1045 lines
59 KiB
Plaintext
1045 lines
59 KiB
Plaintext
HEMP SOURCE MATERIAL - Edited by Kind Bud of Colorado
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This file contains the following:
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o 1. June 1991 article from Pulp & Paper Magazine, "It's Time To
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Reconsider Hemp," by Technical Editor.
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o 2. May 2, 1991 Wall St Journal front page article about hemp.
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o 3. Feb 1938 Popular Mechanics article "New Billion Dollar Crop"
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o 4. Nov 1980 New Scientist article about French hemp industry.
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o 5. Excerpts from U S D A bulletin 404 on hemp
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o 6. Transcript of 1942 USDA film: "Hemp For Victory!" urging
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American farmers to grow hemp for the war effort. For years, the
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USDA denied the existence of this film.
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Additional free information about the many uses of hemp can be
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had by calling (303) 470-1100 from a touch tone phone. This is the
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Colorado Hemp Information Hotline. When connected, punch in ext 477 to hear
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a 10 minute recording of Hugh Downs' ABC 20/20 program on hemp. You
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may leave a message if you chose.
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............................................................................
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Contributor's note: the following is a reprint of an article
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which appeared in PULP & PAPER Magazine written by technical editor
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Jim Young. Pulp & Paper is a woodpulp industry trade journal.
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-=]*]=-
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IT'S TIME TO RECONSIDER HEMP
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By Jim Young
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Let me say up front that I have never smoked a commercially
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made cigarette, much less that devil weed with roots in hell.
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Passed through the '60s without a single pair of tie-died bell-
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bottoms. Identified more with Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muscogee"
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than Jim Morrison's "Light My Fire."
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Yet, I believe that Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa--yes, that
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Cannabis) has more to offer the paper industry than we are taking
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advantage of (or more correctly, we are ALLOWED to take advantage of.)
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Tradition, if not federal law, is on the side of hemp,
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starting with Ts'ai Lun himself. According to the book, THE EMPEROR
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WEARS NO CLOTHES, by Jack Herer, from 75% to 90% of the world's
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paper manufactured before 1883 was made from Cannabis hemp fiber,
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including the Gutenberg Bible and the first two drafts of the
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Declaration of Independence. Augmenting the tradition of hemp
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fiber, the USDA in 1916 predicted a papermaking future for
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nonfiberous portions of the hemp stalk in its Bulletin No. 404,
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HEMP HURDS AS PAPER-MAKING MATERIAL. Hemp hurds are 0.5-in. to 3
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in. pieces of the woody inner portion of hemp that have separated
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from the fiber. Hurds contain more than 77% cellulose.
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Reporting on papermaking tests with hemp hurds, the bulletin
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concluded, "Hemp-hurd stock acts similarly to soda-poplar stock,
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but will produce a somewhat harsher and stronger sheet and one of
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higher folding endurance...In fact, the hurd stock might very
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possibly meet with favor as a book-stock furnish in the Michigan
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and Wisconsin paper mills, which are within the sulphite fiber-
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producing region."
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A long-awaited mechanized breakthrough in removing the fiber-
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bearing cortex from the rest of the hemp stalk "without a
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prohibitive use of human labor" was described in a three page
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article in the February 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics entitled
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"The New Billion-Dollar Crop." Written at the time of the passage
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of the federal Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, the article included the
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challenge, "If federal regulations can be drawn to protect the
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public without preventing the legitimate culture of hemp, this new
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crop can add immeasurable to American agriculture and industry."
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This was not to be, however. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Tax
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Act uprooted the billion-dollar crop (1938 dollars) before it could
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be planted.
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It is the dried flowers and top leaves of the female Cannabis
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sativa, of course, that constitute marijuana. Without opening the
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debate on its legalization or the psychotropic effects of its
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delta-9 tetrahydrocannibal (THC) content, it is worth noting that
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interest in papermaking from hemp continues as our fiber, energy,
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and environmental concerns increase.
