* FIBRE PLANTS -- HEMP,from The Children's Encyclopedia, 1909; pp. 321-324
* SLAVERY IN THE HEMP INDUSTRY
* THE FACTORIES IN OPERATION
* NEW BILLION-DOLLAR CROP Popular Mechanics February, 1938
www.ariannaonline.com/dis...20000333am
Perilous Play, by Louisa May Alcott 1869
users.lycaeum.org/~sputni...ilous.html
Cannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed
www.shorejournal.com/9902/rwd0228a.html
The Elkhorn Manifesto
What do Hemp and Hitler have in common?
World War II, that's what.
www.shorejournal.com/elkhorn/
MARIJUANA AND HEMP The Untold Story
www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/#INDEX
Why they call it dope!
www.cannabis.com/ezine/ju...ow/2.shtml
FIBRE PLANTS -- HEMP,from The Children's Encyclopedia,1909; pp. 321-324
FIBRE PLANTS -- HEMP,
from The Children's Encyclopedia,1909; pp. 321-324
We all know hemp as a roadside weed, tall, straight, with whorls of spreading, lady-finger leaves, all pitched at a
downward slant, the flowers clustered at the bases of the leaves, as happens with all members of the stinging
nettle
family, to which hemp belongs.
Wild hemp, as it grows escaped from cultivation, and in its native region, western Asia, has poor fibre. But in the
hemp fields of Russia, Austria, Turkey, Italy, China, Japan, and the United States, it may reach ten, and even
twenty feet in
height.
The fibres of the inner bark, when properly separated, come out creamy-white, soft, pliable, and with a silky
sheen. It is substituted for linen in all but the better grades in the north of Italy, where methods of cultivation and
curing produce the best quality of fibre.
The great hemp region of this country is the Blue Grass region in Kentucky, where a rich, moist, well-drained loam
overlies limestone. The seed is sowed and rolled, but not cultivated after it comes up. The vigorous plants get the
start
of the weeds and kill them out. The roots plow deep, and the stems soar.
When the flowers appear and the tops turn yellow, then comes the harvest. The stems are cut as low as possible,
for the best fibre is at the base. The September sun dries the stalks that lie with butts down hill on the grass. In a
week they are gathered into small bundles, tied, shocked, or stacked.
In November the stems are spread for two months so that moisture and frost rot the outer bark and woody center
of the stems from the fibrous layer. This "retting" is sometimes done in water.
When the fibre separates easily, the stalks are set up to dry. The old-fashioned hand-breaks are used to
"decorticate" the fibre, and clean it of the fragments of bark and wood left after the breaking is done. The freed
fibre is tied in hanks, and these are baled for market. After being hackled it goes to the twine factory. Often the
hemp-grower clears $30 to $60 an acre, after cost of growing is deducted. And the land is left in better condition
than before the hemp was planted.
The British navy consumes a quantity of hemp fibre in the manufacture of the bags in which coal is carried. Sail
cloth, coarse sheetings and canvas, carpet warp and rugs, fish lines and nets, and all kinds of twines and ropes
are made of hemp. Hemp seed is not ripe when the canes are right for fibre, so special plots are grown for seed,
which is valuable as poultry food. Oil for paint is extracted from the seed. The plants are best grown in hills so
that they have room to branch and produce the greatest amount of seed. The seed crop often nets the farmer
almost as much as if he grew hemp fibre.
In the Far East the resinous substance in flowers and leaves of hemp is a commercial product in great demand. In
various forms, to drink, to chew, and to smoke, the intoxicating drug is universally used. The bhang is the dried
leaves and fruits. It may be mixed with tobacco, for smoking, or with honey and spices, for a kind of candy, or
steeped like tea. Hasheesh is the name it is known by in Turkey and Syria. Hasheesh cakes, often huge in size,
are sold in the bazaars.
By Ganja (Ganja) on Tuesday, March 7, 2000 - 03:17 am:
The following is excerpted from A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky
(Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1951),
pp. 4, 24-30, 132-40, 196.
SLAVERY IN THE HEMP INDUSTRY
James F. Hopkins
... Without hemp, slavery might not have flourished in Kentucky, since other agricultural products of the state
were not conducive
to the extensive use of bondsmen. On the hemp farm and in the hemp factories the need for laborers was filled
to a large extent
by the use of Negro slaves, and it is a significant fact that the heaviest concentration of slavery was in the hemp
producing area.
Perhaps the nearest approach in Kentucky to the plantation on the southern scale was the large Bluegrass farm
upon which hemp
was one of the major crops and where virtually all manual labor was performed by slaves. On the other hand,
since hemp does
not require as much attention as must be given to cotton, the number of Negroes on a Kentucky farm was usually
far less than
the number necessary on a cotton plantation of comparable size. Consequently, owing to their high birth rate, the
slaves increased
faster than they were needed. Sale of surplus blacks to the lower South brought welcome revenue to Kentucky and
led to the
unwelcome charge that peopled in the state were engaged in the breeding of Negroes for market.
