254. ON HEMP. 



sometimes practised in France, from its giving employment to their 

 women and children ; but the Society disapprove of this method, 

 because it is attended with the inconvenience of having the fibres 

 come off in ribbands, which do not readily divide under the sub- 

 sequent operations of scutching and heckling. 



The braking of the reed with the brake (a most simple ma- 

 chine) has greatly the advantage of giving suppleness and fineness 

 to the fibre, without endangering its strength. 



The Natives have two modes of separating the fibre from the 

 reed ; the one is performed in the water, the other on the land. 

 When it is done in the water, the fibre is full of the reed ; but when 

 on the land, there is scarce any to be seen. 



Upon making an Experiment (see p. 206) he says : — The im- 

 practicability of reeding the plant after forty hours steeping is again 

 confirmed; and the drying the plant, so contrary to the first au- 

 thorities, is again proved to be worse than nugatory, creating delay 

 when expedition is required. The fibre, when once it is separated 

 from the reed, should be dried as quickly as possible ; for if it is left 

 wet in heaps, to be put to dry only when all the work is done, it is 

 to the full as bad as if it had been left in the water. As fast as it ar- 

 rives out of the people's hands, it must be spread out to dry, either 

 on lines or bamboos, and that under cover on the event of rain. 



The objections that were urged against the mode of prepara- 

 tion laid down by Mr. Fleming, as stated in the several Residents' 

 Letters, having been communicated to that gentleman ; he inform- 

 ed 



