INDUSTRIAL RETTING OF TEXTILE PLANTS IO7I 



advantageous in its results and leaves more stalk adhering, in proportion as 

 the hemp is less dry and the stalk is finer. 



As regards the retting of the scutched epidermis, it is quite true that 

 the resulting material differs slightly in appearance from the flax retted in 

 stalks. It is smoother, less divided, more glossy, and above all the strips 

 appear to adhere, but it suffices to put it through a slight process, such as 

 brushing, to render it flexible, as practised in hemp spinning works, in order 

 to get rid of all adhesion and produce an excellent degree of flexibility, 

 di\dsion and colour. 



Nevertheless it follows from all the foregoing that it would be erroneous 

 to suppose that the method, though admittedly efficient when applied 

 to scutched hemp, may be deemed a simple substitute, though cf course 

 cheaper, for the method at present adopted in the country. If this were 

 the case, it would leave unclianged all the other economic relations between 

 the production, the industry and the trade in hemp. This is by no means 

 the case, as the method is destined to bring about a violent change in all 

 those relations, and entails the industrialisation of hemp retting. The 

 hemp grower will be called upon to grow the plant and sell it in the stalks 

 for industrial treatment ; it will be the function of the retting factory to 

 ret the hemp after scutching it, then to comb it, or else to sell it direct to 

 the factory which specialises in combing, spinning and weaving the hemp. 



The method, in crder to gain footing in the practical treatment of 

 hemp, might encounter difficulties of 3 kinds : prejudices, vested interests, 

 and absence of economic advantages. 



We cannot here go into the first or the second of these difficulties, 

 which for that matter are more or less common to all innovations and 

 which are gradually overcome. On the other hand it has beeen neces- 

 sary to show that difficulties of the third class do not exist. This has 

 been done by methodical official experiments conducted chiefly at Ferrara 

 (Italy) in igoS, afterwards at Mans (France) in 1911, and at Portici (Italy) 

 in igi2. Here it was shown that retting b}- this microbiological method 

 only takes 84 hours for hemp, without there being any danger of going 

 beyond the optimum point of retting ; it does not produce any offensive 

 sme 1, and in ordinary times the cost per cwt is : 3 s. for Ital5^ 3 s. 8 d. for 

 Fralnce, as against 6 s. to 13 s. 8 d. for retting as practised in the country- 

 sid e. On the other hand the commercial value which this method gives to 

 hemp may amount to more than 32 "„ above that obtained on the other 

 S3'stem. 



With such a practical basis, industrial tests cannot be otherwise than 

 successful, and in France, where special cultivation conditions exist, the 

 Societe Fran9aise du Rouissage industriel at Mans (Sarthe), a limited 

 compan}^ founded in September 1912, will work the patent in France, its 

 Colonies and Protectorates. A few months later the first factory was set 

 up at Bonnetable, in the district of Mamers. 



The factory was built for the retting of scutched hemp, and comprises 

 the following principal sections : Hemp stocks, Decauville light railway with 

 special trucks for conveying the bundles of hemp to the scutching depart- 



