280 



HEMP FR031 BEAN STALKS. 



and to water 

 with exclusion 

 of air, v^iihout 

 iryury. 



Before it is 

 dr««)Sed it is 



injured by the 

 alternate ac- 

 tion of air and 

 jaaoisture. 



hut is still fit 

 for paper. 



Tlx« water in 

 ■which it is 

 •teeped per- 

 haps rather be- 

 Jieficial than 

 injurious to 



changes of the atmosphere. With a view to this, 1 exposed 

 one parcel, nearly l-i months, to all the varieties of the air 

 within doors, and kepi auotner nearly as long constnntly 

 under water, and find them not in the least injured. The 

 chief difference I perceive is, that the one kept constantly 

 under water, namely the whitest of the specimens sent you, 

 has assumed a rich silky gloss, and a much more agreeable 

 colour than it had before. 



But though this is the case with bean-hemp after it is 

 cleaned and dressed, and which, though stiff and hard when 

 dry, is pliable and easily managed when rather damp or wet, 

 it seems otherwise with it previous to its being separated 

 fft>in the straw. If bean-straw be kept for years under 

 water, or quite dry, it produces I find hemp as good and 

 fresh as at first. But, if the straw be sometimes wet, and 

 sometimes dry, the filaments or fibres are apt to be injured. 

 The specimen of bean-hemp accompanying this letter, in 

 the form of oakum for caulking ships, having been long 

 exposed to the varieties of the weather, previous to being 

 separated from the straw, is a proof of its being con^derar 

 bly injured. If the straw of the bean was scattered thin on 

 the ground, and exposed to the weather for two or three 

 months, I have uniformly found that the hemp, or fibres, 

 afe loosened, and easily separated from the strawy part, 

 without any other process than rjicrc/^ beating, rubbing, and 

 shaking them, and perhaps this is the easiest way of ob- 

 taining bean-hemps but then, from being thus exposed, 

 and the fermentation that takes place in the strawy part, 

 which is of a spungy nature, comuiunicaiing itself to the 

 fibres, or hemp, I find that these are generally less or more 

 injured, though not so much so, in my opinion, as to pre- 

 vent them from being excellent materials for making paper, 



I have also found, and the importance of the idea will, 

 I hope, be an excuse for mentioning it here, that, though 

 the water, in which bean-straw has been put to steep, in a 

 few days generally acquires a black colour, a blue scum, 

 and a peculiar taste, yet cattle drink it greedily, and seemed 

 fattened by it. But my experiments have hitherto been on 

 too limited a scale to be able, in a satisfactory manner, toi 

 ascertain this last circumstance. When the water, in wbichfT 



beat) 