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The '70s was a decade of intensive study of Cannabis
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papermaking, particularly in Italy, France, Spain, and Holland.
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papermaking applications, depending on the cooking process and end
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use of the pulp. Concurrent research and selective breeding reduced
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THC content. In France, farmers must obtain low-THC Cannabis seed
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directly from the National Hemp Producers Federation, inform the
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Ministries of Health and Agriculture of their intent, and have a
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guaranteed purchaser of their crop.
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The high cost of limited production currently restricts hemp
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to specialty use such as European and Asian cigarette papers.
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Cannabis Hemp can probably be pulped in existing kenaf-pulping
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equipment, but it will take more than imported stock to make it
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economically feasible.
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Hemp is the world's primary biomass producer, growing ten
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tons/acre in approximately four months. It can produce four times
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the amount of paper than 20-year-old trees can and will grow in all
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climatic zones of the contiguous 48 states.
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Pyrolysis of hemp can be adjusted to produce charcoal,
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pyrolytic oil, gas, or methanol with a claimed 95.5% fuel-to-feed
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efficiency. Pyrolytic fuel oil has properties similar to Nos. 2 and
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6 fuel oil. Burning charcoal does not cause acid rain.
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U.S. hemp-growing restrictions were set aside to meet material
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shortages during World War II. They should now at least be modified
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to meet pending shortages of fiber, energy, and environmental
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quality.
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-=[*]=-
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END
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.................................................................
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Contributor's note: The following is reprinted from the Thursday,
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May 2, 1991 issue of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. It is a front page
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article by Sonia L. Nazario, Staff Reporter of The Wall St.
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Journal.
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WHAT IS AS VERSATILE AS THE SOYBEAN BUT ILLEGAL ANYWAY?
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Hemp Plants Yield Marijuana But Guru Jack Herer Sees Lots of Commercial Uses.
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Marijuana isn't just for smoking anymore. The hemp plant has
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about as many uses as the soybean.
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It can be made into a food something like tofu, or into a
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fabric not unlike linen. It can fire the pistons in your Ford. It
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can be made into plumbing and paper. It has medicinal properties.
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Indeed, the many real and conceivable uses of hemp strike some
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people as new and sufficient grounds to legalize marijuana. More
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than 20 years of failed efforts to legalize the drug call for new
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tactics, enthusiasts say.
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Time has pretty much passed the legalize-pot movement by.
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Alaska, which decriminalized the possession for personal use of
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small amounts of marijuana in 1975, decided last fall to
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recriminalize. As of March 3, possession isn't legal any longer in
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the 49th state; it's a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in
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jail and a $1,000 fine.
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BUDDING RENAISSANCE
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But Jack Herer, leaning back in his Venice, Calif. bungalow to
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light his marijuana pipe, continues to believe in hemp. He as much
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as anyone else is responsible for its budding renaissance. Mr.
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Herer, 51, has inspired more than 20 grass roots across the country
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that proselytize hemp. Cannabis Sativa, hempsters say, can "save
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the world" and thus should be legalized. The flowering tops and
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leaves are the parts of the hemp plant people smoke.
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Mr. Herer spent 17 years researching the uses of the fibrous
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stalks and oily seeds of the plant native to Asia, which
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historically has been used to produce fiber and pulp for cordage,
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canvas and paper. It still is cultivated legally in such countries
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as Italy and Yugoslavia. Mr. Herer has documents purporting to
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prove that the real reason the U.S. outlawed marijuana in 1937 was
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that a new hemp-harvesting machine had so enhanced the plant's
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commercial possibilities that it threatened the politically
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powerful producers of wood pulp.
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During one of his eight stays in jail (a two-week sojourn in
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1983 on a civil-disobedience charge), Mr. Herer turned his body of
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hemp lore into a 181-page manifesto, "THE EMPEROR WEARS NO
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CLOTHES," which since its 1990 reprinting has sold 35,000 copies at
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$12.95. He also has filed 36,000 signatures on petitions to get a
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hemp initiative on the California ballot next year. (Needed:
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385,000 signatures by July 20.)
