PRACTICAL PAPERS—SANDY LAND. 
173 
railroads, these could be made profitable for market; and at 
more remote places they could be preserved or dried, and thus 
disposed of. Like grapevines, these bushes would add largely 
by their leaves and trimmings to the richness of the soil, per¬ 
haps a sufficient supply to keep up its fertility. 
Black mustard is a crop that delights in a sandy soil, and 
leaves a large amount of leaves and stalks to enrich it. All 
of this refuse should be allowed to rot on the surface, or be 
buried in the soil while green. Few crops, when the modes 
of handling are understood, yield more profit. Mustard seed 
is brought to market as mustard flour, or manufactured into 
table oil; in the production of which, it rivals the rape, olive 
and almond. Mustard seeds it3elf, and the land only requires 
working with a cultivator or harrow each spring as a prepar¬ 
ation for the crop. When required for other crops, the land 
is easily cleared by turning under the green plants, or by cul¬ 
tivating corn. The soil would increase in quality by con¬ 
tinued croppings of mustard, as it does not exhaust the salts. 
Hemp is another crop which yields a very large amount of 
leaves, chaff, roots and stems. If the leaves are left in rotting, 
and the shives are returned to the ground, they will be suffi¬ 
cient to maintain the fertility, and the soil will never depreci¬ 
ate while cultivated with hemp. If there is sufficient humus 
in the soil to force the crop, returning the refuse afterwards, is 
all the soil requires. Hemp fibre is almost pure carbon, and 
the seeds are not allowed to mature when fibre is the object of 
the crop ; therefore, as it takes the smallest portion of salts 
from the soil, it exhausts The soil less jban any other culti¬ 
vated crop. Its true value is less understood than any crop 
grown by our farmers. It is safe to estimate that for fibre it 
/ 
will produce from $75 to $100 per acre; and for seed from $50 
to $75. There is no doubt of the possibility of growing and 
maturing hemp in Wisconsin of better.fibre than farther south. 
The seeds may be sown in the fall, too late to sprout, or at 
the earliest possible period in the spring, on lands prepared in 
the fall. The young plants, unlike flax, are not destroyed by 
