1 83 On the Preparation of 



one parcel nearly 12 months, Ip all the varieties of the air 

 within doors, and kept another nearly as long constantly 

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

 chief difTercnce T perceive is, that the one kepi constantly 

 •under water, namely the nhiiest 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 

 from the straw. If bean-straw be kept for years under 

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

 fresh as ^t. first. But if the straw be .sometimes wet and 

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

 The specimens of bean-henip accompanying this letter, in 

 the form of oakum for caulking ships, having b^en long 

 exposed to the varieties of the weather, previous to being 

 separated from the straw, is a proof of its being considerably 

 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, 

 are loosened, and easily separated from the strawy part, 

 without any other process than merely beating, rubbing and 

 shaking them, andvperhaps tliis is the easiest way of ob^ 

 taining bean hemp; but then, from being thus exposed, 

 and the fermentation that takes place in the strawy part, 

 which is of a spongy nature, communicating 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 theiii from being excellent materials for making paper, 

 I have also found, and the in}portance of the idea will, 

 I hope, be an excuse ft>r mentioning it here, that, though 

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

 fe\V days generally acquires a black colour, a blue scum 

 and a peculiar taste, yetcatile drink it greedilv, and seemed 

 fattened by it. But my experiments have hitherto been on 

 too hmited a scale to be able, in a satisfactory manner, to 

 ascertain this last circumstance. When the water in which 

 bean straw has been put to steep, becomes foetid, which I 

 find it lif^^carcely more a])t to become than common stag- 

 nant water, on bc-:ng stirred by driving horses or cattle 

 through it, by a stick, or in any other way set in motion, 

 (as is the case v^ith all putrid water, even the ocean itself,) 

 the fcetid particles fly oif, and the effluvia dies away." 

 ''-When straw is to be steeped for bean hemp, the bean^ 



are 



