AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM. 301 



qualit}' of the hemp. That whieh has been raised in a 

 free soil, and duly watered, and which has been gathered 

 gi'cen, is sooner rotted than that which is raised in strong- 

 er dry soil, and which has been suffered thoronglily to 

 ripen. In general, it is thought that when the hemp re- 

 mains but a short time in the watei* to rot, the thread is 

 better. On tliis account it is said, that hemp should not 

 be rotted but in warm weather. And w hen the autumns 

 are. cold, some defer until the spring following to put the 

 female hemp in water. Some even prefer to rot their 

 hemp in stagnant and even in putrid, rather than in fresh 

 running water. 1 have put it into different waters to 

 rot, and it has appeared to nje that the thread of the 

 hemp rotted in putrescent water vas softer than that 

 rotted in running water ; but the filament contracts in 

 stagnant water a disagreeable colour, which in truth 

 does not damage it, for it bleac'aes thereby more easily ; 

 yet this colour is disgusting, and on that account the fila- 

 ment is not so merchantable. For this reason, when it 

 can be done, they turn a little stream into the routoirs to 

 renew the water and prevent it from becoming putre- 

 scent. 



X have made out to rot the hemp by spreading it over 

 a meadow as t'ley do linen to wiiiten it ; but this is a te- 

 dious mode. The thread, ho^vever, has appeared to me 

 rot very different from that rotted in tiic usual mode. I 

 have further attempted to boil the hcnij) in water, hoping 

 in a short time to bring it to tiie same state as when ta- 

 ken out of the routoir ; but after having boiled it more 

 than ten hours, on taking it from the water to dry, it was 

 not in a condition to be thoroughly separated, or fit for 

 the brake. It is true that when it was broke warm and 

 wet, the bark was detached with ease, but it remained 

 like a ribband. The cellular texture not being removed, 

 the longitudinal fibres cohered. They could not be se- 

 parated ; audit was impossible to make the hemp suf- 

 ficiently fine. From this it is evident, as we have before 

 observed, that it is next to impossible precisely to define 

 Ihe length of time that hemp should rcmuia in the roa- 



