410 [Assembly 



may attempt to grow in its vicinity. The seed selected for sowing 

 must be briglit, lieavy^ and fresh, or it will not grow to satisfy 

 the agriculturist. The crop is pulled up exactly like flax. 

 When it is intended for the fibre only, it should be pulled while 

 in flower, without making any distinction between female and 

 male plants. The general plan has been to pull the male plants, 

 when the seed in the female show tliat they have effected their 

 purpose, as it is grown for seed ar.d fibre at the same time. The 

 female plants take 37 days to ripen their seed, and consequently 

 must be pulled that length of time after the males. Therefore 

 it is that the treatment of hemp differs from all other culti- 

 vated plants, from the fact that male and female flowers are borne 

 on diiferent plants — a singular peculiarity, certainly. The seed 

 on the female plant is found in tufts growing along the stem, 

 among leaves of quite a considerable size. The male, on the other 

 hand, is divided into numerous branches, terminating in very 

 slender spikes, bearing purple clusters of delicate flowers, pen- 

 dent from the leaves. When the female plants have perfected 

 their seeds, they are pulled up, bound into sheaves, and stooked 

 until entirely dry, when the seeds are readily threshed out. 

 Hemp is spread upon the grass and treated the same as flax. 

 Sometimes the female plants are stacked and kept until the en- 

 suing spring, that the seed may be perfectly cured. 



If the weather is warm, from six to eight days in water will 

 soften the external covering of the stem of the hemp so that it 

 will rub off readily. It then undergoes the final operation of 

 bruising, when it is ready for market. An acre of properly cul- 

 tivated hemp will usually yield seven hundred pounds. An 

 acre cultivated for seed will generally produce from ten to thir- 

 teen bushels. 



Hemp of the finer sorts is manufactured into a valuable kind of 

 cloth of very great durability, possessing more strength than linens 

 of the same quality, which improve their color by wearing, a 

 property not possessed by linen. It is very extensively used 

 likewise for towels, table cloths, &c., and coarser kinds for cord- 

 age and canvas, for which purpose it is eminently useful on ac- 

 count of the great elasticity of its fibre ; more than one hundred 



