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this instrument, if you cannot cut off a bog or has- 
sjvck at the hrst stroke, you may generally do il 
with a back handed stroke without moving from the 
spot- With those instruments saplings, as thick as 
a man’s leg, may be taken up with great facility# 
When the ground is thus cleared in the month of 
May, when, the weather is pretty dry and warm, the 
bogs will be dry enough to burn in eight or ten 
days, when they may be heaped and burnt. The 
ground may then be ploirghed, the share and coulter 
being ground sharp, and well harrowed with an iron 
tooth harrow till it is sufficiently mellow. The 
time for sowing old land is generally from the mid¬ 
dle till the last of May, depending on the dryness 
of the season j but I have known new lands, and 
sometimes old, in wet seasons, sowed as late as the 
middle and even the last of June, and still produced 
good crops. It is common to sow about 1 - bush¬ 
els of seed to the acre, if the seed is good. If the 
hemp is thrifty and sowed in season, it is generally 
fit to cut about the middle of August, and is often 
from 5 to 8 feet high. It requires a little judgment 
in determining the proper time for cutting, but n 
little experience will be sufficient to inform the ob¬ 
server. The male hemp shoots out in sundry small 
branches at the top, and appears to bear a small 
blossom hardly perceivable, and when nearly fit to 
cut turns a pale yellowish color, and when stirred 
by the wind emits a dust, which, in the mbruing,^ 
will appear like a faint fog rising from it, and the 
leaves for some distance up the stalk will begin to 
V 
