HEMP. 81 



perature, a fortnight or three weeks may be found 

 necessary. 



Mere exposure to the air is sometimes substituted 

 for the water-steeping- ; this is called dew-retting. 

 The hemp to be so treated is stacked and covered 

 during the first part of the winter, and in January 

 and February is spread upon meadow land and 

 whitened with the frost and snow. The fibres of 

 the plants thus treated are, however, always much 

 inferior to those which are retted by water, and they 

 are fit only for the coarser yarns. 



In the cold regions of some parts of Russia and 

 Sweden the snow which falls so abundantly is made 

 the means of separating the fibres from the useless 

 part of the plant. The hemp previously dried in- 

 stead of being steeped in water, is, after the first fall 

 of snow, spread on the ground to receive a fresh 

 accession of snow upon its surface; and this, when 

 dissolved in the spring, leaves the hemp in such a 

 state that the fibres are readily disengaged. In some 

 parts of Livonia a more complicated method is pur- 

 sued, which it is said enhances the value of the hemp 

 twenty-five or thirty per cent. 



A spot where there is a fall of clear water is selected, 

 and five or six basins of about two feet deep are 

 made, one beneath the other; they are divided by 

 slight banks of clay and communicate with each 

 other by means of a small aperture in each, which 

 can be stopped at pleasure. The plants are steeped 

 in the lowest basin for two or three days, and so on 

 successively to the highest ; the first basin as soon as 

 emptied always being filled again with fresh plants ; 

 at each time these are supplied, the water is re- 

 newed in the top basin, and the apertures being 

 unclosed, an exchange of water takes place through- 

 out all the vessels. 



It has always been supposed that some improve- 