Kentuckians sometimes referred to hemp as a " crop," owing to a belief that no one understood its
eccentricities as well or
was as expert in handling it as the Negro. A Lexingtonian stated in 1836 that it was almost impossible to hire
workmen to break a
crop of hemp because the work was "very dirty, and so laborious that scarcely any white man will work at it," and
he continued
by saying that the task was done entirely by slave labor. Among the slaves, the men held a monopoly on all the
tasks connected
with the production of fiber because, in the words of this observer, "Negro women cannot labor at hemp at all, and
are scarcely
worth anything." Another commentator a few years later concluded that "none but our strong able negro men can
handle it to
advantage." To a considerable extent that belief was based on fact, for the tasks connected with hemp culture
were for the most
part laborious and sometimes unpleasant, and such work was given to the slave or, after the Civil War, to the
Negro tenant or
"hired hand." As long as hemp was produced in the state, at least certain types of work, such as breaking the
stalks, were largely
reserved for the Negro. After years of repetition of these tasks, he did become expert at their performance,
though the complaint
was sometimes made that he was undependable. Among the slaves most in demand in Kentucky were those who
were able to
work in manufacturing establishments where hemp was turned into bale rope and bagging, but the agricultural
skill which most
contributed to the value of the Negro was the ability to hackle hemp fiber in preparing it for market.
On many farms, of course, neither slaves nor, later, freedmen were available or desired, and in such cases the
men of the family
performed all tasks for themselves. If a landowner was not willing to do this work and would not depend on
slaves, he could
follow the example of Nathaniel Hart of Woodford County, who explained his decision as follows: For several years
I turned my
attention to the raising slaves were slight from 1830 to 1860. . . .
By Ganja (Ganja) on Tuesday, March 7, 2000 - 03:18 am:
THE FACTORIES IN OPERATION
In the 1830's new machinery was introduced in the manufacturing of bale rope and bagging in Kentucky, though
for years
afterward many establishments continued using more primitive methods, depending on hand labor to do most of
the work.
Rope-making, before the industry was mechanized, was performed in a long, narrow building called a "ropewalk,"
whose
dimensions varied from one establishment to another. A description written in 1873, possibly referring primarily to
the walks
found in New England, stated that they were "twelve or thirteen hundred feet in length." John B. McIlvaine's
cordage factory in
Carlisle, Kentucky, extended across "the whole square on Water street, from Main Cross to Second Cross," and
Charles W.
Turston's walk in Louisville was about 26 feet wide and 570 feet long in 1837 and seems to have been extended
to 770 feet by
1849.
The method of manufacturing has been described as follows:
The first part of the process of rope making by hand, is that of spinning the yarns or threads, which is done in a
manner
analogous to that of ordinary spinning. The spinner carries a bundle of dressed hemp round his waist; the two
ends of the bundle
being assembled in front. Having drawn out a proper number of fibers with his hand, he twists them with his
fingers, and fixing
this twisted part to the hook of the whirl, which is driven by a wheel put in motion by an assistant, he walks
backwards down the
rope walk, the twisted part always serving to draw out more fibers from the bundle around his waist. . . . The
spinner takes care
that these fibers are equably supplied, and that they always enter the twisted parts by their ends, and never by
their middle. As
soon as he has reached the termination of the walk, a second spinner takes the yarn off the whirl, and gives it to
another person to
put upon a reel, while he himself attaches his own hemp to the whirl hook, and proceeds down the walk. When a
person at the
reel begins to turn, the first spinner, who had completed his yarn, holds it firmly at the end, and advances slowly
up the walk,
while the reel is turning, keeping it equally tight all the way, till he reaches the reel, where he waits till the second
spinner takes his
yarn off the whirl hook, and joins it to the end of that of the first spinner, in order that it may follow it on the reel.
The next step in ropemaking was to "warp" the yarns or to stretch all of them to the same length and at the
same time to put a
"slight turn or twist" in them. If the cordage was intended for marine use, it was wound from one reel to another,
meanwhile
passing through a vessel containing boiling tar. If "white work" was desired, the tar was omitted. Finally, the last
step, called
"laying the cordage," was carried out:
For this purpose two or more yarns are attached at one end to a hook. The hook is then turned the contrary way
from the twist of
the individual yarn, and thus forms what is called a strand. Three strands, sometimes four, besides a central one,
are then stretched
at length, and attached at one end to three contiguous but separate hooks, but at the other end to a single
hook; and the process of
combining them together, which is effected by turning the single hook in a direction contrary to that of the other
three, consists in
so regulating the progress of the twists of the strands round their common axis, that the three strands receive
separately as their
opposite ends just as much twist as is taken out of them by their twisting the contrary way, in the process of
combination.
