334 HEMP AND FLAX. 



The following is an answer I sent to some ^erhs tranim 

 mitt ed to me on the siihjeU of the Increasing the growth of hemp. 



The only account to which I can at present have re- 

 course, to discover what is the import oflieinp, is a detail 

 ot" imports of merchandize from all the work), from the 

 5th of January, 1792, to the 5th of January, 1793, ^"" 

 ■which rough hemp is set down at 614,362 cwt., value 

 522,207!. Whether this includes the import for the Royal 

 Navy, I know not, .but in the following calculations, 

 must presume that it does include the whole. It makes 

 30,718 tons, at 17I. a ton, or 2s. i-|d. a stone of 141b. 

 from which price I conclude that this hemp is in its very 

 earliest stage of dressing. Hempsoldin England, in 1796, 

 at6il. 10s. a ton. — Annals.^ vol. xxvii. p. 79. 



The hemp lands of the counties of Lincoln, Cambridge, 

 Suffolk, and Dorset, yield nearly the same crops; from 

 35 to 50 stone per acre ; 40 may be considered as an 

 average crop ; in which ratio it takes exa6tly four acres to 

 produce a ton, and 120,000 acres for the quantity import- 

 ed of 30,000 tons. 



I cannot conceive that it is impradlicable to add 120,000 

 acres to our hemp grounds, even in England alone ; cer- 

 tainly not in England and Ireland together. But it would 

 be Impraflicable to add a tenth part of that space, wjthout 

 giving a most decided and effedlive encouragement. 



The former bounties per stone, had no effecSt whatever — 

 tliey did not occasion a single acre extraordinary to be 

 sown ; and I personally know, that many persons who 

 cultivated hemp, did not even think them worth applying 

 for ; the forms were so difficult and tedious. 



I have not the a6t to recur to, to know exa6lly their 

 amount, but it was either 3d. or 4d. a stone ; at the latter, 

 40 stone gave only 13s. 4d. an acre bounty ; totally insuf- 

 ficient as an encouragement for an article which we know 

 is not extended under a bounty of from eight to ten times 



that 



