PRINCIPLES OF CULTURE. 319 
sirable when the plants are required to yield the best quality 
of fibre for cordage. 
«Plants, when grown in moist situations, in shade, or set 
thickly together, are well known to run into leaf, shoot up, 
and to become more lax in texture, while their secretions are 
imperfectly formed, as is exemplified in the growing of Lettuce, 
Celery, &. Hemp and Flax, when cultivated for their fibres, 
are sown thickly together, and they shoot up into long, wand- 
like plants, which are much less branched than when freely 
exposed. Air and light having less free admission, and heat 
having less influence in evaporating the sap, the effect is to 
produce a longer fibre, which is at the same time soft and 
pliable, as well as more easily separated, and in larger quantity 
on the same space, than when they are set widely apart. 
“The natives of India also sow their Sunn and Jute very 
thickly together when, for the sake of their fibres, they form 
the exclusive crop. The effect is to produce a long and flexible 
fibre, though this is not sufficiently strong to form a good 
substitute for the true Hemp. This might be cultivated in 
suitable situations in India, in a manner similar to that adopted 
in Kurope, or like that practised with its substitutes in India. 
The effect would undoubtedly be to produce a sufficiently long 
fibre, which would also be softer and more pliable, at the same 
time that it retained a great portion of its original strength, 
and probably in as large a quantity as is yielded by the Sunn 
plant. Thus an article might be produced, which, judging 
from the Italian samples, might enter into competition with 
the Russian product, and, at all events, afford much more 
valuable cordage than the several (usually considered) inefficient 
substitutes which are so extensively cultivated in India, and 
which, imported into this country, sell only for 15 to 20 shillings 
per cwt., at the same time that the Russian, Polish, and Italian 
Hemps are selling for 42 to 50 shillings per cwt. 
“The difference in price would appear a sufficient inducement 
to attempt the culture of the true Hemp in India, especially 
as there could be no doubt respecting its growth, as it is 
already so common in every part of that country, and requiring, 
if anything, only a little modification of its properties. This 
could be ensured, most probably, by a change in the mode of 
‘cultivation. Dr. Roxburgh, as long since as the year 1800, 
