t 228 ] 
I SHALL now endeavor to instruct the honest 
husbandman in a few easy rules, for preparing his 
hemp, which he has raised and managed in the 
manner before directed* 
“ Know then, that the best preparation of hemp 
for the manufacturing of cloth, is to render it as 
soft and as fine as possible, without lessening its 
strength, and the easiest and cheapest way of doing 
that, is certainly the best. This is to be found out 
by a variety of trials and experiments ; but till a 
better way be discovered, which I hope will not be 
long first, and with which I should be greatly 
pleased, take the following method, which is the 
best I have yet been able to discover, 
“ If you have a large wide kettle, that will take 
in your hemp at full length, it will be the better ; but 
if your kettle be small, then you must double your 
hemp, but without twisting, only the small ends 
of every hand must be twisted a little, to keep them 
whole and from tangling; then first of all lay some 
smooth sticks down in tlie bottom of the kettle, so 
as to lie across one another, three or four layers, 
according to the bigness and deepness of your ket¬ 
tle ; this is to keep the hemp from touching the 
liquor; then pour some lie of middling strength, 
half as strong as what you make soap of, gently 
into the kettle, so much as not to rise up to the 
top of the sticks, .they being kept down to the bot¬ 
tom ; then lay in the hemp, each layer crossing 
the other, so that the steem may rise up through 
