CULTURE OF HKaXP. 85 



When it is sufficiently dried, which in good weather will he in 

 about one week, it is to be gathered in bundles, bound with in 

 straw, and then carefully stacked up so as to be kept in a dry 

 situation. 



Many farmers practice rotting it in the winter, by spreading 

 it on the snow, in the early part of winter, so that by being cov- 

 ered with other snows, it will be bleached and improved in its 

 color. When the snows dissolve in March, it will be found suf- 

 ficiently rotted. 



When sufficiently dry, it should be first broken with a coarse 

 break, and then with the common flax break ; and dressed in 

 the manner of flax, but more gently, as it will waste with hard 

 beating. 



The crop may also be rotted in the fall, in a manner similar 

 to that of rottmg flax ; or, it may be water-rotted like that crop. 

 When water-rotted, the hemp should be sunk completely un- 

 der the water ; and if it be stagnant, the hemp should be turn- 

 ed upside down, when about half rotted, otherwise, from the 

 greater degree of heat on the surface of such waters than be- 

 low, the upper part will be rotted before the under. 



By water or winter rotting the coat of the hemp blackens much 

 less than when rotted in the fall ; and itis observed,that the warn> 

 er the weather, or the earlier in the fall the crop is rotted, the 

 blacker the coat will be, as is the case also with regard to flax. 



The crop of hemp should be harvested as soon as it is fit for 

 the purpose ; otherwise the male stalks will soon wither and 

 blacken, after which the coat is of little value. 



Hemp may be made a substitute for flax, for all common pur- 

 poses. But in that case it is said it must be softened by steam- 

 ing it over boiling water or lye, and beating it after it is dried 

 again. 



An excellent crop of wheat has been taken after a crop of 

 hemp, and with very little expence. 



The policy of introducing any new crop, to constitute a sta- 

 ple for market, should be adopted with caution. It has been re- 

 marked, that it might raise the price of grain, as did the intro- 

 duction of cotton in the southern States ; but is it certain that a 

 ready market and high price for grain, are indicative of the 

 most prosperous condition of a country ? It is not certain that 

 a majority of the citizens ofany country would always be ready 

 to give an affirmative answer to this question. The [rreat ques- 

 tion respecting the policy of raising our own hemp for commer- 

 cial and naval purposes, rather than purchase it of foreianers, 

 must depend on the effect it would have on the price of Labor. 

 A very large portion of our citizens, who constitute an impor- 

 H 



