The Opelousas courier., 1874-01-24

JCTE.
From that portion of the treatise relating to
the culture and manufacture of jute, we make
the following interesting extracts:
Jute is native of Hindostan, and has been
used for many years in the textile fabrics Of
India. i 1t is mixed with other tibers, as
wool, fax, hemp, cotton, &c, and causes the
remarkable cheapness of certain tissues. A
| more direct and extensive use to which this
long fiber has been put is in the ground of
carpets, in oilearpetings, twines, cOrdage,
sacks. bagging, &c. The American trade
disburses every year millions Of dollars in
gold to pay for the manufactured and unman-
ufactured jute received from Bombay and
Calcutta. Louisiana seems to be re-
markably congeniai to the plant. Expert
ments made there on a fair scale have demon
strated, by facts and production, the facility
| of making jute very profitable object OF cul-
tivation.t4Th Southern Raniie-Pianting AssO-
citation of New Orleans has planted it two sea-
sons in succession, and by various methods,
with the view of testing the adaptability and
| the yield of the imported seed. 1t has sue
ceeded remarkably well, and the reproduced
! seed proved to be fully as good as the former,
and even superior in some cases. 1t was SO
well acclimated the second year that it has
grown and developed most iuxuriantiy in the
! various spots where it has been tried. In gen.
| eral, the domesticated seed has been more
vigorous than the seed received from Cal
Saint John Baptist that prolific plant has at
tanned an average of s and 9 feet in height,
with thickness of growth similar to that
| of wheat; and in inferior soils around New
! Orleans it has furnished an average of and
! 7 feet. That and many other facts conclu-
sively demonstrate that jute finds itself at
| home In the alluvial and moist soil of Louisi-
ana equally as well as III the old and half
exhausted lands of Hindostan. In the
field planted broadcast no parasite can resist
| the vigorous and absorbing influence of jute.
| Even the hardy and noxious gramineal plant,
commonly called ''coeo7 in Louisiana, is des-
| troyed after two seasons of broadcast cultiva-
| tion. Another peculiar advantage of jute-
planting is the antagonistie influence it exerts
| ever insects, especially the lepidoptera tribe,
| which generates the caterpillar. 1t having
been stated in some reports of the Depart
ment of Agriculture that cotton-felds sur
rounded by jute-plantations were respected by
/ the deVouring worms. the director OF the Ra-
| mie-Planting Association made special expert
ments to test the reported fact. Three diff
+ ferent fields, planted with various sorts of
cotton, were belted by jute. None of them
were visited by the caterpillar, while the cot
ton of adjacent plantations was partly des-
4 troyed by the insect. That protection is at
tributed to the above-mentioned influence
! hostile to insects. 1t was observed that flies
and butterflies kept away from jute-felds,
especially at the blossoming period. The
peculiar odor of the flower and the bitter ex-
/ 1ldatien of the leaves seem to be strongly re-
puIsive to them, if not poisonous. So impor-
i fant fact deserves to be demonstrated once
! more on a larger scale. It would cost but lit