91 



Spalding Moor, in Lincolnshire, is a barren sand, and yet 

 with proper care and culture it produces the finest hemp in 

 England, and in large quantities. 



In the Isle of Axholme, in the same county, equal quantities 

 arc produced ; for the culture and management of it is the 

 principal employ of the inhabitants ; and, according to Leland, 

 was so in the reign of Henry VIII. 



In marsh land, the soil is a clay or strong warp, thrown up 

 the river Ouse, and of such a quality, that it cracks with the 

 heat of the sun till a hand may be put into the chinks or open- 

 ings; yet if once it be covered with the hemp or flax before 

 the heats come on, the ground will never crack or open that 

 summer. 



When the land is sandy, they first sow it with barley, and 

 the following spring they manure the stubble with horse or 

 cow dung, and plough it under. They then sow their hemp 

 or flax, and harrow it in with a light harrow having short 

 teeth. A good crop destroys all the weeds, and makes it a 

 fine fallow. As soon as the flax is pulled, they prepare the 

 ground for wheat. Lime, marie, and the mud of ponds, is an 

 excellent compost for hemp lands. 



The quantity of hemp and flax yearly imported into this 

 kingdom was, about the year 1763, estimated at about eleven 

 thousand tons;* and I will venture to assert, that all this 

 quantity might be grown at home, without making a scarcity 

 or considerably enhancing the price of any article of our present 

 produce, or occasioning any want of hands for carrying on our 

 manufactures. On the contrary, I am induced to believe it 

 would occasion a considerable increase of people, by inviting 

 numbers from the continent to come and settle amongst us. 

 And as the hemp and flax we import come from countries 

 where the balance of trade turns in their favour, it would be 

 a great national advantage. 



It ought also to be remembered, that the hemp raised in 

 this kingdom is not of so dry and spongy a nature as that we 

 have from Petersburgh. The only objection that our rope- 

 makers urge against using English hemp is, that it takes less 



* To raise this quantity at home would require about 60,000 acres 

 of land. 



