YAEIOUS MODES OF STEEPING. 143 



advantages," he asks, " for bleaching and for completing 

 the dissolution of the gluten in our fibre, thread, and 

 cloth ? The aid of water such as this has raised the 

 bleaching-grounds of Haarlem to a great point of 

 celebrity ; bleaching is executed there quickly and well. 

 There is plenty of similar water in Prance. Chalybeate, 

 earthy, and hard water ought to be avoided with the 

 greatest precaution. The spots caused by iron in the 

 form of ochre are almost ineffaceable. Alkaline waters 

 offer no obstacle to fermentation ; when the steeping is 

 over, the offensiveness of the smell they emit is very 

 remarkable.' ' 



The importance which the culture of hemp has attained 

 in the north of Italy is well known ; and a detailed 

 account of the mode of steeping which the hard-working 

 peasants make use of there, will be interesting to lay 

 before the reader. AYe translate them from the French 

 of M. de Crud, who has described them in his "Economic 

 de F Agriculture." 



" Hemp-ponds, or routoirs, are usually dug in the 

 earth, sufficiently deep beneath the surface of the soil to 

 keep them always full of water. These ponds are pro- 

 vided, over their whole extent, with stakes driven into 

 the earth to the depth of seven or eight feet, to pre- 

 vent their being pulled up by the effort which the hemp 

 makes to rise to the surface of the water. They are also 

 fixed in regular rows, about six feet apart ; and as they 

 support, not far from their top, wooden cross-bars, about 

 six inches broad, and an inch and a half thick, which 

 stretch from one to the other in the same direction, 

 they form a sort of alleys in the water. These stakes 

 ought not to rise higher than just a trifle below the usual 

 level of the water, to prevent their decaying from the 

 alternate action of dryness and moisture. The pond is 

 ordinarily about five feet deep, except near the edge, 

 where there is made a sort of bank of planks, which is 

 covered with no more than from two and a half to three 

 feet of water. On this bank the workmen walk, up to 



