460 STEMMING. 
package, and fit for a foreign market. Itis practised in cases 
where the malady termed the fire, or other casual misfortune 
during the growth of the plant, may have rendered it doubt- 
ful in the opinion of the planter whether something or other 
which he may have observed during the growth of his‘crop, 
or in the unfavorable temperature of the seasons by which ut 
STEMMING. 
hath been matured does not hazard too much in packing the 
web with a stem which threatens to decay. To avoid the 
same species of risk, stemming is also practised in cases where 
the season when it becomes necessary to finish packing for 
a market is too unfavorable to put up the plant in leaf in the 
usual method ; or when the crop may be partially out of case. 
Besides the operation of stemming in the hands of the crop- 
master, there are instances where this partial process ts 
repeated in the public warehouses; of which I shall treat’ 
under a subsequent head. : 
“The operation of stemming is performed by taking the 
leaf in one hand, and the end of the stem in the other, in 
such a way as to cleave it with the grain; and there is an 
expertness to be acquired by practice, which renders it ad 
easy as to separate the bark of a willow, although those 
unaccustomed to it find it difficult to stem a single plant. 
When the web is thus separated from the stem, it is made up 
