The Bounty System. 83 



making tar, cannot yet furnish any great quantities according 

 to 8 Geo. I, c. 12, as a further encouragement any tar made 

 according to the rules shall be entitled to £4 per ton."^ 



The encouragement of the importation of hemp, from which 

 so much had been expected, had thus far proved insufftcient. 

 This was one of the most expensive commodities which the 

 government purchased from the East Country, the price ii\ war 

 having sometimes risen to 2y shillings or more per hundred 

 weight. Joshua Gee stated, in 1721, that it was impossible to 

 carry on the navigation of England without a supply of seven or 

 eight thousand tons of hemp from abroad; and that the Czar, 

 with his usual penetration, would doubtless engross that prod- 

 uct and set his own prices, so that it was worth while to ofifer 

 extraordinary inducements to the American plantations.^ From 

 all accounts of the soil of the several plantations in America, it 

 had been thought perfectly possible to raise a sufficient supply 

 for the navy from thence, if cultivation could be sufificiently en- 

 couraged. So great stress was laid upon the advantages of 

 raising hemp in America that the premiums ofifered were greater 

 than those for other species of stores. Still, although the gov- 

 ernors wrote of the fitness of the soil in their provinces and the 

 interest of the people to try for the bounty, and although every 

 one of the schemes for colonization included plans for raising 

 hemp, none was imported for sixteen years after the passing of 

 3 and 4 Anne, c. gf' There are several reasons which account for 

 this failure. In the first place, hemp requires an exceedingly 

 rich soil,* and while the plant adapts itself to a considerable 

 variety of climate, it is exceedingly sensitive to frost. Although 

 it might be grown to a certain extent in New England, the cli- 

 mate and soil of Maryland and Carolina were better adapted to 



^These bounties were continued to 1764 by 16 Geo. II, c. 26, Sect. 

 2; 24 Geo. II, c. 35, Sect. 11, and 31 Geo, II, c. 25, Sect. 3. 



^Memorial from Joshua Gee, B. T. Plants. Gen., L: 24. 



3Cf. table, Appendix B. 



*" In Missouri the term • hemp land ' is deemed a compliment to 

 the fertility of the soil thus designated," Patton, "Natural Re- 

 sources of the United States," p. 407. 



