at maturity until several
weeks afterwards. 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. It is then dried and broken, and
afterwards "scutched," and rendered still cleaner and finer by a process
called "hackling." It makes no difference in the fineness of the fibre
whether the stalks be small or large, since the great coarse stems of
the Italian and Indian hemp produce a staple equally as fine as the
small kinds grown farther north.

The Russians extract an oil from the seeds of hemp, which is used by
them in cooking, and by painters in mixing their colours.

Hemp-seed is also given to poultry--as it is popularly believed that it
occasions hens to lay a greater number of eggs. Small birds are
exceedingly fond of it; but a singular fact has been recorded in
relation to this--that the effect of feeding bullfinches and goldfinches
on hemp-seed alone, has been to change the red and yellow feathers of
these birds to a total blackness!

Notwithstanding the many valuable properties of this plant, it has some
that are not only deleterious, but dangerous. It contains a narcotic
principle of great power; and, strange to say, this principle is far
more fully developed in the Indian or Southern hemp than in that grown
in middle Europe. Of course this is accounted for by the difference of
temperature. Any one remaining for a length of time in the midst of a
field of young growing hemp, will feel certain ill effects from it--it
will occasion headache and vertigo. In a hot country the effect is
still more violent, and a kind of intoxication is produced by it.

From observing this, the Oriental nations have been led to prepare a
drug from hemp, which they make use of in the same way as opium, and
with almost similar results--for it produces a drowsy ecstatic feeling,
always followed by a reaction of wretchedness. This drug is known by
the Turks, Persians, and Hindoos, under a