146 
Some Minor Farm Crops. 
Hemp grows very rapidly ; the male plants are always 
more forward than the female, and, early in August — some 
thirteen weeks after sowing — they may be distinguished quite 
readily from the female plants by their great profusion of 
flowers from which much pollen is shed, their more delicate 
growth, and from the fact that their leaves and stems assume 
a yellow colour and become faded whereas the female plants 
remain in full vigour. The early custom in this country was 
to remove the male plants at this stage before they became 
withered and useless, and to leave the female plants standing 
until the ripening of the seed was accomplished. Under these 
circumstances of double harvesting, the male, 'or summer hemp 
as it used to be called, was removed carefully so as to leave the 
female, or winter hemp , undamaged. After the earth and any 
rubbish had been knocked from the roots, the stems were made 
up into bundles, called gleans, which were then allowed to stand 
upon end for a short time to dry. These bundles were then 
collected together and the stems sorted into approximately equal 
lengths and then, when tied up into smaller bundles, they were 
ready for the next operation of separating the fibre. 
It has been said already that the female plants used to be 
harvested some four or five weeks after the male plant ; but 
this was not always the case. When hemp was commanding a 
good price and was used for spinning and weaving the finer 
kinds of canvas, both the male and the female plants were 
harvested together at the beginning of August. At the present 
day the entire crop is left until the female plants have fully 
matured, being harvested immediately after the ordinary corn 
harvest, when the crop is cut with a reaper and the seed taken 
off at the depot to which the crop is sent for fibre separation. 
When, however, two harvests are taken the winter hemp is 
cut or pulled when the capsules turn brown and the lower seeds 
become firm and assume a dark grey colour. Great care is 
exercised to avoid loss of seed during the handling of the 
stems. After the root ends have been cleared of soil and 
undergrowth, the stems are made up into loose stooks and left 
to dry and the seed to ripen until the capsules can be rubbed 
easily from the stalks. It is necessary to protect the seed 
against attack by birds and this is very conveniently done by 
raking together the undergrowth and putting it as a light 
covering on the top of the stooks. When sufficiently dry the 
stooks are removed to a spread sheet and the seed threshed 
out by hand, and as soon as this is accomplished the stems are 
ready for the next operation, namely the separation of the 
fibre. 
In some few cases hemp has been grown in this country 
primarily for the seed it bears, and, in this case, the seed was 
