130 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



connection with a hot, damp atmosphere and heavy rainfall. A light, sandy soil, 

 however, is not suited to the plant. Dr. George Watt states, briefly, that "a hot, 

 damp climate, in which there is not too much actual rain, especially in the early part 

 of the season, is the most advantageous.'' The most congenial conditions are alter- 

 nate sunshine and rain, and even excessive rain after the plant has reached a height 

 of several feet is not injurious if water does not lodge at the roots. The effect of 

 such lodgment, or from the plants standing in water, is the growth of suckers, which 

 causes defective fiber. Drought stunts the plant and also injures the fiber. In the 

 preparation of the soil much depends upon its constituents, heavy or clayey lands 

 requiring more plowings than the lighter, sandy, or alluvial lands. The soil is 

 thoroughly broken up and finely pulverized, and with heavy soils much is accom- 

 plished in this direction by the action of the elements — the sun particularly. The 

 preparation therefore commences in November or December, some authorities say 

 September, though it may be put off until February and March, and even as late as 

 June. Four to twelve plowings are usually given, and at the last plowing all weeds 

 and other trash are collected, dried, and burned. Due allowance should be made, 

 however, for the rude aud primitive implements that are called plows in many parts 

 of India. The ground is also harrowed, or the clods broken with a mattock. The 

 soil for early sown jute is sometimes laid with manure, but this is never the case with 

 the later sown crops. Iu the Hooghly district fresh earth and cow dung are used for 

 manure, but the poor soils are treated to oil cake. In localities where the ryot is too 

 poor to own a plow and cattle the land is turned with a hoe. As a rule, the oftener 

 and more thoroughly the land is plowed the larger is the yield. Soil exhaustion is 

 remedied by manuring, rotation of crops, and fallows. The manures ordinarily used 

 are crow dung, ashes, house sweepings, oil cake, the ashes of burnt jute roots, 

 the stubble of rice crops. All refuse from the plant should be returned to the 

 soil. Rotation of crops is practiced in almost every district where jute is exten- 

 sively grown, and is well understood by the cultivators, though no universal 

 rules are curent. The crops most frequently selected are mustard, rice, and pulses. 

 Leaving the land fallow for two to three years is resorted to whenever found 

 necessary. 



A study of the practice in India points to the choice in the United States of alluvial 

 lands, such as the second bottoms, so called, along rivers or other bodies of water, 

 and even lowlands that are not Hooded. The experience of those who made trials 

 of the culture in the early seventies indicates that while the plants will grow on a 

 great variety of soils, the best results are secured where there is plenty of moisture, 

 or, when the moisture is not found in the soil, where it can be applied artificially, 

 as by irrigation. In the experiments in Florida in 1872 cultivation in a bay head, 

 composed of muck several feet deep, cleared off and lined, produced stalks to the 

 height of 12 feet or more. On Florida cotton lands which are not uplands the plant 

 did well. In Georgia, in the same year, culture upon " stiff clay lands" produced 

 stalks 15 feet tall. A South Carolina farmer utilized rice lands, securing stalks 7 to 

 10 feet tall. In Louisiana several experiments were conducted the same year upon 

 river lands 1 foot and 3 feet above Gulf tide. Notwithstanding that the season was 

 very dry, stalks 10 to 13 feet tall were produced, and the experiment was considered 

 in every way a success. In North Carolina moist bottom lands were chosen with 

 good results. 



The following, from Felix Fremerey, gives a practice that has produced good 

 results near Galveston, Tex. : 



" In February the soil is plowed to a depth of 7 inches and exposed to the intluences 

 of sun and air. By the middle of April, when the soil has gotten fairly warm, and 

 by no means before, it is harrowed twice in order to thoroughly pulverize it. Fur- 

 rows at a distance of 8 inches are drawn by means of a drill; they should be about 

 2h to 3 inches deep, and cotton-seed meal at the rate of a quarter to half a ton per 

 acre is thrown in them. The seeds are dropped in these furrows at the rate of 15 to 

 1G pounds per acre and then covered with earth in any convenient manner. xVt this 



