318 SOIL AND CLIMATE SUITED TO HEMP PLANT. 
the best Russia sells at 47 shillings for the same quan- 
tity. 
‘: If we compare the summer temperature of the northern 
with these southern situations, we shall not find so great a 
difference as we might be led to expect by considering only 
their latitudes, or their mean annual temperatures. Thus 
Petersburgh and Moscow, in N. latitude 59° 56’ and 
56° 45’, have mean summer temperatures of 62° 06’ and 
67°10’ of Fahr., while Milan and Rome, in N. latitude 
45° 28’ and 41° 53’, have summer temperatures of 73° 04! 
and 75° 20'.” 
“ Without entering into details, it might be inferred as 
probable, that as Italy grows Rice, and so many other plants 
of India, so might the latter cultivate a plant like the Hemp, 
which succeeds so well even so far south as Naples, and which 
requires only a few months to bring it to perfection; and this 
even if India did not already possess it. But so far from this 
being the case, the reverse is the fact; and it is well known 
that no plant is so commonly cultivated in so many parts of 
India as the true Hemp plant, which is there called ganja, but 
which differs in no respect from the European plant, though 
the natives employ it only for the purpose of yielding bhang. 
But cultivated for this purpose, instead of being sown thick, 
as it ought to be when intended for cordage, it is sown thin 
by the natives, who afterwards transplant the young plants, 
and place them at distances of nine or ten feet from each other. 
The effect of this is to expose them more freely to light, heat, 
and air, by the agency of which the plant is enabled to perfect 
its secretions in a more complete manner, and the bhang will 
consequently be of a more intoxicating nature. The fibrous 
and woody parts at the same time attain a greater degree of 
stiffness and solidity, as is found to be the case with timber 
trees similarly exposed. The Hemp plant, thus grown, will 
branch much. It may be small in dry situations, and large 
in rich and moist ones, but in either case its fibres are found, 
both in Europe and India, to be rougher, stiffer, and more 
difficultly separated from the woody part than is desirable, but 
seed is produced in larger quantity and of better quality. 
This mode of cultivation has, moreover, the disadvantage of 
being more expensive, from taking up more space than is de- 
