296 FLAX. [MAY, 



COTTAGERS HEMP. 



It is an extraordinary circumstance, that by far 

 the greatest part of the hemp that is raised in Eu- 

 rope, is by cottagers, or very little farmers : this is 

 the case in the Ukraine, as well .as in Suffolk. 

 Here, as well as there, and in many other coun- 

 tries, it is sown every year on the same land by 

 cottagers, who provide dung for it by keeping a 

 cow, or some pigs. Whether it is the most bene- 

 ficial culture in England for such a person, has been 

 disputed ; but, when the benefit of manufacturing 

 it themselves is taken into the consideration, and 

 the advantageous winter employment it affords to 

 the women and children, I have little doubt of its 

 being the best crop they can attend to ; or, of its 

 yielding them much more neat profit than sufficient 

 to buy any or all other products the same land 

 could yield, if not thus employed. 



FLAX. 



This is another culture that requires extremely 

 rich land. It answers pretty well with due at- 

 tention ; but I may remark on this crop what I 

 did on hemp, that the same favourable circum- 

 stances of soil, manure, and weeding, would repay 

 the farmer much better in other crops, with this 

 general and great superiority : hemp and flax re- 

 turn no manure, whereas many other crops I pro- 

 pose are undoubtedly beneficial to the soil, and 

 vastly improving to a whole farm, in the quantity 

 of dung they enable the farmer to raise. Flax 

 may be sown the end of April ; but more com- 

 monly 



