CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 175 



in structure to one which was exhibited about the same time at Columbus, 

 during the sitting of the Ohio legislature. It was worked by horsepower, and 

 detached the lint tolerably well, producing a very fine looking article, equal- 

 ling in appearance Russia hemp. A ton of it was sold to the navy department, 

 which was manufactured into rigging for the ship of the line the North Caro- 

 lina, prior to her making a voyage of three years in the Mediterranean. Upon 

 her return, the cordage was examined and analyzed; and, although its exte- 

 rior looked very well, it was found on opening it, to be decayed, and affected 

 somewhat like the dry rot in wood. I considered the experiment decisive; 

 and it is now believed that the process of water or dew- rotting is absolutely 

 necessary, either before or after the hemp has been to the brake. There is a 

 sappy or glutinous property of which it should be divested, and that is the 

 only process that has been hitherto generally and successfully employed to 

 divest it. 



An ingenious and enterprising gentleman in the neighbourhood of Lexing- 

 ton, has been, ever since the erection of the above mentioned machine, trying 

 various experiments, by altering and improving it, to produce one more per- 

 fect, which might be beneficially employed on rotted hemp, to diminish the 

 labours of the brake. He mentioned the other day that all of them had failed; 

 that he had returned to the old hand brake, and that he was convinced that it 

 answered the purpose better than any substitute with which he was acquaint- 

 ed. I observe Mr. H. L. BARNUM has recently advertised a machine, which he 

 has constructed for breaking hemp and flax, which can be procured at the es- 

 tablishment of Mr. SMITH, in Cincinnati. I most cordially wish him success; 

 but the number of failures which I have witnessed, during a period of thirty 

 years, in the attempts to supersede manual labour by the substitution of that 

 of machines, induces me to fear that it will be long before this desideratum is 

 attained. 



The quantity of nett hemp produced to the acre, is from six hundred to a 

 thousand weight, varying according to the fertility and preparation of the soil, 

 and the state of the season. It is said that the quantity which any field will 

 produce, may be anticipated by the average height of the plants throughout 

 the field. Thus if the plants will average eight feet in height, the acre will 

 yield eight hundred weight of hemp, each foot in height corresponding to a 

 hundred weight of the lint. 



Hemp exhausts the soil slowly, if at all. An old and successful cultivator 

 told me that he had taken thirteen or fourteen successive crops from the same 

 field, and that the last was the best. That was probably, however, owing to a 

 concurrence of favourable circumstances. Nothing cleanses and prepares the 

 earth better for other crops (especially for small grain or grasses) than hemp. 

 It eradicates all weeds, and when it is taken off, leaves the field not only clean, 

 but smooth and even. 



Water rotting of hemp is performed in England," and we 

 believe throughout Europe, in the following manner. The 

 bunches are placed in the pools in rows, crossing one another, 

 and pressed down by some heavy substance, so as to prevent 

 their rising to the surface; special care being at the same time 

 taken that they are not so loaded as to be pressed down to the 

 bottom. If the weather be warm, four or five days will fre- 

 quently be sufficient; if not, two or three more: the period is 

 denoted by the stem being so softened that the outside coat 

 shall come easily off. Care must be taken, as in the case of 

 flax, that the putrefactive process does not proceed so far as to 

 injure the cortical fibres. The quantity placed in one pool 

 may be the produce of an acre; but it is better that the quan- 

 tity be small and the pits shallow. When thus steeped, it is 



