( m3 ) 
ed on soils which are not naturally or artificially very 
rich. They who possess the former, will often find 
the culture of hemp useful in reducing the staple of 
the soil to that medium quality; which is best fitted — 
for the production of grain. In some-parts of our 
own Country, hemp has been cultivated may years in 
succession, before this effect was produced; and in 
Italy, in the neighborhood of Bologna, (after centu- 
riés of cultivation,) the rotation continues to be wheat 
and hemp alternately, and without failows. So also 
in the environs of Termonde, near Brussels, the 
usual rotation is hemp, fax and wheat.(1) It is, per- 
haps, to those favored soils we ought to look for the 
best mode of cultivating this very useful and profita | 
ble plant. “ During the first year,” says M. Sim- 
monde, in his picture of Tuscan agriculture, “ the 
field intended for hemp is laid flat by the small Tus- 
can plough, in the months of August and September. 
This is followed by the great plough, which reinstates 
the four feet furrows, and throws up the intermediate 
earth into ridges, The manure is applied to these 
in the spring; after which the hemp seed is sown and 
the ground harrowed. This crop, like that of flax, 
should be wed when about four inches high.” 
Of Swallowwort or Dogsbane. 
This is the asclepias syriaca of the botanists, and 
not improperly called the cotton of northern lati- 
tudes. Its cortical fibre yields a fine soft and white 
thread, and the pods a’silky material, usefully em- 
ployed in waddings and in hat making, &c. “ There 
are few plants” says Sonnini, “the culture of which 
(1) Francis de Neauchateau’s,state of husbandry in the senatoriat of Brussels. 
