frS HORTU.S JAMA1CENSIS. plantain 



rig hemp from the plantain-tree, that the general adoption of it might not be pre- 

 vented by complex machinery, or tedious and difficult manipulations. 



' I have now to give the result of my inquiries, and have to describe such a simple 

 and easy process, as will enable any person to set on foot a manufacture of hemp, with- 

 out milch trouble or expence. The instrument I have employed is so simple, that a 

 carpenter may make it in half an hour, and the whole process is so expeditious, that 

 the hemp may be rendered fit for sale in a few hours after the trees are cut down : I 

 mean the undressed hemp ; for to dress it with a heckle, unless it were likewise spun 

 and wove in the country, would be quite foreign to the purpose. The process of heck- 

 ling is by no means so simple as it appears to be ; and I can truly affirm that if aperson, 

 not bred to the business, aitempt to heckle flax and hemp, he will convert the greater 

 part of it into tow ; besides, different modes of dressing are necessary, according to the 

 manufacture to which the hemp is to be applied. That part of the process, therefore, 

 can be executed better, and to much greater advantage, in Britain. But if the instru- 

 ment be in good order, and proper attention be paid to the manufacture, the hemp 

 v. ill be rendered so clean as, in a great measure, to supersede the use of the heckle, 

 especially for cordage. 



" Though the filaments of the plantain-tree are naturally large, yet they are divisi- 

 ble, and may therefore, by dressing, be adapted to the manufacture of the finest fabrics, 

 perhaps, to which {lax and cotton can be applied. The division of the filaments, how- 

 ever, would be prejudicial in the manufacture of cordage; for, it appears, from an 

 experiment, of Count Ruin ford, that the agglutination, of the fibres greatly increases 

 their strength. 



DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING THE CRAMP. 



" Take a plank, six feet long, one foot wide, and two inches thick, set one end iwc*- 

 feet deep in the ground, and apply a brace before to keep it steady; cut a notch on 

 the top, six inches deep, and eight inches wide ; notch the two uprights, half an inch 

 wide, to admit the jaws, which must be made of hard-wood, the lower one twelve, the 

 tipper twenty, inches long ; the lower is fixed, the upper is moveable on a pin atone 

 end, and has a weight suspended at the other, which may be increased or diminished 

 at pleasure. The uptight, in which the upper jaw turns on the pin, may have a mor- 

 tice, five inches long, in place of a notch, and two inches may be cut off from the other 

 upright. The jaws are half an inch thick, and two inches wide, brought to an edge 

 where they meet, which must be slightly serrated. If the jaws are made of steel, a. 

 quarter of an inch in thickness will be sufficient. 



TROCESS FOR PREPARING THE HEMP. 



" I. Cut the plantain stems into lengths of four feet. 



" 2. Separate the coats of which the stems are composed, and split the outer coatsi 

 into ribbons about an inch and a half wide. 



" ?,. Separate the internal parts of the ribbons with a wooden knife, then 



" l. Draw them through the cramp till the filaments are clean. 



*' 5. Hang them to dry in the sun as soon as- possible. 



" When the hemp is thoroughly dry, let it be plaited into pellets, of about half a 

 pound, and lied up into bundles of twenty pounds each." 



from experiments tneioaJJie hemp made from the plantain-tree fibre, which wa 



manufactured 



