Hemp at this date was still grown in Lincolnshire and Somerset, and Marshall tells us that in 1803 there was a considerable quantity of hemp grown in Shropshire.[560] In that county there was a small plot of ground, called ‘the hemp-yard,’ appendant to almost every farm-house and to many of the best sort of cottages.  Whenever a cottager had 10 or 15 perches of land to his cottage, worth from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. a year, with the aid of his wife’s industry it enabled him to pay his rent.  A peck of hempseed, costing 2s., sowed about 10 perches of land, and this produced from 24 to 36 lb. of tow when dressed and fit for spinning.  A dozen pounds of tow made 10 ells of cloth, worth generally about 3s. an ell.  Thus a good crop on 10 perches of land brought in L4 10s. 0d., half of which was nett profit.  The hemp was pulled a little before harvest, and immediately spread on grass land, where it lay for a month or six weeks.  The more rain there was the sooner it was ready to take off the grass.  When the rind peeled easily from the woody part, it was, on a dry day, taken into the house, and when harvest was over well dried in fine weather and dressed, being then fit for the tow dresser, who prepared it for spinning.  After the crop of hemp the land was sown with turnips, a valuable resource for the winter.

Since 1815 little hemp or flax has been grown in England[561]; in 1907 there were, according to the Agricultural Returns, 355 acres of flax grown in England, and hemp was not mentioned.

FOOTNOTES: 

[504] R.A.S.E.  Journal, 1896, p. 1, and 1898, p. 1.

[505] Autobiography, p. 242.

[506] Eden, State of the Poor, i. 18.

[507] ’Had his industry been under the direction of a better judgement, he would have been an admirable president.’—­Young, Autobiography, p. 316.

[508] The Report of the Committee on Waste Lands, 1795, estimated wastes and commons at 7,800,000 acres, p. 221.

[509] The Merino was largely imported into England by the efforts of George III, and a Merino Society was formed in 1811; but many circumstances made it of such little profit to cultivate it in preference to native breeds, that it was diverted to Australia.—­Burnley, History of Wool, p. 17.

[510] The first, the Bath and West of England, was established in 1777.

[511] R.A.S.E.  Journal, 1899, p. 7.

[512] Higher prices had been realized for the improved Longhorns; in 1791, at the sale of Mr. Fowler of Little Rollright, Sultan a two-year-old bull fetched 210 guineas, and a cow 260 guineas; and at Mr. Paget’s sale in 1793, a bull of the same breed sold for 400 guineas.—­Culley on Live Stock, p. 59.

[513] R.A.S.E.  Journal, 1899, p. 28.

[514] Culley on Live Stock (1807), pp. 46-7.

[515] Culley on Live Stock, p. vi.