226 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES, 



longer and less crossed than those in the 

 thread made by machinery. 



Tusser gave this valuable hint to the far- 

 mers in Queen Mary's time : 



" Where plots full of nettels be noisom to eie, 



sow thereupon hemp-seed, and nettels wil die." 



We cannot but observe, that with all the 

 improvements in the cultivation of this coun- 

 try since the days of that author, there are 

 still to be seen many wide hedgerows that 

 are the nursery of thistles and other impo- 

 verishing weeds, which might turn to good 

 account if sown with hemp, particularly if 

 they were allowed to be planted by the poor 

 cottagers, either with this valuable vegetable 

 or the more necessary root of the potatoe. 

 These poor parishioners would then have an 

 interest in keeping off depredators, and in 

 protecting the fences instead of destroying 

 them ; their leisure would be spent in their 

 own little territory instead of the ale-house, 

 and their children would acquire early habits 

 of industry in tilling a plot for themselves. 



It is observed by the Rev. Thomas Rad- 

 cliff, in his Report on the Agriculture of 

 Eastern and Western Flanders, " that each 

 day-labourer has, in most cases, a small quan- 



