Hessian fabric

Hessian (UKˈhɛsiən, USˈhɛʃən), burlap in the United States and Canada, or crocus in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, is a woven fabric made of vegetable fibres, usually the skin of the jute plant or sisal leaves. It is generally used (in the crude tow form known as gunny) for duties of rough handling, such as making sacks employed to ship farm products and to act as covers for sandbags, although woven plastics now often serve these purposes, and wrapping tree root balls. However, this dense woven fabric, historically coarse, more recently is being produced in a refined state known simply as jute as an eco-friendly material for bags, rugs, and other products. The name "hessian" is attributed to the historic use of the fabric as part of the uniform of soldiers from the former Landgraviate of Hesse and its successors, including the current German state of Hesse, who were called "Hessians". Hessian cloth is available in different types of construction, form, size and color. The origin of the word burlap is unknown, though its earliest known appearance is in the late 17th century, and its etymology is speculated to derive from the Middle English borel ("coarse cloth"), the Old French burel and/or the Dutch boeren ("coarse"), in the latter case perhaps interfused with boer ("peasant"). The second element is the Dutch word lap, "piece of cloth". Hessian was first exported from India in the early 19th century. It was traditionally used as backing for linoleum, rugs, and carpet. In Jamaica and certain parts of the Caribbean (where it is only known as Crocus), many labourers who used to work on the plantations were not often given pleasant materials with which to make clothes. Some had access to cotton that was spun, woven, cut and sewn into serviceable clothing (often called homespun) while others had to make do with clothing fashioned from roughly hewn sacking. Labourers used their resourcefulness to recycle discarded sacking and fashion them into garments that, although fairly uncomfortable by all accounts, provided protection from the heat and dust.