Hemp seed

“ The principal ingredient of the Bang so much used by the Indians, as well as of the Maslac of the Turks is a species of the hemp plant. The Indians, says Acosta,156 masticate the 105seeds and leaves of several species of that plant, in order to increase their vigour in the venereal congress, and very frequently combine with it, ambergris, musk, and sugar, preparing it in the form of an electuary. It has been remarked, moreover, that even in our own climate, the caged birds that are fed with hemp seed are the most amorously inclined. ”

“ The hemp plant, like the hop, which is of the same natural order, Cannabinaceae, is dioecious, i.e. the male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The female plant grows to a greater height than the male, and its foliage is darker and more luxuriant, but the plant takes from five to six weeks longer to ripen. When the male plants are ripe they are pulled, put up into bundles, and steeped in a similar manner to flax, but the female plants are allowed to remain until the seed is perfectly ripe. ”

“ It has been remarked that those which are fed entirely on rape seed soaked in water live much longer, and are more healthy. The hemp seed is too heating, sooner or later blinds them, and always brings on a decline. A little green food, such as lettuce, endive, chickweed, water-cresses, a little apple, particularly the kernels, the berries of the service tree, and the like, is agreeable and salutary to them. ”

“ It frequently receives other names, e.g. false hemp, brown hemp, Bombay hemp, Jubbulpore hemp, sana, &c. The plant is an annual, requires a light soil, and is easily cultivated. The ground is ploughed two or three times, and from 80 to 100 ℔ of seed are sown broadcast. ”

“ Are we responsible for what there is in the sack? We find a lot of small seeds, which we can't waste time in sifting, and which must pass under the mill-stones; such as tares, lucern, cockles, vetches, amaranths, hemp-seed, and a number of other weeds, without counting the pebbles which are so frequent in some sorts of wheat, especially Breton wheat. ”

“ Then, too, there is hemp,1219 a plant remarkably useful for making ropes, and usually sown after the west winds have begun to prevail: the more thickly it is sown, the thinner are the stalks. The seed is gathered when ripe, just after the autumnal equinox, and is dried by the agency of the sun, the wind, or smoke.1220 The hemp itself is plucked just after vintage-time, and is peeled and cleaned by the labourers at night. ”

“ Hemp is an annual plant that grows from seed each year, and therefore it can be brought readily into production. It produces twice as much fiber per acre as flax, the only other fiber that is its equal in strength and durability and that is known to be suitable for culture and preparation on machinery in this country. ”

“ The chief continental hemp-producing countries are Italy, Russia and France; it is also grown in several parts of Canada and the United States and India. The Central Provinces, Bengal and Bombay are the chief centres of hemp cultivation in India, where the plant is of most use for narcotics. The satisfactory growth of hemp demands a light, rich and fertile soil, but, unlike most substances, it may be reared for a few years in succession. The time of sowing, the quantity of seed per acre (about three bushels) and the method of gathering and retting are very similar to those of flax ”

“ when it is older, it has filaments and fibres like hemp and flax. Nettle cloth is as good as linen cloth. Chopped up, nettles are good for poultry; pounded, they are good for horned cattle. The seed of the nettle, mixed with fodder, gives gloss to the hair of animals; the root, mixed with salt, produces a beautiful yellow coloring-matter. Moreover, it is an excellent hay, which can be cut twice. And what is required for the nettle? A little soil, no care, no culture. Only the seed falls as it is ripe, and it is difficult to collect it. That is all. ”

“ Meadows and pastures, especially where the land is not fertile, abound in weeds that require two years or more to produce seeds, such as narrow-leaved dock, bitter dock, bull thistle, carrot, teasel, two kinds of mulleins, night-flowering catchfly, evening primrose, several kinds of fleabane, ox-eye daisy, orange hawkweed, two or three kinds of plantain, Canada thistle, hound's tongue, stick seed, sow thistle, horse nettle, buttercups, toad flax, silvery cinquefoil, and many more, not excluding some annuals, like crab-grass, tickle grass, pigeon grasses. ”

“ Prepare a bed, say four by six feet, or larger if you choose, and rake it off smoothly. The seeds are extremely minute. Take a pinch of them as if they were snuff, and then do by them what everybody ought to do by snuff,—sift them evenly all over the ground. Then just touch the ground with the tips of the rake-teeth, stirring it very lightly. Take a spade and spat the surface gently, so as to bring the soil home to the seed. Keep weeds away, and for the rest do nothing but enjoy the labor of your hands. It will come up of itself every year, and become a weed if you wish it to. ”

“ In fact, all through one's gardening processes one must keep the dust-mulch in evidence for it means conservation of moisture and fertility and freedom from weeds.
Seeds of different sizes, hardness and germination qualities, require different treatment; fine seeds may be sown in shallow drills, scattering seeds whose germinary power is known to be low or questionable quite thickly in the drills; beets are usually sown quite freely, while radishes—nearly every seed of which may be trusted to grow—may be scattered at about the distance they are wanted to stand in the rows ”

“ Darker, always darker turns the hemp as it rushes upward: scarce darker as to the stemless stalks which are hidden now; but darker in the tops. Yet here two shades of greenness: the male plants paler, smaller, maturing earlier, dying first; the females darker, taller, living longer, more luxuriant of foliage and flowering heads.
A hundred days from the sowing, and those flowering heads have come forth with their mass of leaves and bloom and earliest fruits, elastic, swaying six, ten, twelve feet from the ground and ripe for cutting. ”

“ A hand lens costing from twenty cents to a dollar is almost indispensable in examining our seeds. The brief descriptions are necessarily made by using definite scientific terms, which are explained in a glossary at the close of the work. A few weeds are not illustrated, for the reason that the plants have ceased to produce seeds, such as the horse radish, and some of them are not conspicuously bad. Not far from half the illustrations are made from small seed-like fruits, likely to be mistaken for seeds, such as are produced by dandelions, burdocks, narrow-leaved dock, all grasses. ”

