Ch. XXVII.] ON HEMP. 323 



strength; being chiefly employed for the manufacture of canvass and the 

 coarser kinds of cloth, as well as cordage. It has been supposed to be of 

 Eastern origin, but it, in fact, belongs to the common tribe of nettles, which 

 is indigenous in this country, and is diffused over the whole world. It is 

 an annual plant, marked by the peculiarity of having two distinct species, 

 the flower and fruit growing on separate stems ; therefore known as " male'* 

 and " female hemp," the latter bearing the seed, and the former merely 

 containing the pollen by which it is impregnated : they are, however, not 

 unfrequently confounded, the name of male hemp being given to those 

 plants which bear the seed, merely because they are larger, stronger, and 

 more productive than the others. Though both arising from the same 

 seed, yet the male is ripe five or six weeks sooner than the female, and 

 the difference can only be known at the time of blossoming. 



Each grain of seed produces only one stem, which grows to the height 

 of five or six feet*, covered with a rough and hairy green bark, contain- 

 ing numerous woody fibres, and from this part, — which is called the " reed," 

 or, not uncommonly, the " boon," — is obtained the hemp. The male 

 species is in general smaller and more delicate than the female : the stem 

 divides itself at the extremities into several branches, which terminate in 

 slender spikes ending in a point, the flowers hanging, when they expand, 

 in clusters of a purplish colour pendent from the leaves ; wliilst that of the 

 female terminates in tufts and leaves of a considerable size, among which 

 we find the seed, which is borne along the stem. The difference between 

 the sexes can thus be easily distinguished at a considerable distance, and 

 it is a point which demands attention in the management of the crop. 



The soil best suited to hemp is a strong rich loam, and it is more 

 grown in the deep moist rich fens of Lincolnshire and the Isle of Ely 

 than in any other part of the kingdom ; for it is always strong in the fibre 

 in proportion to the richness of the ground in which it has been grown. It 

 indeed requires even richer land than flax, and is therefore generally grown 

 upon alluvial soils, although they should not be too moist, and a cold wet 

 clay will in no instance answer the purpose; but it is in other places grown 

 upon ground of more ordinary nature, the quantity produced being smaller, 

 though the quality is somewhat finer. 



Opinions differ in regard to its effect upon the soil, some considering it 

 as a great exhauster, and others only in case of its being allowed to stand 

 for seed ; there are, indeed, some old leases to be found in Cambridgeshire 

 which stipulate that the land shall be sown with hemp in the last two years 

 of the term f, while in others there are covenants absolutely prohibiting 

 its growth ; but all agree in admitting it to be an effectual cleanser of the 

 land, for it grows with such promptitude and strength, that it destroys all the 

 weeds which spring up under it. It therefore can never be sown along with 

 grass-seeds ; but, for the same reason, it is found to be an admirable prepa- 

 ration for a crop of wheat, as the land must be previously brought into a 

 state of garden culture, and, if heavily dunged, when treated in this 

 manner, alternate crops of wheat and hemp have been successively grown 

 upon the same ground during a series of years. In some places it is not 



to lie just long enough to take off the acquired damp; and in this state it is removed 

 more easily than by any other means, and the flax is rendered more fit for every after 

 operation. 



* A species grown in Alsace has stalks full eight feet long, and the Baron de Crud 

 states it has been grown on his own land, in Italy, to the length of fifteeu and evea 

 eighteen feet. — Vou Thaer, Prin. Rais. d'Agric. 2de edit. torn, iv, p. 289. 



I Survey of Cambridgeshire^ p. 161. 



Y 2 



