(part 5 of 6)

HARVEST.

TIME.

In California, hemp is cut late in July or in August; in
Kentucky, Indiana, and Wisconsin it is cut in September. The hemp should
be cut when the staminate plants are in full flower and the pollen is
flying. If cut earlier, the fiber will be finer and softer but also weaker
and less in quantity. If permitted to become overripe, the fiber will be
coarse, harsh, and less pliable, and it will be impossible to ret the
stalks properly.

METHODS OF HARVESTING.

HARVESTING BY HAND.

In Kentucky, a small portion of the hemp crop is still cut by hand
with a reaping knife or hemp hook. (Pl. XLV, fig. 1.) This knife is
somewhat similar to a long-handled corn cutter. The man cutting the hemp
pulls an armful of stalks toward him with his left arm and cuts them off as
near the base as possible by drawing the knife close to the ground; he
then lays the stalks on the ground in a smooth, even row, with the butts
toward him, that is, toward the uncut hemp. An experienced hand will cut
with a reaping knife about three-fourths of an acre a day. The hemp stalks
are allowed to lie on the ground until dry, when they are raked up by hand
and set up in shocks until time to spread for retting.

HARVESTING WITH REAPERS.

Sweep-rake reapers are being used in increasing numbers for
harvesting hemp in Kentucky and in all other localities where hemp is
raised. (Pl. XLV, fig. 2.) While not entirely satisfactory, they are
being improved and strengthened so as to be better adapted for heavy work.
Three men, one to grind sections, one to drive, and one to attend to the
machine, and four strong horses or mules are required in cutting hemp with
a reaper. Under favorable conditions, from 5 to 7 acres per day can be cut
in this manner. This more rapid work makes it possible to harvest the crop
more nearly at the proper time. The stalks, after curing in the gavel, are
set up in shocks, usually without binding into bundles unless they are to
be stacked.

HARVESTING WITH MOWING MACHINES.

In some places hemp is cut with ordinary mowing machines. (Pl.
XLV, fig. 3.) A horizontal bar nearly parallel with the cutting bar, the
outer end projecting slightly forward, is attached to an upright fastened
to the tongue of the machine. This bar is about 4 feet above the cutting
bar and about 20 inches to the front. It bends the hemp stalks over in the
direction the machine is going. The stalks are more easily cut when thus
bent away from the knives and, furthermore, the bases snap back of the
cutting bar and never drop through between the guards to be cut a second
time, as they often do when cut standing erect. With a 5 1/2- foot mowing
machine thus equipped, one man and one team of two horses will cut 6 to 8
acres per day. The work is regarded as about equal to cutting a heavy crop
of clover. The hemp thus cut all falls in the direction the machine is
going, the tops overlapping the butts of the stalks. The ordinary track
clearer at the end of the bar clears a path, so that the stalks are not
materially injured either by the horses or the wheels of the machine at the
next round.

The hemp stalks are then left where they fall until retted, or in
places where the crop is heavy the stalks are turned once or twice to
secure uniform curing and retting. When sufficiently retted the stalks are
raked up with a 2-horse hayrake, going crosswise of the swaths, and then
drawn, like hay, to the machine brake. This is the most inexpensive method
for handling the crop. It is impossible to make clean, long, straight
fiber from stalks handled in this manner, and it is not recommended where
better methods are practicable. It is worthy of more extended use,
however, for handling short and irregular hemp, and hundreds of acres of
hemp now burned in Kentucky because it is too short to be treated in the
regular manner might be handled with profit by this method. There may be
nearly as much profit in 3 1/2-cent fiber produced at a cost of 2 cents per
pound as in 5-cent fiber produced at a cost of 3 cents, provided the land
rent is not too large an item of cost.

NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT IN HEMP HARVESTERS.

