(part 2 of 6)

INTRODUCTION INTO NORTH AMERICA.

Hemp was introduced into New England soon after the Puritan
settlements were established, and the fact that it grew "twice so high"
as it did in old England was cited as evidence of the superior fertility of
the soil of New England. (Morton, Thomas. New English Canaan, p. 64,
1632. In Force, Peter, Tracts and Other Papers, v. 2, 1838.) A few years
later a writer in Virginia records the statement that "They begin to plant
much Hemp and Flax which they find growes well and good." (Virginia,
printed for Richard Wodenoth, 1649. In Force, Peter, Tracts and Other
Papers, v. 2, 1838.) The cultivation of hemp in the New England colonies,
while continued for some time in Massachusetts and Connecticut, did not
attain as much importance as the cultivation of flax for supplying fiber
for household industry. In the South hemp received more attention,
especially from the Virginia Legislature, which passed many acts designed
to promote the industry, but all in vain. (Moore, Brent. A Study of the
Past, the Present, and the Possibilities of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky,
p. 14, 1905.)

The cultivation of hemp seems to have been a flourishing industry
in Lancaster County, Pa., before the Revolution. An elaborate account of
the methods then employed in growing hemp, written about 1775 by James
Wright, of Columbia, Pa., (New Era, Lancaster, Pa., June 25, 1905.) was
recently published as an historical document. The methods described for
preparing the land were equal to the best modern practice, but the hemp was
pulled by hand instead of cut. Various kinds of machine brakes had been
tried, but the had all "given Way to one simple Break of a particular
Construction, which was first invented & made Use of in this country." The
brief description indicates the common hand brake still in use in Kentucky.

EARLY CULTIVATION IN KENTUCKY.

The first crop of hemp in Kentucky was raised by Mr. Archibald
McNeil, near Danville, in 1775. (Moore, Brent. A Study of the Past, the
Present, and the Possibilities of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky, p. 16,
1905.) It was found that hemp grew well in the fertile soils of the
bluegrass country, and the industry was developed there to a greater extent
than it had been in the eastern colonies. While it was discontinued in
Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, it has continued in Kentucky to
the present time. In the early days of this industry in Kentucky, fiber
was produced for the homespun cloth woven by the wives and daughters of the
pioneer settlers, and an export trade by way of New Orleans was developed.
In 1802 there were two extensive ropewalks in Lexington, Ky., and there was
announced "a machine, moved by a horse or a current of water, capable,
according to what the inventor said, to break and clean eight thousand
weight of hemp per day." (Michaux, F. Andre. Travels to the west of the
Alleghanies, p. 152, 1805. In Thwaites, Early Western Travels, v. 3, p.
200, 1904.) Hemp was later extensively used for making cotton-bale
covering. Cotton bales were also bound with hemp rope until iron ties were
introduced, about 1865. There was a demand for the better grades of hemp
for sailcloth and for cordage for the Navy, and the industry was carried on
more extensively from 1840 to 1860 than it has been since.

EXTENSION OF THE INDUSTRY TO OTHER STATES.

Hemp was first grown in Missouri about 1835, and in 1840 1,600 tons
were produced in that State. Four years later the output had increased to
12,500 tons, and it was thought that Missouri would excel Kentucky in the
production of this fiber. With the unsatisfactory methods of cleaning the
fiber on hand brakes and the difficulties of transporting the fiber to the
eastern markets, hemp proved less profitable than other crops, and the
industry was finally abandoned about 1890.
Hemp was first grown at Champaign, Ill., about 1875. A cordage
mill was established there for making twines from the fiber, which was
prepared in the form of long tow by a large machine brake. The cordage
mill burned and the industry was discontinued in 1902 because there was no
satisfactory market for the kind of tow produced.

In Nebraska, hemp was first grown at Fremont in 1887 by men from
Champaign, Ill. A binder-twine plant was built, but owing to the low price
of sisal, more suitable for binder twine, most of the hemp was sold to
eastern mills to be used in commercial twines. After experimenting with
machine brakes the company brought hand brakes from Kentucky and colored
laborers to operate them. The laborers did not stay, and the work was
discontinued in 1900. Some of the men who had been connected with the
company at Fremont began growing hemp at Havelock, near Lincoln, in 1895.
A machine for making long tow, improved somewhat from the one at Champaign,
was built. Further improvements were made in the machine and also in the
methods of handling the crop, but the industry was discontinued in 1910,
owing to the lack of a satisfactory market for the kind of tow produced.

