HEMP. 



HEMP. 



reedy part of the stalks into small pieces or ! 

 shoes, which fall off during the process. He ' 

 assists their disengagement by striking the 

 handful against a stake, or with a small wooden 

 paddle, until the lint or bark is entirely clean, 

 and completely separated from the woody par- 

 ticles. 



After the above operation is performed, the 

 hemp may be scutched to soften it, and to 

 strengthen the threads. That process, how- 

 ever, is not thought to be profitable, and is not 

 therefore generally performed by the grower, 

 but is left to the manufacturer, as well as that 

 of beating and heckling it. Scutching is done 

 by the labourer taking in his left hand a hand- 

 ful of lint, and grasping it firmly, then laying 

 the middle of it upon a semi-circular notch of 

 a perpendicular board of the scutching-frame, 

 and striking with the edge of the scutch that 

 part of the lint which hangs down on the 

 board. After giving it repealed strokes, he 

 shakes the handful of lint, replaces it on a 

 notch, and continues to strike and turn all 

 parts of it, until it is sufficiently cleansed, and 

 the fibres appear to be even and straight. 



The usual daily task of an able-bodied 

 hand at the brake is 80 pounds' weight, but 

 there is a great difference not only in the state 

 of the weather, and the condition of the stalks, 

 produced by the greater or less degree in which 

 they have been rotted, but in the dexterity with 

 which the brake is employed. Some hands 

 have been known to brake from 150 to 200 

 pounds per day. The labourer ties up in one 

 common bundle the work of one day, and in 

 this state it is taken to market and sold. From 

 what has been mentioned, it may be inferred, 

 as the fact is, that the hemp of some growers 

 is in a much better condition than that of others. 

 When it has been carelessly handled or not 

 sufficiently cleansed, a deduction is made from 

 the price by the purchaser. It is chiefly bought 

 in our villages, and manufactured into cotton- 

 basting, bales, and other kinds of untarred 

 cordage. The price is not uniform. The ex- 

 tremes have been as low as three, and as 

 high as eight dollars, for the long hundred 

 the customary mode of selling it. The most 

 general price during a term of many years, has 

 been from four to five dollars. At five dollars 

 it compensates well the labour of the grower, 

 and is considered more profitable than any 

 thing else the farmer has cultivated. 



The most heavy labour in the culture of 

 hemp, is pulling or cutting it, when ripe, and 

 braking it when rotted. This labour can 

 easily be performed by men. Various attempts 

 have been made to improve the process of 

 braking, which is the severest work in the 

 preparation of hemp. A newly invented ma- 

 chine was erected for that purpose on my farm 

 six or eight years ago, to dress hemp by dis- 

 pensing with rotting altogether, similar in 

 structure to one which was exhibited about the 

 same time at Columbus, during the sitting of 

 the Ohio legislature. It was worked by horse 

 power, and detached the lint tolerably well, 

 producing a very fine looking article, equalling 

 in appearance Russia hemp. A ton of it was 

 sold to the navy department, which was manu- 

 factured into rigging for the ship of the line, 

 78 



the North Carolina, prior to her making a 

 voyage of three years in the Mediterranean. 

 Upon her return, the cordage was examined 

 and analyzed ; and although its exterior looked 

 very well, it was found, on opening it, to be 

 decayed and affected somewhat like the dry-rot 

 in wood. I considered the experiment deci- 

 sive ; and it is now believed that the process 

 of water or dew-rotting is absolutely necessary, 

 either before or after the hemp has been to the 

 brake. There is a sappy or glutinous property 

 of which it should be divested, and that is the 

 only process that has been hitherto generally 

 and successfully employed to divest it. 



An ingenious and enterprising gentleman 

 in the neighbourhood of Lexington, has been, 

 ever since the erection of the above-mentioned 

 machine, trying various experiments, by alter- 

 ing and improving it, to produce one more 

 perfect, which might be beneficially employed 

 on rotted hemp, to diminish the labours of the 

 brake. He mentioned the other day that all of 

 them had failed; that he had returned to the 

 old hand-brake, and that he was convinced 

 that it answered the purpose better than any 

 substitute with which he was acquainted. I 

 observe Mr. H. L. Barnum has recently adver- 

 tised a machine, which he has constructed for 

 braking and dressing hemp and flax, which 

 can be procured at the establishment of Mr. 

 Smith, in Cincinnati. I most cordially wish 

 him success ; but the number of failures which 

 I have witnessed, during a period of 30 years, 

 in the attempts to supersede manual labour by 

 the substitution of that of machines?; induces 

 me to fear that it will be long before this desi- 

 deratum is attained. 



The quantity of net hemp produced to the 

 acre, is from 600 to 1000 weight, varying ac- 

 cording to the fertility and preparation of the 

 soil and the state of the season. It is said that 

 the quantity which any field will produce, may 

 be anticipated by the average height of the 

 plants throughout the field. Thus if the plants 

 will average eight feet in height, the acre will 

 yield 800 weight of hemp, each foot in height 

 corresponding to a hundredweight of the lint. 



Hemp exhausts the soil slowly, if at all. 

 An old and successful cultivator told me that 

 he had taken 13 or 14 successive crops from 

 the same field, and that the last was the best. 

 That was probably, however, owing to a con- 

 currence of favourable circumstances. No- 

 thing cleanses and prepares the earth better 

 for other crops (especially for small grain or 

 grasses) than hemp. It eradicates all weeds, 

 and when it is taken off, leaves the field not 

 only clean, but smooth and even. 



The rich lands of Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- 

 nois, are, I have no doubt, generally well 

 adapted to the cultivation of this valuable 

 plant; and those states enjoy some advantages 

 for the cultivation of it, which this does not 

 possess. Their streams do not dry up as much 

 as ours, and they consequently employ better 

 than we can, the agency of water, in the pre- 

 paration of it. Their projected canals, when, 

 completed, will admit of its being carried to 

 the Atlantic capitals at less expense in the 

 transportation than we can send it. (Ame- 

 rican Farmer, vol. xiv.) 



3*3 617 



