater part from India, 

 it some also from China and Mexico 82,471 

 >ns, valued at $5,075,945. If the other coun- 

 ties which took jute direct from Calcutta in 

 1872 had increased in anything like the same 

 JFoportion, the total export from India must 

 ive been at least 550,000 tons, and the value 

 rly $50,000,000. The export from China, 

 one time very considerable, has within a 

 )w years nearly ceased. That from Mexico 

 has increased, and in 1882 its export to the 

 United States alone was 19,233 tons, worth, at 

 custom-house valuation, $2,061,939. The 

 itire import into the United States in that 

 year was 84,186 tons, having a custom-house 

 valuation of $4,710,192; a large portion being 

 butts, 53,198 tons, valued at $1,965,644, against 

 30,988 tons of jute of a value of $2,744,548. 



The jute is used for burlaps, for the finer 

 qualities of bagging, for twilled and other stair- 

 carpeting, for what is known as " wool-twine," 

 and as an adulterant of the lower-priced broad- 

 cloths, the so-called " Japanese silks," for imi- 

 tions of Irish linen and of low-priced French 

 silks, and for admixtures in all the finer car- 



pets Axminster, Kidderminster, Brussels, and 

 Venetian. It takes colors very readily, and 

 exhibits the most brilliant dyes for a time, but 

 they are not permanent. In Dundee, Scotland, 

 there are about 100 jute-mills, employing 20,- 

 000 workmen and manufacturing 90,000 tons 

 of jute annually. 



But, large as is the consumption of jute both 

 here and in Europe, that of jute butts (the low- 

 er portion of the stalks and the roots of the 

 jute-plant) is still greater. Our importation 

 of jute-butts in 1882 was more than 53,000 

 tons. Twenty years ago these were not con- 

 sidered of any value. The manufacturers of 

 jute in India, who received from the cultiva- 

 tors the whole plant (except perhaps the leaves 

 and tops), found the butts so much of a nui- 

 sance that they compelled their hands to carry 

 a quantity of them home every day and burn 

 them. At last, about 1866, a captain of an 

 East India ship, finding himself at Calcutta 

 without a full return cargo, was induced to 

 take on board eighty or ninety tons of this 

 worthless stuff as ballast. On arriving at New 

 York he told a friend, who was a rope-maker, 

 of his ballast, and induced him to take it off 

 his hands and experiment with it for a coarse 

 paper-stock. The experiment was successful, 

 and it was found that it could be spun also 

 into a yarn, from which a coarse bagging could 

 be made; and a demand was created for it. 

 That rope-making firm, L. Waterbury & Co., 

 of Brooklyn, N. Y., now use 9,000 tons annu- 

 ally, and with the other firms in the same line 

 of business in that city consume 16,000 tons of 

 jute-butts, almost a third of the whole impor- 

 tation, all of which is used either in the pro- 

 duction of cotton - baling cloths or the so- 

 called " Manila" paper. The same firms and 

 some others in that city use nearly 10,000 tons 

 of jute. Here may be mentioned a singular 

 blunder of the census of 1880. The importa- 

 tion of raw jute and jute- butts in that year 

 was 82,471 tons, and its value (custom-house 

 valuation) $5,075,945. To any one who has 

 any idea of the relation of our importation of 

 raw materials to our manufactures, it must be 

 evident that this large importation was brought 

 to our ports for the purpose of being manu- 

 factured; yet the census of 1880 reports that 

 the entire manufacture of jute and jute goods 

 in the United States was only $696,982, and 

 that the raw material used was but $447,094, 

 only about one twelfth of the amount import- 

 ed. Of these amounts, $415,788 of raw mate- 

 rial, and $650,560 of finished product, were 

 said to be used and produced in the State of 

 New York, and all of this in the city of Brook- 

 lyn. At that time a single firm in that city- 

 were producing from jute-butts $1,044,000 

 worth of bagging and paper, and from jute 

 about $600,000 more, and the whole produc- 

 tion of jute bagging and jute goods in that city 

 alone was more than $2,600,000, while the cost 

 of the raw material was nearly $2,000,000. 

 There can be no doubt that the entire amount 



