DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



127 



much overspread with runners. This fiber is used for the manufacture of rope. Its 

 value would rise if the dealers would refrain from pouring water on the prepared 

 fiber, which they are said to do in order to increase the weight of their consign- 

 ments. Occasionally small batches of this jute are met with of a very superior 

 quality. 



(e) The Narainganji jute, which is brought from Aralia, Kurimgunge, and other 

 jute centers, locally called Mokams. of the Naraingunge mart, is mostly the produce 

 of the district of Dacca. It is very good for spinning, being strong, soft, and long; 

 but from some neglect in steeping, the fiber, by the time it reaches Calcutta, changes 

 its original color into a brown or foxy tint, which detracts from its value. 



(/) The finest description of Dacca jute is the Balrabadi fiber, which is raised on 

 the churs of the river Megna. It excels particularly in color and softness. 



(g) The Bhatial jute is also the produce of the district of Dacca, and comes to Cal- 

 cutta from Naraingunge. It is grown on churs, and is called Bhatial because it is 

 imported to Naraingunge from the south or 

 tidal side (Bhati) of that place. It is very 

 coarse, but strong, and is to a certain extent 

 in demand in the British markets for the 

 manufacture of rope. 



(It) Karimganji, in the Mymensing district, 

 gives its name to a very fine description of 

 jute which is grown there. It is usually 

 long, very strong, and of good color, par- 

 taking to some extent of the nature of the 

 Naraingunge of Decca jute. 



(?) The produce of Eungpore, though 

 large, is generally of medium quality, and 

 the worst kind of it comes from Mirgunge, 

 on the Teesta, whence its name Mirganji. 



(j) The produce of a portion of the Pubna 

 district is known by the name of Jangipuri, 

 so called from a small village of that name. 

 It is of short fiber, weak, and of a foxy color, 

 most objectionable for spinning. 



Historical. — Jute has been known and 

 cultivated since remote times in India, par- 

 ticularly in the lower provinces, but its 

 employment as a textile by the nations of 

 the earth is an industry that belongs to the 

 present century. It was first recognized 

 under a separate head in the custom-house 



records of the Indian Government in 1828, though the fiber had been sent to the Euro- 

 pean market in trifling quantities during the two or three previous decades. In 1793 

 the East India Company sent to England 100 tons of the fiber under the name "pat." 

 In the warehouse committee's report on this shipment it was stated that "some of 

 the most eminent dealers declare that it is not hemp, but a species of flax, superior 

 in quality to any known to the trade." The first exports as jute, in the year named 

 above, amounted to but 18 tons. In 1850-51 the total exports, including jute rope, 

 had reached 30,000 tons, and in 1871-72, 310,000 tons. At this time 35 districts of 

 India were cultivating 800,000 acres in jute, more than one-half of this area lying in 

 nine districts of northern Bengal. 



Up to this date hemp and flax had been used to bale the cotton crop of the United 

 States, and jute as an article of import occupied a very small place. The year 1872, 

 however, saw the native fibers superseded by the India product, particularly iu the 

 West, resulting in the almost total destruction of the industries they represented. 

 As already shown, the present imports of the fiber into this country are enormous, 



Fig. 44. — Seed vessels of Corchorus olitorius. 



