HEMP. 



It should not 1)0 allowed to become 

 too wet, but a little moisture assists 

 the closing of the seed. In a week 

 or ten days it may be thrashed, by 

 beating the upper parts of the plant 

 upon a board ; the seeds separate 

 readily, and may be thrashed on the 

 field, for carriage leads to much loss. 

 The stems are of no use for lint, but 

 may be used for charcoal, or burned 

 to ashes as manure. Hemp seed 

 very readily spoils, unless well dried 

 before stored ; it is also much sought 

 after by rats. It is seldom so well 

 kept as to be worth sowing after the 

 first season. The crop of seed is 

 from 20 to 40 bushels, which sells at 

 upward of $1 the bushel. The lint 

 is worth from S90 to $ 180 the ton. 



Watcr-rottivg hemp is not much 

 practised, from prejudice and from 

 the little demand for it near the coun- 

 try markets, but the offer of the gov- 

 ernment to pay $280 the ton has in- 

 duced many to attempt it. The best 

 place is in running streams, a suffi- 

 cient space or pit being set off for 

 the operation ; it may be planked or 

 bricked, or a frame like that for flax 

 may be used. The dry bundles of 

 hemp are used. The following is 

 Professor Lowe's account of water- 

 rotting : 



"The bunches are generally placed 

 in the pool in rows, crossing one an- 

 other, and pressed down by some 

 heavy substance laid upon them, so as 

 to be kept from rising to the surface, 

 care being, at the same time, taken 

 that they are not so loaded as to be 

 forced down to the bottom. If the 

 weather be warm, four or five days 

 will frequently be suflicient ; if not, 

 two or three more ; but the period is 

 denoted by the stem being so soften- 

 ed that the outside coat shall come 

 easily off. Care must be taken, as 

 in the case of flax, that the putrefac- 

 tive process does not proceed so far 

 as to injure the cortical fibres. The 

 quantity put into one pool may be the 

 produce of an acre. The steep liquor 

 is poisonous ; hot-water rotting, with 

 the use of soap, as in the preparation 

 of flax, is partially used in Europe, 

 and is a great saving in time. 

 366 



" When the hemp is thus steeped, 

 it is. like flax, taken out of the pool 

 and carried away to a plot of sward, 

 on which the plants are spread singly 

 and regularly. 



"The hemp thus spread out lies 

 three, four, or more weeks upon the 

 surface, and is turned over not less 

 than .twice a week. It is thus sub- 

 jected to the farther influence of the 

 rains and dews, and the decomposi- 

 tion of the ligneous part of the stem 

 is promoted. By this process, the 

 stem becomes hard and brittle. 



" When the hemp is seen to be in 

 a state for removal, it is taken from 

 the ground, bound into bunches, and 

 carried home to the barn, where it 

 undergoes the process of bruising by 

 the machine called a brake, as in the 

 case of flax. 



" When thus prepared, it is bound 

 up in bunches, generally weighing a 

 stone each, and carried to market. 

 The hemp which breaks off in the op- 

 eration is technically termed shorts, 

 and is half the value of the long 

 hemp." 



It should be remarked that, with 

 proper care in bleaching, rotting, and 

 raising hemp, a fibre may be obtained 

 capable of being wrought into excel- 

 lent linens. The preparation of the 

 stems by steam is said to give the 

 fibre great delicacy and whiteness ; 

 the waste is also said to make good 

 paper. Hemp is nearly free from 

 diseases. 



The ivstruments used to prepare 

 the staple are similar to those for 

 flax, but larger ; the brake {Fig.) is 



considerably larger, being six or more 

 feet long ; it is made of white oak. 

 The hemp is sold after breaking, the 

 sutching, hackling, &c., being done 

 by the manufacturer. 



