JUTE, a vegetable fibre now occupying a position in the manufacturing scale inferior only to cotton and flax. The term jute appears to have been first used in 1746, when the captain of the “Wake” noted in his log that he had sent on shore “60 bales of gunney with all the jute rope” (New Eng. Dict. s.v.). In 1795 W. Roxburgh sent to the directors of the East India Company a bale of the fibre which he described as “the jute of the natives.” Importations of the substance had been made at earlier times under the name of pāt, an East Indian native term by which the fibre continued to be spoken of in England till the early years of the 19th century, when it was supplanted by the name it now bears. This modern name appears to be derived from jhot or jhout (Sansk. jhat), the vernacular name by which the substance is known in the Cuttack district, where the East India Company had extensive roperies when Roxburgh first used the term.
| Fig. 1.—Capsules of Jute Plants. a, Corchorus capsularis; b, C. olitorius. |
The fibre is obtained from two species of Corchorus (nat. ord. Tiliaceae), C. capsularis and C. olitorius, the products of both being so essentially alike that neither in commerce nor agriculture is any distinction made between them. These and various other species of Corchorus are natives of Bengal, where they have been cultivated from very remote times for economic purposes, although there is reason to believe that the cultivation did not originate in the northern parts of India. The two species cultivated for jute fibre are in all respects very similar to each other, except in their fructification and the relatively greater size attained by C. capsularis. They are annual plants from 5 to 10 ft. high, with a cylindrical stalk as thick as a man’s finger, and hardly branching except near the top. The light-green leaves are from 4 to 5 in. long by 1½ in. broad above the base, and taper upward into a fine point; the edges are serrated; the two lower teeth are drawn out into bristle-like points. The small whitish-yellow flowers are produced in clusters of two or three opposite the leaves.
The capsules or seed-pods in the case of C. capsularis are globular, rough and wrinkled, while in C. olitorius they are slender, quill-like cylinders (about 2 in. long), a very marked distinction, as may be noted from fig. 1, in which a and b show the capsules of C. capsularis and C. olitorius respectively. Fig. 2 represents a flowering top of C. olitorius.
Both species are cultivated in India, not only on account of their fibre, but also for the sake of their leaves, which are there extensively used as a pot-herb. The use of C. olitorius for the latter purpose dates from very ancient times, if it may be identified, as some suppose, with the mallows (מלוח) mentioned in Job xxx. 4; hence the name Jew’s mallow. It is certain that the Greeks used this plant as a pot-herb; and by many other nations around the shores of the Mediterranean this use of it was, and is still, common. Throughout Bengal the name by which the plants when used as edible vegetables are recognized is nalitā; when on the other hand they are spoken of as fibre-producers it is generally under the name pāt. The cultivation of C. capsularis is most prevalent in central and eastern Bengal, while in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, where, however, the area under cultivation is limited, C. olitorius is principally grown. The fibre known as China jute or Tien-tsin jute is the product of another plant, Abutilon Avicennae, a member of the Mallow family.
Cultivation and Cropping.—Attempts have been made to grow the jute plant in America, Egypt, Africa and other places, but up to the present the fibre has proved much inferior to that obtained from plants grown in India. Here the cultivation of the plant extends from the Hugli through eastern and northern Bengal. The successful cultivation of the plant demands a hot, moist climate, with a fair amount of rain. Too much rain at the beginning of the season is detrimental to the growth, while a very dry season is disastrous. The climate of eastern and northern Bengal appears to be ideal for the growth of the plant.
The quality of the fibre and the produce per acre depend in a measure on the preparation of the soil. The ground should be ploughed about four times and all weeds removed. The seed is then sown broadcast as in the case of flax. It is only within quite recent years that any attention has been paid to the selection of the seed. The following extract from Capital (Jan. 17, 1907) indicates the new interest taken in it.
“Jute seed experiments are being continued and the report for 1906 has been issued. The object of these experiments is, of course, to obtain a better class of jute seed by growing plants, especially for no other purpose than to obtain their seed. The agricultural department has about 300 maunds (25,000 ℔) of selected seed for distribution this year. The selling price is to be Rs. 10 per maund. The agricultural department of the government of Bengal are now fully alive to the importance of fostering the jute industry by showing conclusively that attention to scientific agriculture will make two maunds of jute grow where only one maund grew before. Let them go on (as they will) till all the ryots are thoroughly indoctrinated into the new system.”
The time of sowing extends from the middle of March to the middle of June, while the reaping, which depends upon the time of sowing and upon the weather, is performed from the end of June to the middle of October. The crop is said to be ready for gathering when the flowers appear; if gathered before, the fibre is weak, while if left until the seed is ripe, the fibre is stronger, but is coarser and lacks the characteristic lustre.