During the first third of the nineteenth century most of the rope made in Kentucky was spun and twisted by hand
and by the use
of horse power at one end of the walk. In 1838 David Myerle, formerly of the firm of tiers and Myerle,
Philadelphia, established
upon a new principle a large steam-driven factory at Louisville. The method of manufacture had been invented
earlier by Robert
Graves of Boston, from whom Myerle had bought the patent right, and it:
consisted, in part, in winding the threads upon revolving spools, from which they were conducted through a
cast-iron tube of a
diameter suitable for the size of rope required. In the opinion of officers of the United States navy and others the
cordage made
by the Graves machinery was stronger than that made by the old method.
Myerle's establishment, called the Washington Steam Patent Cordage Factory," included several buildings and was
valued by him
at $28,650. The ropewalk, housed in a frame building one story high, was 1,100 feet long and 25 feet wide. Down
the length of
the walk ran tracks on which the patented machinery operated as it spun the yearns and twisted them into rope.
Three tons of
cordage per day, or at least 600 tons annually, could be manufactured by this machinery.
A factory for making bagging by machinery was established in Newport in 1832. Prior to that time most of the
bagging had been
made upon the old hand looms, but the new machines turned out a product that was claimed to be superior to
that woven by
manual labor. The cloth was strong, compact, uniform in texture, and consistently weighed twenty-six ounces to
the yard. As first
set up, the manufactory could process 450 tons of hemp annually, and the owners stated their intention shortly to
add other
machinery for making Kentucky jeans. The writer who described this plant said that "no doubt is entertained now
of the practical
success of this mode of manufacturing bagging of hemp, though heretofore it has been considered as a visionary
speculation." In
1835 this enterprise employed two hundred workmen and was manufacturing wool and cotton in addition to hemp.
Its total
annual output was valued at over a quarter of a million dollars. At the same time a factory located at Covington
was producing
$25,000 worth of finished hempen goods each year.
Andrew Caldwell of Lexington invented, and in 1841 began the operation of, machinery which received raw fiber,
hackled it, spun
it into thread, and then wove it into bagging. He claimed that its output was thirty yards per hour, which was far
more than any
other loom of the time could produce. Caldwell also professed to be able to manufacture bagging for three cents
a yard, or at a
saving of five or six cents over the cost of other methods of manufacturing. Most of the innovations in the
manufacturing of
hemp were adopted slowly by those engaged in the industry, probably because most of the changes did not yield
the results
claimed for them. Even in 1860 only a few factories were run by steam, most of them relied on horse power, and
a few were still
operated by hand.
Only a comparatively few manufacturers specialized in either bale rope or bagging, and the majority of them
produced both in
their factories. One of the larger establishments, operated by Gratz and Bruce in Lexington, included for the
manufacture of
bagging a "Calender and Hemp House, capable of storing 60 tons of Hemp;" a hackling house 18 feet wide and
30 feet long; a
"Factory" 195 feet long, 50 feet wide, and two stories high, "calculated for 12 spinners each story;" and, attached
to the factory, a
weaving house which contained spindles and looms. For making rope the company had a brick hemp house 40
feet long, 50 feet
wide, and two stories high, capable of storing 200 tons of hemp, a brick spinning house 180 feet long and 32 feet
wide, and a
ropewalk "extending 100 fathom," or 600 feet.
Slave labor was used to a large extent in the manufacture of hemp, the Negroes being owned by the operator of
the business or
hired by him for a period of time. In either case the task work plan was used to promote diligence, and the slave
who applied
himself could earn in the 1850's two or three dollars per week which he was free to spend as he chose. The price
paid for the hire
of such laborers varied according to the ability of the slave. In Louisville in 1834 one Negro, George, was hired for
$30 per year,
whereas Henry cost his employer $80 for the same period of time. Two years later the extremes were George, at
$40, and
Sullivan, at $180. "The exceedingly low price of twenty-five cents per day," was the figure set in 1836 by the
Nicholasville
manufacturer who, wishing to retire from business, offered to sell his factory and hire out his "thirty old hands well
skilled in the
manufacture of Hemp." Wishing to protect insofar as possible the valuable property he was hiring to another man,
the owner of a
slave sometimes required a contract which obligated the employer to treat the laborer well, clothe and feed him,
"pay his taxes &
physician Bill Should the Same be necessary, & return the Boy as usual well clothed at the End of the time" for
which he was
hired. Early in the nineteenth century Thomas Bodley and Company of Lexington wanted to hire ten Negro boys,
from 12 to 15
years of age, and five men, from 17 to 25, "the boys to spin & the men to weave and heckle in a Coarse Linen
Manufactory." In
the same year Tom, a ropemaker by trade, ran away from his master in Danville, and shortly afterward Thomas
H. Pindell
advertised a desire to purchase or hire several Negro boys, age 14 to 18, to work in a ropewalk. When John W.
Hunt of
Lexington decided to retire from the manufacture of bagging, he advertised an auction sale of 60 men, boys and
women.
