Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-06
JUTE CULTURE.
''Crea'e q JGte Market for Texas and
Jnte Culture Will Become
Profitable Crop"
somethin2 OF tho Plant, It's Cultivation
and the Kffort to neks a Texas
Market for It.
Weatherford Sun.

about the Importance of diversifying their
crops. The principal one, cotton, is too
extensively cultivated, requires too much
hand labor, and psys less profit every
year. Hence, crops requiring less hand
labor and are at the same time as well
adapted to our Texas soil and climate
must be introduced, and in fact have
been experimental with during the past
two years. One of these experimental
crops, and from which the best and most
satisfactory results have been obtained is
jute. In the last two years this crop has
been thoroughly tried In several counties
in different parts of Texas, including
Midland, Hays, Comal and Dewitt coun-
ties, in all of which it has grown remark.
ably we'll, considering the severe drouth
which prevailed in that section during
last year.
Mr.. j. Juvenet of New Orleans, first in.
troduced the jute culture in Texas, and it
is to him that we sre Indebted for the
principle data in reference to the cultiva-
ton and results of the new crop az given
in this article.
Mr.. Juyenet having explained his
method OF cultivation and shown his
AS<ASS JueS phoaoSIo LIS harvest
Ing machine to Governor Ross lsst fall,
the Governor, after due consideration of
the subject, expressed himself as follows:
"Our great Texas state can grow any
thing, provided there is near market for
1t. Create Jute market in Texas, and
Jute culture is sure to become q pawn.
crop for our Texas farmers"
The jute plant consists OF woody pulp
and fibre, OF which paper and cordage can
be made. Hence to create home mar
ket for the Jute product \ paper mill and
q cordage factory would be necessary. A
paper mill is badly needed in Texas, and
will be built soon; whereas start for q
native home jute market, according to the
expression OF Governor Ross, is at once
created by the erection of cordage facto-
ries. For such factory Weatherford has
secured the first site. and the Weather
ford Native Jute Rope Manufacturing
Company" has already been formed and
chartered, and invested with the owner
ship OF Texas patent rights of the first
iute decorticator, which has worked in
the field this fall in Kyle, H.ys county,
this state.
Weatherford intends to become head.
quarters for the iute industry in Texas,
and the Weatherford company will cheer
fully answer any inquiry about jute from
all Texas farmers desiring more informs-
ton on jute culture and It's returns than
is outlined in the following statement:
Jute Is the textile plant most eXten-
sively cultivated in India. 1t grows like
hemp, and very rapidly, in straight
leaved stalks. With proper cultivation
and good soil and favorable climate and
temperature, jute stalks grow twelve
feet high before seeding, when they are
ready to be cut. The growth of jutes is
very rapid after the plant has attained a
height of about four feet, beng then as
much as q foot week. 1t is FIVE
month crop, and not 8 thirteen month
crop like cotton.
In India jute is sown in March or April,
broadcast. The land is plowed many
times before planting, but very shallow,
as the poor natives can do no better with
their frail, primitive plows. When once
planted the only work done IS thinning
the plants where they happen to stand too
much in punches. About August is har-
vest time. The jute stalks are then pulled
out Of the ground by roots, thereby de-
priving the soil of its best nutritive ele-,
ment and impoverishing the land. Two
or three days after the pulling packages
Of about 500 stalks are made and i'm
mersed under water about two weeks,
when the guDmy matter which forms the
bark and encases the fibre is dissolved.
Then natives peel the stalks one by one,
wash and rinse the fibre, which, when
dried and baled, is then ready for the
market.
In the above condition, the jute grown
in poor land, with such poor preparation
OF the ground, no subsequent cultivation
OF the growing crop, and the fiber injured
by fifteen days. stay in water, is def
cient in both length and strength, and but
imperfectly cleansed, it is not ats8fI
strange that India iute sells at very low
prices in the London and New York mar
kets-prices that would not pay its pro-
duction by American farmers.
But Texas can far surpass the quality
of Iadia jute, and consequently higher
priced goods than bagging can be manu-
factured from the Texas jute. Texas
for instance has better soil than India,
its sandy loan nnd loose black
land, we'll prepared, is especially
we'll adapted for the culture OF
jute. In Texas jats is sown in
April, In drills three feet apart, leaving
room between the rows for the cultivator
two or three runs Of same-which will
keep the ground clean and loose to facili-
tate as much as possible the first two
months growth. With one or two
days rain in May, June or July, the stalks
Will be twelve feet high in August, when
it is time to harvest or decorticate. The |
farmer here need not to immense his |
stalks in water, nor to pull them up by
the roots. Jute harvesting in Texas is
done by simply cutting the stalks with
cane knife, leaving the roots to rot in the |
ground and to fertilize the land. The |
leaves, also, which will drop from the |
stalks after lying on the ground two or
three days, make an excellent fertilizer.
The stalks are then taken to the decorti-
Gator, or jute harvesting machine, and
passed through it. The machine reduces
the stalks to wood pulp and green bark
The wood pulp, until We have paper
mill, has as yet no value, but the green
bark, dried and baIed, will be bought by
the Weetherford Company for the manu-
'acture of fibre and rope to supply the
great demand for the Texas cordage con-
Native jute rope is better than the act
ual MANILA hemp rope. About ten pounds
Of jute seed is required to sow an acre,
which will yield from twenty to twenty
five tons of green stalks. One ton OF
green stalks gives 160 pounds OF dry bark |