330 THE HEMP CROP. 



soils of the chalk formation, or, indeed, any others defi- 

 cient in moisture and in organic matter it is never 

 advisable to attempt its cultivation. In the rich, irrigated 

 districts of Lombardy and Tuscany, the cultivation is 

 carried on under the most advantageous conditions. 

 There it becomes one of their most important crops, and 

 occupies a regular position in their farming system. 

 With us it is now so sparingly cultivated that it excites 

 but little attention anywhere, and is entirely limited to 

 those districts where the particular class of soils in which 

 it delights is met with. These soils, either alluvial or 

 humous in their character, are chiefly met with in 

 Lincolnshire, Notts, and Cambridgeshire, and on these, 

 during the early part of the present century, hemp was 

 grown to a considerable extent, and even now may here 

 and there be seen in cultivation as a field crop at the 

 present day. 



Although we can hardly assign any distinct place in 

 the regular rotations of our improved systems to a crop 

 which occupies the ground so short a period, and which 

 is cultivated to so limited an extent as hemp, still, from 

 the habit of growth of the plant and its food require- 

 ments from the soil, we should consider that it might 

 properly both follow and precede a straw crop; or, if the 

 land were deficient in organic matter, it might with equal 

 propriety follow a root or forage crop fed off on the land. 

 The preparation of the land is very similar to that 

 recommended for flax. If it succeeds a straw crop, 

 autumnal cultivation should be carefully attended to, and 

 the land left with a good deep-shouldered winter furrow. 

 In the low-lying districts, where hemp is usually grown, 

 the land requires early attention in the spring, in order 

 to get rid of the water with which so often, even in 

 drained districts, it remains charged during the wet 

 season. Although hemp delights in a moist soil, still any 



