180 



On Hemp. 



perly thatched, as, if the least wet gets into the rick, it will 

 destroy the fibre. The latter described mode was frequently 

 practised if the season had got too far advanced for the hemp 

 to be taken out of the water before the frost set in. In watering 

 hemp, it must be a dead standing water ; if put into a stream, the 

 hemp will be damaged. The late hemp in the neighbourhood 

 of Crowland was frequently watered and taken out of the water, 

 dried as soon as possible, and peeled by women and children ; it 

 was of a coarse, tender, and ordinary quality, not applicable for 

 shipping ; it obtained only a low price, and was usually converted 

 into sacking. To obtain the most valuable white hemp is to dew- 

 ret it, which is done by letting it, after being pulled, stand in the 

 stook two or three days in order to stiffen the stem, then carefully 

 removing from the stook (without tying as before mentioned) and 

 spreading on a good eddish where the grass is plentiful. It will 

 take perhaps six weeks to dew-ret hemp, during which time it 

 must be kept constantly turned over as previously described ; it 

 will be completed when the pink spots appear, as before noticed, 

 which must be carefully looked for, when it will be ready to 

 gather and tie up in bundles to form stooks in order to dry ; the 

 fibre will not sustain any damage before the pink spots appear. 



The best land for obtaining fibre of the strongest and purest 

 description is a fat loam, not too heavy with clay, and a portion of 

 sand intermixed ; on such land succeeding a crop of beans, hemp 

 will grow 6 to 7 feet high. The cultivator will never be in error 

 if he alternately sows beans and hemp. I have known 9 quarters 

 of beans per acre after hemp, weighing 21 stones per sack. 

 Hemp after beans will produce 30 stones more per acre of the 

 strongest and heaviest fibre than by any other mode of culture : 

 the weight of fibre in ordinary culture and circumstances will 

 produce 60 to 70 stones per acre. After beans the produce will 

 rate from 90 to 100 stones of a superior description ; bean-stalks 

 make the best manure for hemp, as they keep the land open and 

 soft for the roots : this particularly applies to strong loams. Fat 

 mould is well adapted for growing beans and hemp alternately : 

 when I allude to fat mould, I do not mean mould that contains 

 bog; that sort of mould produces hemp of a coarse ordinary 

 quality of tender fibre, and obtains only an inferior price. In the 

 hemp-growing districts, when it was much cultivated, it was usual 

 to take two crops of hemp one after the other, and after the 

 second crop a crop of flax, and then hemp, and so on for years. 

 This was a practice amongst small farmers until the land became 

 exhausted, as hemp and flax produce no manure. The most pro- 

 fitable mode of growing hemp is with beans alternately, for as 

 many years as the farmer likes. 



