ON HEMP. 237 



Hemp, are obliged to take one stalk after another, to break the stem, 

 and draw off the Hemp, by letting it run between their fingers : 

 this method is so plain and so easy, that children can perform it 

 with as much success as grown persons; the aged and the infirm 

 apply to it with equal ease. Generally, the evenings, or those times 

 wherein nothing else can be done, if such time there be, are thus 

 employed. This business is particularly suited to those who watch 

 the cattle ; but we are of opinion, that the strong and laborious, who 

 can be at no loss for more useful and profitable employments, ought 

 not to amuse themselves with it. 



Besides loss of time and the expence that must be sustained by 

 those who give their Hemp to be peeled, this practice is also attended 

 with a great many inconveniences to the buyer and to the manufac- 

 turer. The Hemp that is peeled generally retains some thick parts 

 at the end next the root, the weight of which is profitable to the 

 seller, but contrary to the interest of the buyer. The gum and dirt 

 it has contracted in the thick and standing pools where it was watered, 

 sticks constantly to it, and raises an unwholesome dust in the shop 

 where it is dressed, which is greatly injurious to the health of the 

 manufacturer, as well as to his pocket. 



Moreover, the peeled Hemp does not always retain its whole 

 length : one is obliged to break the stem several times to get off the 

 bark ; thus the short Hemp is mixed with the long, and this in- 

 equality is no less prejudicial : the broken fibres that are mixt up 

 with the rest of the parcel, only produce hards, which are of no 

 great service. After all, both these methods may have their advan- 

 tages 



