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ON HEMP. 



For gaining the seed of the Hemp, the stalks, as soon as 

 drawn, are carefully set up on their root-ends against walls, until 

 they are perfectly dry. The roots, and the tops as far as the seed- 

 pods extend, are then cut off, and the former thrown away as use- 

 less. The latter are immediately threshed out and cleaned. 



If the seed, instead of being immediately cleansed, is suffered 

 to remain for any length of time in a foul, moist state, its colour will 

 be spoiled, and its substance so much injured, that it cannot with 

 safety be employed for sowing; nor will it, even when crushed, 

 produce either the same quality or quantity of oil which it would 

 otherwise have rendered. Bumo, 



In some places, to complete the ripening of the seed, round 

 holes are dug about a foot deep, and three or four feet in diameter, 

 in different parts of the Hemp-ground, and the handfuls of pulled 

 Hemp are set as close together as can be in these holes, with their 

 seed-ends downward, and their roots uppermost ; after which, to keep 

 them in this position, the whole is tied round with bands of straw, 

 and the earth that was taken out of the hole is thrown up all around 

 this great sheaf, so as quite to bury the heads of the Hemp, which, 

 when thus covered, heat, by means of the moisture contained in 

 them, in the same manner as a stack of green-hay, or a heap of 

 dung. This heat completes the ripening of the seed, and disposes 

 it the more easily to quit its husks; and when it has been brought 



to 



