17 



afterwards. About thirteen weeks after sowing, or when the 

 male plants have shed their pollen, and the flowers begun to turn 

 yellow, the crop is ready for bar-resting. The stems are then 

 pulled or mown, and carefully shorn of leaves and flowers at 

 once, v.'hioh help to manure the land. When the stems are 

 stripped they are bound in smalL bundles, and the dry soil 

 adhering to the roots is knocked off. The bundles are then set 

 on end in stooks like corn. If the crop is to be kept for long, the 

 bundles are made of larger size, and are stacked or thatched. The 

 seed-bearing or female plants, after gathering, are allowed to 

 stand in the air for a few days to allow the seed to dry and 

 ripen, the heads are then cut off, and the seed is threshed out. 

 The length of time for which the pulled plants intended for 

 fibre should remain in stook to dry before retting is a much 

 debated point. fSome authorities declare that one or two days sun 

 drying is essential, while others stale that it is unnecessary, and 

 that ripe plants should be retted immediately after they are 

 pulled, the retting being then reduced from eight or ten to four 

 days. Some cultivators merely dry the crop and sell it on the 

 ground, leaving the purchaser to do the rest. 



There are various ways of retting hemp as of most other fibre 

 plants. Water-retting and dew-rettiiig are, hoAvever, the methods 

 usually practised. 1st. Watering or steeping is conducted in 

 ditches 3 to 4 feet deep, and of varying lenjilh and breadth, dug 

 on the margins of rivers. The bundles are laid at the bottom, 

 covered with straw or sods, and weighted down by logs and 

 stones. Putrid standing water makes softer fibres than running 

 water. The most satisfactory plan would seem to be a series of 

 basins at different altitudes, a small stream constantly trickling 

 from one to another. The progress of the operation is readily 

 ascertained by taking out a stem by the root-end and drr.wing the 

 thumb-nail along it to the top ; when the fibre slips up the stem 

 the process has been carried sufficiently far. 2nd. In dew-retting, 

 after the stooks have been allowed to remain standing several 

 days they are opened, the stems spread out carefully on the grass, 

 subjected to the effect of showers and dews and an occasional 

 watering, if necessary, for a period which may extend to six 

 weeks, care being taken to turn them constantly during the whole 

 time. The appearance of pink spots on the stems must be 

 watched for, whereupon the stems must be gathered up, tied in 

 bundles, and piled Hn stocks to dry. By this method a valuable 

 white hemp is produced, but the operation is very tedious, and 

 entails great expenditure of labour. After water-retting the hemp 

 is removed from the water to a field of clean grass. There it is 

 spread out evenly and allowed to lie for three weeks or more to 

 bleach, and to enable the fibre to free itself ; during this it is 

 turned over with light long poles every three or four days. When 



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