PROPER SOILS FOR ITS GROWTH. 121 



tinction of sexes in plants of hemp, acted contrary to the 

 practice of modern botanists in calling that which bears 

 the seed the male, and that which bears the pollen the 

 emale. To avoid confusion, even when quoting them, 

 we shall adopt the language of the present day. By 

 male we designate sterile, by female, reproductive 

 plants. 



THE PROPER SOILS FOR THE GROWTH OF HEMP. 



"The soil for hemp,'* says Olivier de Serres, "should 

 be fat, fertile, easy to work, and in a temperate climate. 

 Cultivated from autumn, and tempered by the frosts of 

 winter, it will be rendered proper to receive the hemp- 

 seed at the end of March, and thence throughout the 

 whole of April, the veritable season for sowing it (in the 

 central parts of France). ( The mode of properly pre- 

 paring the land for this purpose is by hand, with 

 mattocks, not levelling the surface, but raising it up in 

 little mounts, in order that the weather penetrating through 

 them may thoroughly concoct the earth. In January these 

 hillocks are levelled, after having placed between them a 

 good quantity of short manure, in order that it may be 

 the more easily incorporated with the soil. In the last 

 days of March, or the first of April, the moon being on 

 the wane, the hemp will be sown, and incontinently 

 covered with two or three fingers'-breadths of earth not 

 more which may be done with the mattock crossing the 

 furrow, but more subtilely, and better, with the harrow 

 going over it several times. If, afterwards, a top-dressing 

 of pigeons' manure is given, it will greatly aid the hemp, 

 provided it be on the eve of rain, for without humidity, 

 the great heat of this manure would burn the seed. 

 Watering is rather useful than absolutely necessary to 

 hemp ; wherefore, this convenience will not be despised 

 when the situation is favoured with a supply of water. 

 For seed, choose new hemp-seed, since that of the pre- 

 ceding year sprouts very badly, and older grain remains 

 entirely lost in the earth. The rind or fibre of fine hemp, 



