16 



liuslieis of seed. In some of the United States — Kentucky, 

 Missouri, and Tennessee for instance — it is a crop of considerable 

 importance. Italian hemp is said to be the very best, that of 

 Russia and Poland being next in value. 

 In giving a few particulars of the 



MODES OF CULTIVATION AND PREPAEATION 



of these important fibres, hemp and ramie, I have consulted 

 the best authorities on the subject — Spon, Haldane, and others, 

 ■whose knowledge and advice can be depended upon. With 

 regard to hemp, like flax, it only requires a few months of 

 summer temperature to bring it to perfection ; the climate there- 

 fore, as well as the soil, of most parts of Victoria being adapted 

 for its cultivation, it needs only a little enterprise on the part of 

 our farmers to make it a profitable industry. I have seen some 

 very fine samples of hemp that were grown in Grippsland, and 

 even in our Botanical Gardens have we grown the plant to 6 (six) 

 feet high, on a plot of poor sandy soil, with the aid of irrigation 

 alone. It was thirteen weeks exactly from the date the seeds 

 were sown till the plants flowered. Over-rich soils, it is said, 

 produce coarse but good fibre, and poor soils, fibre of very fine 

 texture but small returns. The most suitable soils are friable 

 loams containing vegetable matter, or alluvial lands where sand 

 and clay are intimately mixed. Stiff cold clays are to be avoided. 

 Fairly rich soil, moisture, and heat are essential for the production 

 of good hemp in quantity, and even light poor soils, if well 

 manured and moistened, will bear crops for several years in 

 succession. Land intended for hemp must be well ploughed and 

 drained, harrowed as for potatoes, rolled, and thoroughly cleansed 

 from all weeds. The quantity of seed per acre, if fibre be the 

 object, is from 2^ to 3 bushels. If for seed 1^ to 2 bushels. The 

 hemp plant being dioecious — or male and female existing in 

 separate plants — the male plants should be pulled as they come 

 into flower, and the female plants left in the ground for about a 

 month longer, to admit of the seed becoming ripe. The crop 

 intended for fibre is generally pulled or cut when in flower, 

 without any regard to sex of the plant. 



The best- time to sow the seed is during spring, after the frosts 

 have ceased. Frosts injure the young seedlings, and sowing too 

 late conduces to thinness and weakness of the plants. To prevent 

 deterioration in the quality of fibre, constant changes of seed are 

 beneficial. As soon as the young plants appear the ground should 

 be kept free from weeds, and the crop thinned out according to 

 the class of fibre required and the capability of the ground ; but 

 as a rule hemp grows so rapidly that after one weeding there 

 will probably be no more trouble with the crop in that respect 