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2nd part of front page article...POT GURU JACK HERER HAS NEW
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REASONS TO PROMOTE THE HEMP PLANT: FOOD, FUEL AND FASHIONABLE ATTIRE
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In recent months hemp groups inspired by Mr. Herer have begun
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turning up on college campuses, trying to rework hemp's image.
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"We realized that smoking pot [while] dressed in tie-dies in
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front of the White House wasn't getting us anywhere," concedes
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Chris Conrad, founder of the Business Alliance for Commerce in
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Hemp.
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Believers in San Francisco scrawl "burn pot, not oil"
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graffiti, even though the line has a whiff of the '60s about it.
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And from Washington to Los Angels, activists hoist "Hemp for Fuel"
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signs at rallies. Kentucky lawyer Gatewood Galbraith, a professed
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prolific pot smoker, hopes to ride his Hempmobile, a 1980 Mercedes-
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Benz that runs on hemp seed oil, to victory in this month's
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Kentucky Democratic gubernatorial primary. He isn't expected to
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win.
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Country star Willie Nelson, before his recent "HempAid"
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concert for Mr. Gailbraith in Louisville, remarked:"It's a shame
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farmers can't grow hemp." He says he's concerned about the family
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farm.
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The hemp lobby reveres history. Columbus trusted hempen sails.
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The founding fathers did their rough drafts of the Declaration of
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Independence on hemp paper. Hemp "is as much a part of the human
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condition as walking upright," insists Ronald Miller, a tool
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grinder in the aerospace industry who greases his long gray hair
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with oil pressed from hemp seeds.
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Advocates calculate that by planting 6% of the U.S. in hemp,
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enough oil could be produced to meet the country's energy needs.
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Hemp "tofu" ["hempfu"] and hemp gruel could help end world hunger.
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Hemp-based paper could save entire forests. (The argument here is
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that hemp plants yield four times the pulp of forested acreage.)
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Kimberly-Clark Corp. confirms that its French unit harvest hemp to
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make paper for Bibles and cigarettes.
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Experts in fuel and fiber (unlike enthusiasts) aren't all that
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high on hemp, however; they say it costs too much to use. Fiber
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importer says that hemp costs three times as much as wood pulp for
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paper production.
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But Mr. Herer, calling himself a "hemp savant," in his book
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offers $10,000 to anyone who can prove him wrong about Cannabis.
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SOURCE OF FINANCING
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In the 1970s Mr. Herer sold his Los Angeles sign-lighting
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maintenance business and opened and acquired two head shops, stores
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that sell drug paraphernalia. He used some of his profits to
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finance never successful attempts in California and Oregon to
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legalize marijuana.
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Mr. Herer, who says he smokes four joints a day, has protested
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marijuana laws by smoking grass outside the Los Angeles offices of
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the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement
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Administration. He and fellow advocates march in parades wearing
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tri-cornered hats and playing fife and drum to recall Colonial days
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when hemp was freely grown.
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Some of Mr. Herer's friends defected along the way, but he has
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remained true to his cause. Take, for instance, the matter of "Hemp
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for Victory," a 1942 film produced by the Agriculture Department
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that urged patriotic farmers to cultivate hemp for wartime
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(nonsmoking) uses. When the USDA a few years back denied that any
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such film existed, Mr. Herer journeyed to Washington and found an
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uncataloged copy at the Library of Congress.
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READING MATTER
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"This is a bigger cover-up than Iran-Contra," growls artist
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Genie Brittingham-Erstad, a husky-voiced San Gabriel, Calif.,
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hempster sitting outside the main federal building in downtown Los
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Angeles at a table heaped high with Hungarian hemp twine and copies
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of Mr. Herer's book.
