158 HEMP. 



formed on hemp that has not been softened by 

 maceration, connot help spoiling a part of it, seeing the 

 difficulties which they have to surmount in order to 

 divide the threads, and to disunite them by mechanical 

 means from the heterogeneous substances with which 

 they are combined." 



In all cases after hemp is steeped, and is dry again, 

 it is in a fit state to work. In the Pas-de-Calais, where 

 hemp grows only to the same moderate height which it 

 attains in Great Brittain, the stems are not scutched or 

 beaten, like flax, to obtain the fibre, but it is peeled off 

 by hand. This work is performed, during their evenings, 

 by workpeople, together with their whole families, who 

 employ themselves in hemp-peeling when their day's 

 work is done. A child of four or five years old is 

 capable of executing the task. The head of the hemp- 

 stalk is simply broken with the fingers, and the whole of 

 the fibre comes away with it at once. The string of 

 fibre is thrown on one side, and the denuded hemp-stalk 

 is cast on the other, to make sulphur-matches with, for 

 which purpose it is in great demand, the consumption 

 for pipe-lighting being enormous in France. The 

 match-makers buy their bundles of naked stalks in pairs, 

 one bunch of male and one of female stems, that is, of 

 shorts and longs. Each individual can earn two sous, 

 or a penny, per evening by hemp-peeling. The people 

 are satisfied if it pays them for their candle and their 

 tobacco. It seems a very trifling sum ; but suppose a 

 man has six children : they alone will thus produce six- 

 pence a night, or three shillings a week, at a task which is 

 not laborious, and in a country where provisions are 

 generally cheaper than in the neighbouring districts. 



THE EHD. 



PRIXTED BT COX (BROS.) AND WYA1AN, GREAT QUEEN STREET. 



