(part 6 of 6)

COST OF HEMP-FIBER PRODUCTION.

The operations for raising a crop of hemp are essentially the same
as those for raising a crop of wheat or oats up to the time of harvest, and
the implements or tools required are merely a plow, disk, drill or seeder,
a harrow, and a roller, such as may be found on any well-equipped farm.
Estimates of the cost of these operations may therefore be based upon the
cost of similar work for other crops with which all farmers are familiar.
But the operations of harvesting, retting, breaking, and baling are very
different from those for other farm crops in this country. The actual cost
will, of course, vary with the varying conditions on different farms.
Hemp can not be economically grown in areas of less than 50 acres
in any one locality so as to warrant the use of machinery for harvesting
and breaking. The following general estimate is therefore given for what
may be considered the smallest practical area:

Estimated cost and returns for 50 acres of hemp.

Cost:
Plowing (in fall) 50 acres, $2 per acre...$100
Disking (in spring), 50 cents per acre.....$25
Harrowing, 30 cents per acre......$15
Seed, 40 bushels, delivered, $4.50 per bushel.....$180
Seeding, 40 cents per acre.....$20
Rolling, 30 cents per acre.......$15
Self-rake reaper for harvesting.....$75
Cutting with reaper, $1 per acre.....$50
Picking up from gavels and shocking, $1 per acre.....$50
Spreading for retting, $1.50 per acre.....$75
Picking up from retting swath and setting in shocks, $1.40 per
acre...$70
Breaking 50,000 pounds fiber, including use of machine brake, 1 1/2
cents per pound.....$750
Baling 125 bales (400 pounds each), including use of baling press,
$1.40 per
bale.....$175
Marketing and miscellaneous expenses.....$150

Total cost..... $1,750


Returns:
Long fiber, 37,500 pounds, 6 cents per pound.....$2,250
Tow, 12,500 pounds, 4 cents per pound.................$ 500

Total returns.........$2,750

It is not expected that a net profit of $20 per acre, as indicated
in the foregoing estimate, may be realized in all cases, but the figures
given are regarded as conservative where all conditions are favorable.

MARKET.

All of the hemp produced in this country is used in American
spinning mills, and it is not sufficient to supply one-half of the demand.
The importations have been increasing slightly during the past 20 years,
while there has been a decided increase in values. The average declared
value of imported hemp, including all grades, for the 4,817 tons imported
in 1893, was $142.31 per ton, while in the fiscal year 1913 the
importations amounted to 7,663 tons with an average declared value of
$193.67 per ton. There have been some fluctuations in quotations, but the
general tendency of prices of both imported and American hemp has been
upward. (Fig. 19.) The quotations for Kentucky rough prime, since
October, 1912, have been the highest recorded for this standard grade.
Furthermore, the increasing demand for this fiber, together with the
scarcity of competing fibers in the world's markets, indicates a
continuation of prices at high levels.

EFFECT OF TARIFF.

So far as can be determined from records of importations and prices
since 1880, the earliest available statistics, the changes in the rate of
import duty on hemp have had no appreciable effect on the quantity
imported, on the declared import value ((Declared value of port of
shipment.) of the fiber, or on the quantity produced or the price of
American hemp in this country. (Fig. 20.) The tariff acts of 1870, 1883,
and 1890, in force until 1894, imposed a duty of $25 per ton on line hemp.
From 1894 to 1899 hemp was on the free list, and from 1899 to 1913 it was
dutiable at $22.50 per ton.
The importations reached a high level in 1899, when hemp was
extensively used for binder twine. From that year onward henequen from
Yucatan and abaca from the Philippines replaced hemp in binder twine, while
jute from India replaced it completely for cotton-bale covering. The
increasing demand for hemp for commercial twines has resulted in higher
prices for both imported and American hemps, but this demand has been met
in this country neither by importation nor by production. There are no
accurate statistics of acreage or production in the United States, but
there has been a general decline from about 7,000 tons in 1880 to about
5,000 in 1913. The average annual production during the period of free
importations, 1894 to 1899, was about 5,000 tons, but slightly less than
that of the previous 10 years and about the same as the average of the
period of dutiable hemp since then.
The present tariff, 1913, with hemp on the free list, has not been
in force long enough to indicate any appreciable effect.

LOCATION OF AMERICAN MILLS.

Some hemp from the larger farms is sold directly to the spinning
mills, but most of that produced in this country passes through the hands
of local dealers in Kentucky. The hemp imported is purchased either
directly from foreign dealers by the mills or through fiber brokers in New
York and Boston.
(Insert fig. 21 here)

There is one twine mill at Frankfort, Ky., on the western edge of
the hemp-producing region, and one at Covington, Ky., opposite Cincinnati,
but aside from the comparatively small quantities used by these mills and a
little used in the mill at Oakland, Cal., practically all the hemp fiber is
shipped away from the States where it is produced. There are 28 mills in
this country using American hemp, most of them in the vicinity of Boston or
New York, as indicated on the accompanying map (Some of the mills are so
close together around New York and Boston that it is impossible to indicate
each one by a separate star.) (fig. 21). In most of these mills other
soft fibers, such as jute, China jute, and flax, are also used, and many of
them are also engaged in the manufacture of twines and cordage from the
hard fibers---sisal, henequen, abaca (manila), phormium, and Mauritius.

