tion, and the foregoing will be found the only rational system 

 to secure the highest returns for the full hemp crop. 



The second year you would use the even numbered plats 

 that were seeded this season as you would sow next season, and 

 the odd numbered lots would be fallow. Should your land have 

 been run down and not in the best condition you may with great 

 advantage as soon as the female hemp is removed, plow as ap^P'y 

 as possible (8 or 10 inches) both odd and even numbered lots 

 and sow crimson clover, harrow it lightly and allow the crimson 

 clover to grow until the end of March, turning everything under, 

 and proceed as the previous season. In mild climates the South- 

 ern Cow-Pea may be substituted for the crimson clover. The roots 

 of both of those plants have the power of collecting nitrogen from 

 the atmosphere and yielding up to the following growing plants, 

 abundant supplies of that most valuable and costly of all our 

 fertilizers. This system may be adopted with all our ordinary 

 farm crops and quickly introduce the farmer adopting it to my 

 Belgian friends, ideal of a flax farmer. "The flax farmer in my 

 country is always the best farmer; the flax farmer in my country 

 has always the best clothes, AND THE FLAX FARMER HAS 

 ALWAYS SOME MONEY IN HIS POCKET ! 



Hemp is generally dew-retted in Europe and in the United 

 States, but I do not recommend it, as much better resulte and 

 higher prices are paid for water-retted hemp (threshed) until 

 dry and fit for storage under cover properly ventilated, of course 

 the seed will only be found on the female blossoms. 



The female hemp plants should not be cut until the dough 

 stage and is sufficiently solidified to withstand crushing in the 

 rippling machines, and used for sowing in quantities of about 90 

 to 100 pounds per acre. Remember, a bushel of hemp used is 

 only 44 pounds, sowing one inch deep. 



UNCULTIVATED BAST FIBERS. 



While flax and hemp are the chief commercial bast fibers, 

 there are a vast number of valuable bast fibers that are now 

 allowed to waste their usefulness in neglect, unhonored and un- 

 sung, this war, however, has attracted attention to the subject 

 of providing substitutes and the Germans, with their well-de- 

 veloped preparedness, were not slow in turning their attention to 

 those neglected sources of commercial remuneration and profit 

 and have already established works to convert the common sting- 

 ing nettle into a strong and high quality cloth for her army. 



Among those basts, some grow in India, China, and others in 

 hot climates, while some are indigenous to our favored region 

 of Puget Sound and State of Washington and others are better 

 adapted to the warmer states. However, I will select some of 

 the most economically propigated. 



First, then we have a most voluminous series of valuable 

 bast fibers of which over 100 varieties are known to Botanists, 

 scattered all over the world in tropical and sub-tropical, tem- 

 perate and frigid regions, some fully adapted to conditions as they 



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