Hemp

Part 1

Produced by Tom Cosmas compiled from images made available by The Internet Archive.

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis is denoted as Italics and =Bold=. Whole and fractional parts of numbers a s 12-3/4.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | Hemp | | | | | | | | | | FARMERS' BULLETIN No. 1935 | | | | U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE | | | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

CONTENTS

Page Caution 2 HEMP 3 What it is 3 It grows well in corn belts 4 How to grow it 5 Soils and Fertilizers 5 Seed 6 When to plant 6 Seeding 6 Culture 7 Varieties to grow 7 Enemies 8 Harvesting 8 Time to Harvest 8 Machinery 9 Retting 10 Underretting and Overretting 11 Sunburning 11 Turning Soils 11 Testing the End Point of the Ret 12 Picking Up the Retted Stalks 14 Extra Care Insures Extra Profits 15 Yeilds 16

Caution

The HEMP PLANT contains the drug marihuana. Any farmer planning to grow hemp must comply with certain regulations of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. This involves registration with the farmer's nearest Internal Revenue Collector and the payment of a fee of $1. Although the fee is small, the registration is mandatory and should not be neglected, as the penalty provisions for not complying with the regulations are very severe. The registration must be renewed each year beginning July 1. This so-called "license" permits a farmer to obtain viable hempseed from a registered firm dealing in hemp, to plant and grow the crop, and to deliver mature, retted hemp stalks to a hemp mill.

Washington, D. C. Issued January 1943 Slightly Revised April 1952

HEMP

By B. B. Robinson, Senior Agrononmist

Division of Cotton and Other Fiber Crops and Diseases Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering Agricultural Research Administration

HEMP is a fiber used in making twines and light cordage. It is also used as an extender for imported cordage fibers, particularly abaca, sisal, and henequen, when supplies of these are not adequate to meet domestic demands. The size of the hemp industry, therefore, is greatly influenced by the availability of imported cordage fibers.

Hemp is not a hard crop to grow. It should be planted on the most productive land on the farm--land that would make 50 to 70 bushels of corn per acre.

The crop is planted with a grain drill and harvested with special machinery rented from hemp mills.

It is allowed to lie on the ground until the outer part of the stalks has rotted, freeing the fibers. This process is called dew retting.

The most important step in hemp farming is to stop the retting process at the proper time. (See pp. 12 and 13.)

This bulletin tells how to grow and harvest hemp. For more information write to the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, United States Department of Agriculture, or to your State experiment station, or consult your county agent.

What it is

Hemp is an annual plant that grows from seed each year, and therefore it can be brought readily into production. It produces twice as much fiber per acre as flax, the only other fiber that is its equal in strength and durability and that is known to be suitable for culture and preparation on machinery in this country.

When hempseed is sown thickly for fiber production, the plants usually grow from 5 to 8 feet tall. However, when the plants are thinly spaced in rows for seed production, they may, under favorable conditions, reach a height of 12 to 16 feet. If the plants are not crowded, they become much branched and are bushy. Uniform stems approximately 3/8 inch in diameter and 5 to 8 feet long are especially desired for fiber production, because they can be handled well by the harvesting and processing machinery available in this country.

Hemp is a dioecious plant, that is, the staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers are borne on separate plants, rather than both on one plant. The flowers of the two types of plants are different, but the male plant is easily distinguished from the female, as the anthers are about the size of a wheat kernel. The male plants die soon after discharging their pollen; this is usually about 3 to 5 weeks before the female plants mature seed and die.

The fiber of commerce ranges from 4 to 8 feet in length and has the appearance of a flat, fine ribbon. It lies very close to the epidermis or skin of the plant. Spinners desire the fiber ribbon 1/16 inch or less in width. The long strands of fiber are called "line" fiber to distinguish them from "tow" fiber, which consists of shorter, broken, tangled pieces.

It grows well in the Corn Belt

Hemp is recommended as a good crop for the Corn Belt States, because of their favorable climatic and soil conditions.

Most fiber-producing varieties of hemp require a frost-free growing season of 5 months or longer to produce seed and approximately 4 months for fiber production. Hemp will endure light frosts in the spring and survive frosts in the fall better than corn. It grows best when well supplied with moisture throughout its growling season and especially in its early stages of growth. Drought conditions, if accompanied by high temperatures, appear to hasten maturity before the plants are fully grown.

The vegetative growth of hemp should be uniform. This growth is noticeably affected if the soil is flooded or saturated with moisture for too long a period. The leaves turn yellow, and the plants die. Rainfall, well distributed during the growing season, is, therefore, desirable for uniform vegetative growth. Hemp should be planted only on well-drained soils and not on flat, heavy, impervious soils.

Climate is important not only in the growth of the plant but also in the preparation of the crop after harvest. It influences the method used in handling the crop and the labor requirements, which determine the cost of production. In the United States the common practice (known as dew retting) is to cut the crop and let it lie on the ground. Exposure to the weather causes the fiber in the outer part of the stem to separate. Light snows and alternate freezing and thawing seem to improve or make the retting more uniform.

Part 2

How to grow it

=Soils and Fertilizers=

Hemp should not be grown on poor soils. To obtain good yields and fiber of high-quality, it is necessary to have a growth of uniform stalks 6 to 8 feet long. Short stalks, from poor nonfertile soils, seldom produce a high-quality fiber.

Fiber hemp grows successfully on soils of the Clarion, Tama, Carrington, Maury, Hagerstown, and Miami series, which, in general, are deep, medium-heavy loams, well-drained, and high in organic matter. Artificially drained areas of the Webster, Brookston, and Maumee series also give satisfactory yields. These soils are among the most productive soils of the Corn Belt. They produce average yields of 50 to 70 bushels or more of corn per acre. If land will not produce from 50 to 70 bushels of corn per acre, it should not be planted to hemp for fiber production.

Muck or peat soils are not recommended for the production of high-quality hemp fiber. The quantity of fiber produced per acre on these soils may be very high, but experience has demonstrated that the fiber lacks strength, which is the first requirement of hemp fiber for good cordage.

The inexperienced farmer usually gets advice from an experienced hemp-mill superintendent in the selection of the right soil. In fact, the farmer's contract to grow hemp usually specifies the exact field that it has been mutually agreed should be used for the hemp crop. This type of supervision by the company contracting for hemp has helped to prevent many crop failures.

Hemp should not be grown continuously on the same soil, for the same reasons that many other crops are not adapted to such practices. In Wisconsin, fields previously used for a cultivated crop are selected for hemp planting in preference to ones upon which small grains have been grown. In Kentucky, bluegrass sod, if obtainable, is selected. Old pastures plowed up are well suited for hemp culture. Fields previously cropped to soybeans, alfalfa, and clover are excellent for hemp. A good rotation is to follow corn with hemp, and in Kentucky a fall cereal may follow the hemp.

Although hemp requires a rich soil, it does not remove from the farm an excess of plant-food material. Nearly all the leaves on the hemp plants, containing much of the plant nutrients removed from the soil, fall off during the growth and maturing of the plant. The remaining leaves may drop off in the field during the process of retting. Further, the plant stems lose about 20 percent in weight of soluble and decomposed materials, which leach out upon the fields, and the stubble may be plowed under. The plant in this manner returns to the land a large part of the plant nutrients that it removes during its growth.

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