ON HEMP. 233 



After the Hemp has been watered and well dried, it is fit for 

 the brake. If it cannot be sufficiently dried in the open air, it may 

 be done by laying it carefully upon sticks placed across, about four 

 feet above a gentle fire. The Hemp may be laid thereon about six 

 inches deep, and carefully turned from time to time to be equally 

 dried. In the Hemp countries, wind and water mills, with parti- 

 cular machinery for the purpose, are contrived to brake and pre- 

 pare the Hemp in a more cheap and expeditious manner : but, in 

 a country where a manufacture is in its infancy, the most plain and 

 simple methods must be adopted, and such machinery be used as 

 the farmer can make himself. To break Hemp, the person em- 

 ployed takes in the left hand a handful of Hemp, and in the other 

 the upper jaw of the brake. The Hemp is laid across, between the 

 two jaws ; and by raising and letting fall the upper jaw several times 

 with great force, it breaks the dry stems under the rind that sur- 

 rounds them. By this means, the gummy matter and pith are made 

 to quit the Hemp, and the operation is continued till the whole 

 handful be perfectly broken. The Hemp is then stretched out on 

 the ground or a table ; and when about two pounds' weight is thus 

 prepared, it is made into a parcel, by doubling and twisting it slight- 

 ly, and is then called a head of Hemp or undressed stuff. A woman 

 may break from twenty to thirty pounds of Hemp in this manner in 

 one day. Taylor's Instructions. 



The mode of braking, cleaning, or dressing, as well as the 

 form of the several instruments used for the purpose, being supposed 



h h to 