The most satisfactory hemp-harvesting machines now in use are the
self-rake reapers, made especially for this purpose. They are just about
as satisfactory for hemp now as the similar machines for wheat and oats
were 30 years ago. More efficient harvesting machinery is needed to bring
the handling of this crop up to present methods in harvesting corn or small
grain. A machine is needed which will cut the stalks close to the ground,
deliver them straight and not bruised or broken, with the butts even, and
bound in bundles about 8 inches in diameter. A modified form of the
upright corn binder, arranged to cut a swath about 4 feet wide, is
suggested. Modified forms of grain binders have been tried, but with
rather unsatisfactory results. Green hemp 8 to 14 feet high can not be
handled successfully by grain binders; furthermore, the reel breaks or
damages a large proportion of the hemp. The tough, fibrous stalks, some of
which may be an inch in diameter, are more difficult to cut than grain and
therefore require sharp knives with a high motion.
A hemp-reaping machine is also needed that will cut the hemp and
lay it down in an even swath, as grain is laid with a cradle. The butts
should all be in one direction, and the swath should be far enough from the
cut hemp so as not to be in the way at the next round. A machine of this
type may be used where it is desired to ret the hemp in the fall
immediately after cutting. It might be used for late crops in Kentucky, or
generally for hemp farther north, where there is little danger of
"sunburn" after the hemp is harvested.

STACKING.

Hemp stalks which are to be stacked are bound in bundles about 10 inches in
diameter, with small hemp plants for bands, before being placed in shocks.
(Pl. XLVI, fig. 2.) They are allowed to stand in the shock from 10 to 15
days, or a sufficient length of time to avoid danger of heating in the
stack. The bundles are hauled from the shocks to the stacks in rather
small loads of half a ton or less on a low rack or sled. Three men with a
team and low wagon to haul the stalks can put up two hemp stacks of about 8
tons each in a day.

A hemp stack must be built to shed water. It is started much like
a grain stack with a shock, around which the bundles are placed in tiers,
with the butts sloping downward and outward. The stack is kept higher in
the center and each succeeding outer tier projects slightly to a height of
5 or 6 feet, when another shock is built in the center, around which the
bundles are carefully placed to shed water and the peak capped with an
upright bundle. A well-built stack may be kept four or five years without
injury.
Hemp which has been stacked rets more quickly and more evenly, the
fiber is usually of better quality, and the yield of fiber is usually
greater than from hemp retted directly from the shock. Hemp is stacked
before retting, but not after retting in Kentucky. Stacking retted hemp
stalks for storage before breaking is not recommended in climates where
there is danger of gathering moisture. Retted stalks may be stored in
sheds where they will be kept dry.

CARE IN HANDLING.

Hemp stalks must be kept straight, unbroken, and with the butts
even. They must be handled with greater care than is commonly exercised in
handling grain crops. When a bunch of loose stalks is picked up at any
stage of the operation, it is chucked down on the butts to make them even.
The loose stalks, or bundles, are handled by hand and not with pitchforks.
The only tool used in handling the stalks is a hook or rake, in gathering
them up from the swath.

RETTING.

Retting is a process in which the gums surrounding the fibers and
binding them together are partly dissolved and removed. It permits the
fiber to be separated from the woody inner portion of the stalk and from
the thin outer bark, and it also removes soluble materials which would
cause rapid decomposition if left with the fiber. Two methods of retting
are practiced commercially, viz, dew retting and water retting.

DEW RETTING.

In this country dew retting is practiced almost exclusively. The
hemp is spread on the ground in thin, even rows, so that it will all be
uniformly exposed to the weather. In spreading hemp the workman takes an
armful of stalks and, walking backward, slides them sidewise from his knee,
so that the butts are all even in one direction and the layer is not more
than three stalks in thickness. (Pl. XLIV, fig. 3.) This work is usually
paid for at the rate of $1 per acre, and experienced hands will average
more than 1 acre per day. The hemp is left on the ground from four weeks
to four months. Warm, moist weather promotes the retting process, and cold
or dry weather retards it. Hemp rets rapidly if spread during early fall,
provided there are rains, but it is likely to be less uniform than if
retted during the colder months. It should not be spread early enough to
be exposed to the sun in hot, dry weather. Alternate freezing and thawing
or light snows melting on the hemp give most desirable results in retting.
Slender stalks one-fourth inch in diameter or less ret more slowly than
coarse stalks, and such stalks are usually not overretted if left on the
ground all winter. Hemp rets well in young wheat or rye, which hold the
moisture about the stalks. In Kentucky most of the hemp is spread during
December. A protracted January thaw with comparatively warm rainy weather
occasionally results in overretting. While this does not destroy the crop,
it weakens the fiber and causes much loss. When retted sufficiently, so
that the fiber can be easily separated from the hurds, or woody portion,
the stalks are raked up and set up in shocks, care being exercised to keep
them straight and with the butts even. They are not bound in bundles, but
a band is sometimes put around the shock near the top. The work of taking
up the stalks after retting is usually done by piecework at the rate of $1
per acre.

