` TRADITIONAL MARKETS

In 1944 USDA agronomist B.B. Robinson noted that "hemp yields on an
average twice as much textile fiber per acre as fiber flax and three times
as much fiber per acre as cotton. It is one of the heaviest
fiber--yielding crops adapted to production in the United States." (1)
Fred Brenckman, Washington DC representative of the National Grange
declared that hemp had proven its place as an agricultural crop: "We
believe that the time is opportune for agriculture and the spinning
industry to combine their knowledge and experience in establishing a hemp
industry in the United States." (2) A member of the U.S. Senate Committee
on Agriculture and Forestry, Guy M. Gillette of Iowa, concurred: "There
are interests that do not want their markets usurped by the type of [hemp]
industry that we have been trying to develop here, and this committee has
already given consideration to the presentation of legislation looking to
the preservation and continuance of these industries that give promise to
furnish an outlet for our surplus farm acreage and employment to our people
in the post-war period." (3) The National Farmers Union declared that
farmers wanted "to determine the type of cooperative effort that could be
organized to keep these mills in production and provide an outlet for a
very satisfactory crop." The Union called for "the widest use of hemp
within the American market." (4)

Clearly, at one time mainstream leaders in agriculture and government
viewed hemp as a legitimate crop. They were well aware of markets that
demanded hemp.

FIBER

Baggage lining. (5)

Canvas. (6)

Carpet.. Fiber is used for rug warp, yarn, and thread. (7)

Clothing. Hemp is made into work clothes, leisure clothes, sport shirts,
summer and tropical clothing, stiffening for collars, hat braid. (8)

Durability, moisture absorbency, and "breathability" give hemp cloth
advantages over some competing fibers. A U.S. Department of Agriculture
specialist states, "Hemp fiber is superior in that it absorbs about 250
percent of the power of absorption of cotton. In other words, a pound of
hemp will absorb about 2 1/2 pounds of water, where a pound of cotton will
absorb only 1." (9) "Homespun" rough cloth can produce low grade clothing,
or linen quality textiles can produce fine clothing. Hemp can be processed
by flax spinning mills, (10) and it can be "cottonized" so cotton spinners
can process the fiber without special adjustment for hemp. (11) In the
1920's the cottonizing process produced hemp fiber ready for spinning at
half the price of preparing lower grade cotton itself for spinning. (12)
"Hackling" allows hemp fiber to be spun on flax spinners. (13) In the
1940's, however, using cotton equipment for hemp had a commercial advantage
over flax equipment because cotton equipment had a higher output. (14) In
the 1940's research was proposed for further adaptions of hemp fibers to
cotton spinners. (15). Thus additional capabilities may exist today.
Blending hemp with other fibers, such as cotton or wool, expands the
possibilities.

Imported hemp/cotton blend shirts are currently price competitive with
denim shirts. Domestic fiber might make hemp clothing more
price-attractive yet. Around 1960 hemp clothing was common in South Korea,
worn by about one-third of the population (16) (a market that surely could
not afford high clothing prices).

Construction materials. Fiber can made into home insulation. (17)

Cordage. Fiber has long been used for small lines and wrapping cords. It
was once used for fishline (18) but is probably obsolete in that
application.

Drapery. (19)

Electrical. Fiber was once used to insulate electrical wires, (20) but
is probably superseded by other materials today. Fiber is still effective
for maintenance of insulators. (21)

Fire hose. (22)

Fuel. Waste fiber can be burned to power rope and twine factories with
high efficiency. (23)

Interior decorating fabric. (24)

Linen. Products include tablecloths and bed sheets. (25)

Linoleum. Fiber was once used for linoleum backing (26) but linoleum
itself is becoming obsolete, replaced by vinyl flooring.

Napery. Fiber can be made into napkins and doilies. (27)

Netting. Fiber can be used for fishnets and other nets and webbing (as in
parachutes). (28)

Oakum. Oakum is made from "tow," short lengths of fiber. It was once used
for caulking ships and for packing in assorted machinery, but is probably
superseded by other materials today.

