SOFT HEMP II 



to separate the fibre and break up the boon, or passed through 

 a brake with a like object before thoroughly cleaning the fibre 

 by repeated blows of a scutching blade. The cleaned fibre is 

 then sometimes rolled or beaten, sometimes by a beetling 

 engine, with the object of softening the fibre, splitting up the 

 reeds, and rendering it finer and of better spinning quality. 



The Italian hemp farmer often adopts what is known as the 

 metayer system in dealing with his workpeople. He arranges 

 with a family or gang of workers to accomplish certain parts 

 of the cultivation, in payment for which they receive a frac- 

 tion of the produce and certain perquisites. The farmer 

 ploughs the land and sows the seed, and the peasants break 

 the clods, drive off birds, do the weeding, pull the crop, do the 

 retting and grassing, and finally clean the fibre. 



When hemp was grown in England it was the custom to 

 drill about 6 pecks of seed per acre in the middle of April, 

 the drills being about 18 in. apart. The male plants were 

 then pulled in August and the female plants in September. 



Large quantities of Russian hemp are cultivated in Poland, 

 and in the centre and south of European Russia, and exported 

 from St. Petersburg, where special attention is given to its 

 storage and shipment. A good quality of Russian hemp is 

 likewise exported from Riga, the fibre being brought down 

 the Dwina. 



Three-fourths of the hemp produced in America is grown in 

 the State of Kentucky, in the counties of Fayette, Woodford, 

 Jessamine, Garrard, Clark, Bourbon, Boyle, Scott, and Shelby. 

 The nine counties are in the famous blue grass region, of 

 which Lexington, the principal hemp market, is the centre. 

 Of secondary importance are the hemp markets of Nicholas- 

 ville, Versailles, Lancaster, Danville, Winchester, Paris, 

 Georgetown, Shelbyville, and Frankfort. Small, scattered 

 areas of hemp are cultivated in other parts of the State of 

 Kentucky, and attempts made to establish a hemp-growing 

 industry. 