WATER RETTING.

Water retting is practiced in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany,
Japan, and China, and in some localities in Russia. It consists in
immersing the hemp stalks in water in streams, ponds, or artificial tanks.
In Italy, where the whitest and softest hemp fiber is produced, the stalks
are placed in tanks of soft water for a few days, then taken out and dried,
and returned to the tanks for a second retting. Usually the stalks remain
in the water first about eight days and the second time a little longer.
In either dew retting or water retting the process is complete when
the bark, including the fiber, readily separates from the stalks. The
solution of the gums is accomplished chiefly by certain bacteria. If the
retting process is allowed to go too far, other bacteria attack the fiber.
The development of these different bacteria depends to a large extent upon
the temperature. Processes have been devised for placing pure cultures of
specific bacteria in the retting tanks and then keeping the temperature and
air supply at the best for their development. (Rossi, Giacomo.
Macerazione della Canapa. Annall della Regia Scuola Superiore di
Agricultura di Portici, s.2, v. 7, p. 1-148, 1907.) These methods, which
seem to give promise of success, have not been adopted in commercial work.

CHEMICAL RETTING.

Many processes for retting or for combined retting and bleaching
with chemicals have been devised, but none of them have given sufficiently
good results to warrant their introduction on a commercial scale. In most
of the chemical retting processes it has been found difficult to secure a
soft, lustrous fiber, like that produced by dew or water retting, or
completely to remove the chemicals so that the fiber will not continue to
deteriorate owing to their injurious action.
One of the most serious difficulties in hemp cultivation at the
present time is the lack of a satisfactory method of retting that may be
relied upon to give uniform results without injury to the fiber. An
excellent crop of hemp stalks, capable of yielding more than $50 worth of
fiber per acre, may be practically ruined by unsuitable weather conditions
while retting. Water retting, although less dependent on weather
conditions than dew retting, has not thus far given profitable results in
this country. The nearest approach to commercial success with water
retting in recent years in America was attained in 1906 at Northfield,
Minn., where, after several years of experimental work, good fiber, similar
to Italian hemp in quality, was produced from hemp retted in water in large
cement tanks. The water was kept in circulation and at the desired
temperature by a modification of the Deswarte-Lopppens system.

STEAMING.

In Japan, where some of the best hemp fiber is produced, three
methods of retting are employed---dew retting, water retting, and steaming,
the last giving the best results. Bundles of hemp stalks are first
immersed in water one or two days to become thoroughly wet. They are then
secured vertically in a long conical box open at the bottom and top. The
box thus filled with wet stalks is raised by means of a derrick and swung
over a pile of heated stones on which water is dashed to produce steam.
Steaming about three hours is sufficient. The fiber is then stripped off
by hand and scraped, to remove the outer bark. The fiber thus prepared is
very strong, but less flexible than that prepared by dew retting or water
retting.

BREAKING.

Breaking is a process by means of which the inner, woody shell is
broken in pieces and removed, leaving the clean, long, straight fiber.
Strictly speaking, the breaking process merely breaks in pieces the woody
portions, while their removal is a second operation properly called
scutching . In Italy and in some other parts of Europe the stalks are
broken by one machine, or device, and afterwards scutched by another. In
this country the two are usually combined in one operation.

HAND BRAKES.