Hemp was first grown on a commercial scale in California at
Gridley, in Butte County, by Mr. John Heaney, who had grown it at Champaign
and who devised the machine used there for making long tow. Mr. Heaney
built a machine with some improvements at Gridley, and after three
disastrous inundations from the Feather River moved to Courtland, in the
lower Sacramento Valley, where the reclaimed lands are protected by dikes.
The work is now being continued at Rio Vista, in Solano County, under more
favorable conditions and with a machine still further improved. The hemp
fiber produced in California is very strong and is generally lighter in
color than that produced in Kentucky.
In 1912 hemp was first cultivated on a commercial scale under
irrigation at Lerdo, near Bakersfield, Cal., and a larger acreage was grown
there in 1913. The seed for both crops was obtained in Kentucky.

INTRODUCTION OF CHINESE HEMP INTO AMERICA.

In 1857 the first Chinese hemp seed was imported. It met with such
favor that some of this seed is said to have brought $10 per quart.
(Moore, Brent. The Hemp Industry in Kentucky, pp. 60-61, 1905.) Since
that time the common hemp of European origin has given place in this
country to the larger and better types from China.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.

The original home of the hemp plant was in Asia, and the evidence
points to central Asia, or the region between the Himalayas and Siberia.
Historical evidence must be accepted rather than the collection of wild
specimens, for hemp readily becomes naturalized, and it is now found
growing without cultivation in all parts of the world where it has been
introduced. Hemp is abundant as a wild plant in many localities in western
Missouri, Iowa, and in southern Minnesota, and it is often found as a
roadside weed throughout the Middle West. De Candolle (De Candolle,
Alphonse. Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 148, 1886.) writes of its
origin as follows:

The species has been found wild, beyond a doubt, south of the
Caspian Sea (De Bunge); in Siberia, near the Irtysch; and in the Desert of
Kirghiz, beyond Lake Baikal, in Dahuria (Government of Irkutsh). It is
found throughout central and southern Russia and south of the Caucasus, but
its wild nature here is less certain. I doubt whether it is indigenous in
Persia, for the Greeks and Hebrews would have known of it earlier.

Hemp is now cultivated for the production of fiber in China,
Manchuria, Japan, northern India, Turkey, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy,
France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Chile, and in the United States. It is
grown for the production of the drugs bhang, ganja, kif, marihuana,
hasheesh, etc., in the warm, arid, or semiarid climates of India, Persia,
Turkey, Algeria, central and southern Africa, and in Mexico, and for the
production of seed for oil in China and Manchuria.
In the United States hemp is now cultivated in the bluegrass region
of Kentucky within a radius of 50 miles of Lexington; in the region of
Waupun, Wis.; in northern Indiana; near Lima, Ohio; and at Lerdo and Rio
Vista, Cal. There are numerous small experimental plats in other places.

The principal countries producing hemp fiber for export are Russia,
Italy, Hungary, and Roumania. China and Japan produce hemp fiber of
excellent quality, but it is nearly all used for home consumption. Hemp is
not cultivated for fiber in the Tropics or in any of the warm countries.
The historical distribution of hemp, as nearly as may be traced
from the records, and the areas where hemp is now cultivated are indicated
in the accompanying map, figure 6.

VARIETIES

Hemp, cultivated for three different products--fiber from the bast,
oil from the seeds, and resinous drugs from the flowers and leaves--has
developed into three rather distinct types or groups of forms. The
extreme, or more typical, forms of each group have been described as
different species, but the presence of intergrading forms and the fact that
the types do not remain distinct when cultivated under new conditions make
it impossible to regard them as valid species.
There are few recognized varieties in either group. Less than 20
varieties of fiber-producing hemp are known, although hemp has been
cultivated for more than 40 centuries, or much longer than either cotton or
corn, both of which now have hundreds of named varieties.

