TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
New Series. ALBANY, MARCH, 1851. Vol. VIII.— No. 3. 
^ntrtintl Mmhnh\\. 
Culture and Preparation of Hemp. 
Eds. Cultivator —The many purposes in life to 
which the products of the hemp plant may be made 
subservient, constitute it one of the most useful of cul¬ 
tivated vegetables, not to say an article of prime ne¬ 
cessity. Hemp, however, is a plant the cultivation of 
which is not considered difficult, in any moderately fer¬ 
tile soil, provided the grower govern his practice by a 
few plain maxims. 
The best condition of the ground for the reception of 
the seeds of a hemp crop, is that pulverization of the 
soil and that smoothing of the surface by plowing, cross- 
plowing, and harrowing, which the grass or wheat farm¬ 
er would esteem most suitable for either of those crops. 
The quantity of seed applied, varies in practice from 
one and a-half to two or more bushels per acre,—an ex¬ 
cess over the right quantity being considered safer than 
a short-coming, in as much as when too thick, the stout¬ 
er plants will take the lead and overtop the others, which 
are thus smothered and killed. The time of sowing 
varies in Kentucky, ranging from the middle of April 
to the last of May. Each individual must be governed 
in practice somewhat by his discretion, forming his judg¬ 
ment upon the condition of soil, advance of the season, 
or the extent of his crop, which if large enough to re¬ 
quire more than two weeks in the harvesting, would 
make it proper to have alternate sowings, lest a part of 
the crop be injured by becoming over ripe,—the male 
plants dying and spotting. 
The hemp plant disregards any moderate frost, and is 
therefore seldom injured from that cause in early sowing 
—the only striking difference between early and late 
sown crops, is that the chilly temperature of spring pro¬ 
duces a low plant, with thick rough bark, whilst in the 
rapidly growing temperature of summer, the late crop 
shoots up to a greater height with a thinner and softer 
bark. In good crops the yield in either case will be 
about the same, the time of ripening varying not more 
than one week even though the difference in sowing may 
have equalled six weeks. 
One maxim which experience rigidly requires the 
hemp-grower to observe, is, never to commit his seed to 
land not in “ good heart” a phrase which implies not 
only moderate fertility ; but also a presence in the soil 
and an incorporation with it, at the time of sowing, of a 
fair proportion of vegetable matter, in order to ensure 
a proper degree of friability—a condition without which 
no tap-rooted plant can thrive. A neglect of this maxim, 
is the most pregnant source of disappointment known in 
the history of hemp-culture, and is generally followed 
by one or the other of two diseases, or rather casualties 
to the young crop, that is to say by “ baking,” or 
“ firing,” either of which maladies generally has power 
to arrest entirely the growth of the plant, or to hold it 
in check until surface grasses and weeds overpower the 
crop. It may therefore be well to consider in detail the 
nature and symptoms of both “ baking” and “firing/* 
The first results from a want of vegetable matter in the 
soil cultivated, as will readily be seen by attending to 
the symptoms. The vegetable mould or humus of a 
soil, is but carbonaceous matter accumulated by slow 
combustion for centuries, which, although but slightly 
soluble in water at any one time, is continually wasting 
away under the action of the laws of decomposition, 
being reconverted into its original gases, to fly off in air, 
or to be reabsorbed by plants. Any soil may, there¬ 
fore, by washing rains, bad tillage, and hard cropping, 
be deprived of most of its vegetable mould ; and such a 
soil may, after having been pulverised to the depth of 
six to ten inches, receive on its bosom the seeds of a 
hemp crop. Such a soil, so prepared, may moreover, 
yield a fair crop, provided the rains of the season fall in 
light showers, and with great frequency; but such a suc¬ 
cession of favorable circumstances seldom happens; and 
a far more usual occurrence is the coming of a heavy 
rain, during which the mass of loose earth becomes sa¬ 
turated, and the moment after water begins to accumu¬ 
late on the hard clay below, rising up towards the sur¬ 
face. If, then, the pulverised soil is defective in insolu¬ 
ble vegetable matter, well incorporated with the whole 
mass, to act as a sort of framework in keeping asunder the 
particles of clay, the whole soon runs together in a state 
of solidity, whilst the water, rising above it, carries in 
solution carbonates and other salts, and lighter particles, 
which as the water subsides, leaves a marl-like coating 
upon the embedded clay, rendering it impervious to 
water or air in a very high degree. This is called 
“baking,” and those who have sometimes experienced 
its effects, in their anxiety to avoid it, not unfrequentjy 
pass into the opposite extreme, which is “firing” the 
plants, by attempting to grow the hemp crop with too 
much vegetable matter present in the soil, or with vege¬ 
table matter not in a condition to nourish and sustain 
vegetable life. The symptoms, above ground, indica¬ 
ting the presence of this malady, are a suspension of 