“ In consequence of this peculiarity, people who make a business of cultivating hemp pull the male plants at the time they have shed their pollen, and leave the females standing for four or five weeks after.
It is well-known that hemp is one of the finest articles in the world for the manufacture of coarse cloth, and every sort of cordage and ropes. The material used for the purpose is the fibrous covering of the stalk, which is separated almost by the same means that are employed in obtaining flax. The hemp, when pulled up, is tied in bundles, and for a time submitted to the action of water. ”

“ Once upon the ground, the seed has to germinate if it can; its root has to pierce the soil or find a way in between crevices of rocks or sharp-edged stones. All the time it is exposed to danger from birds, beasts, and insects, which are only kept off by its resin. But it is difficult to see, for its colour is just that of dead pine needles and its shape is such that it easily slips into crevices. Then the seven or eight small green seed leaves break out of the tough seed coat, and the seedling is now a small tree two inches high. ”

“ Now if one thinks for a little over the cunning and ingenuity of these proceedings, it is obvious that each single weed has somehow learnt how to develop exactly at the right time. Those especially which are intended (by themselves) to form part of the seed mixtures must flower exactly at the same time as the corn. As a matter of fact, most seed mixtures are often full of weeds. In a single pound of clover seed, no less than 14,400 foreign seeds, including those of forty-four different weeds, have been discovered. ”

“ But there may be one or two plants that stand out conspicuously as the best of the whole lot. These are the ones to mark with a stake so they will not be molested when the crop is being gathered and so they will attain their fullest development.
These best plants, and only these, should then be chosen as the seed bearers. No others should be allowed even to produce flowers. When the seed has ripened, that from each plant should be kept separate during the curing process described elsewhere. And when spring comes again, each lot of [Pg 17] seed should be sown by itself. ”

“ Countless experiments have been made, and all tend to show that flowers produced from seed never resemble the flower from which the seed was taken. As a rule they differ in every point, shape, colour, and height. Nature insists so much on variety that even seeds taken from the same seed-vessel do not produce flowers alike. Some may be red, others blue or white, large or small, as the case may be, sometimes they are fortunate enough to get several double varieties from the seed of the single hyacinth. ”

“ By harvesting before the male plants die, the retting of both male and female plants is more uniform, as both types of plants are still green and growing. The harvesting period may extend for 2 weeks or longer. Very early harvested hemp may produce a finer and softer fiber than that harvested later, but it is usually weaker. The fiber from hemp that has been harvested so late that many seeds have matured does not possess so good cordage and textile characteristics as fiber from hemp harvested earlier. ”

“ A sowing in drills on a carefully prepared bed in the open ground is also desirable, and in some seasons it may produce the most valuable plants of the year. Asters come so true from seed that the bed may be arranged in any desired pattern. Thin the plants early, and continue the process until they are far enough apart for flowering. A distance of eight inches is sufficient for the miniatures, ten inches for the dwarfs, and twelve or fifteen inches for the tall varieties. ”

“ This last is of prime importance, for on proper fertilization depends the purity of the seed as well as the vigor of the resultant plant. Not all seed of even a good plant properly fertilized should be used for reproduction, as of the seeds gathered from any plant some will be better than others. Only the largest, plumpest, and best matured seeds should be used, for by saving these the most nearly typical plants of the sort will be most certainly produced. The selection of the best seed from typical plants is as essential to success as are good soil, thorough cultivation, and heavy manuring. ”

“ Muck or peat soils are not recommended for the production of high-quality hemp fiber. The quantity of fiber produced per acre on these soils may be very high, but experience has demonstrated that the fiber lacks strength, which is the first requirement of hemp fiber for good cordage.
The inexperienced farmer usually gets advice from an experienced hemp-mill superintendent in the selection of the right soil. In fact, the farmer's contract to grow hemp usually specifies the exact field that it has been mutually agreed should be used for the hemp crop. ”

“ Light is not necessary, and in winter time the neighborhood of the furnace is often a very convenient place to keep them safe from frost. They should not be in the sun while germinating. When the first sprouts appear above the ground let another set be planted, and so on, till a series is obtained ranging from plants several inches high to those just starting from the seed. The seeds themselves should be soaked for a day and the series is then ready for study. The time required for their growth varies according to the temperature, moisture, etc. ”

“ We wish present visible growth, and so we must be willing to lend aid, and first aid to such seeds is to give them a whiff of moist heat to soften what has become more hard than desirable through man's intervention. For in wild nature the seed is sown as soon as it ripens, and falls to the care of the ground before the vitality [Pg 47] of the parent plant has quite passed from it. That is why the seed of a hardy plant, self-sown at midsummer, grows with so much more vigour than kindred seed that has been lodged in a packet since the previous, season. ”

“ It cannot be the amount of material stored up in the cotyledons, or embryo seed leaves, for small seeds like the beet and cucumber will retain their vitality ten years, and lettuce, turnip, and tomato seed five or more years, while I do not care to plant large, fleshy seeds like pease and beans that are over three years old, and much prefer those gathered the previous season. The whole question of the germinating of seeds is a curious one. Wheat taken from the wrappings of an Egyptian mummy has grown. ”

“ Tropæolum majus nanum.—The Tom Thumb, or Dwarf varieties, make excellent bedding plants, blooming far on into the autumn after many of the regular bedders have faded and become shabby. There is an extensive choice of colours in reds, yellows, and browns, which come perfectly true from seed, and all possess the merit of flowering freely on very poor soil. They grow luxuriantly on rich land, but then the foliage becomes a mere mask under which the flowers are concealed. ”