CHINA.

The original home of the hemp plant was in China, and more
varieties are found there than elsewhere. It is cultivated for fiber in
nearly all parts of the Chinese Republic, except in the extreme south, and
over a wide range of differences in soil and climate with little
interchange of seed, thus favoring the development and perpetuation of
varietal differences.
The variety called "ta-ma" (great hemp) is cultivated chiefly in
the provinces of Chekiang, Kiangsu, and Fukien, south of the Yangtze. In
the rich lowland soils, often in rotation with rice, but not irrigated, and
with a warmer and longer growing season than in Kentucky, this hemp attains
a height of 10 to 15 feet. The seed is dark colored, usually well mottled,
small, weighing about 1.2 grams per hundred. The internodes of the main
stem are 6 to 10 inches long; the branches long and slender, usually
drooping at the ends; the leaves large; and the pistillate flowers in
small clusters. Seed brought from China to Kentucky in recent years is
mostly of this variety. When first introduced it is too long in maturing
to permit all of the seeds to ripen.
The most important fiber plant of western China is the variety of
hemp called "hoa-ma." It is grown in the province of Szechwan and as a
winter crop on the plains of Chengtu in that province. It is shorter and
more compact in its habit of growth and earlier in maturing than the ta-ma
of the lowlands.

A variety called "shan-ma-tse" is cultivated in the mountain
valleys in the provinces of Shansi and Chihli, in northern China. Its
fiber is regarded as the best in North China, and in some respects as
superior to that of ta-ma, though the yield is usually smaller. The plants
attain a height of 6 to 9 feet, with a very thin woody shell, short
ascending branches, rather small leaves, and larger seeds in larger
clusters than those of ta-ma. Imported seed of this variety, grown in a
trial plat in Kentucky, produced plants smaller in size and maturing
earlier than Kentucky hemp.
In the mountains both north and south of Ichang in central China a
variety called "t'ang-ma" (cold hemp) is cultivated primarily for the
production of seeds, from which oil is expressed. It is a very robust
form, with stalks 6 to 12 feet high and 2 to 4 inches in diameter. These
stalks are used for fuel, and occasionally a little fiber is stripped off
for domestic use.

In Manchuria two distinct kinds of hemp are cultivated. One,
called "hsien-ma," very similar to the shan-ma-tse of northern China, is
grown for fiber. It attains a height of 8 to 9 feet, and requires nearly
150 days from seeding to full maturity. The other, called "shem-ma," is
grown for oilseed production. It attains a height of 3 to 5 feet and is
ripe with fully matured seeds in less than 100 days. The branches usually
remain undeveloped, so that the clusters of seeds are borne in compact
heads at the tops of the simple stalks. (Pl. XLII, fig.1.) It is said
that in Manchuria these two forms remain distinct without crossing or
producing any intergrading forms.
The Chinese name "ma" (fig. 17), originally applied only to the
true hemp (Cannabis sativa ), is now used as a general term to designate
nearly all textile plants in China. (Bretschneider, E. Botanicum Sinicum,
p. 203, 1893.) This general use leads to nearly as much confusion among
English-speaking people in China as does the unfortunate use of the name
hemp as a synonym for fiber in this country. The staminate hemp plant is
called "si-ma," and the pistillate plant "tsu-ma." Flax, cultivated to
a limited extent in northern China, is called "siao-ma" (small hemp), but
this name is also applied to small plants of true hemp. Ramie, cultivated
in central and southern China, is "ch'u-ma" or "tsu-ma." China jute,
cultivated in central and northern China and in Manchuria and Chosen
(Korea), is called "tsing-ma," or "ching-ma," and its fiber, exported
from Tientsin, is called "pei-ma." India jute, cultivated in southern
China and Taiwan, is called "oi-ma." The name "chih-ma" is also applied
in China to sesame, which is not a fiber plant.

JAPAN.

