84 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



to prevent the flame from reaching the hemp. 

 During the process this is turned from time to time, 

 that it may be equally dried throughout. 



After it is dried the hemp is usually broken by the 

 hand-break or by mills ; when the former is used 

 it is reckoned that one woman can break twenty or 

 thirty pounds during the day. Some cultivators 

 adopt another method for separating the fibres. 

 This is done by simply breaking off a piece of the 

 stalk at the lower end and peeling the bark from the 

 reed in ribands. It is so simple of performance, 

 that the children, the aged, and the infirm, can be 

 advantageously employed in the task; and where 

 there is a large family, and some hands which would 

 be otherwise useless, this method may be pursued 

 with a good result, but it would be very unprofitable 

 work for an active labourer. Besides which it is 

 not as effectual as the use of the break in separating 

 the fibres. The peeled hemp comes off with much 

 of the useless membranes adhering, and it is not 

 disengaged from any of the dirt, which it may have 

 contracted in the stagnant pools where it has been 

 watered ; these circumstances render the after pro- 

 cesses with the peeled hemp more difficult than 

 with that which is broken. 



The Abbe Brulles * recommends another manner 

 of accomplishing the same thing, and which he terms 

 reeding the plant. For this purpose a trough is pro- 

 vided, twelve or fourteen inches deep, and somewhat 

 longer than the hemp under process ; to this trough 

 are fitted two pieces of wood, a foot in length, set on 

 one side with brass-wire teeth. The trough being 

 filled with water, and the hemp laid evenly along, 

 these pieces of wood are placed over the hemp, one 



* The Mode of cultivating and dressing Hemp, by the Abb6 

 Brulles. 