Paper. The bulk of French fiber is used for paper rather than cloth. (29)
Kimberly--Clark (the Kleenex company) currently uses French hemp to make
paper for cigarettes and Bibles. (30) In 1976--95% of the French crop was
used for cigarette paper, the remainder for Bibles, electric condensers,
and apparently tea bags. (31) American hemp has been used for those
first three purposes, plus carbon paper and (according to one authority)
U.S. paper currency. (32) Because hemp fiber imports are three times more
expensive than domestic wood pulp, (33) the U.S. paper and publishing
industries have been reluctant to use hemp on a large scale. Years ago a
hemp industry spokesman described hemp imports as "just a ridiculous
situation, because it [paper] can be made out of our local products in this
country." (34) A domestic hemp supply could be far more competitive than
imports are, particularly if federal forestry policies increase the price
of logging in national forests. In the early 1980's Canadian Hemp
Industries Corporation planned to devote at least 1,000 acres to fiber
production for cigarette paper and fine grade paper. (35) At that time
Canadian cigarette manufacturers depended on European sources for paper.
When hemp fiber is grown for paper the quality can be lower than when
fiber is grown for textiles; thus the paper market could be open to
Missouri farmers as they learn skills needed to produce superior textile
fiber. In 1937 a hemp industry representative told Congress, "I can
readily visualize without much difficulty 25,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 acres
of hemp...being used in the paper industry and in the plastic industry."
(36) (For plastics, see below in "Fiber By-Products" section.)

Book and journal publishing industries face a growing demand for low
acid paper, and hemp combines low acid with good tensile strength. In the
1980's work was underway to incorporate hemp into lower grade papers as
well. Hemp was once used for newspapers. (37)

The paper industry should be an important market. (As noted in the
"By-Products" section immediately below, in addition to hemp fiber, hemp
hurds are another source of paper.)

Plumbing. Fiber was once used to caulk water mains, spigots, soil pipes,
sewer pipes, gas pipes. (38) It is probably superseded by other materials
today.

Rope. Hemp is used for assorted all-fiber ropes, both as pure hemp and
blended with other fibers. Hemp is also used as core for metal rope. (39)
In wet environments hemp rope is superior to many other kinds, in strength
and durability.

Sacking. Products include burlap, sugar sacks, reinforced paper. (40)

Tarpaulins. (41)

Thread. Chief use for higher grades of U. S. crop in World War I was
thread for shoes and harnesses, (42) and those applications continued
afterwards. (43) Hemp thread is used in leather goods (44) and wherever
heavy duty thread is required. In 1945 a specialist from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture stated that hemp fiber "can be spun into thread
of approximately 30 lay, and it can be done economically, and it will serve
every purpose that linen serves." (45)

Toweling. High moisture absorbency makes hemp ideal for towels. (46)

Twine. Hemp binder twine is used in harvesting grain. (47) Household
twine is another product. Hemp is also used with wallpaper, mattresses,
upholstery, sacking, brooms, shipping tags, ham strings, bell cord, gas
meter cord, hat blocking cord. (48) Hemp's strength allows twine to be of
lighter weight than when made from competing fibers. (49)

Upholstery. (50)

Wrapping. Hemp cloth was once used to wrap cotton bales, still useful in
gunny sack applications.

Yarn. Hemp yarn has naval and carpet uses, also belts and webbing. (51)
In 1945 a spinning mill spokesperson declared, "We use no fiber for our
fine yarns at the present time except American hemp.....It is an excellent
fiber." (52)

FIBER BY-PRODUCTS

Hurds are a wood by-product of fiber production; a fiber crop will
produce hurds in addition to fiber. Although standard fiber cultivation
techniques produce stalks having the diameter of a pencil, 2-inch diameter
stalks are possible if a farmer wants to sacrifice fiber in order to get a
maximum amount of hurds. (53) They have assorted uses.

Construction materials. Hurds can be transformed into wood sheeting
resembling Masonite. Hurd sheeting has good insulating properties, can be
light as cork or denser than teak. It is suitable for interior or exterior
applications, can be made rot resistant so painting is unnecessary. In the
1940's cost was competitive with other materials used for same purposes.
(54) In the 1980's a hemp hurd building board product with "good
sound-proofing properties" was available in Europe. (55)
In 1944 Dr. O.E. Sweeney, head of the department of chemical
engineering at Iowa State College said hurds could be made into I beams
"two and half times as great as steel" in tensile strength, (56)

Explosives. Hurds can be processed to make explosives such as
dynamite or TNT. (57) Illinois fireworks regulations explicitly mention
hemp products. (58)

Farm operations. Hurds "make excellent bedding for livestock," (59)
also litter for poultry. (60) Straw can serve as cattle feed. (61)
While not a by-product per se, an additional use in France has been to
plant hemp as windbreaks and as pollinization screens. (62) Hemp can
exceed 15 feet in height.

Fuel. Hemp hurds can be burned to power dryers in hemp breaking
mills, and to power other needs at the mill with high efficiency. (63)
"Breaking" is the first step of processing stalks into fiber. Breaking
mills typically do "scutching" also, separating fiber from the stalk.

