Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-04-14
JUTE CULTURE IN LOUISIANA.
A Great Industry 10 Which the
Farmers Of the South are
Giving Attention.


New Orleans Correspondence N. Y. Sun
In 1873, the amount paid for jute
imported into the United States was
81 800, 900; in 1880, for the year end
ing June 30, it was $7.000,000; and
this year it will in all probability
reach the round sum of $4,000, 900.
Jute is an annual plant of the order
tiliacee, and Of the genus sorchorus
capsularis. It's stem is from one. half
to one inch In diameter, grows to the
height of ten or twelve feet, and
branches only at the top. 1t has
sharply serrated, lanceolated leaves,
about six inches long and two inches
wide. The bark is fibrous, like that
OF hemp or fax, and it is the
fibre that is used. 1t is
more soft and silky than either
fax or hemp, and is very fne-that is,
capable OF minute subdivision-and
its being SO fine and of such great
length causes it to be sometimes
woven with silk in cheap fabrics. The
seed is sown in March or April, and
1t may be cut in June, July and Au-
gust. 1t is best to cut it when it be-
gins to blossom, as the fibre is then
better than when the plant is older.
Alter being cut the stems are STEPPED
in water until the fibre separates east
ly from the stems. 1t is then prepared
tor the loom in manner similar to
that in which fax is prepared, only
the stems are not dried and broken as
are the fax stems. In Egypt and
Syria, the corGhorus olitorious is cul-
t:vated as a pot herb. The American
linden, or Eastwood, sometimes called
linn wood, " is the most familiar rep.
resentative of the order to which iute
belongs, and the renowned honey of
Lithuania is made from linden bios.
SONS, and the highly priced western
honey comes from apiaries which are
located near the great Eastwood for
ests of the west.
Jute is used to make coarse cloth.
maHings, cheap carpets, burlaps
coarse bagging, gunny, rice bags, coffee
sacks and like articles. tbs not good
for ropes, as it cannot stand the
weather, yet our hemp ropes are fre-
quently adulterated with jute. When
the waterfall for the head was in fash
ion many were the switches which
we're made Of jute instead of fax. as
was often said.
Gunny is the name of coarse cloth
used to bale cotton. The yield of this
year cotton is set down at 5000 600
to 625O,0OO bales. Each bale takes
about seven yards of gunny, hence
100000 bales Of cotton alone REQUIRE
42,OOO,O 900 yards of cloth made from
the fibre Of the jute plant This is
one item, and the largest, but to it we
must add the bagging for the increas.
ing rice crop, and for wheat and coffee
and pepper until the whole catalogue
is filed.
There is now 10 question but that
we could supply this demand our
selves, and prosper by the production
OF jute. 1t is settled fact that many
of the southern states have splendid
jute growing lands. California, real
izing the benefit of its culture, has
been bagging her own products from
her own soil for several years, and it is
said that jute mandatory will soon
be started in this city. The iute plant
is considered a sure crop in this state.
1t is no harder to raise than corn, and |
the time of harvesting comes just
about the time when the cotton
planter could cleverly put his farm |
force to the cutting of jute, and |
thus few extra hands would be needed. |
To cultivate it is light labor, the rank
growth causing it to overshadow every.
thing else in the field, and the yield is,
to say the least, wonderful. The ends
Of the stems are used for making pa
rer, as are the old sacks and bags
The stems may be used for garden
Iences and coarse baskets, and, like
he willow of Delaware and Maryland,
hey make good charcoal for gunpow-
Ter. These are some extra uses to
which the waste is put, as the fiber 10
he important part of the plant,