The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-05-12
AMERICAN JUTE.

In the last number of the Demo
crat, we briefly alluded to the culture
of Jute in our State and Parish, ant
Ijust now being in an agriculture
mood, and little out Of sorts will
adjusted" politics and statesmen
desire to call more special and ex
tended attention to the important
subject.
From the monthly Report of the
Department of Agriculture for April
1875, we are enabled to write accu
rately and as it were officially in re
gard to Jute, its culture, curing, pre-
pairing for market and sure coming
crop in our country.
Mr.. E. Lefranc, of New Orleans,
who has devoted much attention to
the culture of the Jute in this coun.
try, informs the Department that he
has succeeded in raising the fist reg
ular crop in America, of which he re-
Gently shipped nineteen bales to the
markets of St. Louis and New York,
to be tested by the manufacturers
His crop was raised in Plaquemines
Parish, La, and he believes the cul-
tivation of the fiber will be rapidly
multiplied by other planters of that
section. Mr.. Lefranc writes to the
Department as follows:
As explained before, this iute fiber
was decorticated from dried plants
which had already given their seed. 1t
is the second product of the stalks, and
for that reason the staple may not be
highly classed in comparison with the
India article worked in green. But
have put enough of good quality in the
bales to prove that we can advantage
ously compete against foreign jute.-
The decorticating machine cleans it
more thoroughly and secures larger
quantum of strong tilament than the Or
binary hand-work of HindOstan. The
refuse of the machine is good for paper.
Regarding the economy of this new in
dnstry, l am now practically satisfied
that the figures OF cost have given in
my treatise were sufficiently high. Our
expenses for cultivation scarcely reach
$4.75 per acre; for manipulation, $15.-
These are still subject to improvement
wherever closer organization can be
established.
The yield is also satisfactory
Wherever the stand was normal, we OBJ
tanned the proportion of one ton per
acre. In average the lint is of over two
pounds per foot high ON the surface of
an acre, and the plant ava RACES ten feet
in any favorable season, and in rich,
moist land.
MIR. Lefranc speaks very confident
ly of his success in organizing the
labor of this new and promising in
lustry. His machine, he says, is ac-
tually a producing fact. 1t works
very well, and on dried stalks, which
have first furnished their seed, as
we'll as on green plants, thus securing
The important result of obtaining
both seed and fiber from the CROP
The fiber obtained is strong and fine
enough to bring from four and half
% five cents a pound, in gold. The
aculty of working the plant dried is
important, as 1t extends the manipu-
ating period through the dull win
er season, when labor is abundant
nd cheap. Mr.. Lefranc remarks:
The production or yield is as large as
ne ability of the feeding hands can
each. The punches of fifteen and
wenty stalks engaged at the time are
lmost instantly transformed into clean
lament. Hemp, ramie, hibiscus, and
ny long fibrous plant are are equally
'oii Cle"teu ny tue apparatus, which
apacity and power can be increased as
D produce tons and tons daily. These
ssertions are based on true, practical
acts, and as soon as they will be be-
eyed and applied in our long-textile
rowing sections, the country will cease
be tributary for our actual enormous
nport of foreign staple. From new
bservations, can re-assert that ordi-
airy jute growth gives an average Of at
last one ton per acre of fiber, and that
he whole cost of production will not
sceed $25. In good, moist land jute
rows ten feet in average, and has one
lird of its body in fiber. The mower
I'D reaper applied on wheat cut jute
erfectly we'll.