248 CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE OF JUTE. 
Since the foregoing remarks were written, indeed, since they 
have been in type, the Author has been favoured with the accom- 
panying remarks from Mr. Henley, who has already been men- 
tioned at pp. 36 and 168, and whom he had asked for some re- 
cent information respecting the culture and preparation of Jute. 
The plant in question is by far the most extensively cultivated of all the 
fibrous family throughout the delta of Bengal. Its easy culture, rapid 
rowth, and comparatively large produce present advantages not to be over- 
ooked by that eminently practical and economical people, the natives of 
Bengal. Had it combined along with these advantages, the qualities of 
strength and durability, it would probably have superseded all other fibrous 
materials ; but, rapid in its growth, it is again remarkably rapid in its decay 
—being in fact the most perishable of fibres. It is generally grown as an 
after-crop, during the rainy season, on high land, or land not subject to 
submersion, like rice land. A hot and moderately rainy season suits it best; 
excessive rains or bad drainage injure and deteriorate it. In this point of 
view it is a precarious and delicate crop; otherwise it presents the advantage 
of affording a more valuable return from land at that season, than any 
other crop which the cultivator canemploy. It is sown broadcast, requires 
careful weeding when young, but soon acquires strength enough to keep off 
all intruders. The young leaves are eaten by the natives as a sort of 
spinach; they have, however, a coarse, weedy flavour, little suited to our 
European palates. No plant is more grateful for good cultivation than the 
one in question, in a good, loamy soil, well manured, or which has been 
well manured under a former crop. It attains a height of ten or twelve 
feet, with stems of three quarters of an inch in diameter. A poor crop, or 
one which had suffered from excessive rains, would have a height of only 
from three to six feet. : 
The crop being ripe, the stems are cut down close to the roots, made up 
into bundles, and laid to steep in some neighbouring ditch, where lumps of 
mud are placed on them to keep them submerged. Here they are carefully 
watched from day to day, the operator trying the bark with his nail, until he 
finds the decomposition arrived at the proper point. In preparing Jute 
intended for export, he will push the water-retting process to its utmost 
limits, short of actually destroying the fibre by excessive putrefaction. 
This is done in order to obtain that thoroughly detached silky character of 
fibre, according to which it is valued in the export market. Such Jute has 
always suffered more or less in strength_—Jute or Paut prepared for native 
consumption is much more durable than that prepared for export. It is 
likewise cheaper, as the yield per acre is much larger. It is much darker 
coloured, and not so clean. The natives are very particular in the selection 
of Jute for such purposes as pack-saddle bags for their transport oxen; or 
for their store-grain bags—great packages of six or eight feet diameter, 
erected on bamboo stages, and looking like our European brewery tuns. 
There are also a multitude of manufactures in this fibre, many of them 
possessed of considerable strength, some again of very fine texture. 
To return to our water-retting process. The proper point being attained, 
the native operator, standing up to his middle in water, takes as many of the 
sticks in his hands as he can grasp, and removing a small portion of the bark 
from the ends next the roots, and grasping them together, he strips off the 
whole with a little management, from end to end, without breaking either 
stem or fibre. Having prepared a certain quantity into this half state, he 
next proceeds to wash off: this is done by taking a large handful; swinging 
