174 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
spring frosts. When grown for fibre, hemp kills all other 
plants, as it covers and shades the entire surface. For seed it 
must be grown in drills, and cultivated in its early growth. 
The yield is as high as forty bushels of seed to the acre. Un¬ 
like ordinary farm crops it prefers the same tract of land from 
year to year, if its refuse is left on the ground. 
The large single flowered or .opium poppy is another crop, 
which, producing a large amount of leaves and stems, would 
thrive well on these lands. After frosts or age have dried the 
leaves, they will be eaten by cattle, horses and sheep; the same 
is also true of the mustard. The great value consists in the 
very large crop of seeds—from 20 to 40 bushels of 60 pounds 
to the acre—which are gathered by cutting off the bolls, so that 
all the leaves and stalks are left on the ground to enrich it. 
These seeds produce fifty per cent, of oil superior to the olive, 
which can be extracted in any flax-seed mill, with less heat. 
The oil cake is far superior to linseed to feed cattle. The pop¬ 
py matures too rapidly in Wisconsin to be profitable for opi¬ 
um. All things considered, this would be an excellent crop 
for the sandy lands, and the oil market cannot be overstocked. 
Mustard and poppies have been named, and their culture 
urged in this paper, because they will grow in lands of too thin 
soil to produce any other crop, even grass; and for the 
amount of vegetable matter they will yield, in the form of tap¬ 
roots, leaves and stems, which will in a very few years convert 
drifting sands into a soil capable of yielding good crops of clo¬ 
ver, grass and grain. The objection to black mustard, that its 
seeds will remain in the soil and spread to adjoining fields, can 
be obviated by raising a smaller plant, the white seeded mus¬ 
tard, which will not retain its vitality through the winter in 
the ground. Such sandy lands as naturally grow only the 
most worthless and noxious weeds, will produce mustard and 
poppies; and their seedsj without injury to the amount of veg¬ 
etable matter left on the surface, will yield a crop that will 
compensate for the labor bestowed, better than the crops usu¬ 
ally cultivated on the farm. Give these plants sand to bury 