Hand brakes (Pl. XLVI, fig. 1.), with little change or
modification, have been in use for many generations, and even yet more than
three-fourths of the hemp fiber produced in Kentucky is broken out on the
hand brake. This simple device consists of three boards about 5 feet long
set edgewise, wider apart at one end than the other and with the upper
edges somewhat sharpened. Above this a framework, with two boards
sharpened on the lower edges, is hinged near the wide end of the lower
frame, so that when worked up and down by means of the handle along the
back these upper boards pass midway in the spaces between the lower ones.
A carpenter or wagon maker can easily make one of these hand brakes, and
they are sold in Kentucky for about $5.

The operator takes an armful of hemp under his left arm, places the
butts across the wide end of the brake near the hinged upper part, which is
raised with his right hand, and crunches the upper part down, breaking the
stalks. This operation is repeated several times, moving the stalks along
toward the narrow end so as to break the shorter pieces, and when the hemp
appears pretty well broken the operator takes the armful in both hands and
whips it across the brake to remove the loosened hurds. He then reverses
the bundle and breaks the tops and cleans the fiber in the same manner.
The usual charge for breaking hemp on the hand brake in this manner
is 1 cent to 1 1/2 cents per pound. There are records of 400 pounds being
broken by one man in a day, but the average day's work, counting six days
in a week, is rarely more than 75 pounds. In a good crop, therefore, it
would require 10 to 15 days for one man to break an acre of hemp. The work
requires skill; strength, and endurance, and for many years there has been
increasing difficulty in securing laborers for it. It is plainly evident
that the hemp industry can not increase in this country unless some method
is used for preparing the fiber requiring less hand labor than the hand
brake.

MACHINE BRAKES.

Several years ago a brake was built at Rantoul, Ill., for breaking
and cleaning the fiber rapidly, but producing tow or tangled fiber instead
of clean, straight, line fiber, such as is obtained by the hand brake.
This machine consisted essentially of a series of fluted rollers followed
by a series of beating wheels. Machines designed after this type, but
improved in many respects, have been in use several years at Havelock,
Nebr., and first at Gridley, then at Courtland and Rio Vista, Cal. These
machines have sufficient capacity and are operated at comparatively small
cost, the hurds furnishing more than sufficient fuel for the steam power
required, but the condition of the fiber produced is not satisfactory for
high class twines and it commands a lower price than clean, long, straight
fiber.
The Sanford-Mallory flax brake, consisting essentially of five
fluted rollers with an interrupted motion, producing a rubbing effect, has
been used to a limited extent for breaking hemp. This machine, as
ordinarily made for breaking flax, is too light and its capacity is
insufficient for the work of breaking hemp.

A portable machine brake (Pl. XLVI, fig. 4) has been used
successfully in Kentucky during the past two years. It has a series of
crushing and breaking rollers, beating and scutching devices, and a novel
application of suction to aid in separating hurds and tow. The stalks are
fed endwise. The long fiber, scutched and clean, leaves the machine at one
point, the tow, nearly clean, at another, and the hurds, entirely free from
fiber, at another. It has a capacity of about 1 ton of clean fiber per
day.
Another portable machine brake has been in use in California during
the past two years, chiefly breaking hemp that has been thoroughly air
dried but not retted. This hemp grown with irrigation, becomes dry enough
in that arid climate to break well, but this method is not practicable in
humid climates without artificial drying. The stalks, fed endwise, pass
first through a series of fluted or grooved rollers and then through a pair
of beating wheels, removing most of the hurds, and the fiber, passing
between three pairs of moving scutching aprons, each pair followed by
rollers, finally leaves the machine in a kind of continuous lap folded back
and forth in the baling box.

