7 



246 ON HEMP. 



from this method. All the fibres of the Hemp thus beat are divided 

 in the water, washed, disengaged from one another, and seem to be 

 as completely dressed, as if they had already passed through the 

 heckle. The more rapid, clear, and beautiful the water is, the 

 more are these fibres bleached and purified. When the Hemp ap- 

 pears clear enough, and totally purged from its dirt and nastiness, 

 we take it out of the water, wring it, open it, and expose it to the 

 air ; then lay it on a pole in the sun to drip and dry. 



We might also use, for a second watering, the common leys of 

 ashes,* either by making those leys for the purpose, or taking advan- 

 tage of those which are made frequently for linen-cloth. From the 

 different experiments we have made, and the observations of many 

 persons, who with the same assiduity have applied themselves to this 

 matter, we have discovered that the gum of Hemp, which has been 

 pretty well cleared before, is by no means unfriendly to linen cloth 

 when it is mixed with it : and that it will be sufficient, in such a case, 

 to put only a layer of clean straw, about two inches thick, in the 

 bottom of the ley-tub, in order to filtrate and purify the water, and 

 to attract all the mud and gum that is in it. By this easy precau- 

 tion, the salts of the ley, thus set at liberty, exert their whole acti- 

 vity upon the Hemp or linen, which is penetrated by the water ; 

 and it has never been observed, that it left any spot or blemish. It 



* Hemp of a green, grassy colour, may be brought, by the use of the ley, 

 to its greatest perfection, and the labour of beating it may be almost entirely 

 dispensed with j it becomes white without trouble or loss. 



