HEMP CULTUEE. 91 



thereby throwing on the planter the injuiy and loss in the tobacco from the 

 time of purchase to that of manufacturing. This loss is considerable. The 

 planter has to bear it ; it is right that he should. He has no cause to com- 

 plain of the manufacturer. If he feels like doing so, let him come here in Sep- 

 tember or October, and walk into one of our large factories and take a look at 

 a hogshead then being pulled up, bearing his own name on its head, and sold 

 by him in the sj^ring. He would feel sympathy for the manufacturer, rather 

 than blame him for the low price he gave, and would congratulate himself that 

 he and that tobacco had parted company. 



But planters can remedy this liability to loss. It is useless for them to talk 

 about a bad season for striking, bad winds, cold winds, too much or too little 

 rain, and so forth. This will not help the matter, or exonerate them from a 

 duty they owe themselves. These bad seasons are not universal. They do 

 not aftect every planter. There are men who always manage their crops prop- 

 erly, in defiance of too much season, or too little season, or no season at all. 

 They are men of reputation as planters, and men who will sustain their repu- 

 tation. Examine their crops year after year, and they will iuvaiiably be found 

 in good condition, and will always command the highest price. 



HEMP CULTUEE. 



BY L. J. BRADFORD, AUGUSTA, KENTUCKY. 



The culture of hemp is an interest of great and gromng importance in the 

 west, its production heretofore being mainly confined to Ivcntucky and Mis- 

 souri ; but there can be no reasonable doubt in the minds of those who have 

 given the subject any attention, that in the production of hemp, Iowa, Minne- 

 sota and Wisconsin have vast advantages over the above-named States. 



Many writers have advanced the idea that hemp, like cotton, could not be 

 grown by free white labor, and that its production would, for some time at 

 least, be confined to the slave States. Nothing can be further from the truth ; 

 the climate the very best adapted to hemp growing is found far north of the 

 home of the negro, and where he would absolutely sufi'cr from its effects. 

 Hot, short, quick forcing seasons of growth are best adapted to the plant. 

 Growth of this great staple in a climate such as the region referred to actually 

 possesses, makes the day not far 'distant when these will be as noted hemj)- 

 producing States as Kentucky and Missouri ever were. It is to be regretted 

 that in our census returns hemp and flax have been confounded ; it may, how- 

 ever, be safely assumed that its growth and preparation are so far below the 

 actual consumption of the country as to assure the agriculturist of a continued 

 goci demand and paying prices for many years to come; and the experience 

 of Kentucky and Missouri has fully proved that the production even of an in- 

 ferior staple has been and is yet remunerative. The reader must bear in mind 

 the feet that American hemp is almost exclusively what is technically called 

 "dew-rotted" — that is, spread upon the surface of the earth and there rotted 

 by the sIoav process of the elements. France grows more hemp than flax for 

 the linen manufacture and the finer grades of cordage and twines, the fibre 

 being greatly superior to American, from the fact that her climate is of a lower 

 temperature than that portion of this country that grows hemp, and the addi- 



