ON H EM P. 



167 



produced a sample of Sunn, made by himself after the native me- 

 thod, without drying previous to sleeping, but steeped for three days 

 and nights, which he asserts is equal in strength to any that was ever 

 seen ; as also a line made from Santipore Sunn, stronger, he adds, 

 than the Hemp tried at "Woolwich./ 



and from this infers, that the Avant of strength is to be attributed 

 more to the carelessness, impositions, and knavery of the natives, 

 than to any radical defect in the growth and curing it. 



Alluding to this experiment, he says : It is self-evident, that 

 drying before watering it will not do : nor will the fibre separate with 

 the plants' remaining forty hours in the water ; three days and three 

 nights are barely sufficient. 



The general practice, he observes, is to set the plant upright in 

 the water, immersed about one-third only from the bottom, for one 

 day before the complete immersion. 



In further confirmation of the inefficacy of drying the plant be- 

 fore watering, he states, that on the 4th August, 1801, he obtained 

 a small bundle of ripe Sunn, which he dried till the 6th. On that day, 

 at gun-fire, he immersed it in the water. On the 8th he took it out, 

 to try if the fibre would separate from the reed, but found it imprac- 

 ticable. On the 9th he tried it again, but without effect. On the 

 10th he found it separate from the reed, but not from itself; at the 

 same time that it was quite perished. 



On the 18th August, he says: The drying system is again 

 proved to be worse than nugatory. 



