The subjoined table shows the extent of the trade from an agricultural, as well as from a manufacturing, point of view. The difference between the production and the exports represents the native consumption, for very little jute is sent overland. The figures are taken to the 31st of March, the end of the Indian financial year.
+--------+-------------+-------------+--------------+ | Year. | Acres under | Production | Exports by | | | cultivation.| in cwt. | sea in cwt. | +--------+-------------+-------------+--------------+ | 1893 | 2,181,334 | 20,419,000 | 10,537,512 | | 1894 | 2,230,570 | 17,863,000 | 8,690,133 | | 1895 | 2,275,335 | 21,944,400 | 12,976,791 | | 1896 | 2,248,593 | 19,825,000 | 12,266,781 | | 1897 | 2,215,105 | 20,418,000 | 11,464,356 | | 1898 | 2,159,908 | 24,425,000 | 15,023,325 | | 1899 | 1,690,739 | 19,050,000 | 9,864,545 | | 1900 | 2,070,668 | 19,329,000 | 9,725,245 | | 1901 | 2,102,236 | 23,307,000 | 12,414,552 | | 1902 | 2,278,205 | 26,564,000 | 14,755,115 | | 1903 | 2,142,700 | 23,489,000 | 13,036,486 | | 1904 | 2,275,050 | 25,861,000 | 13,721,447 | | 1905 | 2,899,700 | 26,429,000 | 12,875,312 | | 1906 | 3,181,600 | 29,945,000 | 14,581,307 | +--------+-------------+-------------+--------------+
_Manufacture._--In their general features the spinning and weaving of jute fabrics do not differ essentially as to machinery and processes from those employed in the manufacture of hemp and heavy flax goods. Owing, however, to the woody and brittle nature of the fibre, it has to undergo a preliminary treatment peculiar to itself. The pioneers of the jute industry, who did not understand this necessity, or rather who did not know how the woody and brittle character of the fibre could be remedied, were greatly perplexed by the difficulties they had to encounter, the fibre spinning badly into a hard, rough and hairy yarn owing to the splitting and breaking of the fibre. This peculiarity of jute, coupled also with the fact that the machinery on which it was first spun, although quite suitable for the stronger and more elastic fibres for which it was designed, required certain modifications to suit it to the weaker jute, was the cause of many annoyances and failures in the early days of the trade.