HEMP. 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DESCRIPTION OF 

 THE PLANT. 



r ALL the various articles of clothing worn by Man are a 

 something of which he has previously denuded something 

 else. He cunningly entraps innumerable individuals of the 

 fox, weasel, and squirrel tribes, to strip them of their warm 

 and valuable fur. He hatches and feeds legions of caterpil- 

 lars, that he may rob them of the defensive padding which 

 they spin to protect their helplessness while passing 

 through the chrysalis state. He murders the mighty 

 bull and bison, on no juster ground of provocation than 

 that his victim is possessed of a hide eminently adapted 

 to make mocassins. He pastures the sheep for its skin 

 and its wool, occasionally setting so little store by the 

 carcase as to melt it into tallow or burn it as fuel. The 

 bird of paradise, the ostrich of the desert, and the swan 

 frozen out from the Artie circle, are despoiled of their 

 plumes and down, to bedeck our dames luxuriously. 

 Even the depths of the ocean are made to pay this tribute ; 

 and whalebone is stolen from fishes' mouths to give 

 strength to feebleness and grace to deformity. Mother 

 earth herself is treated with no greater forbearance. By 

 alternately feeding her up with manure, and teasing and 

 tormenting her surface with tillage, she is coaxed and 

 compelled to send forth a living vegetable down, which is 

 shorn, plucked, and plundered from her bosom, in the 

 shape of cotton, flax, and our present subject, He nap. 

 i_ Hemp is markedly distinguished from flax, although 

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