ON HEMP. 



163 



ends, in an inch or two of water, which allows the fibre to obtain a 

 proper degree of firmness without suffering it to be parched by the 

 heat of the sun. The next day they are immersed in water, &c. 

 [See Watering.] 



The Boggy Sunn is treated in the same manner ; except that it 

 is left to stand two days on its root-ends, as above. 



The fishermen [Manjees] and others, who cultivate the Sunn, 

 all declare, that if they adopt the mode prescribed by Mr. Fleming, 

 or, as it is termed, the European mode, in contradistinction to the 

 method practised by the Natives, the quality will be injured and the 

 produce lessened : for experience has taught them, that this is the 

 case, whenever through want of time or neglect they have swerved 

 from their own method, by either steeping it too little or too much, 

 as also when the Phool-Sunn is left for two days standing in the 

 water, instead of one. They say, when the latter is the case, the 

 plant requires much longer soaking, and near a quarter of the Sunn 

 is wasted, which I imagine arises from the plant containing a great 

 quantity of glutinous matter, which on being once dried, aggluti- 

 nates the fibres in such a manner that they can never afterwards be 

 perfectly separated*. He conceives their mode of cultivating and 



preparing the Sunn to be as good as can be proposed. 



Board of Trade Cons. 1 2th June, 1801. 

 Y 2 LUCKIPORE. 



* The Resident seems to have formed this opinion from consulting the En- 

 cyclopaedia Britannica. Vide page J 61. 



