•^^i AUKICLLTURAL MUSLUM 



Nor is this all ; for the bine or straw of hops con<aiii& 

 an excellent hemp for making cloth, canvas, ro})es, ca- 

 bles and a thousand other articles; also the very best 

 niaterials for making all kinds of paper. And it is a. 

 fact, that were even one half of the bine of the hops 

 raised in the counties of Kent, Sussex and Worcester, 

 instead of being thrown away after the hops are picked, 

 or burnt, as is commonly done, steeped for five or six 

 days in water, and beat in the same Vv ay as is done witli 

 hemp and llax (independent of what might be got from 

 scarlet runners, nettles, the hautn of potatoes, &e.) there 

 wou d be found annually materials enough for threft 

 times the paper used in the British dominions. 



While we admire the rapid progress that is making in 

 painting, sculpture, engraving, architectyre, coach budd- 

 ing, and the elegi.t arts in general, one cannot h£;lp be- 

 ing astonish'^d at the slow progress that is making in 

 discoveries of the useful kind in various departments. 

 Though it has not been attended to, nor, so far as I 

 know, has ever been mentioned by any one, yet it is cer- 

 tain that according to size, every bean plant contairs, 

 from :^0 to ."35 filaments running up on the outside, under 

 a thin membrane, from the root to the very top, all 

 round; the one at each of the four corners being thicker 

 and stronger than the rest. It is also certain that next 

 to Chinese seagrass, in other words the material with 

 which hooks aresometimes fixed to the ends of fishing- 

 lines, the filaments of the bean plant are the strongest 

 and most durable yet discovered. — These, with a little 

 beating, rubbing and shaking, are easily separated from 

 the strawy parti when the plant has been a few days 

 steeped in water, or is damp, and in a state approaching 

 to fermentation, or what is commonly called rotting. 



From carefully examining the medium number of 

 stalks or bean plants, in a square foot, in a variety of 

 fi( Ids, and multij)lying these by 4810, the square feet in 

 an acre, and then weighuig the hemp or fihunents of a 

 number of stalks, 1 lind that there arc, at a medium, 

 about '^ cwt. of hcrap oiithcbG iilameiiis iii au acre, ad* 



