138 HEMP. 



kept constantly under water, either by loading them with 

 heavy stones, or by pressing them down with horizontal 

 cross-bars. The best medium for steeping in, is water 

 that is almost stagnant, but which nevertheless has its 

 body gradually renewed by a feeble current passing 

 through it. Routoir is the French word for ponds 

 devoted to this operation. Rouissoir, derived from the 

 same root rouir, is a synonym more commonly used in 

 the Pas de Calais. 



"When the weather is warm, the day after the hemp 

 has been put into the water, bubbles of air are seen to rise 

 to the surface ; these are the same as atmospheric air.. Bufc 

 on the third day, the fermentation of the submerged 

 plants causes carbonic acid gas to be disengaged ; anfl. on 

 the fifth day, or sooner, when the steeping proceeds 

 rapidly, the gas emitted is hydrogen. If the water is 

 stagnant and small in quantity, it becomes discoloured 

 and muddy. The disagreeable odour of the hemp in its 

 natural state is converted into an insupportably foetid 

 stench, capable of spreading far and wide disease and 

 death. If the water of the steeping-place is still, shallow, 

 and stocked with fish, they are sure to be killed on the 

 first approach of warm weather. In consequence of this, 

 laws have been passed in France prohibiting the opera- 

 tion of steeping in all rivers and large public ponds. 



An essential point, which is too much neglected, is to 

 bunch the plants according to their length and ripeness ; 

 that is, to tie the tallest into bundles first, and then the 

 next sized, the middling ones, and the smallest, and to 

 proceed in the same way with the thickest and the thin- 

 nest stems. Without this precaution, the steeping of 

 the latter will be complete before the former are fit to 

 take out of the water. The general practice is to make 

 two harvests only of the male and female hemp standing 

 in a field, without any regard to these nice distinctions, 

 (on which, however, the superior quality of the fibre 

 depends), in pulling the individual plants of each sex. 

 But in order to obtain an equal quality of fibre, would it 

 not be desirable to let the male plants stand to attain a 



