156 HEMP. 



tlie new method, the growth of hemp is extensible to a 

 great variety of localities. 



In spite of the brilliant advantages held forth by 

 M. Bralle's invention, and which seem to be scarcely 

 disputable, his method is far from being generally 

 practised ; and hemp-growers in the neighbourhood 

 of Paris, who adopted it at first, relinquished it after- 

 wards. It is impossible to decide with certainty whether 

 the cold reception his process has met with be the result 

 of accidental circumstances, such as the temporary dear- 

 ness of potash and soda, or of indifference on the part of 

 the farmers and the instinctive power of the spirit of 

 routine. But it is certainly desirable to call the attention 

 of enlightened agriculturists and landowners to M. 

 Bralle's plan, and to make renewed efforts to insure their 

 adoption, if the advantages proclaimed by the learned 

 men whom the French government deputed to examine 

 it, are as great in reality as they are in appearance. 



A smaller space will suffice to devote to the mechanical 

 process proposed in 1818 as a substitute for the water- 

 retting of hemp by M. Christian, director of the Con- 

 servatoire of Arts and Trades at Paris. Not withstand ing 

 the ingenious construction of the machine which he in- 

 vented to separate the filamentous parts of the stalks of 

 hemp and flax by means of bruising them, instead of 

 previously submitting them to the dissolving action of 

 steeping, and notwithstanding the hopes to which this 

 invention gave rise at its first appearance, its inefficiency 

 was soon discovered. The reason why this and all 

 similar machines must ever be incompetent to perform 

 the office required of them, is clearly explained by the 

 Count Grallesi, the author of an excellent Italian memoir 

 on the culture and manipulation of hemp and flax. 

 " Maceration," he says, "is an operation indispensable to 

 obtain from the hemp-plant a tissue suitable for making 

 cloth. It may be said that it can be dispensed with in 

 the case of hemp for rope-making. I do not admit the 

 supposition ; but even granting it, the same thing cannot 

 be admitted with regard to hemp destined for cloth. The 



