122 



ON HEMP. 



After reciting what Mr. Du Hamel says as above, Mr. Mills, in 

 bis Practical Husbandry, notices the following observations from the 

 Memoirs of the Royal Society of Agriculture at Tours, " that it is 

 hard to conceive, how an operation, which tends to bring on at 

 least some degree of putrefaction, can ripen the seed : and there- 

 fore this must be at best a very dangerous practice, especially as a 

 seed so very oily as that of Hemp, and consequently so apt to be- 

 come rancid, cannot but be liable to be rendered still more so by this 

 degree of heat." 



It is also justly remarked in the said Memoirs, " that by the 

 threshing of Hemp there is always danger of bruising some of its 

 seeds, and that the bruised seed will not grow, though it may be 

 fit for yielding oil. Nor is this all ; for by threshing out the seed 

 there is a mixture of imperfect seed with that which is fit for sow- 

 ing ; and this is the reason why husbandmen have always found it 

 necessary to sow a greater quantity than would otherwise be re- 

 quisite, in order to make up for the uncertainty of its growth." 



The method of separating the finest grains of wheat for sow- 

 ing, by throwing the corn to a distance on a barn-floor, is equally 

 advisable for obtaining the heaviest and best Hemp-seed, where 

 proper care has not been previously taken to provide such. In this 

 case, the ripple may be used to separate the whole of the seed from 

 the plant, and this will prevent the inconveniences which arise 

 from the threshing or beating out of the seed. Mills's Husbandry. 



In 



