ON HEMP. 



261 



scutch from sixty to eighty pounds of Hemp per day ; and the 

 waste may be estimated at about five, six, or seven pounds per 

 quintal.* 



A competent knowlege of scutching may be very quickly at- 

 tained : nothing more is required than care to make as little waste as 

 possible. With this qualification, any robust person, with a suffi- 

 ciency of strength in his arms, will be fit for it : but strength is ab- 

 solutely necessary. From an ill-judged parsimony, this work is 

 sometimes entrusted to boys and other inefficient persons, who work 

 for little wages. But this is bad policy, and will be avoided by such 

 intelligent manufacturers as are convinced of the importance of this 

 operation. Indeed, every kind of Hemp ought to be scutched with 

 the utmost attention ; and, if it were not for causing too much waste, 

 I should even recommend, when the Hemp is coarse and harsh, to 

 beat it with mallets before scutching. The following are the advan- 

 tages which I think are derived from scutching : 



1. The Scutch more effectually clears the Hemp of the boon, or 

 particles of the reed, than any other operation we are acquainted with. 



It is of importance, that the Hemp should be well cleared of 

 the boon ; for, wherever any particles of the reed happen to be in a 

 thread, they either increase the bulk in such places, which is a 

 defect, or they render the thread weaker ; these particles being ex- 

 traneous bodies, which do not contribute to the strength of the 

 fibres. Besides, these reedy particles sticking sometimes transversely, 



occasion 



* The usual allowance for waste on Russian Hemp is four pounds per hun- 

 dred-weight. R. W. 



