CAN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



CAN 



241 



and in large quantities. In the isle of Axholme, in the same 

 county, the culture and management of it is the principal 

 employment of the inhabitants; and in the county of Suffolk, 

 in the district extending from Eye to Beccles, it is cultivated 

 on a sandy loam with great success ; for upon such soils the 

 quality is much finer, and better adapted to the fabric of 

 hempen-cloth, though the quantity fulls short of that pro- 

 duced in black rich mould. As it destroys weeds by depriv- 

 ing them of their nourishment, it is generally reckoned to be a 

 cleansing crop ; but it is at the same time a great impo verisher 

 of the land, and must not be repeated upon the same ground, 

 unless it be annually manured, in which case it is said to 

 have been continued for seventy successive years upon the 

 same spot. The letting it stand for seed, is universally 

 acknowledged to exhaust the land ; but many suppose, that if 

 previously cut, it is an excellent preparation for Wheat. The 

 land in which it is to be sown, must have three earths given 

 to it, with sufficient harrowing to make the soil perfectly 

 fine, and laid flat, with as few furrows as possible; it must 

 be well manured with twenty-five or thirty-three horse-loads 

 of muck, or from sixteen to twenty loads of dung, to an acre, 

 immediately after the Wheat-sowing is finished, or, according 

 to others, a fortnight before seed-time, which is from the 

 beginning, or rather middle, to the end of April. If it be 

 sown earlier, the spring frosts will greatly endanger the plants. 

 Sowing is sometimes deferred till the middle of May ; but 

 when the weather is fine, early sowing is to be preferred, 

 because it improves the quality of the Hemp. Although 

 three bushels of seed is commonly allowed to an acre, two 

 are fully sufficient. In the choice of the seed, the heaviest 

 and brightest-coloured should be preferred ; and some of 

 them should be cracked, to see if they have the germen per- 

 foct. When sown, the seed should be lightly and gently 

 harrowed in ; and the birds should be kept off till the plants 

 ap[>car. In the fen countries, the plants are hoed out in the 

 same manner as is practised for Turnips, leaving them a foot 

 or sixteen inches apart, and cutting down all the weeds : they 

 give them a second hoeing about a month or six weeks after 

 the first. If these hoeings be well performed, the crop will 

 not require any further care, for the Hemp will soon cover 

 the ground, and prevent all growth of weeds. The first sea- 

 son for pulling Hemp is usually about the middle of August, 

 when they begin to pull thejimble,femble, or thimble Hemp, 

 that is, the male plants ; but it would be much better to defer 

 this a fortnight or three weeks, if the Hemp be intended to seed, 

 until these male plants have shed their dust, without which 

 it is well known the seeds will not grow, nor will those per- 

 sons concerned in the oil-mills give any thing for them. The 

 second pulling is a little after Michaelmas, when the seeds 

 are ripe ; the female plants are then pulled, and called seed 

 Hemp, or karle Hemp. It is bound up in bundles about a 

 yard in circumference, which are laid in the sun a few days 

 to dry, and then are stacked up or housed till the seed can 

 be threshed out. An acre of Hemp on a rich soil will produce 

 near three quarters of seed, which, together with the un- 

 wrought Hemp, is worth from six to eight pounds. If the 

 Hemp be designed for making thread only, without any re- 

 gard to the seed, the male and female plants are pulled 

 together, thirteen or fourteen weeks after sowing. When the 

 leaves turn yellow and the stalk white, it is known to be ripe : 

 it bears a dry season better than a wet one, and the wetter 

 the season the longer it stands. As soon as it is all pulled up, 

 it is bound up in bundles small enough to be grasped with 

 both hands, which bundles are tied at both ends, and are 

 called baits. It is then conveyed to the water, to undergo the 

 process of water-retting or rotting, for which operation clay 

 VOL. i. 21. 



pits are preferred to running water, though they require 

 cleansing once every seven or eight years. The usual pro- 

 duce of an acre, about three small waggon-loads, may be 

 laid in one bed ; but the same water is not fit for receiving 

 Hemp more than three times in a season, although some per- 

 sons employ the same water five times. The first water 

 always produces the best colour in the least time : where 

 there are not pits sufficient to hold the whole crop, it is cus- 

 tomary to pull as they become ready, it being thought inju- 

 rious to the Hemp to let it lie upon the land after it is pulled. 

 In the pits, the bundles are placed in rows crossing each 

 otber, and are kept under water by blocks and logs of wood 

 laid upon them. The Hemp generally soaks four days in 

 warm weather, and rarely exceeds five or six, till the out- 

 side coat easily rubs off; when it is taken out of the pits, 

 spread out singly upon grass, and turned, in dry weather 

 twice, and in showery weather three times a week ; which 

 operation is called grassing, and generally occupies five or 

 six weeks' time. Afterwards it is tied up in large bundles of 

 eight or ten baits, and carted home to a barn or house, for 

 breaking by a machine called a brake ; which is either imme- 

 diately done, or deferred till December or January, by lay- 

 ing up the bundles to dry for that purpose. Thus prepared, 

 the Hemp is bound up in bundles, weighing a stone or four- 

 teen pounds and a half each, and then taken to market. What- 

 ever Hemp breaks off in the operation is called shorts, and is 

 also bound up by itself, and is about half the value of the long 

 Hemp. The offal is called Hemp-sheaves, which is sold for 

 fuel at two-pence per stone. The custom of many is to 

 dew-ret or rot their Hemp; which is done by spreading it 

 upon meadow -land as soon as it is pulled, and turning it 

 frequently ; but it is a very bad method, for as the bark will 

 not come off completely, it demands more violent means to 

 be employed in bleaching the yarn, and consequently dimi- 

 nishes the strength, besides being much more liable to injury 

 in rainy seasons. Hemp, when left for seed, is seldom water- 

 retted, being generally stacked and covered during the win- 

 ter, and spread upon grass in January or February ; and if 

 the season favour it, especially if it be covered with snow, 

 it will acquire a good colour, and make a strong coarse cloth, 

 but is after all greatly inferior to that which is pulled at a 

 proper time, and water-retted. The Hemp now passes from the 

 grower to the hatcheller, or heckler, who first bunches or beats 

 it, either by hand, or more frequently by a mill ; and then 

 dresses or combs it, by drawingit through hatchels, or heckles, 

 resembling. wool-combers' tools, but differing from them in 

 being fixed. It is dressed finer or coarser, to suit the designs 

 of the purchasers : hence the whole is sometimes worked toge- 

 ther for one sort, and sometimes it is divided into two or 

 three sorts, called long-strike, short-strike, and pull-tow. 

 The heckler either sells the latter to spinners and weavers, 

 or puts it out to spin, and then disposes of the yarn to the 

 weaver, who delivers it to the whitester, from whom he re- 

 ceives it back again bleached. The bleaching is a difficult 

 operation ; the art consisting in procuring the best colour, 

 with the least diminution of strength. The yarn is laid in 

 large tubs, covered with thick cloths, upon which ashes are 

 placed, through which hot water is poured daily, turning the 

 yarn frequently until the bark comes off, after which it is 

 spread upon poles in the air. In general, hempen cloth is 

 sold as it comes from the loom, and is bleached by the pur- 

 chaser; some, however, is bleached ready for weaving, either 

 by the weaver or a whitester, by boiling it in lees made from 

 ashes, and frequently spreading it upon grass. Although in the 

 process of manufacturing, Hemp passes through the hands of 

 the breaker, heckler, spinner, whitester, weaver, and bleacher ; 

 3Q 