USES.

Hemp is used in the manufacture of tying twine, carpet warp, seine
twine, sails, standing rigging, and heaving lines for ships, and for
packing. It has been used to some extent for binder twine, but at the
relative prices usually prevailing it can not well compete with sisal and
abaca for this purpose. Binder twine made of American hemp and India jute
mixed has been placed upon the market. This twine is said to give
excellent results because it is more smooth and uniform than twine made of
hard fiber. The hemp fiber is tougher and more pliable than hard fibers,
and the twine is therefore more difficult to cut in the knotter. Hemp is
also used to a limited extent for bagging and cotton baling. Only the tow
and cheaper grades of the fiber can compete with other fibers for these
purposes. The softer grades of hemp tow are extensively used for oakum and
packing in pumps, engines, and similar machinery. It endures heat,
moisture, and friction with less injury than other fibers, except flax,
used for these purposes. Hemp is especially adapted by its strength and
durability for the manufacture of carpet warp, hall rugs, aisle runners,
tarpaulins, sails, upholstery webbing, belt webbing, and for all purposes
in textile articles where strength, durability, and flexibility are
desired. Hemp will make fabrics stronger and more durable than cotton or
woolen fabrics of the same weight, but owing to its coarser texture it is
not well suited for clothing and for many articles commonly made of cotton
and wool.

COMPETING FIBERS.

The principal fibers now competing with American-grown hemp are
Russian and Hungarian hemp, cotton, and jute. Italian hemp, being water
retted, is not only higher in price but it is different in character from
the American dew-retted hemp, and it is used for certain kinds of twines
and the finer grades of carpet warp for which American hemp is not well
suited. Twine made of Italian hemp may, of course, be used sometimes where
American hem;p twine might serve just as well, but owing to its higher
price it is not likely to be used as a substitute, and it can not compete
to the disadvantage of American hemp.
Russian and Hungarian hemp, chiefly dew retted, is of the same
character as American hemp and is used for the same purposes. Russian hemp
is delivered at the mills in this country at prices but little above those
of rough hemp from Kentucky. Most of the Russian and Hungarian hemp
imported is of the better grades, the poorer grades being retained in
Europe, where many articles are made of low-grade hemp that would be made
of low-grade cotton in this country.
In some years, owing to unsuitable weather conditions for retting
Kentucky hemp or to greater care in handling Russian hemp and to care in
grading the hemp for export from Russia, much of the Russian hemp of the
better grades has been stronger and more satisfactory to twine
manufacturers than American hemp placed on the market at approximately the
same price. It is used for mixing with overretted and weak American hemp
to give the requisite strength to twine.

Cotton is now used more extensively than all other vegetable fibers
combined. The world's supply of cotton is estimated in round numbers at
5,500,000 tons, valued at nearly $1,000,000,000. The total supply of all
other fibers of commerce---hemp, flax, jute, China jute, ramie, sisal,
abaca, phormium, Mauritius fiber, cabuya, mescal fiber, and Philippine
maguey---amounts annually to about 3,300,000 tons, valued at about
$350,000,000. Cotton, therefore, so greatly overshadows all other textile
fibers that it may scarcely be regarded as competing directly with any one
of them. Cotton is prepared and spun on different kinds of machines from
those used for preparing and spinning long fibers. Cotton is not mixed
with hemp and is rarely spun in the same mills where hemp is used. Cotton
twines do, however, compete with hemp tying twines, and cotton is largely
used for carpet warp, where hemp, with its superior strength and
durability, would give better service. Less than a century ago hemp and
flax were used more extensively than cotton, but the introduction of the
cotton gin, followed by the rapid development of machinery all along the
line for preparing and spinning cotton fiber, while there has been no
corresponding development of machinery for preparing and spinning hemp or
other long fibers, has given cotton the supremacy among vegetable fibers.
There is little probability that hemp will regain the supremacy over
cotton, even with improved machinery for handling the crop and spinning the
fiber, because cotton is better adapted to a wide range of textile
products. Hemp should, however, regain many of the lines where it will
give better service than cotton.

Jute is the most dangerous competitor of hemp. Jute is produced in
India from the bast or inner bark of two closely related species of plants,
jute (Corchorus capsularis ) and nalta jute (Corchorus olitorius ).
These plants are somewhat similar in appearance to hemp, though not at all
related to it. They are grown on the alluvial soils in the province of
Bengal, India, and to a much less extent in other parts of India, southern
China, and Taiwan (Formosa). More than 3,000,000 acres are devoted to
this crop, and the annual production is approximately 2,000,000 tons of
fiber, valued at $150,000,000. The plants are pulled by hand, water retted
in slow streams or stagnant pools, and the fiber cleaned by hand without
the aid of even crude appliances as effective as the hand brake for hemp.
Jute fiber thus prepared, cleaner, softer, and more easily spun than
Kentucky rough-prime hemp, is delivered in New York at an average price of
about 4 cents per pound for the better grades. Jute butts, consisting of
the coarser fiber cut off at the base, 5 to 10 inches long, are sold in
this country at 1 to 2 cents per pound. Most of the long jute fiber
comprising the "light jute" grades are of a light straw color, while the
"dark jutes," also called "desi jute," are of a dark, brownish gray.
The fresh fiber of both kinds when well prepared is lustrous, but with age
it changes to a dingy, brownish yellow.

