� Area: FidoNet - Marijuana Chat ��������������������������������������������� Msg#: 1686 Date: 06-09-93 22:23 From: Northcoast OH NORML Read: Yes Replied: No To: All Mark: Subj: Fairbanks Comp. #2 ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ [...continued from previous posting] HEMP. On the Culture and Preparing Hemp in Russia, transmitted by the Hon. John Quincy Adams, Minister at St. Petersburgh, March 1810. In Russia, when the season is mild, the Hemp seed is sown about the first of June, old style. -- The richer the soil of the land employed for it, the better. A chetwirt of seed, (100 chetwirts are equal to 75 quarters, Winchester measure,) is sown on a piece of land of 80 fathoms (English feet) long, and 60 fathoms broad. The land is first ploughed and harrowed, and, about 200 single horse loads of dung being spread upon it, it is left for six days, when it is again ploughed, and the seed sown and harrowed the same day. In about four months the seed becomes ripe, and the hemp is then pulled up with the roots; if it be allowed to remain too long in the ground, it is apt to become harsh. It is bound into heads or bunches of four handfuls each; these are hung upon sticks placed horizontally, thus X--O--0--O--O--O--O--X and allowed to remain so for two days. It is then made into cut or thrashed hemp, as may be agreeable. The cut hemp is made by chopping off the heads containing the seed. These are put into the kiln, and, after remaining there for eighteen hours, the seed is beaten out. If thrashed hemp is to be made, the heads or tops must not be cut off, but the bunches of hemp, placed entire in the kiln, and, if the weather be warm, it will be sufficiently dry in three days, when the seed must be thrashed out of the heads. In either case, three days after the seed is separated from it, the hemp must be put to steep or rot, either in a stream or a pond, and that the hemp may be entirely immersed, it is put under wooden frames upon which stones are placed, or, where they are not to be had, earth is substituted, after the frames are covered with planks. the clearer and purer the water, the better will be the color of the hemp. Where water is warm, three weeks steeping will be sufficient, but, if cold, as in rivers, springs &c. five weeks or longer may be necessary. At the expiration of this period, a head of hemp is taken out and dried; if, on beating and cleaning it, the husk comes off, the hemp may then be taken out of the water but if the husk still adheres to it, it must be allowed to remain some time longer. This trial must be repeated from time to time, till the husk separates, when the hemp must be taken out of the water, and suspended to dry, as directed before, on its being taken off the ground. The hemp is now to be made into two sorts, distinguished by the names of Spring and Winter hemp; the former being dry and rather of a withered appearance, the latter more moist, and a fine brownish green color, containing more of the vegetable oil, and, therefore, the most apt to heat, though, if not shipped at Petersburg or Riga, before September, there is not much risk of its heating any more on board the ships, especially on short voyages, as to England, and is, the best fit for cables. If it be intended that the hemp should be early ready for market, it is made into Winter hemp by the following process: On being taken out of the water, it is left suspended in the open air about a fortnight, when it is put into the kiln for twenty-four hours, after which it is broken by means of a hand-mill, and the wooden instruments, of the shape of a large two-edged knife, lastly, to unravel it, it is drawn through a wooden comb, or card, with one row of wide wooden teeth, fixed perpendicularly. The hemp is then laid up or suspended in sheds, and is fit to be sorted, bound into bundles, and loaded into the barks. The hemp to be prepared as Spring hemp, is allowed to remain suspended, and exposed to the weather the whole winter, until it be dried by the sun in the spring, when it is broken and cleaned in the same manner as the Winter hemp. As the greatest part of the summer elapses before it can be made fit for the market none of this hemp reaches St. Petersburg until the following spring, that is, two years after it was sown. The hemp is sown in the same manner as linseed, rye, or wheat; land, of a sandy soil, may also be employed for it, but it must be strongly manured, otherwise it will be too short, and a flat country should always be preferred. One chetwirt of seed commonly yields 25 loads (upwards 36 pounds English) of hemp, and twelve chetwirts of hemp seed. [FROM DEAN'S NEW ENGLAND FARMER.] This plant is tap-rooted, and therefore does best in a deep and free soil. It is luxuriant and quick in its growth, and therefore requires a rich and well prepared soil. The soils which have been found to suit it best, are a rich gravelly loam, or a rich black mould, which is dry and deep. It is an error to think that it needs a wet soil, for it bears drought almost equally with any plant that we cultivate.* -!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- *NOTE. -- Some farmers have fallen into this error the present season, and will probably be disappointed in their expectations of a crop. Others have planted upon cold, shallow, heavy soil, vainly anticipating a crop of hemp where nothing else will grow. The judicious, enterprizing farmer will see the impropriety of forming an opinion as to the profits of a hemp crop, founded upon such premises. The statements of Messrs. Barnum, Lathrop, Parker, and others, predicated upon actual and successful experiment, it would seem, must satisfy the most incredulous that this branch of agriculture may be profitably pursued in this country; and any failure not incident to other crops must result from want of experience in the proper selection of soil, or from improper management. -!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- To prepare land for a crop of hemp, the land should be ploughed to a good depth in the fall of the year preceding. If it be green-sward land, it should be ploughed as early as August or September, that the sward may be perfectly rotten. And if it were ploughed in ridges it would be better, and fit for sowing the earlier. -- And by cross ploughing and harrowing in the spring, it should be made extremely fine and mellow. A little dung should be applied, if the land be not in the best heart; and the fall is the best time to apply it. But if composts are used, they should be laid on just before sowing. The time of sowing the seed is as early in the spring as the soil can be got in good order, as it is a plant that is not easily injured by frost; but the middle of May will not be too late. "The quantity of seed for an acre, in the broad-cast way, is three bushels; but half that quantity, in the drill method, will be enough. -- If the land be poor, a smaller quantity will serve. The ground should be watched after sowing, that birds do not take away the seeds. The great profit on a crop of hemp, and its being an article that will readily command cash, should recommend the culture of it to our farmers. Persons need not fear their crops will lie upon their hands, when they consider the vast sums of money which are yearly sent to other countries for this article, almost enough to deprive the country of a medium, and how naturally the demand for it will increase as it becomes more plenty. There is no reason to doubt of success in raising hemp if the soil be suitable, and well prepared -- for it is liable to no distemper -- cattle will not destroy it, unless it be with their feet and it is an antidote to all sorts of devouring insects. Neither is the plant difficult as to climate. Though the hottest climates do not suit it, temperate and cool ones do -- and it has been found by the small trials that have been made, to thrive well in the various parts of New England. The most northern parts are very suitable for the growing of hemp -- the southern are equally so. [Continued on next posting...] Help Fight Back - Support Your Local NORML Chapter! Northcoast Ohio NORML Chapter Contact: John Hartman Phone: +[1]-216-521-WEED -!- ! Origin: Amiga University +[1]-216-637-6647 [Cortland, OH] (1:237/533.0)