CONTRIVANCES TO SUPERSEDE BETTING. 151 



not to be recommended to any except small proprietors ; 

 and then they will prefer water-retting, when the thing 

 is possible and the season not altogether adverse. Hemp 

 that has been dew-retted with the precautions we have 

 pointed out, sometimes produces a superb sample of fibre, 

 of brilliant and prepossessing appearance ; it is rather 

 weak, extremely flexible, fine, and silky. In the south of 

 Europe, where the hempen fibre is both delicate and 

 strong, the climate fine, showers rare, and the dews very 

 abundant, this method is preferred, the more so as the 

 length of time which the retting takes up subdivides the 

 fibre, softens, and smooths it, but is unsuited to the 

 north of France, and still more so to Great Britain, 

 whose climate is inclined to be rnoist and showery, and 

 where warm weather is seldom of long duration. Never- 

 theless, if one were compelled by circumstances to locate 

 a steeping-place close to human habitations, it would be 

 wiser to run the risk of loss from imperfect dew-retting, 

 than to fall the victims of malaria. "We do no more 

 than allude to the other mode of retting which has been 

 attempted, with a view to get rid of the offensive vapours, 

 by putting the hemp in trenches, and covering it a foot 

 or more deep with earth. In the first place, the process 

 is extremely hazardous. "Without in the least intending 

 a pun, we may say that rotting is more likely to be the 

 result than retting. And secondly, when the trench is 

 opened, the noxious air escapes in a concentrated form, 

 and must be extremely injurious to the persons employed'. 



MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL CONTRIVANCES TO SUPER- 

 SEDE RETTING. 



The inconveniences attached to the different methods 

 of steeping and retting hemp which we have just de- 

 scribed have long directed the attention of scientific men 

 to the discovery of some simple method which should 

 attain the same object, without its disadvantages. The 

 means proposed have been either chemical or mechanical. 

 Among the former, we will confine ourselves to those 



