147 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
147 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
From The NY Transfer BBS 718-448-2358
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SAVING TREES WITH GRASS
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Aldis Ozols
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Visitors to Toulouse, France, are confronted by the sight of
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more than 8,000 hectares of lush marijuana plants waving gently
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in the breeze, while in the central USSR, over 40,000 hectares
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are under cultivation. These are not the hallucinations of
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terminal dope-fiends, but government-backed plantations used to
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supply raw material for paper manufacture. In Australia, the
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Industries Assistance Commission is considering hemp farming as
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one of the alternatives to woodchipping old-growth forests.
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The exclusive use of trees from virgin forest in paper
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manufacture is a disease of the latter part of this century.
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Paper, of course, has been an integral part of human civilization
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for thousands of years. Common teaching has it that the Egyptians
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produced the first crude writing material by pounding soaked
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papyrus reeds on flat rocks to fashion a coarse form of paper. In
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fact, for thousands of years before this the Chinese had been
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creating a fine and durable paper with fiber pulp derived from
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the common hemp plant, of the family Cannabanaceae.
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Indeed, until the first third of this century the marijuana
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plant was the dominant source for paper production. Most
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surviving texts from last century, including practically all the
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bibles and encyclopedias, were printed on hemp paper directly, or
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on so-called "rag paper" from cloth originally derived from hemp
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fiber.
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By far the bulk of hemp fiber was produced to supply the needs
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of wind-propelled navies. In fact, the word 'canvas' is a Dutch
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derivative of 'cannabis'. With the replacement of sail by steam
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power the area under cultivation contracted greatly. The
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development of synthetic fibers and high speed, large output
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automated production processes made further inroads into the
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demand for natural fibers. This was exacerbated by the slow
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development of machinery capable of processing hemp fiber on a
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large and economical scale, such as that developed for the cotton
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industry.
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A further factor was the political suppression of the use of
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marijuana by some disadvantaged minorities in American society.
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After thousands of years of productive cultivation by many
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different cultures it was deemed necessary to apply the full
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force of the police and judiciary to eradicate this "threat" to
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humanity.
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Even so, the extremely favorable weight to strength ratio of
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hemp fiber retains for it a place in industry. Most readers would
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be familiar with hemp rope and hemp fiber widely available at
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hardware stores for plumbing purposes, and some of the finest
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linens produced in the world are a blend of not flax and cotton
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but hemp and cotton. An extensive cottage industry in Italy
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produces clothing from hemp.
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This versatile plant also has properties that could save our
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native forests. Cellulose for paper derived from the cultivation
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of hemp occurs in two physical forms. The outer bark of the stem
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yields the long, strong fibers that have been used since time
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immemorial for rope and cloth. These have to be separated from
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the pith, or phloem, at the center of the plant by a process
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known as retting. What results from the separation process is
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referred to as hemp hurds and would generally be considered a
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waste product, but for the pioneering work of Lester Dewey of the
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US Department of Agriculture in 1916.
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In an attempt to increase the efficiency of the hemp industry,
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Mr Dewey conducted experiments with the paper manufacturers of
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his day to establish the suitability of hurd pulp as a paper
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substrate. Adapting existing processes, he found that a paper
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could be produced that satisfied all the requirements of the
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printing industry and, in fact, exceeded in strength and folding
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endurance that produced from wood stock. The importance of this
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work is that the usable yield per hectare is increased from
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approximately 160kg/hectare of long fiber to 1010kg/hectare of
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hurds for paper manufacture. Under these circumstances it is
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possible to produce as much paper from ten hectares of hemp as
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from forty hectares of trees!
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Also significant is the difference in lignin content between
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wood and hemp pulp. This averages 30-40% in wood but only 3-4%
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for hurds. It is the removal of lignin that requires much of the
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harsh chemical treatment that makes the current Kraft process
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such an environmental disaster.
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The large scale cultivation of hemp can be carried out in an
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environmentally sensitive fashion. The suitability of Australia
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as a location for hemp cultivation was established as early as
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1845, when Dr Francis Campbell conducted small scale experiments.
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He found that the loamy soils of the river flats from the Hunter
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region to Grafton provided ideal conditions. This land is
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presently devoted to cattle grazing, and along with much other
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Australian agricultural land, suffers from infestation of noxious
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weeds and gross soil erosion. As reported in Scientific American
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in 1915, two or three seasons of hemp cultivation will largely
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clear a field of weeds due to the dense shock of leaves produced,
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while the deep tap-root system aerates and stabilizes the soil.
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In fact, early farmers used hemp to prevent soil erosion after
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forest fires.
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Land already devoted to pasture can be readily adapted to hemp
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cultivation without disrupting dwindling native habitats. The
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leaf, which has no place in the paper-making process, makes an
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excellent fodder. Marijuana leaf is used to fatten stock in
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Borneo and other Asian countries with excellent results, while
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the seed, due to its high vegetable content, is currently widely
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used as a bird seed.
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It is not my intention in this article to debate the merits or
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otherwise of marijuana as a social drug. It is, however important
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to realize that while the plant grown for fiber and that
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cultivated for smoking are the same species, the conditions under
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which fiber plants must be grown render them totally unsuitable
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for drug use, with almost undetectable levels of THC.
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The possibility of using hemp fiber cultivation to save native
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forests in Australia is being researched by Dr Andrew Katelaris,
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who provided the information in this article. He can be contacted
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care of P.O.Box 451, Strawberry Hills, 2012, NSW, Australia.
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This article was originally published in Simply Living magazine,
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Volume 4, No 3, June 1990. Please credit if reprinted.
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Source: PeaceNet - gen.newsletters
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699
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The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK
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The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674
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Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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