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Mr. Herer has some authoritative backing when he talks up the
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medicinal benefits of marijuana, which have nothing to do with drug
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abuse. Cancer specialists say that tetrahydrocannabinol, the active
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ingredient in marijuana, can be helpful in treating nausea and in
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stimulating patients' appetites. According to a survey reported
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this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, nearly half of
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doctors polled said they prescribe marijuana if it were legal.
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(There are rare legal exceptions.)
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HEMP SHIRTS
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Hemp has so many commercial possibilities. Sativa Creations
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Inc., of Vancouver, sells Stoned Wear shorts and shirts, in the
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popular 45% cotton, 55% imported hemp blend. They come with or
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without the marijuana leaf logo prominently displayed, for
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customers who do or don't wear their sentiments on their sleeves.
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"Wrap yourself up in marijuana legally," the company advertises.
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Theodora Kerry, a California masseuse who says she has smoked
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bud and leaf for 25 years, is another die-hard, still optimistic
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about legalization. Her town, Santa Cruz, was once "hemp ignorant,"
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she says. So she helped found Cannabis Conversations and the Holy
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Hemp Sisters, which sponsored the recent Great Santa Cruz Hemp
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Revival and Community Extrava-Ganja.
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Hundreds of locals gathered in the town community center,
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forming a sacred circle as the Holy Hemp Sisters, beat drums and
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recited the virtues of hemp in producing food, fuel and clothing
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for a cold and hungry world.
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-=[*]=-
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END
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Contributor's Note: The detractors in the above article claiming
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that hemp is not an economical alternative to wood pulp are basing
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their claim on the price of IMPORTED hemp-hurds, not U.S. grown
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hemp!
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.................................................................
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Contributor's Note: The following is the famous
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February, 1938 article which appeared in POPULAR MECHANICS.
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-=[*]=-
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NEW BILLION DOLLAR CROP
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American farmers are promised a new cash crop within annual
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value of several hundred million dollars, all because a machine has
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been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. It
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is hemp, a crop that will not compete with other American
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products. Instead, it will displace imports of raw material and
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manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and peasant
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labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers
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throughout the land.
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The machine which makes this possible is designed for removing
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the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, making hemp
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fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human
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labor.
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Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile
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strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000
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textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody
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"hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more
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than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce
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more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.
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Machines now in service in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and
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other states are producing fiber at a manufacturing cost of half a
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cent a pound, and are finding a profitable market for the rest of
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the stalk. Machine operators are making a good profit in
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competition with coolie-produced foreign fiber while paying farmers
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fifteen dollars a ton for hemp as it comes from the field.
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From the farmers' point of view, hemp is an easy crop to grow
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and will yield from three to six tons per acre on any land that
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will grow corn, wheat, or oats. It has a short growing season, soil
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that it can be planted after other crops are in. It can be grown in
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any state of the union. The long roots penetrate and break the soil
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to leave it in perfect condition for the next year's crop. The
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dense shock of leaves, eight to twelve feet above the ground,
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chokes out weeds. Two successive crops are enough to reclaim land
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that has been abandoned because of Canadian thistles or quack
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grass.
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Under old methods, hemp was cut and allowed to lie in the
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fields for weeks until it "retted" enough so the fibers could be
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pulled off by hand. Retting is simply rotting as a result of dew,
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rain and bacterial action. Machines were developed to separate the
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fibers mechanically after retting was complete, but the cost was
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high, the loss of fiber great, and the quality of fiber
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comparatively low. With the new machine, known as a decorticator,
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hemp is cut with a slightly modified grain binder. It is delivered
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to the machine where an automatic chain conveyor feeds it to the
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breaking arms at the rate of two or three tons per hour. The hurds
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are broken into fine pieces which drop into the hopper, from where
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thy are delivered by blower to a baler or to truck or freight car
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for loose shipment. The fiber comes from the other end of the
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machine, ready for baling.