By Ganja (Ganja) on Tuesday, March 7, 2000 - 03:33 am:
NEW BILLION-DOLLAR CROP
Popular Mechanics
February, 1938
Note: There was so little public attention and notice to the need for a ban on marijuana, or the resulting legislation
(Marihuana Tax
Act of 1937), that the editors apparently did not realize that it had already been outlawed when they published this article.
AMERICAN farmers are promised a new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all
because a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. It is hemp, a crop that
will not compete with other American products.
Instead, it will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and
peasant labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers throughout the land.
The machine which makes this possible is designed for removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the
stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human labor. Hemp is the standard
fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile
products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody
"hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can
be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.
Machines now in service in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and other states are producing fiber at a manufacturing cost
of half a cent a pound, and are finding a profitable market for the rest of the stalk. Machine operators are
making a good profit in competition with coolie-produced foreign fiber while paying farmers fifteen dollars a ton
for hemp as it comes from the field.
From the farmers' point of view, hemp is an easy crop to grow and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any
land that will grow corn, wheat, or oats. It has a short growing season, so that it can be planted after other crops
are in. It can be grown in any state of the union. The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect
condition for the next year's crop. The dense shock of leaves, eight to twelve feet above the ground, chokes out
weeds. Two successive crops are enough to reclaim land that has been abandoned because of Canadian thistles
or quack grass.
Under old methods, hemp was cut and allowed to lie in the fields for weeks until it "retted" enough so the fibers
could be pulled off by hand. Retting is simply rotting as a result of dew, rain and bacterial action. Machines were
developed to separate the fibers mechanically after retting was complete, but the cost was high, the loss of fiber
great, and the quality of fiber comparatively low.
With the new machine, known as a decorticator, hemp is cut with a slightly modified grain binder. It is delivered to
the machine where an automatic chain conveyor feeds it to the breaking arms at the rate of two or three tons per
hour. The hurds are broken into fine pieces which drop into the hopper, from where they are delivered by blower
to a baler or to truck or freight car for loose shipment. The fiber comes from the other end of the machine, ready
for baling.
From this point on almost anything can happen. The raw fiber can be used to produce strong twine or rope, woven
into burlap, used for carpet warp or linoleum backing or it may be bleached and refined, with resinous by-products
of high commercial value. It can, in fact, be used to replace the foreign fibers which now flood our markets.
Thousands of tons of hemp hurds are used every year by one large powder company for the manufacture of
dynamite and TNT. A large paper company, which has been paying more than a million dollars a year in duties on
foreign-made cigarette papers, now is manufacturing these papers from American hemp grown in Minnesota. A
new factory in Illinois is producing fine bond papers from hemp. The natural materials in hemp make it an
economical source of pulp for any grade of paper manufactured, and the high percentage of alpha cellulose
promises an unlimited supply of raw material for the thousands of cellulose products our chemists have
developed.
It is generally believed that all linen is produced from flax. Actually, the majority comes from hemp--authorities
estimate that more than half of our imported linen fabrics are manufactured from hemp fiber. Another
misconception is that burlap is made from hemp.
Actually, its source is usually jute, and practically all of the burlap we use is woven by laborers in India who receive
only four cents a
day. Binder twine is usually made from sisal which comes from Yucatan and East Africa.
All of these products, now imported, can be produced from home- grown hemp. Fish nets, bow strings, canvas,
strong rope, overalls, damask tablecloths, fine linen garments, towels, bed linen and thousands of other everyday
items can be grown on American farms.
Our imports of foreign fabrics and fibers average about $200,000,000 per year; in raw fibers alone we imported
over $50,000,000 in the first six months of 1937. All of this income can be made available for Americans.
The paper industry offers even greater possibilities. As an industry it amounts to over $1,000,000,000 a year, and
of that eighty per
cent is imported. But hemp will produce every grade of paper, and government figures estimate that 10,000 acres
devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average pulp land.
One obstacle in the onward march of hemp is the reluctance of farmers to try new crops. The problem is
complicated by the need for proper equipment a reasonable distance from the farm. The machine cannot be
operated profitably unless there is enough acreage within driving range and farmers cannot find a profitable
market unless there is machinery to handle the crop. Another obstacle is
that the blossom of the female hemp plant contains marijuana, a narcotic, and it is impossible to grow hemp
without producing the blossom. Federal regulations now being drawn up require registration of hemp growers, and
tentative proposals for preventing narcotic production are rather stringent.
However, the connection of hemp as a crop and marijuana seems to be exaggerated. The drug is usually
produced from wild hemp or locoweed which can be found on vacant lots and along railroad tracks in every state.
If federal regulations can be drawn to protect the public without preventing the legitimate culture of hemp, this
new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and
industry.
"Popular Mechanics Magazine" can furnish the name and address of the maker of, or dealer in, any article
described in its pages. If you wish this information, write to the Bureau of Information, enclosing a stamped,
self-addressed envelope.