Hemp, called "asa" in the Japanese language, is cultivated
chiefly in the provinces or districts of Hiroshima, Tochigi, Shimane,
Iwate, and Aidzu, and to a less extent in Hokushu (Hokkaido) in the north
and Kiushu in the south. It is cultivated chiefly in the mountain valleys,
or in the north on the interior plains, where it is too cool for cotton and
rice and where it is drier than on the coastal plain. That grown in
Hiroshima, in the south, is tall, with a rather coarse fiber; that in
Tochigi, the principal hemp-producing province, is shorter, 5 to 7 feet
high, with the best and finest fiber, and in Hokushu it is still shorter.
Seeds from Hiroshima, Shimane, Aidzu, Tochigi, and Iwate were tried
by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1901 and 1902. The
plants showed no marked varietal differences. They were all smaller than
the best Kentucky hemp. The seeds varied from light grayish brown, 5
millimeters (1/5 inch) long, to dark gray, 4 millimeters (1/6 inch)
long. The largest plants in every trial plat were from Hiroshima seeds,
and these seeds were larger and lighter colored than those of any other
variety except Shimane, the seeds of which were slightly larger and the
plants slightly smaller.

RUSSIA.

Hemp is cultivated throughout the greater part of Russia, and it is
one of the principal crops in the provinces of Orel, Kursk, Samara,
Smolensk, Tula, Voronezh, and Poland. Two distinct types, similar to the
tall fiber hemp and the short oil-seed hemp of Manchuria, are cultivated,
and there are doubtless many local varieties in isolated districts where
there is little interchange of seed. The crop is rather crudely
cultivated, with no attempt at seed selection or improvement, and the
plants are generally shorter and coarser than the hemp grown in Kentucky.
The short oil-seed hemp with slender stems, about 30 inches high, bearing
compact clusters of seeds and maturing in 60 to 90 days, is of little value
for fiber production, but the experimental plats, grown from seed imported
from Russia, indicate that it may be valuable as an oil-seed crop to be
harvested and thrashed in the same manner as oil-seed flax.

HUNGARY.

The hemp in Hungary has received more attention in recent years
than that in Russia, and this has resulted in a better type of plants. An
experimental plat grown at Washington from Hungarian seed attained a height
of 6 to 10 feet in the seed row. The internodes were rather short, the
branches numerous, curved upward, and bearing crowded seed clusters and
small leaves. About one-third of the plants had dark-purple or
copper-colored foliage and were more compact in habit than those with
normal green foliage.

ITALY.

The highest-priced hemp fiber in the markets of either America or
Europe is produced in Italy, (Bruck, Werner F. Studien uber den Hanfbau
in Italien, p. 7, 1911.) but it is obtained from plants similar to those in
Kentucky. The higher price of the fiber is due not to superior plants, but
to water retting and to increased care and labor in the preparation of the
fiber.
Four varieties are cultivated in Italy:

(1) "Bologna," or great hemp, called in France "chanvre de
Piedmont," is grown in northern Italy in the provinces of Bologna,
Ferrara, Roviga, and Modena. In the rich alluvial soils and under the
intensive cultivation there practiced this variety averages nearly 12 feet
in height, but is is said to deteriorate rapidly when cultivated elsewhere.
(2) "Cannapa picola," small hemp, attaining a height of 4 to 7
feet, with a rather slender reddish stalk, is cultivated in the valley of
the Arno in the department of Tuscany. (Dodge, Charles Richards. Culture
of hemp in Europe. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Fiber Investigations,
Report No. 11, p. 5, 1898.)
(3) "Neapolitan," large seeded.
(4) "Neapolitan," small seeded.

The two varieties of Neapolitan hemp are cultivated in the vicinity
of Naples, and even so far up on the sides of Vesuvius that fields of hemp
are occasionally destroyed by the eruptions of that volcano.
Seed of each of these Italian varieties has been grown in trial
plats at Washington, D.C., and Lexington, Ky. The Bologna, or Piedmont,
hemp in seed rows attained a height of 8 to 11 feet, nearly as tall as
Kentucky seed hemp grown for comparison, but with thicker stalks, shorter
and more rigid branches, and smaller and more densely clustered leaves.
The small hemp, cannapa picola, was only 4 to 6 feet high. The
large-seeded Neapolitan was 7 to 10 feet high, smaller than the Bologna,
but otherwise more like Kentucky hemp, with more slender stalks and more
open foliage. The small seeded Neapolitan, with seeds weighing less than 1
gram per 100, rarely exceeded 4 feet in height in the series of plats where
all were tried.

