460 STEMMING. 



package, and fit for a foreign market. It is practised in cases 

 where the malady termed the fire, or other casual misfortune 

 during the growth of the plant, may have rendered it doubt- 

 ful in the opinion of the planter whether something or other 

 which he may have observed during the growth of his crop, 

 or in the unfavorable temperature of the seasons by which it 



STEMMING. 



hath been matured does not hazard too much in packing the 

 web with a stem which threatens to decay. To avoid the 

 same species of risk, stemming is also practised in cases where 

 the season when it becomes necessary to finish packing for 

 a market is too unfavorable to put up the plant in leaf in the 

 usual method ; or when the crop may be partially out of case. 

 Besides the operation of stemming in the hands of the crop- 

 master, there are instances where this partial process is 

 repeated in the public warehouses; of which I shall treat 

 under a subsequent head. 



" The operation of stemming is performed by taking the 

 leaf in one hand, and the end of the stem in the other, in 

 such a way as to cleave it with the grain ; and there is an 

 expertness to be acquired by practice, which renders it as 

 easy as to separate the bark of a willow, although those 

 unaccustomed to it find it difficult to stem a single plant. 

 When the web is thus separated from the stem, it is made up 