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From this point on almost anything can happen. The raw fiber
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can be used to produce strong twine or rope, woven into burlap,
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used for carpet warp or linoleum backing or it may be bleached and
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refined, with resinous by-products of high commercial value. It
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can, in fact, be used to replace the foreign fibers which now flood
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our markets.
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Thousands of tons of hemp hurds are used every year by one
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large powder company for the manufacture of dynamite and TNT. A
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large paper company, which has been paying more than a million
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dollars a year in duties on foreign-made cigarette papers, now is
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manufacturing these papers from American hemp grown in Minnesota.
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A new factory in Illinois is producing fine bond papers from hemp.
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The natural materials in hemp make it an economical source of pulp
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for any grade of paper manufactured, and the high percentage of
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alpha cellulose promises an unlimited supply of raw material for
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the thousands of cellulose products our chemists have developed.
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It is generally believed that all linen is produced from flax.
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Actually, the majority comes from hemp--authorities estimate that
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more than half of our imported linen fabrics are manufactured from
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hemp fiber. Another misconception is that burlap is made from hemp.
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Actually, its source is usually jute, and practically all of the
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burlap we use is woven by laborers in India who receive only four
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cents a day. Binder twine is usually made from sisal which comes
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from Yucatan and East Africa.
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All of these products, now imported, can be produced from
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home-grown hemp. Fish nets, bow strings, canvas, strong rope,
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overalls, damask tablecloths, fine linen garments, towels, bed
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linen and thousands of other everyday items can be grown on
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American farms. Our imports of foreign fabrics and fibers average
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about $200,000,000 per year; in raw fibers alone we imported over
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$50,000,000 in the first six months of 1937. All of this income can
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be made available for Americans.
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The paper industry offers even greater possibilities. As an
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industry it amounts to over $1,000,000,000 a year, and of that
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eighty per cent is imported. But hemp will produce every grade of
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paper, and government figures estimate that 10,000 devoted to hemp
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will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average pulp land.
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One obstacle in the onward march of hemp is the reluctance of
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farmers to try new crops. The problem is complicated by the need
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for proper equipment a reasonable distance from the farm. The
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machine cannot be operated profitably unless there is enough
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acreage within driving range and farmers cannot find a profitable
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market unless there is machinery to handle the crop. Another
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obstacle is that the blossom of the female hemp plant contains
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marijuana, a narcotic, and it is impossible to grow hemp without
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producing the blossom. Federal regulations now being drawn up
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require registration of hemp growers, and tentative proposals for
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preventing narcotic production are rather stringent.
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However, the connection of hemp as a crop and marijuana seems
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to be exaggerated. The drug is usually produced from wild hemp or
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locoweed which can be found on vacant lots and along railroad
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tracks in every state. If federal regulations can be drawn to
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protect the public without preventing the legitimate culture of
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hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture
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and industry.
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-=][=-
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Popular Mechanics Magazine can furnish the name and address of the
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maker of, or dealer in, any article described in its pages. If you
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wish this information, write to the Bureau of Information,
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inclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope. [offer made in 1938]
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-=][=-
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END
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Contributor's Note: The decorticator mentioned in the article
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promised to make hemp so cost-effective that its cultivation was
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seen as a threat by petrochemical, textile, paper, and other
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interests. With the ready assistance of the Hearst newspaper chain,
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a program of disinformation and hysterical propaganda was foisted
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upon the public, culminating in the passage of the Marijuana Tax
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Act of 1938: Marijuana Prohibition had begun.
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.................................................................
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Contributor's Note: The following article is from NEW SCIENTIST
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(British) 13 November 1980....written by Tim Malyon (previous
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coordinator of the Legalize Cannabis Campaign), and Anthony Henman,
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author of Mama Coca (Hassle Free Press, London, 1980) Also note:
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One hectare=10,000 sq. meters.
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-=[*]=-
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NO MARIHUANA: PLENTY OF HEMP
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French farmers are doing well out of the growing market for
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hemp fibres. British farmers could face 14 years in jail if they
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followed suit...
