On Italian Hemp and Flax, 205 



thk:k filaments fit to make cordai^e with, sow the seed 

 so as to have the plants half a foot distant from each 

 other on every side ; and then it is necessary to weed 

 them occasionally. Those who desire a finer grain for 

 linen, sow the seed thicker. In the Ferrarese, where 

 hers'p is cultivated to make cordage, I have seen it about 

 eight Braccios (eleven feet) high. In Romagna, where 

 the method of oversetting the beans is general, they dig 

 and manure the fields again in the spring, previous to 

 their sowing them. This hemp is the finest of ail, the 

 best prepared, and the most proper to make cloth with. 

 This plant being of two sexes, divided into two plants 

 or Doiecia, the male one, that bears no seeds, is reputed 

 better than the female one that bears them, because the 

 first grows taller and thinner, and does not spread out its 

 branches. The male hemp, is the first to be gathered 5 

 the female one is gathered three or four weeks after- 

 wards, in order to let the seeds ripen. If the first is 

 small, and good for linen, they pluck it up by the roots, 

 when the flowers have already poured out the fructifying 

 dust, vvhen the top begins to get yellowish or whitish, 

 and when the undermost leaves begin to grow yellow, 

 and to fall off. That quality of hemp, which is larger, 

 and fit for cordage, having the roots stronger and deeper, 

 is not rooted up, like the other, but cut with a small axe, 

 very close to the ground ; a practice much recommended 

 by the owners to the labourers, with the view of not los- 

 ing any weight. The female plants are cut, when the 

 seed, having acquired a dusky colour, shews itself out 

 of its Chalice^ or wrapper. This species of hemp gives 

 an inferior kind of filament. When the male hemp 

 has been gathered, it must not be bound up immediately 

 into bundles, but left for two or three days, and laid 

 against the females plants, which by so doing will be 

 protected against the drought, which would be preju- 

 K k 



