Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-08
Jute Culture in Louisiana.
A Great Industry to Which Farmers the South are Giving Attention.
 From the New York Times

A Great Industry to Which Farmers fin the South are Giving Attention. [From the New York Timesl
 NEW ORLEANS, March 31.-In 1873, the amount paid for iute imported into the United
 States was $4, 800, GOO; in 1880, for the year l ending June 30, it was $7,OO0,OOO; and this year it will, in all probability reach the round of the order ti1Sdce9. and of the genus cor chorus cdpsuZdr5s It's stem is from one-half 1 inch to one inch in diameter, grows to the height of ten or twelve feet, is very straight, l and branches only at the top. It has sharply l serrated, lanceolated leaves, about six inches long and nearly two inches wide. The flow CTS have five sepals and five petals. The | stamens are numerous, but they have only one pisti. The bark is fibrous like that of hemp or flax, and it is the fibre that is used. It is more soft and silky than either flax or hemq, and is very yfne-that is, capable of
 minute subdivision-and it's being so fine and
 of such great length causes it to be some times woven with silk in cheap fabrics. The seed is sown in March or April, and 1t may be cut,in June, July, and August. It is best to cut it when it begins to blossom, as the fibre
 is then better than when the plant is older.
 After being cut the stems are steeped Tn wa
 ter until the fibre separates easily from the
 stems. It is then prepared for the loom m a
 manner similar to that in which flax is pre-
 pared, only the stems are not dried and brok-
 en, as are the flax stems. In Egypt and Syria
 the c0Tc}t07-Es 0AtO71ets is cultivated as 8 pot
 herb. The American linden or basswood, some-
 times called 'linn wood" is the most familiar
 representative of the order to which iute be-
 longs, and the renowned honey of Lithuania is
 made from linden blossoms, and highly prized
 Western honey comes from apiaries which are
 located near the great basswood forests in the
 West.
 Jute is used to make coarse cloth mating,
 cheap carpets, burlaps, coarse bagging, gum ny, rice bags, coffee sacks, and like articles. It is not good for ropes, as it cannot stand the weather; yet our hemp ropes are frequent ly adulterated with jute. When the water fall for the head was in fashion, many were the switches which were made of jute, instead of flax as was often said.
 Gunny is the name of the coarse cloth used to bale cotton. The yield of this years cot ton is set down at O00 GOO to 6, ,25O, GOO bales Each bale takes about seven yards of gunny, hence 6, ,O0e, 900 bales of cotton alone require l AZ GOO, 900 yards of cloth made from fibre of the iute plant. This is one item, aud the largest, but to it we must add the bagging for the increasing rice crop, and for wheat and coffee and pepper until the whole catalogue is filed
 There is now no question but that we could supply this demand ourselves, and prosper by 1 the production of jute. It is settled fact 1 that many of the southern States have splen- | did jute-growing lands. California, realizing | the benefit of it's culture, has been bagging 1 her own products from her own soil for | several years, and it is said that iute manu- l factory will soon be started in this city The l iute plant is considered sure crop in this l State It is no harder to raise than corn, and the time of harvesting comes just about l the time when the cotton planter could clev- l erly put his farm force to the cutting of iute and thus few extra hands would be needed. | To cultivate it is light labor, the rank growth | causing it to overshadow everything else in | the field, and the yield is, to say the least, wonderful The ends of the stems are used | for making paper, are the old sacks and | bags The stems may be used for garden | fences and coarse baskets, and, like the will l low of Delaware and Maryland, they make | good charcoal for gunpowder. These are | some extra uses to which the waste is put, as | the fibre is the important part of the plant. |