* SLAVERY IN THE HEMP INDUSTRY
* THE FACTORIES IN OPERATION
* NEW BILLION-DOLLAR CROP Popular Mechanics February, 1938
www.ariannaonline.com/dis...20000333am
Perilous Play, by Louisa May Alcott 1869
users.lycaeum.org/~sputni...ilous.html
Cannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed
www.shorejournal.com/9902/rwd0228a.html
The Elkhorn Manifesto
What do Hemp and Hitler have in common?
World War II, that's what.
www.shorejournal.com/elkhorn/
MARIJUANA AND HEMP The Untold Story
www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/#INDEX
Why they call it dope!
www.cannabis.com/ezine/ju...ow/2.shtml
FIBRE PLANTS -- HEMP,from The Children's Encyclopedia,1909; pp. 321-324
FIBRE PLANTS -- HEMP,
from The Children's Encyclopedia,1909; pp. 321-324
We all know hemp as a roadside weed, tall, straight, with whorls of spreading, lady-finger leaves, all pitched at a
downward slant, the flowers clustered at the bases of the leaves, as happens with all members of the stinging
nettle
family, to which hemp belongs.
Wild hemp, as it grows escaped from cultivation, and in its native region, western Asia, has poor fibre. But in the
hemp fields of Russia, Austria, Turkey, Italy, China, Japan, and the United States, it may reach ten, and even
twenty feet in
height.
The fibres of the inner bark, when properly separated, come out creamy-white, soft, pliable, and with a silky
sheen. It is substituted for linen in all but the better grades in the north of Italy, where methods of cultivation and
curing produce the best quality of fibre.
The great hemp region of this country is the Blue Grass region in Kentucky, where a rich, moist, well-drained loam
overlies limestone. The seed is sowed and rolled, but not cultivated after it comes up. The vigorous plants get the
start
of the weeds and kill them out. The roots plow deep, and the stems soar.
When the flowers appear and the tops turn yellow, then comes the harvest. The stems are cut as low as possible,
for the best fibre is at the base. The September sun dries the stalks that lie with butts down hill on the grass. In a
week they are gathered into small bundles, tied, shocked, or stacked.
In November the stems are spread for two months so that moisture and frost rot the outer bark and woody center
of the stems from the fibrous layer. This "retting" is sometimes done in water.
When the fibre separates easily, the stalks are set up to dry. The old-fashioned hand-breaks are used to
"decorticate" the fibre, and clean it of the fragments of bark and wood left after the breaking is done. The freed
fibre is tied in hanks, and these are baled for market. After being hackled it goes to the twine factory. Often the
hemp-grower clears $30 to $60 an acre, after cost of growing is deducted. And the land is left in better condition
than before the hemp was planted.
The British navy consumes a quantity of hemp fibre in the manufacture of the bags in which coal is carried. Sail
cloth, coarse sheetings and canvas, carpet warp and rugs, fish lines and nets, and all kinds of twines and ropes
are made of hemp. Hemp seed is not ripe when the canes are right for fibre, so special plots are grown for seed,
which is valuable as poultry food. Oil for paint is extracted from the seed. The plants are best grown in hills so
that they have room to branch and produce the greatest amount of seed. The seed crop often nets the farmer
almost as much as if he grew hemp fibre.
In the Far East the resinous substance in flowers and leaves of hemp is a commercial product in great demand. In
various forms, to drink, to chew, and to smoke, the intoxicating drug is universally used. The bhang is the dried
leaves and fruits. It may be mixed with tobacco, for smoking, or with honey and spices, for a kind of candy, or
steeped like tea. Hasheesh is the name it is known by in Turkey and Syria. Hasheesh cakes, often huge in size,
are sold in the bazaars.
By Ganja (Ganja) on Tuesday, March 7, 2000 - 03:17 am:
The following is excerpted from A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky
(Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1951),
pp. 4, 24-30, 132-40, 196.
SLAVERY IN THE HEMP INDUSTRY
James F. Hopkins
... Without hemp, slavery might not have flourished in Kentucky, since other agricultural products of the state
were not conducive
to the extensive use of bondsmen. On the hemp farm and in the hemp factories the need for laborers was filled
to a large extent
by the use of Negro slaves, and it is a significant fact that the heaviest concentration of slavery was in the hemp
producing area.
Perhaps the nearest approach in Kentucky to the plantation on the southern scale was the large Bluegrass farm
upon which hemp
was one of the major crops and where virtually all manual labor was performed by slaves. On the other hand,
since hemp does
not require as much attention as must be given to cotton, the number of Negroes on a Kentucky farm was usually
far less than
the number necessary on a cotton plantation of comparable size. Consequently, owing to their high birth rate, the
slaves increased
faster than they were needed. Sale of surplus blacks to the lower South brought welcome revenue to Kentucky and
led to the
unwelcome charge that peopled in the state were engaged in the breeding of Negroes for market.
