262 ON HEM P. 



occasion small vacuities, which become filled with tar, and thus 

 uselessly increase the weight of the cordage. 



To be satisfied of the utility of scutching, we need only take 

 a view of the floor of a scutching-shop, after that operation has 

 taken place. But it may be said; and the objection, if founded on 

 fact, would be just, that if the heckle alone can detach the whole 

 of the boon, the operation of scutching might be considered as 

 superfluous. We know the contrary of this by experience. Having 

 ordered some Riga Hemp, which contained a good deal of the 

 boon, or reedy particles, to be heckled by steady and experienced 

 workmen, on fine-toothed heckles; the result of the experiment 

 was, that the Hemp still remained full of the reedy particles: but 

 having caused some of the same parcel of Hemp to be scutched 

 before heckling, we succeeded in making it much cleaner; and 

 we plainly observed, that the reiterated strokes of the scutch more 

 effectually detached the reedy particles sticking to the Hemp, than 

 the heckle, betwixt the teeth of which the boon passed with scarcely 

 any resistance. 



2. The operation of Scutching renders the Hemp finer. 



We have already remarked, that the finer and softer Hemp is 

 rendered, and the more its elasticity is diminished, the fitter it 

 becomes for the manufacture of good ropes. 



The reader may recollect, that, in speaking of Hemp in its 

 rough state, or as it comes out of the hands of the peele*, we said, 

 that it formed a kind of ribbands, which are very hard: these 

 ribbands are composed of the longitudinal fibres, which are joined 



together 