A larger machine (Pl. XLVI, fig. 3), having the greatest capacity
and turning out the cleanest and most uniform fiber of any of the brakes
thus far brought out, has been used to a limited extent during the past
eight years in Kentucky, California, Indiana, and Wisconsin. This machine
weighs about 7 tons, but it is mounted on wheels and is drawn about by a
traction farm engine, which also furnishes power for operating it. The
stalks are fed sidewise in a continuous layer 1 to 3 inches thick, and
carried along so that the ends, forced through slits, are broken and
scutched simultaneously by converging revolving cylinders about 12 and 16
feet long. One cylinder, extending beyond the end of the other, cleans the
middle portion of the stalks, the grasping mechanism carrying them forward
being shifted to the fiber cleaned by the shorter cylinder. The cylinders
break the stalks and scutch the fiber on the under side of the layer as it
is carried along, and the loosened hurds on the upper side are scutched by
two large beating wheels just as it leaves the machine. The fiber leaves
the machine sidewise, thoroughly cleaned and ready to be twisted into heads
and packed in bales. This machine with a full crew of 15 men, including
men to haul stalks from the field and others to tie up the fiber for
baling, has a capacity of 1,000 pounds of clean, straight fiber of good
hemp per hour. The tow is thrown out with the hurds, and until recent
improvements it has produced too large a percentage of tow. It does good
work with hemp retted somewhat less than is necessary for the hand brake,
and it turns out more uniform and cleaner fiber. For good work it
requires, as do all the machines and also the hand brakes, that the hemp
stalks be dry. If the atmosphere is dry at the time of breaking, the hemp
may be broken directly from the shocks in the field, but in regions with a
moist atmosphere, or with much rainy weather, it would be best to store the
stalks in sheds or under cover, and with a stationary plant it might be
economical to dry them artificially, using the hurds for fuel. Extreme
care must be exercised in artificial drying, however, to avoid injury to
the fiber.

IMPROVEMENT NEEDED IN HEMP-BREAKING MACHINES.

While hemp-breaking machines have now reached a degree of
perfection at which they are successfully replacing the hand brakes, as the
thrashing machines half a century ago began replacing the flail, there is
still room for improvement. This needed improvement may be expected as
soon as hemp is grown more extensively, so as to make a sufficient demand
for machinery to induce manufacturers to invest capital in this line. For
small and scattered crops a comparatively light, portable machine is
desirable, requiring not more than 10 horsepower and not more than four or
five laborers of average skill for its operation. It should prepare the
fiber clean and straight, ready to be tied in hanks for baling, and should
have a capacity of at least 1,000 pounds of clean fiber per day. For
localities where hemp is grown more abundantly, so as to furnish a large
supply of stalks within short hauling distance, a larger machine operated
in a stationary central plant by a crew of men trained to their respective
duties, like workers in a textile mill, will doubtless be found more
economical. Artificial retting and drying may also be used to good
advantage in a central plant.
The hemp growers of Europe have adopted machine brakes more readily
than the farmers in this country, and the hemp industry in Europe is most
flourishing and most profitable where the machines are used. Most of the
hemp in northern Italy is broken and scutched by portable machines.
Machines are also used in Hungary, and the machine-scutched hemp of Hungary
is regularly quoted at $10 to $15 per ton higher than that prepared by
hand. These European machines may not be adapted to American conditions,
but, together with American machines which are doing successful work, they
sufficiently contradict the frequent assertion of hemp growers and dealers
that "no machine can ever equal the hand brake."

SORTING.

On many hemp plantations the stalks are roughly sorted before
breaking, so that the longer or better fiber will be kept separate. The
work of sorting can usually be done best at this point, short stalks from
one portion of a field being kept separate from the longer stalks of
another portion and overretted stalks from stalks with stronger fiber.
Sometimes the men breaking the hemp sort the fiber as it is broken. An
expert handler of fiber will readily sort it into two or three grades by
feeling of it as it leaves the hand brake or the breaking machine. It is a
mistaken policy to suppose that the average price will be higher if poor
fiber is mixed with good. It may be safely assumed that the purchaser
fixing the price will pay for a mixed lot a rate more nearly the value of
the lowest in the mixture, and he can not justly do otherwise, for the
fiber must be sorted later if it is to be used to the best advantage in the
course of manufacture.

PACKING FIBER FOR LOCAL MARKET.