Kentuckians sometimes referred to hemp as a " crop," owing to a belief that no one understood its
eccentricities as well or
was as expert in handling it as the Negro. A Lexingtonian stated in 1836 that it was almost impossible to hire
workmen to break a
crop of hemp because the work was "very dirty, and so laborious that scarcely any white man will work at it," and
he continued
by saying that the task was done entirely by slave labor. Among the slaves, the men held a monopoly on all the
tasks connected
with the production of fiber because, in the words of this observer, "Negro women cannot labor at hemp at all, and
are scarcely
worth anything." Another commentator a few years later concluded that "none but our strong able negro men can
handle it to
advantage." To a considerable extent that belief was based on fact, for the tasks connected with hemp culture
were for the most
part laborious and sometimes unpleasant, and such work was given to the slave or, after the Civil War, to the
Negro tenant or
"hired hand." As long as hemp was produced in the state, at least certain types of work, such as breaking the
stalks, were largely
reserved for the Negro. After years of repetition of these tasks, he did become expert at their performance,
though the complaint
was sometimes made that he was undependable. Among the slaves most in demand in Kentucky were those who
were able to
work in manufacturing establishments where hemp was turned into bale rope and bagging, but the agricultural
skill which most
contributed to the value of the Negro was the ability to hackle hemp fiber in preparing it for market.
On many farms, of course, neither slaves nor, later, freedmen were available or desired, and in such cases the
men of the family
performed all tasks for themselves. If a landowner was not willing to do this work and would not depend on
slaves, he could
follow the example of Nathaniel Hart of Woodford County, who explained his decision as follows: For several years
I turned my
attention to the raising slaves were slight from 1830 to 1860. . . .
By Ganja (Ganja) on Tuesday, March 7, 2000 - 03:18 am:
THE FACTORIES IN OPERATION
In the 1830's new machinery was introduced in the manufacturing of bale rope and bagging in Kentucky, though
for years
afterward many establishments continued using more primitive methods, depending on hand labor to do most of
the work.
Rope-making, before the industry was mechanized, was performed in a long, narrow building called a "ropewalk,"
whose
dimensions varied from one establishment to another. A description written in 1873, possibly referring primarily to
the walks
found in New England, stated that they were "twelve or thirteen hundred feet in length." John B. McIlvaine's
cordage factory in
Carlisle, Kentucky, extended across "the whole square on Water street, from Main Cross to Second Cross," and
Charles W.
Turston's walk in Louisville was about 26 feet wide and 570 feet long in 1837 and seems to have been extended
to 770 feet by
1849.
The method of manufacturing has been described as follows:
The first part of the process of rope making by hand, is that of spinning the yarns or threads, which is done in a
manner
analogous to that of ordinary spinning. The spinner carries a bundle of dressed hemp round his waist; the two
ends of the bundle
being assembled in front. Having drawn out a proper number of fibers with his hand, he twists them with his
fingers, and fixing
this twisted part to the hook of the whirl, which is driven by a wheel put in motion by an assistant, he walks
backwards down the
rope walk, the twisted part always serving to draw out more fibers from the bundle around his waist. . . . The
spinner takes care
that these fibers are equably supplied, and that they always enter the twisted parts by their ends, and never by
their middle. As
soon as he has reached the termination of the walk, a second spinner takes the yarn off the whirl, and gives it to
another person to
put upon a reel, while he himself attaches his own hemp to the whirl hook, and proceeds down the walk. When a
person at the
reel begins to turn, the first spinner, who had completed his yarn, holds it firmly at the end, and advances slowly
up the walk,
while the reel is turning, keeping it equally tight all the way, till he reaches the reel, where he waits till the second
spinner takes his
yarn off the whirl hook, and joins it to the end of that of the first spinner, in order that it may follow it on the reel.
The next step in ropemaking was to "warp" the yarns or to stretch all of them to the same length and at the
same time to put a
"slight turn or twist" in them. If the cordage was intended for marine use, it was wound from one reel to another,
meanwhile
passing through a vessel containing boiling tar. If "white work" was desired, the tar was omitted. Finally, the last
step, called
"laying the cordage," was carried out:
For this purpose two or more yarns are attached at one end to a hook. The hook is then turned the contrary way
from the twist of
the individual yarn, and thus forms what is called a strand. Three strands, sometimes four, besides a central one,
are then stretched
at length, and attached at one end to three contiguous but separate hooks, but at the other end to a single
hook; and the process of
combining them together, which is effected by turning the single hook in a direction contrary to that of the other
three, consists in
so regulating the progress of the twists of the strands round their common axis, that the three strands receive
separately as their
opposite ends just as much twist as is taken out of them by their twisting the contrary way, in the process of
combination.
