2 1 6 Cultivation of Arable Land. Hemp.~~Seed, and Method of Solving. 



In order to render the grounds proper for the reception of the crop, they 

 fhould be reduced into a fine mellow ftate of mould, and be perfectly cleared 

 from weeds, by repeated ploughing. When it fucceeds grain crops, the work is 

 moftly accomplifhed by three ploughings, and as many harrowings ; the firft 

 being given immediately after the preceding crop is removed, the fecond early 

 in the fpring, and the lafl or feed earth juft before the feed is to be put in. 

 In the laft ploughing, well rotted manure, in the proportion of fifteen or twenty, 

 or good compoft in the quantity of twenty-five or thirty three-horfe-cart 

 loads fhould be turned into the land, as without this it is feldom that good crops 

 can be produced. The furface of the ground being left perfectly flat, and as 

 free from furrows as poflible; as by thefe means the moifture is more effectually 

 retained, and the growth of the plants more fully promoted. 



Seed, and method of f owing. It is of much importance in the cultivation of 

 hemp crops that the feed be new and of a good quality, which may in fome 

 meafure be known by its feeling heavy in the hand, and being of a bright 

 fhining colour. 



The proportion of feed that is moft commonly employed is from two to three 

 bufhels, according to the quality of the land ; but as the crops are greatly injured 

 by the plants ftanding too clofely together, two bufhels or two bufhels and a half 

 may be a more advantageous quantity. 



As the hemp plant is extremely tender in its early growth, care mould be taken 

 not to put the feed into the ground at fo early a period as that it may be liable to 

 be injured by the effects of frolt, nor to protract the fowing to fo late a feafon as 

 that the quality of the produce may be affected. The beft feafon, on the drier 

 forts of land, in the fouthern diflricts, is probably as foon as poflible after the frofts 

 are over in April j and, on the fame defcriptions of foil, in the more northern 

 ones, towards the clofe of the fame month, or early in the enfuing one : but when 

 the ground is more inclined to moifture, it may be a better practice to delay the 

 lowing to a later period in both cafes, choofing, if poflible, a time when the land 

 is neither too dry nor too moiit for performing the bufinefs. Sowing as early as 

 poflible is, however, in general, to be preferred; as where this is the cafe, by the 

 crops becoming more ftrong and vigorous in the early part of their growth, the 

 hemp is found to withftand the various operations that are afterwards to be per 

 formed upon it in a better manner.* 



* Modern Agriculture, vol. III. 