Fresh jute fiber is about two-thirds as strong as hemp fiber of the
same weight, but jute lacks durability and rapidly loses its strength even
in dry air, while if exposed to moisture it quickly goes to pieces. It is
not suitable for any purpose where strength or durability is required.
Jute is used most extensively for burlaps, gunny bags, sugar sacks,
grain sacks, wool sacking, and covering for cotton bales. Hemp has been
used for all of these purposes, but the cheaper jute fiber now practically
holds the entire field in the manufacture of coverings for agricultural
products in transit. This is a legitimate field for jute, where it
constitutes a "gift package," generally to be used but once, but even in
this field hemp may regain some of its uses when it is found that jute does
not give sufficient strength or durability.

Jute is often used as an adulterant or as a substitute for hemp in
the manufacture of twines, webbing, carpet warp, and carpets. The careless
use of the name hemp to indicate jute aids in facilitating this
substitution. Twine made of pure jute fiber is sold as "hemp twine" in
the retail stores in Lexington, Ky., in the heart of the hemp-growing
region. Many of the so-called hemp carpets and hemp rugs are made only of
jute, and they wear out quickly, whereas a carpet made of hemp should be as
durable as one made of wool. Jute is substituted for hemp very largely in
the manufacture of warp for carpets and rugs, a purpose for which its lack
of strength and durability makes it poorly fitted. It is to the interest
of the purchaser of manufactured articles as well as to the producer of
hemp and the manufacturer of pure hemp goods that the line between hemp and
jute be sharply drawn. Unfortunately, the difference in the appearance of
the fibers by which they may be distinguished is not as strongly marked as
the differences between their strength and wearing qualities.

TESTS FOR DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN JUTE AND HEMP.

There are no satisfactory tests for these fibers without the aid
of a microscope and chemical reagents. A ready, but uncertain, test
consists in untwisting the end of twine or yarn. Jute fiber thus unwound
is more fuzzy and more brittle than hemp. The two fibers may be
distinguished with certainty with a microscope and chemical reagents, as
indicated by the differences in the table which follows:

Reactions of hemp and jute.

(Insert table from page 344 here)

At the present high prices of jute (fig.4), resulting from
increasing demands in foreign markets and a partial failure of the crop in
India, jute could not compete successfully with hemp were it not that
manufacturers are using it in established lines of goods, and, further,
that they are uncertain about securing supplies of hemp.

SUMMARY.

Hemp is one of the oldest fiber-producing crops and was formerly
the most important.
The cultivation of hemp is declining in the United States because
of the (1) increasing difficulty in securing sufficient labor for handling
the crop with present methods, (2) lack of labor-saving machinery as
compared with machinery for handling other crops, (3) increasing profits in
other crops, (4) competition of other fibers, especially jute, and (5) lack
of knowledge of the crop outside of a limited area in Kentucky.
Hemp was cultivated for fiber in very early times in China.
The history of the distribution of hemp from Asia to other
continents indicates its relationships and the development of the best
fiber-producing types.

Hemp is cultivated in warm countries for the production of a
narcotic drug, but for fiber only in moderately cool and humid temperate
regions.
Very few well-marked varieties of hemp of fiber-producing types
have been developed.
The climate and soils over large areas in the valley of the
Mississippi and its tributaries and in the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Valleys in California are suited for hemp.
Hemp improves the physical condition of the soil, destroys weeds,
and when retted on the ground, as is the common practice, does not exhaust
fertility.
Hemp is recommended for cultivation in regular crop rotations to
take the place of a spring-sown grain crop.
Fertilizers are not generally used in growing hemp, but barnyard
manure applied to previous crops is recommended.
Hemp is rarely injured by insects or fungous diseases.
Broom rape, a root parasite, is the most serious pest in hemp.

Practically all of the hemp seed used in the United States is
produced in Kentucky.
The best seed is obtained from plants cultivated especially for
seed production, but some seed is obtained from broadcast overripe fiber
crops.
The land should be well plowed and harrowed, so as to be level and
uniform.
The seed should be sown early in spring by any method that will
distribute and cover it uniformly.
Some hemp is still cut by hand in Kentucky, but the use of
machinery for harvesting the crop is increasing.
Dew retting is regarded as the most practical method in this
country.
Hand brakes for preparing the fiber are still used, but they are
being replaced by machines.
The price of hemp has been generally increasing during the past 30
years.
About 30 different spinning mills in the United States, beside
dealers in oakum supplies, offer a market for raw hemp fiber.
The market would expand if manufacturers could be assured of larger
supplies.
India jute, often retailed under the name hemp, is the most
dangerous competitor of hemp.

END


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