142 
Some Minor Farm Crops. 
close of the century witnessed the energetic appeals of 
Weston, Blith, Hartlib, and others for a more extended system 
of husbandry, and the growing of hemp was among the 
improvements warmly advocated by these writers as being not 
only a remunerative crop but, in addition, one which affords 
employment to numbers of the rural population in the winter 
months. 
These appeals finally resulted in the Government encourag- 
ing the industry in various ways. Thus in 1692 the tithe on 
hemp was reduced ; in 1712 a bounty of one penny per ell was 
given on all British-made sailcloth ; and in 1787 a bounty of 
M. per stone was allowed on all hemp raised in England, while 
later on duties were levied on all that was imported.' 
During the Napoleonic War period a remarkable develop- 
ment of the industry took place, the area devoted to hemp 
being^ extended very considerably. Thus, Marshall tells us 
that in 1803 there ' was a considerable quantity of hemp 
grown in Shropshire. In that county (and the custom was by 
no means confined to Shropshire) there was a small plot of 
ground, called the “ hemp-yard,” attached to almost every farm- 
house and to many of the better sort of cottages. Whenever a 
cottager had 10 or 15 perches of land to his cottage, by growing 
hemp and with the aid of his wife’s industry he was enabled 
to pay his rent. 
During this period of revival the proper watering and 
preparation of the fibre for market were given marked attention. 
Retting pits were prepared and let out to hemp growers, and 
considerable premiums were paid to those successful hemp 
growers who were willing to instruct others in the methods of 
raising the crop and separating the fibre from the stem. 
Following this revival came a decline which was almost 
as rapid, and which was mainly due to the unusually large 
imports of fibres which came into the country from abroad 
on the conclusion of peace. To take an instance recorded by 
Ruegg in 1854, there were not five acres of hemp grown in 
Dorsetshire in that year, whereas, at the close of the eighteenth 
century, the average area annually devoted to hemp in that 
county alone was close upon 250 acres. 
The fen land of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire into 
Bedfordshire was, at that time, the chief centre of hemp 
growing in this country, and in this district similar depressed 
conditions obtained. Generally speaking the circumstances 
which affected flax cultivation exerted a similar influence on 
hemp growing, and at the present day, except in one small 
area,, there remains little to remind us of the flourishing 
condition of hemp growing in England in the past except 
the disused hemp pits and the fact that on many farms certain 
