HEMP. 181 



which it is put into bundles and stored till a convenient 

 period for cleaning it. This is a wasteful practice and gives 

 an inferior quality of fibre. The best plan of preparing it 

 is by water-rotting, which is done in vats or small ponds of 

 soft water, similar to those used for hemp. This gives a 

 strong, even, rilky fibre and without waste, and worth much 

 more either for sale or for manufacturing than the dew- 

 rotted. Various steeps for macerating, and machines for pre- 

 paring it have been used, which materially increases its 

 marketable value. The fibre is generally got out on the 

 brake by hand, when the farmer is most at leisure. A crop 

 of the fibre may be estimated at 300 to 1000 Ibs.; and of 

 seed, from 15 to 30 bushels per acre. 



Tliere are no varieties worthy of particular notice, for 

 ordinary cultivation. Great benefit is found to result from a 

 frequent change of seed, to soils and situations differing from 

 those where it has been raised. The seed is always valua- 

 ble for the linseed oil it yields, and the residuum or oil cake 

 stands deservedly high as a feed for all animals ; and the 

 entire seed when boiled, is among the most fattening sub- 

 stances which the farmer can use for animal food. Flax, like 

 most other plants grown for seed, is an exhausting crop, but 

 when pulled or harvested before the seed matures, it is not. 

 The Flemings think flax ought not to be raised on thesame 

 soil oftener than once in eight years. 



HEMP (cannaslis saliva) 



Is suited to large portions of our western soils and climate, 

 and for many years, it has been a conspicuous object of 

 agricultural attention. We have not yet brought the supply 

 to our full consumption of it in its various manufactured 

 forms, as we have till recently imported several millions an- 

 nually. But the increased attention and skill bestowed on its 

 cultivation, combined with our means for its indefinite pro- 

 duction, will doubtless ere long constitute us one of the lar- 

 gest of the hemp-exporting countries. 



THE SOJL for hemp may be similar to that for flax, but 

 with a much wider range from a uniform standard, for it will 

 thrive in moderately tenacious clay, if rich, drained, and well 

 pulverized ; and it will do equally well on reclaimed muck 

 beds when properly treated. New land is not suited to it 

 till after two or three years of cultivation. A grass sod or 

 clover bed is best adapted to it when plowed in the fall or early 

 in winter. This secures thorough pulverization by frost and 



