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caterpillar cost considerably iu time and money to apply them, and in the 

 end merely saves, wholly or in some degree, the cotton field, to plant jute 

 in or around the field costs but a trifle more per acre, and returns not only 

 protection to the cotton, but also a crop as profitable as the one it x)rotects. 

 The experiment is certainly worth a trial. 



In support of this theory, which many contend is infalable, I will quote 

 detached portions from an article prepared by Emile Lefranc, a member of 

 the " Southern Rami Planting Association," quoted by the Agricultural 

 Department, at Washington. Speaking of jute, he says : 



" To obtain good fibre-crops the land must be elevated, rich, and well 

 drained, as in India ; to raise seed, lowlands may be used provided that 

 favorable weather allows sowing, and enables the growing plants to keep 

 above the points of overflow. However, when the growth is fully started, 

 water is not to be feared, so long as the tips remain above the surface of 

 submersion. 



In the first place, jute is sown broadcast ; in the second in drills five feet 

 apart. That interval is to facilitate the branching, and at the same time 

 the destruction by ploughing of the tall weeds which generally occupy 

 low lands. In both methods the soil must be well prepared as for ramie ; 

 ploughed as deep as possible in January or February, then left exposed to 

 atmospherical influences, until the planting period. That period commences 

 with April and terminates with June, in monthly succession. To prepare 

 for sowing, a second plowing is required and as fine a harrowing as can be 

 effected. The " circular pulverizer," applied before the harrow shortens 

 the labor. Then the sowing for fibre crop is performed broad-cast with 

 the Calhoun sower. With that instrument costing eight or ten dollars, a 

 man can sow ten acres of jute per day. The quantity of seed required for 

 each acre is from 12 to 15 pounds. 



Louisiana seems to be particularly congenial to the plant. 



Texas and Florida have also made successful experiments. 



In the field planted broadcast no parasite can resist the vigorous and 

 absorbing influence of the jute, even the hardy and noxious gramineal 

 plant called "coco " in Louisiana is destroyed after two years of broadcast 

 cultivation. 



Another peculiar advantage of jute planting, is the antagonistic influence 

 it exerts over insects, especially over the lepidoptera tribe which generates 

 the caterpillar. It having been stated in some reports of the Department 

 of Agriculture that cotton fields surrounded by jute plantations were res- 

 pected by the devouring worms, the director of the Rami Planting- 

 Association made special experiments to test the reported facts. Three 

 different fields planted with cotton were belted with jute. None of them 

 were visited by the caterpillar while the cotton of adjacent plantations 

 was destroyed by the insect. It was observed that flies and butterflies kept 

 away from jute fields especially at the blossoming period. The peculiar 



