AUGUST. 457 



where it is laid bundle upon bundle, direct and 



i t it 

 across, thus, ', ; '. j- This is teVmcd a bed of 



! i i ~ 



hemp, and after it is piled to such a thickness as to 

 answer the depth of the water (which cannot be 

 too deep*), it is loaded with blocks and logs of 

 wood, until all of it is totally immersed; after re- 

 maining in this state four or five days, as the wea- 

 ther shall direct, it is taken out, and carried to a 

 field of aftermath, or of any other grass that is 

 clean and free from cattle : the bundles being un- 

 tied, it is spread out thin, stalk by stalk ; in tins 

 state it must be turned every other clay, especially 

 in moist weather, lest the worms should injure it. 

 Thus it remains for six weeks or more ; then it is 

 gathered together, tied in large bundles, and kept 

 dry*}* in a house till December or Januarv. 



In the fenSj the male and female, or femble and 

 seed-hemp, are frequently separated. This may 

 arise from their hemp being coar?er, and the stalks 

 larger. To attempt it, says a manufacturer, in 

 Suffolk, would be, I think, unprofitable, if not 

 impracticable. 



Hemp, when left for seed, is seldom water- 

 retted, from the additional trouble and expence ; 

 but it would be better if so done. It is generally 



Tliis deserves experimental inquiry: watering hemp is a 

 partial rotting through fermentation: the vicinity of the atmos- 

 phere must, for that purpose, be necessary. The best hemp- 

 ponds I have seen have not exceeded the depth of five feet, 

 t It might do,as well stacked, if kept peril;, lly -Iry. 



stacked 



