20 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



August S, 182b. 



From Deaue's New England Farmer. 



HEMP. 



This plant is tap-rooted, aud therefore does best 

 in a deep and fiee soil. It is luxuriant, aiid (luick 

 ui its growth, and therefore requires a rich, and 

 well prepared soil. The soils wliich have been 

 found to suit it best, are a rich gravelly loam, or 

 a rich black mould, which is dry and deep. It is 

 an error to think that it needs a wet soil, for it 

 bears drought almost equally willj any plant that 

 we cultivate. 



Mr. Elliot found by experiment, that it answer- 

 ed very well on a drained swamp. He tells of a 

 man in the Jerseys, who raised as much hemp, 

 yearly, on half aii acre of such land, as brought 

 him fifty pounds, York money. It is not uncom- 

 mon for one acre to yield half a ton, which will 

 sell for twenty pounds in cash, at the lowest. I 

 ain told by one whois much acquainted \vith it, 

 that it is more easily broken and swingled than 

 flax ; and that, oftentimes, the brake will do all 

 that is necessary in cleaning it. 



To prepare land for a crop of hemp, the land 

 should be ploughed to a good depth in the fall of 

 the year preceding. If it be green-sward land, it 

 should be ploughed as early as August or Septeni. 

 that the sward may be perfectly rotten. And if it 

 were ploughed in ridges it would be the better, 

 and til for sowing the earlier. And by cross 

 ploughuig and harrowing in the spring, it should 

 be made extremely fine and mellow. A little 

 dung should be applied, if the land be not iii ilie 

 best heart ; aud the fall is the best time to apply 

 it. But if composts are used, they should be laid 

 on just before sowing. 



The time of sowing the seed is as early in the 

 spring as the soil can be got into good order, as it 

 is a plant that is not easily injured by frost ; but 

 the middle of May Avill not be too late. 



The seed for sowing should be of the last year's 

 growth, as older seed is not wont to come up at 

 all. I once sowed seed which was brought from 

 England. It looked as well as any I ever saw — 

 hut not one in ten thousand ever sinouted. The 

 quantity of seed for an acre, in the broad-cast 

 way, is three bushels ; but half that quantity, in 

 tlxe drill method, wiU be enough. If the land be 

 poor, a smaller quantity of seed will serve. The 

 ground should be watched after sowing, that birds . 

 do not take away the seeds. 



The drill method is on some accounts prefera- 

 ble to the other. For though in the first crop it 

 will fall short, it exhausts the land less ; and there- 

 fore, in a long run, it may be more profit-ible. But 

 in this way it produces more seed, and this meth- 

 od is certainly advantageous on account of the 

 more convenient pulling of the hemp. If sown 

 on narrow ridges, or beds, aud the trenches sho- 

 veled out after sowing and harrowing, I suspect 

 Jhe broad-cast way would have the preference. — 

 But of this 1 have had no experience. 



As the correspondent parts of generation are 

 on different plants, they are of two distinct sexes, 

 male and female, and require different treatment. 



If care be taken m pul- ' not destroy it, unless it be with their feet, and it 

 ' is an antidote to all sorts of devouring insects. Nei- 

 ther is the plant difficult as to climate. Though 

 ftie hottest climates do not suit it, temperate and 

 cool ones do — and it has been found, by the snitill 

 trials that have been made, to thrive well in the 

 various parts of New England. The most north- 

 ern parts are verj' suitiible for the growing of 

 hemp. The southern are equally so. 



A new method of rotting hemp was communi- 

 cated by M. Bralle, and pubUshed in a foreign 

 Journal, and is in substance as follows : To twen- 

 ty-five gallons of water boiling hot, add twelve 

 ounces of green soap — and when the soap is dis- 

 solved, twenty-two pounds of hemp are to be 

 immersed, so as to be entirely covered with the- 

 liquor, the vessel closed, the fire put out, and the 

 hemp left to macerate for two hours. Several 

 steepings may be made in succession, care being 

 taken to add soap, each time, to replace what has 

 been absorbed, and to heat the water to the form- 

 er temperature. The same water may be em- 

 ployed for fifteen days continually. 



When the bundles of hemp are taken out, they 

 are covered -s^ ith straw, that they may cool grad- 

 tially, without losing their humidity. Next day 

 they are to be spread on a floor, the hands shift- 

 ed, and a heavy roller jiassed over them— after 

 which the hemp separates easily from the reed by 

 beating. The hemp thus separated, is spread on 

 the grass, and turned, and after five days removed 

 to the ware house. In steeping the hemp, the 

 bundles should be kept in a vertical position, as 

 the ojieration is found to succeed better so than 

 when they are horizontal. 



