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? Area: FidoNet - Marijuana Chat ?????????????????????????????????????????????
Msg#: 1691 Date: 06-09-93 22:25
From: Northcoast OH NORML Read: Yes Replied: No
To: All Mark:
Subj: Fairbanks Comp. #7
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[...continued from previous posting]
[FROM THE AMERICAN FARMER]
Cultivation and Preparation of Hemp as practiced in Kentucky.
The most fertile of our lands are selected for the production of hemp, and
that which has been used as meadow or pasture for a long time, is preferred to
any other, experience having proved that it is best adapted to the purpose.
This (if practicable) is ploughed late in the autumn, and exposed, untrodden by
stock, to the frosts of winter; ploughed again immediately preceding the sowing
of the seed. Great care is taken to harrow the ground until the clods are
completely broken, and to give it as even a surface as can be produced by the
use of the common harrow.
The seed is sown from the 20th of April to the middle of May, (after spring
is over,) at the rate of from a bushel and a fourth to a bushel and a half per
acre, and twice harrowed. The crop then requires no further attention until it
is cut. Its fitness for the knife must be determined by the appearance of the
hemp, and not by the length of the time it has been growing, or the season of
the year. The indications of a fitness for cutting are a change in the colour
of the leaf from a deep green to a yellow, and the rising, upon the least
agitation, of vegetable dust from the hemp. The ripening of the crop is
generally partial and unequal in different parts of the same field, and regard
ought to be paid to that circumstance in cutting it, taking such portions of it
first as give the strongest indications of ripeness. It is not necessary or
proper to wait for decided change of color in all the leaves, before the
harvest commences; on the contrary, it is more advantageous to commence when
the change is only partial, and as soon as the dust spoken of begins to rise,
or is produced by agitating the hemp with a stick or the hand. In Kentucky,
the practice of cutting hemp has in a great measure superseded the old practice
of pulling it by the roots, and is found to be generally preferable, being less
laborious, and rendering the hemp better and easier to handle. The operation
is performed with a knife, (commonly called a hemp hook,) made somewhat in the
shape of a sickle, but heavier and not so long, and having a smooth and sharp
edge. As the hemp is cut, it is spread upon the ground from which it is taken,
and permitted to remain there until the leaves are well wilted, and will easily
separate from the stalks. It is then gathered into sheaves, but not bound, and
the leaves beaten off with a stick, and immediately immersed, if water rotting
is intended; if not it is set up in stacks of from three to five feet in
diameter at the ground and tied closely together at the tops so as to prevent
it from falling; the middle of the stack is left hollow to give it air near the
earth. It is then suffered to stand until perfectly dry, when it is separated
and bound into small sheaves, and put into stacks or ricks, and secured by a
covering of boards or straw, to secure it from getting wet in the interior of
the stack. It can, however, be so stacked as to be secured from water without
any other covering than a thatch of hemp, but some skill to be acquired only by
practice is necessary to do it well.
It remains in the stack until the season for rotting arrives; it is then
taken down and spread out (on grass if to be had,) as equally as possible, and
exposed to the weather until it is found to be ready for the brake. (Our
western autumns and winters are attended with so little snow as to give us a
choice of time from September until February for rotting.) Care must be taken
to take the hemp up as soon as it is fit for the brake, or a loss will be
sustained. (If, however, it should be found at any time to be injured by too
long exposure, it is not thrown away, but again stacked, and brought to the
brake the succeeding year, when it will be found to have regained its strength,
if not absolutely rotted before it was taken up.)
When ready for the brake, we take it from the ground and stack it in small
stacks, as in the first instance after cutting, and then proceed to break it,
on brakes made on the plan of a common flax brake, but much larger, say from
five to six feet in length, having the slats much deeper and wider apart, and
wider in proportion at the head of the brake than the flax brake. With such a
brake, a good laborer will break 100lbs. in a day in February, and some will
break double that quantity. The seed is raised by planting in hills like
Indian corn, planting four or five seeds and pulling all out but the most
thrifty plant. A single acre of rich land has been known to produce 60 bushels
of seed. We are very little in the habit of water rotting our hemp, but what
has been thus prepared is found to be equal to the best Russian hemp; from
three to five days, in a very warm season, is found to be sufficient for this
process, if the water be stagnant; longer if running.
An opinion prevails where the cultivation of hemp is not common, that it is
a very exhausting crop. The fact however, is otherwise, and we cultivate three
sucessive crops on the same land with less exhaustion than is occasioned by
either the corn or wheat crop; and no crop leaves the ground so light as to
entirely destroy the production of weeds.
A KENTUCKIAN.
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METHOD OF HARVESTING FOR THE SEED AND LINT.
The following letter on the subject of harvesting hemp, for seed or lint,
is well entitled to the particular attention of hemp growers in this section,
-- where but little practical knowledge exists as to this important article.
The value of Mr. Hines' remarks will be obvious to every experienced farmer,
and when he perceives the ease with which hemp is cultivated and looks to the
extensive home market secured to it by the tariff, he can no longer hesitate as
to the policy of turning his attention to the production of an article for
which there must always be a high demand.
"There is no invariable rule as to the time of cutting hemp planted for
seed, by the general complexion of either the male or female; but particular
care must be had to the colour of the seed, when the hull that encloses it is
taken off. The seed should be generally changed to a grey or brownish cast.
If two-thirds of the seed wear that appearance, the sooner you cut the better.
It should be bound in small bundles immediately after cutting, and set up in
small stacks, -- from four to six bundles in a stack -- binding in all the
branches, by putting three bands round the same near the top of the shocks or
stacks. It may stand in this situation until dry enough to thresh, -- say five
or ten days, as the weather may be for drying.
"The seed may be threshed in the field on sheets made of strong cloth, or
on a floor. Great care should be used in moving the hemp to the place of
threshing. If threshed in the field, it should be moved on a cloth attached to
two poles, to save the loose seed. If removed to a barn, it should be done on
a cart or wagon, with a cloth or tight box.
"We clean with a common fanning mill, taking care to give the proper speed,
and to gauge every part to suit the weight of the seed.
"After the seed is cleaned and put into bins or casks, it will be well to
shovel it over, to prevent it from heating. I am quite sure that seed kept from
heating and from wet will be good as long as three ;years, if kept cool in the
summer.
"If your hemp is sown broadcast, and you design to save the seed, cut it
when about half the seeds have begun to change their colour, and proceed as
above directed -- only you will thresh it in four fair days, without breaking
the bundles, and put the hemp under cover to completely cure, -- and when
thoroughly cured, you may thresh again, breaking the bands as other grain.
"Mr. Lewis Buffett, of Schaghticoke, the last year, sowed five bushels of
seed on two and a half acres of land. -- He cut his hemp with a cradle, and
practised as here directed. He saved sixty-six bushels of seed, of a good
quality; and his share of the hemp sold for seventy-two dollars, after paying
for the dressing in hemp. -- Total value of the lint, one hundred and eight
dollars. Such hemp, when broken in an unrotted state, and subjected to a water
process after breaking, and properly cleaned, will equal the best Russian hemp.
"We use the common corn cutter for cutting planted hemp; but use it
carefully, so as not to jar off the seed.
"In all cases where you wish to save the lint, you will be careful to put
the stem under cover as soon as you can, to prevent it from being stained by
the weather.
I am, in great haste, your obd't serv't.
JOSEPH HINES."
Stillwater, N.Y. Aug.21, 1828.
[Continued on next posting...]
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