ON HEMP. 



203 



With regard to the time of steeping, after reciting what M. 

 Du Hamel has said on the watering of Hemp, (Vide page 189) that 

 it will be sooner steeped in standing water than a running stream ; in 

 stagnant putrid water than in that which is clearer ; and that the 

 plant grown in a rich moist soil, and pulled before it is quite ripe, 

 will not require so much soaking, as when it has been sown in a stiff 

 dry soil, and suffered to stand till it is ripe ; he adds, " Thus, from 

 " Du Hamel and others, it is impossible to prescribe even the num- 

 " ber of days, much less hours for steeping, since the quality of the 

 " plant, the quality of the water, and the temperature of the air, 

 « are all liable to accelerate or retard the operation." The surest 

 way is to follow the directions of the Society of Tours, that is, to 

 take some of the stems out of the water, and try whether the roots 

 will snap short off, and whether the fibre separates readily and 

 clearly from the reed, in its whole length, in which case it is cer- 

 tain, that the plant has been sufficiently steeped, and should be im- 

 mediately taken out of the water. If it separates unequally, and 

 stops chiefly at the small knots which appear on the stem, this shews 

 it has not been steeped quite enough. 



When the Duke de Choiseul was Minister for Foreign Affairs 

 in France, the States of Brittany solicited of him, that the Am- 

 bassador at the Russian Court might be directed to obtain an account 

 of the method practised by the Livonians in steeping the Hemp- 

 plant. The common method, it seems, was to make holes, as 

 near the spot of its growth as might be; but the plant so steeped 

 produced a Hemp that always sold from twenty-five to thirty per 



d d 2 cent. 



