The Jute Industry: from Seed to Finished Cloth | Page 3

a probability
was anticipated, for in the year 1858 a small consignment of machinery
was despatched to Calcutta, and an attempt made to produce the gunny
bags which were typical of the Indian native industry.

The great difference between the more or less unorganized hand labour
and the essential organization of modern mills and factories soon
became apparent, for in the first place it was difficult to induce the
natives to remain inside the works during the period of training, and
equally difficult to keep the trained operatives constantly employed.
Monetary affairs induced them to leave the mills and factories for their
more usual mode of living in the country.
In the face of these difficulties, however, the industry grew in India as
well as in Dundee. For several years before the war, the quantity of raw
jute fibre brought to Dundee and other British ports amounted to
200,000 tons. During the same period preceding the war, nearly
1,000,000 tons were exported to various countries, while the Indian
annual consumption--due jointly to the home industry and the mills in
the vicinity of Calcutta--reached the same huge total of one million
tons.
The growth of the jute industry in several parts of the world, and
consequently its gradually increasing importance in regard to the
production of yarns and cloth for various purposes, enables it to be
ranked as one of the important industries in the textile group, and one
which may perhaps attain a much more important position in the near
future amongst our national manufacturing processes. As a matter of
fact, at the present time, huge extensions are contemplated and actually
taking place in India.
CHAPTER II.
CULTIVATION
Botanical and Physical Features of the Plant. Jute fibre is obtained
from two varieties of plants which appear to differ only in the shape of
the fruit or seed vessel. Thus, the fruit of the variety Corchorus
Capsularis is enclosed in a capsule of approximately circular section,
whereas the fruit of the variety Corchorus Olitorius is contained in a
pod. Both belong to the order Tiliacea, and are annuals cultivated
mostly in Bengal and Assam.

Other varieties are recorded, e.g. the Corchorus Japonicus of Japan,
and the Corchorus Mompoxensis used in Panama for making a kind of
tea, while one variety of jute plant is referred to in the book of job as
the Jew's Mallow; this variety C. Olitorius, has been used in the East
from time immemorial as a pot herb.
The two main varieties C. Capsularis and C. Olilorius are cultivated in
Bengal for the production of fibre, while for seed purposes, large tracts
of land are cultivated in Assam, and the seeds exported for use
principally in Mymensingh and Dacca.
The above two varieties of the jute plant vary in height from 5 to 15
feet, and, in a normal season, reach maturity in about four months from
the time of sowing. In some districts the stems of jute plants are
sometimes rather dark in colour, but, in general, they are green or pink,
and straight with a tendency to branch. The leaves are alternate on the
stems, 4 to 5 inches in length, and about 1-1/2 inches in breadth with
serrated edges. Pale yellow flowers spring from the axil (axilla) of the
leaves, and there is an abundance of small seeds in the fruit which, as
mentioned, is characteristic of the variety.
While many attempts have been made to cultivate jute plants in various
parts of the world, the results seem to indicate that the necessary
conditions for the successful cultivation of them are completely
fulfilled only in the Bengal area, and the geographical position of this
province is mainly responsible for these conditions. On referring to a
map of India, it will be seen that Bengal is directly north of the bay of
that name, and is bounded on the north by the great Himalayan
mountains.
During the winter period when the prevailing winds are from the north,
large areas of the mountainous regions are covered with snow, but
when the winds change and come from the south, and particularly
during the warmer weather, the moist warm air raises the general
temperature and also melts much of the snow on the mountain tracts.
The rain and melted snow swell the two great rivers on the east and
west of Bengal--the Patna and the Brahmaputra--and the tremendous
volume of water carries down decayed vegetable and animal matter

which is ultimately spread on the flat areas of Bengal as alluvial
deposits, and thus provides an ideal layer of soil for the propagation of
the jute plants.
The cultivation of land for the growing of jute plants is most
extensively conducted in the centres bordering on the courses of the
rivers, and particularly in Mymensingh, Dacca, Hooghly and Pabna,
and while 90