102 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



is eighty 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 break from 

 one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per day. The 

 laborer 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 bagging, bales, and other kinds of 

 untarred cordage. The price is not uniform. The extremes 

 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 labor of the grower, and is considered more profitable 

 than any thing else the farmer has cultivated. 



The most heavy labor in the culture of hemp is pulling or 

 cutting it, when ripe, and breaking it when rotted. This 

 labor can easily be performed by men. Various attempts 

 have been made to improve the process of breaking, which 

 is the severest work in the preparation of hemp. A newly- 

 invented machine was erected for that purpose on my farm 

 six or eight years ago, to dress hemp by dispensing with rot- 

 ting altogether, similar in structure to one which was exhi- 

 bited 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 look- 

 ing article, equalling in appearance Russia hemp. A ton of 

 it was sold to the navy department, which was manufactured 

 into rigging for the ship of the line the North Carolina, 

 prior to her making a voyage of three years in the Mediter- 

 ranean. 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 de- 

 cisive ; 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 