FRANCE.

Hemp is cultivated in France chiefly in the departments of Sarthe
and Ille-et-Vilaine, in the valley of the Loire River. Two varieties are
grown, the Piedmont, from Italian seed, and the common hemp of Europe. The
former grows large and coarse, though not as tall as in the Bologna region,
and it produces a rather coarse fiber suitable for coarse twines. The
latter, seed of which is sown at the rate of 1 1/2 to 2 bushels per acre,
has a very slender stalk, rarely more than 4 or 5 feet high, producing a
fine flaxlike fiber that is largely used in woven hemp linens.
The common hemp of Europe, which includes the short hemp of France,
is also cultivated to a limited extent in Spain, Belgium, and Germany. It
grows taller and coarser when sown less thickly on rich land, but it never
attains the size of the Bologna type.

CHILE.

Chilean hemp, originally from seed of the common hemp of Europe,
has developed in three and a half centuries into coarser plants with larger
seeds. When sown broadcast for fiber in Chile the plants attain a height
of 6 to 8 feet, and when in checks or drills for seed they reach 10 to 12
feet.
Hemp from Chilean seed (S.P. I. No. 24307), grown at the
experiment stations at Lexington, Ky., and St. Paul, Minn., in 1909, was 4
to 9 feet high in the broadcast plats and about the same height in the seed
drills. It matured earlier than hemp of Chinese origin. Its leaves were
small and crowded, with the seed clusters near the ends of slender,
spreading branches. The fiber was coarse and harsh. The seeds were very
large, 5 to 6 millimeters long, and weighed about 2 grams per 100.

TURKEY.

A variety of hemp, intermediate between the fiber-producing and the
typical drug-producing types, is cultivated in Asiatic Turkey, especially
in the region of Damascus, and to a limited extent in European Turkey.
This variety, called Smyrna, is about the poorest variety from which fiber
is obtained. It is cultivated chiefly for the narcotic drug, but fiber is
also obtained from the stalks. It grows 3 to 6 feet high, with short
internodes, numerous ascending branches, densely crowded foliage of small
leaves, and abundant seeds maturing early. It seems well suited for the
production of birdseed, but its poor type, combined with prolific seed
production, makes it a dangerous plant to grow in connection with fiber
crops.

INDIA.

Hemp is cultivated in India over an area of 2,000 to 5,000 acres
annually for the production of the narcotic drugs known as hashish,
charras, bhang, and ganja. Some fiber is obtained, especially from the
staminate plants, in the northern part of Kashmir, where the hemp grown for
the production of charras is more like the fiber types than that grown for
bhang farther south.
Plants grown by the Department of Agriculture at Washington from
seed received from the Botanical Garden at Sibpur, Calcutta, India, agreed
almost perfectly with the description of Cannabis indica (Lamarck.
Encyclopedie, v. 1, p. 695, 1788.) written by Lamarck more than a century
ago. (Pl. XLII, fig. 2.) They were distinctly different in general
appearance from any of the numerous forms grown by this department from
seed obtained in nearly all countries where hemp is cultivated, but the
differences in botanical characters were less marked. The Indian hemp
differed from Kentucky hemp in its more densely branching habit, its very
dense foliage, the leaves mostly alternate, 7 to 11 (usually 9) very
narrow leaflets, and in its nearly solid stalk. It was imperfectly
dioecious, a character not observed in any other variety. Its foliage
remained green until after the last leaves of even the pistillate plants of
Kentucky hemp had withered and fallen. It was very attractive as an
ornamental plant but of no value for fiber.

ARABIA AND AFRICA.

Hemp is somewhat similar to that of India, but generally shorter,
is cultivated in Arabia, northern Africa, and also by some of the natives
in central and southern Africa for the production of the drug, but not for
fiber. In Arabia it is called "takrousi," in Morocco "kief" or "kif,"
and in South Africa "dakkan." None of these plants is suitable for fiber
production.

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