128 HEMP. 



but which is only fib for ropes or the coarsest cloth. 

 When tho soil is rich, and fine fibre the object, one 

 hundred plants to the square yard will be found a suc- 

 cessful degree of thickness for them to stand. It has 

 been found by experiments in England and America, 

 that salt sown at the same time with the hemp-seed acted 

 as a beneficial stimulant. In the neighbourhood of 

 Bologna and Ferrara, in Italy, where the culture of hemp 

 is probably carried to greater perfection than anywhere 

 else, where it is not uncommon to see hemp-stalks rising 

 from twelve to sixteen feet above the surface of the 

 ground, it is usual to spread at the same time with the 

 seed fecal matters, the dung and feathers of fowls, pow- 

 dered oil-cake, and chips of horn and bone. They are 

 buried by hand by means of hoes, and the surface of the 

 soil is carefully levelled with rakes. 



In the Department of the Pas do Calais, which ap- 

 proaches very nearly to the climate of England, the rule 

 is to sow hemp from the 10th to the 20th of May, at the 

 same rate as is usual there for wheat and flax, namely, 

 a hectolitre to a mesure of forty-two ares twenty centiares, 

 more rather than less, in case any portion of the seed 

 should fail to vegetate. This answers as near as may be 

 to the proportion of two bushels to the acre. It is sown 

 broadcast by walking up and down the field in parallel 

 rows two paces distant. Hemp seed is difficult to sow, 

 on account of its extreme slipperiness. The sower grasps 

 it by as large handfuls as he can possibly clutch, to do 

 which more effectually he occasionally wets his hand. A 

 mesure of hemp in that neighbourhood is considered of 

 equal value with a mesure of wheat. It is usual there to 

 make wheat follow hemp, because it cleans the land by 

 completely choking every weed. The seed is harrowe*d 

 in cross-wise, and afterwards rolled. The time of its 

 appearance above-ground very much depends upon the 

 weather. If rain with a tempest comes soon after the 

 sowing, it sprouts quickly. Once up, it grows rapidly, 

 sometimes rising at the rate of an 'inch a day. The crop 



