IO CORDAGE FIBRES 



of crops followed is (i) hemp; (2) maize, barley, or oats ; (3) 

 wheat ; (4) hemp, and so on. The soil is first deeply ploughed 

 and then pulverized with mallets or rolled until the surface is 

 quite fine. Seed is sown in March, being sown more thickly 

 on rich soil than on poor land, for the reason that if the plants 

 were not close together upon the rich ground they would grow 

 large and coarse, whereas the most valuable fibre is obtained 

 from the more slender stems. The seed is machine-sown and 

 harrowed in. In order that the male plants may be first 

 pulled, small paths must be left open along the field, length- 

 wise, at about 7 ft. pitch. The plant comes abraird in ten or 

 twelve days, and should be carefully weeded when the stalks 

 are a few inches long. The plant is subject to two diseases, 

 viz., pallor and rickets, the former due to lack of iron in the 

 soil, and the latter showing itself in the drying up of the stalk 

 and leaves. The male plant is known to be ripe by the fading 

 of the flowers and the falling of the pollen, and from some of 

 the stems growing yellow. The female plants are less nume- 

 rous than the male, and are known to be ripe by the stems 

 becoming pale. 



When the male plants are ripe they are pulled up by the 

 roots in handfuls, the female plants being left for the seeds to 

 ripen, when they are uprooted in a similar manner. The roots 

 are then cut off, and the leaves, seeds and branches stripped 

 off in the ripple, a sort of very coarse hackle through which 

 the top end of the stems are drawn in handfuls. The stems 

 are then made into bundles for steeping. The hemp is retted 

 in dams or in substantial stone basins or tanks called macera- 

 tojo, the operation occupying from four to eleven days, accord- 

 ing to the temperature and the quality of the straw, the 

 slenderest stems requiring the longest steeping. 



When the stems have been sufficiently retted, or when the 

 fibre separates easily from the woody portion of the stem, the 

 bundles are lifted out and allowed to drain. The straw is 

 then grassed and dried, and then beaten with wooden mallets 



