g Statistical Account of Upper Canada. 



and naturalists have heard with surprise that the plant cassia, 

 which grows only on the banks of Lake Ontario, is fre- 

 quently found floating along the coasts of Norway *. 



Hemp. — The cultivation of hemp in the Canadas has 

 lately become a popular concern ; and government, as well 

 35 public societies, have endeavoured to promote it, both as 

 a resource to the navy and as an object of beneficial indus- 

 try. In Upper Canada the sowing begins on the lOlh of 

 June, and in a favourable season ten hundred weight is ge- 

 nerally produced per acre. About the middle of September 

 it is pulled, the stalks are tied up in bundles, and steeped a 

 few days in tlie river ; they are then dried and stacked, till 

 the farmers have leisure to break. It has been observed 

 that sleeping hemp in stagnated water is better than in run- 

 ning, besides being exposed to less hazard ; the farmers, in 

 consequence, intend to form steeping-pits in their hcmp- 

 crcunds. At one time they used to rot the stalks upon the 

 snow during winter; but it was soon ascertained to be de- 

 structive of the fibre, and has been universally renounced. 

 The common hand-break is used in breaking the stalks, 

 which are afterwards scotched with a kind of wooden sword. 

 The hemp is held in the left hand over a perpendicular board, 

 and the sword is used by the right; when this process is 

 finished the hemp is bundled for market. It is unnecessary 

 to remark how laborious this method of cleaning is ! About 

 the value of a dollar is allowed for every sixty pounds, or per 

 day, to the labourer ; a charge that will prevent the Cana- 

 dian hemp from ever rivalling the Russian, for in Russia the 

 price of labour is comparatively nothing. The establish* 

 ment of machinery in aid of manual labour is probably, 

 therefore, the only effectual mode of accomplishing the 

 wishes of government, and of those patriotic associations 

 •who have patronized the cultivation of hemp in the Cana- 

 das. Government has offered fifty pounds sterling per ton 

 for clean marketable hemp, delivered to agents in the county 

 towns ; but this, plan, as well as the offer of bounties for- 

 merly adopted, has been almost entirely abortive, chiefly 



♦ Darwin's Botanic Grirdtn. Kotes to the Loves cf the Plants, 



owing 



