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Raising and dressing of HEMP. 



27 



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years become very dry; fo that a crop of flax is become 

 very precarious, fcarcely one year In fcvca producing a 



good one: This is a conftant complaint in the mouth of 



e 



e 



the general 



every hnfbandman: Now hemp does not require half the 

 rain that flax does; this is a circumflance that is v^ell 

 worth the notice and attention of every farmer ; and there- 

 fore by his raifing hemp in the manner before diredted, 

 and by preparing it in the heft manner for fpinning and 

 weaving into good cloth, he can with greater certainty fup- 

 ply all the neccffary ufcs of his family; and by felling the 

 overplus, he can purchafe fuch things as his wife and 

 daughters may think convenient on extraordinary occafi- 

 ons. This however need not hinder him from raifing fome 

 flax every year: But I think that it is more for his interefl; 

 to fix his chief dependence upon his crop of hemp, as that 



is more fure, and every way more profitabi 



run of feafons confidercd. And let him not be difguftcd 

 and think that I am about to perfuade him, his wife and 

 daughters to wear oznabrigs, for I can affure him that I 

 have feen dowlafs, which is made of hemp, worth five 



and fix {hillings the yard, which no farmer need be a&am- 



ed to wear. 



I fhall now endeavour to inflrudl the honeft hufbandnian 

 In a few eafy rules, for preparing his hemp, which he 

 has raifed and managed in the manner before direded. 



Know then that the beft preparation of hemp for the 

 manufa£luring of cloth is to render it as foft and as fine as 

 poflible, without leflening its ftrength, and the eafieft and 

 cheapeft way of doing that, is certainly the beft. This 

 is to be found out by a variety of trials and experiments; 

 but till a better way be difcovered, which I hope will 

 not be long firfl., and with which I fl:tould be greatly pleaf- 

 ed; take the following method, which is the beft I have 

 yet been able to difcover.^ 



If you have a large wide kettle, that will take In your 

 hemp at full length, It will be the better; but if your ket- 

 tle be fmall, then you muft double your hemp, but with- 

 out 



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