Furfural. In the 1940's researchers estimated that technology of that
era allowed about 45% of pentosan carbohydrates in hurd pulp to be
extracted as furfural, (64) an oil that can be used to make dyes,
lacquers, and resins. (About 25% of hurds is comprised of pentosans. 65).
In 1944 Dr. O. E. Sweeney, head of the department of chemical engineering
at Iowa State College, said that hemp furfural could produce a good motor
fuel for automobiles, with proper engine adjustments, but the fuel would
cost four times what gasoline then cost. (66) Subsequent technological
developments suggest that methanol from hemp can be converted into high
octane gasoline. Whether such production could be done on a commercial
scale, and what the price comparison would be to gasoline in the 1990's are
open questions.

Glass. Hurds can be processed into glass. (67)

Paper. Ohio hemp man R. S. Webb raised 600 acres in 1915, "probably
the largest single crop in the United States" and sold hurds to paper
mills, which produced " a very good grade" of paper from them. (68) The
next year the U. S. Department of Agriculture reported that hurds produced
good paper. Especially important today is the USDA finding that one acre
of hemp can produce the same amount of paper as four acres of forest. The
USDA reported that the hemp paper manufacturing process was economically
competitive with tree wood, but questioned whether producing hemp hurd
crops would be cheaper than logging in 1916. (69) In 1944 a Canadian hemp
man contended the ratio for paper manufacturing was 1 acre of hemp to 5
acres of spruce. (70)

Studies around 1920 found hemp wood to have similar characteristics to
tree wood for paper making. (71) Researcher in the 1940's found hemp
hurds to be good raw material for heavy wrapping paper, cardboard,
boxboard, drawing paper, stationery, and bond paper. (72)

Concerned about rates of cutting in forests, in the 1950's the U. S.
Department of Agriculture made an extensive survey of non-tree sources for
paper. (73) Described as "the most complete attempt to compare thoroughly
a large number and diversity of plant materials in the same laboratory
applying uniform procedures and analyses," (74) the scientists examined
200 species. Sample papers were made and subjected to standard industry
tests. The scientists concluded that "alpha-cellulose content of a raw
material would serve as the best single criterion for predicting both pulp
yield and pulp quality of a given species." (75) Analysis found that
37.6% of hemp was comprised of alpha-cellulose, (76) one of the highest
amounts found in any dicotyledon plant. Hurds (as opposed to the entire
plant) measure at 39% alpha-cellulose. (77) A 1957 report from McGill
University and the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada says that
nearly 80% of hemp fiber is alpha-cellulose, a range accepted by a standard
chemical technology reference book in 1980. (78) Such findings are
important because paper pulp might not be made from the entire plant but
instead just from parts high in cellulose.

Of the 126 dicotyledons given an overall rating for paper making by
the USDA scientists in the 1950's, hemp's rating was exceeded by only 2
species and equaled by only 6. The federal scientists concluded that hemp
"shows considerable promise as a source of pulp. However, production of
hemp in the United States is rigidly controlled." (79) A 1977 Italian
study judged hemp hurds to be commercially practicable for the paper
industry. (80)

The prolific nature of hemp as a paper source, with an acre of hemp
producing about four times as much pulp as an acre of forest, would help
conserve forests. In addition, paper production from hemp should produce
less water pollution than production from wood pulp because factories need
lower amounts of chemicals to liberate lignin from hemp hurds. (81)

In June 1991 an editorial entitled "It's Time to Reconsider Hemp"
appeared in the trade journal Pulp and Paper. Technical editor Jim Young
said the industry should make much broader use of hemp. He concluded,
"U.S. hemp growing restrictions were set aside to meet material shortages
during World War II. They should now at least be modified to meet pending
shortages of fiber, energy, and environmental quality." (82)

Plastics. The cellulose content of fiber and hurds make them raw
materials for plastics. (83) In the 1930's one authority said the
plastics market for hurds would cover production costs of a fiber crop,
making fiber income pure profit. (84) (The bushiness of seed hemp makes
its stems less suitable for cellulose applications. 85).

In the 1930's Amhempco Corporation of Danville, Illinois, was
established (in part) to use hurds for plastic. (86) Plastics
manufacturers were buying hurds as raw material in the 1940's. (87) Hurds
can be made into cellophane, photographic film base, and general plastics.
(88) In 1944 Dr. O. E. Sweeney, head of the department of chemical
engineering at Iowa State College, described hemp hurd plastic as "probably
the cheapest plastic that has yet been worked out." (89)

Textiles. By the 1940's "artificial silk" (rayon) was made from hurds
in Italy. (90)


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