HEMP, 67 



It is grown in Persia, Egypt, and various parts of 

 the East Indies ; in Africa, in the United States of 

 America, in Canada, and Nova Scotia. Marco Polo 

 mentions that hemp and flax, as well as great 

 quantities of cotton, were cultivated in his time in 

 the neighbourhood of Kashgar in the lesser Bu- 

 charia, and in the province of Khoten in Chinese 

 Tartary. According to Mr. Clarke Abel, in China 

 proper, though the Xing-ma (Sida tilicefolid) is 

 preferred for cordage, the Ge ma (Cannabis sativa, 

 or hemp) is also cultivated and manufactured into 

 ropes. At Tung-chow, that distinguished naturalist 

 saw the sida and c.annabis growing together, the 

 first in long ridges or in fields like the millet, the 

 second in small patches. 



Dampier was told that the Spaniards at Leon in 

 South America, near the Pacific Ocean, made cordage 

 of hemp, but he saw no manufactory. Thunberg, on 

 a journey from the Cape of Good Hope into the 

 interior of Africa, found the Hottentots cultivating 

 hemp (Cannabis sativa). " This is a plant," says 

 he, " universally used in this country, though for a 

 purpose very different from that to which it is ap- 

 plied by the industrious Europeans. The Hottentot 

 loves nothing so well as tobacco, and with no other 

 thing can he be so easily enticed into servitude ; but 

 for smoking he finds tobacco not sufficiently strong, 

 and therefore mixes it with hemp chopped very fine." 



Hemp is cultivated in Great Britain and Ireland, 

 but not very abundantly. The counties of England in 

 which it is principally grown are, Suffolk, Yorkshire, 

 Somersetshire, and the fens of Lincolnshire; in 

 Norfolk and Dorsetshire some few hemp grounds 

 are likewise to be seen. Hemp is likewise raised 

 in various parts of France, Spain, Denmark, and 

 Sweden, in Wallaehia and Moldavia, and in several of 

 the Italian states ; but with the exception of Italy, 