The long, straight fiber is put up in bundles, or heads, 4 to 6
inches in diameter and weighing 2 to 4 pounds. (Pl. XL, fig.4.) The
bundle of fiber is twisted and bent over, forming a head about one-third
below the top end. It is fastened in this form by a few strands of the
fiber itself, wound tightly around the neck and tucked in so that it may be
readily unfastened without cutting or becoming tangled. Three ropes, each
about 15 feet long, twisted by hand from the hemp tow, are stretched on the
ground about 15 inches apart. The hanks of fiber are piled crosswise on
these ropes with the heads of the successive tiers alternating with the
loose ends, which are tucked in so as not to become tangled. When the
bundle thus built up is about 30 inches in diameter, the ropes are drawn up
tightly by two men and tied. These bundles weigh about 200 pounds each.
Most of the hemp leaves the farm in this form. Hemp tow, produced from
broken or tangled stalks and fiber beaten out in cleaning the long straight
hemp, is packed into handmade bales in the same manner.

HACKLING.

In Kentucky, most of the hemp is sold by the farmers to the local
dealers or hemp merchants. The hemp dealers have large warehouses where
the fiber is stored, sorted, hackled, and baled. The work of hackling is
rarely done on the farms. The rough hemp is first sorted by an expert, who
determines which is best suited for the different grades to be produced. A
quantity of this rough fiber, usually 112 or 224 pounds, is weighed out to
a workman, who hackles it by hand, one head at a time. The head is first
unfastened and the fiber shaken out to its full length. It is then combed
out by drawing it across a coarse hackle, beginning near the top end and
working successively toward the center. When combed a little beyond the
center, the bundle of fiber is reversed and the butt end hackled in the
same manner. The coarse hackle first used consists of three or four rows
of upright steel pins about 7 inches long, one-fourth of an inch thick, and
1 inch apart. The long fiber combed out straight on this hackle is called
"single-dressed hemp." This may afterwards be treated in much the same
manner on a smaller hackle with finer and sharper needles set closer
together, splitting and subdividing the fibers as well as combing them out
more smoothly. The fiber thus prepared is called "double-dressed hemp,"
and it commands the highest price of any hemp fiber on the American market.

The work of hackling is paid for at a certain rate per pound for
the amount of dressed fiber produced. The workman therefore tries to
hackle and dress the fiber in such a manner as to produce the greatest
possible amount of dressed fiber and least amount of tow and waste. The
dressed fiber is carefully inspected before payment is made, and there are
few complaints from manufacturers that American dressed hemp is not up to
the standard.
A large proportion of the hemp purchased by the local dealers is
sold directly to the twine and cordage mills without hackling or other
handling except carefully sorting and packing into bales.

BALING.

The bales packed for shipment are usually about 4 by 3 by 2 feet.
The following table gives the approximate weights per bale:

Average weigh;t per bale of hemp for shipment to mills.

Tow.......................450 pounds
Rough.................. 500 pounds
Single dressed...800 pounds
Double dressed..900 pounds

When cleaned by machine brakes the fiber is often baled directly
without packing it in the preliminary handmade bales. In this way it has
sometimes escaped the process of careful sorting and has brought unjust
criticism on the machines. This cause for criticism may easily be avoided
by exercising a little more care in sorting the stalks, and, if necessary,
the cleaned fiber.

YIELD.

The yield of hemp fiber ranges from 400 to 2,500 pounds per acre.
The average yield under good conditions is about 1,000 pounds per acre, of
which about three-fourths are line fiber and one-fourth is tow. The yield
per acre at different stages of preparation may be stated as follows:

Stalks:
Green, freshly cut. ............15,000 pounds
Dry, as cured in shock.......10,000 pounds
Dry, after dew retting........... 6,000 pounds
Long fiber, rough hemp................. 750 pounds
Tow.................................................... 250
pounds

If the 750 pounds of long fiber is hackled it will yield about 340
pounds of single-dressed hemp, 180 pounds shorts, 140 pounds fine tow, and
90 pounds hurds and waste.
The average yields in the principal hemp-producing countries of
Europe, based on statements of annual average yields for 5 to 10 years, are
as follows:

Russia...................358 pounds
Hungary................504 pounds
Italy........................622 pounds
France...................662 pounds

The yield is generally higher in both Europe and the United States
in regions where machine brakes are used, but this is due, in part at
least, to the better crops, for machine brakes usually accompany better
farming.

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