ON HEMP, 199 



when the rind getting rotten and easily separable, it is beat against 

 a board, until it is fit for use. 



Patna. — When the plant is cut, it is bound in bundles of 

 the size of the grasp of a man's two arms, put in water, and kept 

 under water for three days, covered with mud, which prevents the 

 bundles from rising above the water, and contributes to make the 

 interior bark separate more easily from the stems. After three days, 

 the cuttings are taken up, and well beaten in the water, which clears 

 them from the mud and the exterior bark, and leaves only the 

 interior bark, which is the Hemp (Sunn), upon the stems or sticks. 

 When the cuttings are sufficiently cleared from the exterior bark 

 and mud, they, with the interior bark on them, are put in the sun 

 to dry ; and when dried, the stems or sticks are drawn away singly, 

 with the hand, from within the interior bark, which then becomes 

 Sunn, and is ready for use. 



Chittagong. — When pulled, it is tied in bundles, and put 

 into a tank, or standing pool of water, for five or six days, so that 

 the bark may be easily separated from the stalk. 



Board of Trade Cons. IMh January, 1793. 



The plants, after being pulled up, are put into water, 

 where they remain from three to four days. The dresser, standing 

 in the water, takes up a handful of the plant, and breaking it in the 

 middle, strikes one end of it on the water, until the fibre separates 

 from the stem ; he then does the same with the other end. 



By this mode of putting the plants into water as soon as they 



are 



