ON HEMP. 



183 



Hemp, and particularly of sail-cloth, which is an article of the 

 utmost importance to ail commercial nations," 



The excellent Memoirs of the Royal Society of Agriculture at 

 Tours, for the year 1761, prefer river-water, especially that of 

 rivers which run upon a bed of sand, as the best for steeping of 

 Hemp; because this water being clear, renders the colour of the 

 Hemp brighter than it would otherwise be, as there is not any filth 

 therein to sully it, and it peels the more easily when so steeped, 

 not being there liable to so great a degree of putrefaction, as to break 

 the cohesion of the fibres of its bark. It is not, however, here 

 meant, that the Hemp should be steeped in the bed of the river ; 

 because the inequality of the motion of the water on the sides and 

 in the middle of the Hemp would prevent the arising of that equal 

 degree of putrefaction, which is in this case essentially necessary. 

 On the side of such rivers a hollow should be dug, three or four 

 feet deep, and proportioned in extent to the quantity of the Hemp 

 to be watered. 



As it is contrary to law, that the places for steeping Hemp be 

 made in running water; it would be of advantage to contrive them 

 so, that the water from the steeping-places should run off upon pas- 

 ture grounds ; because the quantity of putrid vegetable matter which 

 the water, wherein Hemp has been steeped, carries along with it, 

 would greatly enrich those grounds ; and with this view, likewise, 

 all the water of pools, and other places used for the steeping of 



Hemp s 



