264 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
an acre of land, after it had been rotted on the ground where 
it grew. 
Will there be a Market for Hemp. —The high prices 
which hemp commands now, is one answer to this question, 
but another is found in its consumption in the country. The 
last report of the Secretary of the Treasury, informs us, that 
there was consumed in the United States, during the year end¬ 
ing June 30th, 1871, foreign imports of hemp, manilla, jute, 
grass, sisal, hemp tow, and other fibres and their manufactures, 
to the amount of $8,034,071.83 custom-house value; on which, 
duties were collected amounting to $1,742,786.87. Nearly 
one-half this amount was for raw material, and gunny cloth. 
This is in addition to the importations of flax and flax manu¬ 
factures, and to American grown hemp and flax. This amount 
is no more than the average for the past seven years. The 
United States have never produced one-half enough to supply 
their own market and consumption. 
Hemp Does Not Exhaust the Soil. —Fortunately for, 
our unphilosophical and wasteful system of agriculture, hemp, 
when grown, returns to the soil its leaves, stubble and deeply 
penetrating roots; and when these are buried by the plow the 
land is in the finest possible condition for another crop. Near¬ 
ly all the valuable, inorganic substances taken from the ground 
is in the'waste material of the leaves, seed stems and shives, 
which can and ought to be returned. The carbonaceous nature 
of these and the stubble, acting both chemically and mechani¬ 
cally upon the soil, and yielding humus, must more than com¬ 
pensate for the one-fourth of one per cent, of mineral ash in 
the lint; which amount is absolutely all that need be taken 
from the land. The hemp raisers of Kentucky and Missouri 
have had no apprehension of hemp exhausting the soil; on 
the contrary they rank this crop as an improver of the land, 
like clover. They claim, with reason, that the deep tap roots 
descend into the lower strata of the soil in search of nourish¬ 
ment, and thence bring valuable elements to the surface; 
which with the large amount of carbonaceous matter in the 