During the first third of the nineteenth century most of the rope made in Kentucky was spun and twisted by hand
and by the use
of horse power at one end of the walk. In 1838 David Myerle, formerly of the firm of tiers and Myerle,
Philadelphia, established
upon a new principle a large steam-driven factory at Louisville. The method of manufacture had been invented
earlier by Robert
Graves of Boston, from whom Myerle had bought the patent right, and it:
consisted, in part, in winding the threads upon revolving spools, from which they were conducted through a
cast-iron tube of a
diameter suitable for the size of rope required. In the opinion of officers of the United States navy and others the
cordage made
by the Graves machinery was stronger than that made by the old method.
Myerle's establishment, called the Washington Steam Patent Cordage Factory," included several buildings and was
valued by him
at $28,650. The ropewalk, housed in a frame building one story high, was 1,100 feet long and 25 feet wide. Down
the length of
the walk ran tracks on which the patented machinery operated as it spun the yearns and twisted them into rope.
Three tons of
cordage per day, or at least 600 tons annually, could be manufactured by this machinery.
A factory for making bagging by machinery was established in Newport in 1832. Prior to that time most of the
bagging had been
made upon the old hand looms, but the new machines turned out a product that was claimed to be superior to
that woven by
manual labor. The cloth was strong, compact, uniform in texture, and consistently weighed twenty-six ounces to
the yard. As first
set up, the manufactory could process 450 tons of hemp annually, and the owners stated their intention shortly to
add other
machinery for making Kentucky jeans. The writer who described this plant said that "no doubt is entertained now
of the practical
success of this mode of manufacturing bagging of hemp, though heretofore it has been considered as a visionary
speculation." In
1835 this enterprise employed two hundred workmen and was manufacturing wool and cotton in addition to hemp.
Its total
annual output was valued at over a quarter of a million dollars. At the same time a factory located at Covington
was producing
$25,000 worth of finished hempen goods each year.
Andrew Caldwell of Lexington invented, and in 1841 began the operation of, machinery which received raw fiber,
hackled it, spun
it into thread, and then wove it into bagging. He claimed that its output was thirty yards per hour, which was far
more than any
other loom of the time could produce. Caldwell also professed to be able to manufacture bagging for three cents
a yard, or at a
saving of five or six cents over the cost of other methods of manufacturing. Most of the innovations in the
manufacturing of
hemp were adopted slowly by those engaged in the industry, probably because most of the changes did not yield
the results
claimed for them. Even in 1860 only a few factories were run by steam, most of them relied on horse power, and
a few were still
operated by hand.
Only a comparatively few manufacturers specialized in either bale rope or bagging, and the majority of them
produced both in
their factories. One of the larger establishments, operated by Gratz and Bruce in Lexington, included for the
manufacture of
bagging a "Calender and Hemp House, capable of storing 60 tons of Hemp;" a hackling house 18 feet wide and
30 feet long; a
"Factory" 195 feet long, 50 feet wide, and two stories high, "calculated for 12 spinners each story;" and, attached
to the factory, a
weaving house which contained spindles and looms. For making rope the company had a brick hemp house 40
feet long, 50 feet
wide, and two stories high, capable of storing 200 tons of hemp, a brick spinning house 180 feet long and 32 feet
wide, and a
ropewalk "extending 100 fathom," or 600 feet.
Slave labor was used to a large extent in the manufacture of hemp, the Negroes being owned by the operator of
the business or
hired by him for a period of time. In either case the task work plan was used to promote diligence, and the slave
who applied
himself could earn in the 1850's two or three dollars per week which he was free to spend as he chose. The price
paid for the hire
of such laborers varied according to the ability of the slave. In Louisville in 1834 one Negro, George, was hired for
$30 per year,
whereas Henry cost his employer $80 for the same period of time. Two years later the extremes were George, at
$40, and
Sullivan, at $180. "The exceedingly low price of twenty-five cents per day," was the figure set in 1836 by the
Nicholasville
manufacturer who, wishing to retire from business, offered to sell his factory and hire out his "thirty old hands well
skilled in the
manufacture of Hemp." Wishing to protect insofar as possible the valuable property he was hiring to another man,
the owner of a
slave sometimes required a contract which obligated the employer to treat the laborer well, clothe and feed him,
"pay his taxes &
physician Bill Should the Same be necessary, & return the Boy as usual well clothed at the End of the time" for
which he was
hired. Early in the nineteenth century Thomas Bodley and Company of Lexington wanted to hire ten Negro boys,
from 12 to 15
years of age, and five men, from 17 to 25, "the boys to spin & the men to weave and heckle in a Coarse Linen
Manufactory." In
the same year Tom, a ropemaker by trade, ran away from his master in Danville, and shortly afterward Thomas
H. Pindell
advertised a desire to purchase or hire several Negro boys, age 14 to 18, to work in a ropewalk. When John W.
Hunt of
Lexington decided to retire from the manufacture of bagging, he advertised an auction sale of 60 men, boys and
women.