The advantages of this method are. First, The 

 superior speed of the process to that in common 

 use ; Second, Its being practicable at all seasons ; 

 Third, Its not being injurious to heahh, or produc- 

 ing any bad smell ; Fourth, A saving of ex-pense, 

 when a proper apparatus is used ; Fifth, A super- 



But to facilitate the dressing of hemp, . , ■ j 



Or the machinerv *o that nearly a fourth more hemp is obtained 



withering of the leaves 



ling, not to hurt those plants which are left, they 

 will thrive the better after it, as they will have 

 more room, and as the earth will be stirred about 

 their roots. And the drill method is favorable to 

 this work, as the pullers need not tread among the 

 thickest of the hemp. Sowing beds has the same 

 advantage. 



After pulling, it must be put into the water with- 

 out delay, to steep. Ponds and still waters are 

 besU It will not take more than four or five days 

 to water it enough. But it must be watched, lest 

 it should be overdone. After watering, it must be 

 spread and dried in the sun. 



The tiuitful kind does not ripen till about five 

 or sis weeks later. Its ripeness is known by the 

 seed's turning brown. After it is well dried, and 

 the seed taken oft" by a kind of coarse comb — it 

 must be watered. It will ;ake almost three times 

 as much watering as the first kind. The one kind 

 is more fit to be manufactured into thread and 

 cloth, the other more fit for rigging of shijis, and 

 ropes. But the latest kind may be made pliable 

 and fine, if labor enough be bestowed upon it. — 

 Instead of steeping, spreading hemp in the dew- 

 will answer, as I have found by experience ; and 

 this metiiod is practised in England. 



The dressing of hemp may be performed in the 

 the same manner as that of flax, if it be not un- 

 coininonly large and long. A iterson who is well 

 acquciiiited with the culture and manufacture of 

 hemp, assured nie, that when his neighbor raised 

 it on a drained swamp, he had it twelve feet long; 

 and tliat he might manage it easily in dressing, he 

 cut it in the middle. It was then as long as ordi- 

 nary hemp, and as strong for every purpose. 



If some of the stalks of hemp should be too 

 large and stubborn for the brake, they may be 

 put by themselves to be peeled by hand. The 

 doing of it maybe an amusenieht for children and 

 invalids. 



mills 'or quality of the hemp so prepared, and less waste, 



should be erected for doing it 



may be an appendage to some other mill. Two 



brakes should be moved together, a coarser and a 



finer, ])laced head to head, that the handfuls may 

 be easily shifted from one to the other. It is light 

 ^\ork for two boys to tend them. But the break- 

 ing of large hemp by hand, is severe labor for tlie 

 strongest men. 



If no convenient stream be at hand, a mill may 

 be constructed to be worked by a horse. 



It was formerly the custom to beat hemp abun- 

 dantly with mallets, or with pestles in large mor- 

 tars, or in ftilhng mills, to make it -.loft and fit for 

 spinning. But Mr. Mercandier has shewn how it 

 may bo more easily done, by steeping it in warm 

 water, or in lie, and washuig it. 



The great profit on a crop of hemp, and its be- 

 ing an article that will readily command cash, 

 should recommend the cuhure of it to all our 

 farmers. Besides the hemp itself, of the value of 

 twenty pounds per acre, after it is dressed, the 

 seed of an acre must be allowed to be of consider- 



Bble value. Persons need not fear their crops 

 I will venture to assert, (contrary to M. Mercan- j ^vill lie upon their hands, when they consider the 

 dier) that the male is the plant which bears the yggt s,„„^ of money which are yearly sent to other 

 flowers, and the female that which bears the fruit, ; countries for this article, almost enough to deprive 

 or seed. I the country of a medium, and how naturally the 



That which bears the flowers, will be fit for Jemand for it will increase as it becomes more 

 pulling about the end of July. Its ripeness is i plenty. There is no reason to doubt of success in 

 (mown by its growing yellow at the top, and white ■ raising hemp, if the soil be suitable, and well pre- 

 at the root, by the falling of the flowers, and the | pared — lor it is liable to no distemper— cattle will 



from the same raw materials ; Sixth, The extend- 

 ing the culture of hemp to all situations, which 

 can now be carried on only in the vicinity of run- 

 ning water. 



A very good apparatus, for the process, is form- 

 ed by a boiler, with covers for steejnng vessels. 



A process similar to the above described, would 

 probably, save the trouble and expense of vvater- 

 rotting flax. Lie made of wood ashes, would per- 

 haps, answer the purpose of water impregnated 

 with soap. 



The Farmer's Assistant states that in the bog 

 meadows in Orange county, N. Y. the hemp is cut 

 cfose to the ground with an instrument made for 

 the purpose. That when dried it is gathered in 

 bundles, bound with straw and stacked in the field 

 till about Christmas. It is then spread on the 

 snow, and when the snow dissolves in March, it is 

 generally found sufficiently rotted. 



For further directions relative to the culture of 

 hemp, see a leUer from Hon. Justin Ely, published 

 in the Mass. Agri. Repository, Vol. iii. p. 105. 



A considerable advance has taken place in the 

 price of the Liverpool and Manchester rail-way 

 shares in the last week ; they have been sold at a ' 

 premium of £40 10s. a share, and none can now 

 be had at that price. 



The article of white chocolate, is among the 

 novelties offered for sale in "Pans. 



