HEMP. The hemp plant proper, or "com mon hemp,° is Cannabis saliva, an annual plant belonging to the family Urticacca% The term hemp, however, is used to designate many other kinds of fibre which are in no way related to the common hemp, such as Manila hemp, from a plantain, sisal .hemp from an agave, bow string hemp, from a liliaceous plant, and 30 or more other kinds. The different kinds of com mon hemps are also specially designated, with prefixes, as Breton hemp, Piedmontese, Rus sian, English, China and Japanese hemps and many others, some of these being trade names, or the names of varieties. The hemp plant proper is a native of that part of Asia which includes China, India and Persia, though, like flax, its culture has been extended to many portions of the world in both temperate and tropical dimes. It was used by the Scythians 2,500 years ago, and it was probably known to the Chinese and Europeans many centuries earlier. The Romans used it for sails and cordage, but not until after the dawn of the Christian era. It grows wild in many parts of China and India, where it is regarded as much for its drug product known as Chang or hash eesh as for its fibre. It flourishes on both the east and west coasts of Africa, and has been naturalized in Australia, as well as in several South American countries. In Europe it is cultivated chiefly in France, Italy, Germany and central and southern Russia, and it will grow in Great Britain and Sweden. The plains of Hungary are peculiarly adapted to its culture. It is a favorite textile in China and Japan, the fibre from the last-named country being par ticularly strong and fine, and at the same time better prepared than many European hemps. The plant is an annual, the fibre being pro duced in the bark of the straight stiff stalks or stems, and is therefore a bast fibre. In the experiments of Roxburgh and others, Russian hemp is taken as the standard of comparison for all other fibres. The stems vary from 3 to 20 feet in height, dependent upon the variety and the soil in which grown. The best kinds have a hollow stem, the wood of which breaks down readily when cleaned for the fibre. While hemp is produced commercially in very few localities of the United States, it will thrive from ocean to ocean and from the Gulf to Canada. Its cultivation as a fibre crop is con fined chiefly to Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Wis consin and California, though considerable hemp, in past time, has been produced in New York, and to some extent in Illi nois, Nebraska and Minnesota. Lately it has been experimented with in the South, notably in Mississippi and Texas. The bulk of the crop is grown at the present time in Kentucky and California. The 1914 crop was the small est on record; said to be due to changes in the tariff and in part to the fact that the tobacco crop pays better.
The Kentucky hemp industry is very old, for the fibre was cultivated in the early part of the last century. The annual production, in 1859, reached a total of 75,000 tons, but 20 years later it had fallen off to such an extent that 5,000 tons only were recorded for the entire country. Since that time it has fluctuated be tween 5,000 and 12,000 tons as the total crop of the country, the annual production in 1914 being but Z000 tons. In that year the total acreage in the United States devoted to hemp growing was about 5,000 acres. Of this Ken tucky had 2,500 acres; Indiana, 1,000 acres; California, 600 acres; Ohio, 500 acres; Wiscon sin, 350 acres. The average acre-yields varied from 1,200 pounds of fibre in California to 600 pounds in Kentucky, and the farm price ranged from four and a half cents to eight cents. In Japan the annual crop is about 10,000 tons, all used in domestic industries; and Japan also imports 15,000 tons annually from India and China. Among the world's hemp producers Russia ranks first and China second.
In its own sphere of usefulness no sub stitute for hemp has been found satisfactory, American hemp was at one time used to some extent for the rigging of vessels, its largest use was for bagging. As early as 1824 it was employed in the navy, and efforts were made later by the government toward the production of better grades of hemp by water-retting. The fibre has also been used for twines and for woven fabrics. In late years the demand has been largely for a low grade fibre that could be manufactured into binder twine, but for this purpose it has not been found satisfactory, and the bulk of the binder twine is made from manila and sisal. Very recently there has been a demand for a better grade of fibre, which has resulted in more careful methods, particularly on the Pacific coast, where a fibre has been produced fit for fine twines and cordage. Kentucky and Illinois hemps are coarse, dark in color and are not carefully prepared, which is the reason for the low price of 3T/3 to 6 cents against 8 and 12 cents per pound for finer imported hemps. The best hemp comes from Italy, chiefly from the provinces of Bologna and Fer rara, the fibre being very white, very well pre pared and of superior strength. Breton hemp from France is almost as good, but rarely im ported. Russian comes in several grades, some light, but not as light as the Italian, some dark like the native fibre and low in grade. Some good hemp comes from Austria-Hungary, and a trifle from other portions of Europe. Little if any of the Japan fibre reaches this market, though the best Japanese is as good as the Italian. We consume annually less than 10,000 tons, including both the native and imported.