By Ganja (Ganja) on Tuesday, March 7, 2000 - 03:33 am:
NEW BILLION-DOLLAR CROP
Popular Mechanics
February, 1938
Note: There was so little public attention and notice to the need for a ban on marijuana, or the resulting legislation
(Marihuana Tax
Act of 1937), that the editors apparently did not realize that it had already been outlawed when they published this article.
AMERICAN farmers are promised a new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all
because a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. It is hemp, a crop that
will not compete with other American products.
Instead, it will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and
peasant labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers throughout the land.
The machine which makes this possible is designed for removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the
stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human labor. Hemp is the standard
fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile
products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody
"hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can
be used to produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.
Machines now in service in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and other states are producing fiber at a manufacturing cost
of half a cent a pound, and are finding a profitable market for the rest of the stalk. Machine operators are
making a good profit in competition with coolie-produced foreign fiber while paying farmers fifteen dollars a ton
for hemp as it comes from the field.
From the farmers' point of view, hemp is an easy crop to grow and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any
land that will grow corn, wheat, or oats. It has a short growing season, so that it can be planted after other crops
are in. It can be grown in any state of the union. The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect
condition for the next year's crop. The dense shock of leaves, eight to twelve feet above the ground, chokes out
weeds. Two successive crops are enough to reclaim land that has been abandoned because of Canadian thistles
or quack grass.
Under old methods, hemp was cut and allowed to lie in the fields for weeks until it "retted" enough so the fibers
could be pulled off by hand. Retting is simply rotting as a result of dew, rain and bacterial action. Machines were
developed to separate the fibers mechanically after retting was complete, but the cost was high, the loss of fiber
great, and the quality of fiber comparatively low.
With the new machine, known as a decorticator, hemp is cut with a slightly modified grain binder. It is delivered to
the machine where an automatic chain conveyor feeds it to the breaking arms at the rate of two or three tons per
hour. The hurds are broken into fine pieces which drop into the hopper, from where they are delivered by blower
to a baler or to truck or freight car for loose shipment. The fiber comes from the other end of the machine, ready
for baling.
From this point on almost anything can happen. The raw fiber can be used to produce strong twine or rope, woven
into burlap, used for carpet warp or linoleum backing or it may be bleached and refined, with resinous by-products
of high commercial value. It can, in fact, be used to replace the foreign fibers which now flood our markets.
Thousands of tons of hemp hurds are used every year by one large powder company for the manufacture of
dynamite and TNT. A large paper company, which has been paying more than a million dollars a year in duties on
foreign-made cigarette papers, now is manufacturing these papers from American hemp grown in Minnesota. A
new factory in Illinois is producing fine bond papers from hemp. The natural materials in hemp make it an
economical source of pulp for any grade of paper manufactured, and the high percentage of alpha cellulose
promises an unlimited supply of raw material for the thousands of cellulose products our chemists have
developed.
It is generally believed that all linen is produced from flax. Actually, the majority comes from hemp--authorities
estimate that more than half of our imported linen fabrics are manufactured from hemp fiber. Another
misconception is that burlap is made from hemp.
Actually, its source is usually jute, and practically all of the burlap we use is woven by laborers in India who receive
only four cents a
day. Binder twine is usually made from sisal which comes from Yucatan and East Africa.
All of these products, now imported, can be produced from home- grown hemp. Fish nets, bow strings, canvas,
strong rope, overalls, damask tablecloths, fine linen garments, towels, bed linen and thousands of other everyday
items can be grown on American farms.
Our imports of foreign fabrics and fibers average about $200,000,000 per year; in raw fibers alone we imported
over $50,000,000 in the first six months of 1937. All of this income can be made available for Americans.
The paper industry offers even greater possibilities. As an industry it amounts to over $1,000,000,000 a year, and
of that eighty per
cent is imported. But hemp will produce every grade of paper, and government figures estimate that 10,000 acres
devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average pulp land.
One obstacle in the onward march of hemp is the reluctance of farmers to try new crops. The problem is
complicated by the need for proper equipment a reasonable distance from the farm. The machine cannot be
operated profitably unless there is enough acreage within driving range and farmers cannot find a profitable
market unless there is machinery to handle the crop. Another obstacle is
that the blossom of the female hemp plant contains marijuana, a narcotic, and it is impossible to grow hemp
without producing the blossom. Federal regulations now being drawn up require registration of hemp growers, and
tentative proposals for preventing narcotic production are rather stringent.
However, the connection of hemp as a crop and marijuana seems to be exaggerated. The drug is usually
produced from wild hemp or locoweed which can be found on vacant lots and along railroad tracks in every state.
If federal regulations can be drawn to protect the public without preventing the legitimate culture of hemp, this
new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and
industry.
"Popular Mechanics Magazine" can furnish the name and address of the maker of, or dealer in, any article
described in its pages. If you wish this information, write to the Bureau of Information, enclosing a stamped,
self-addressed envelope.