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Eight thousand hectares of EEC-subsidised cannabis growing in
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France--it seemed inconceivable. Our source of information,
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however, left little doubt as to its accuracy. The neat scientific
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pamphlets of the Federation Nationale des Producteurs de Chanvre
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(FNPC) could hardly be accused of pandering to the pot culture.
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Anxious to confirm the fact at first hand, we hopped on the early
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morning train out of Paris's Gare Montparnasse, and two hours later
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were met in Le Mans by the research officer of the FNPC. It was
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early in September, just as the harvest was getting into full
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swing. With a justified pride in his achievement, our contact
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showed us out to the experimental fields, where acre upon acre of
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the French type of monoecious hemp (with male and female flowers on
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the same plant) vied with the trial introductions of five-metre
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dioecious plants (only one sex per plant) from Italy, and thick-set
|
|
Lebanese bushes of the kind normally used for producing hashish.
|
|
Apart from these latter plants--a mere dozen or so, grown
|
|
exclusively for "comparative purposes"--we were assured that the
|
|
rest of the crop had been subject to selective breeding which
|
|
reduced the levels of THC--the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis-
|
|
-to virtual insignificance. On collecting a few "female flowering
|
|
tops" and smoking them in Paris later that same evening, we were
|
|
forced to concede the truth: French hemp is useless as a drug
|
|
plant, and the smoking of even large quantities of it succeeded
|
|
only in giving us a mild but irritating headache...
|
|
Hemp's history of service to human culture is as long as it is
|
|
diverse. The Neolithic "yang Shao" culture of China (4000 BC) is
|
|
believed to have used the long fibrous strands on the outside of
|
|
the cannabis stalk for rope and cloth. According to Professor Hui-
|
|
Lin Li, an economic botanist at the University of Pennsylvania,
|
|
cannabis seeds rich in protein, "were considered, along with
|
|
millet, rice, barley and soybean, as one of the major grains of
|
|
ancient China." The first paper was made of hempen rags, while the
|
|
earliest pharmacopoeia in existence, the Pen-ts'ao-Ching, states
|
|
that "the fruits of hemp...if taken in excess will produce
|
|
hallucinations [literally seeing devils.] If taken over a long
|
|
term, it makes one communicate with spirits and lightens one's
|
|
body." Writing in the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus
|
|
describes how the Scythians would purge themselves after funerals
|
|
by inhaling the smoke of hemp seeds thrown onto hot stones. "The
|
|
Scythians enjoy it so much that they howl with pleasure..."
|
|
Linguistic evidence indicates that in the original Hebrew and
|
|
Aramaic texts of the Old Testament the "holy anointing oil" which
|
|
God directed Moses to make (Exodus 30:23) was composed of myrrh,
|
|
cinnamon, cannabis and cassia.
|
|
|
|
PRECIOUS PLANTS
|
|
Up to the middle of the last century France alone was
|
|
cultivating more that 100,000 hectares, whilst so precious was the
|
|
plant in Tudor England that Queen Elizabeth I exacted a bounty of
|
|
5 gold sovereigns on any farmer who did not cultivate it. The
|
|
reason for such a penalty was simple: hemp fibre is the strongest
|
|
vegetable fibre known to man, and can be grown easily and in a
|
|
single six-month cycle from April to September. Before the
|
|
introduction of tropical sisal and Manila hemp, it was essential
|
|
for the rope and canvas (the very word derived from cannabis,
|
|
according to the OED) used to outfit the Navy. An American
|
|
commentary on the 1764 Hemp Law governing importation from "His
|
|
Majesty's colonies into Great Britain" notes the necessity to
|
|
"render their mother country independent of certain northern powers
|
|
(mainly the Baltic States) upon whom her former dependence, for a
|
|
supply of naval stores, has been frequently very precarious."
|
|
This strategic aspect of cannabis as a basic fibre source
|
|
reappeared for a short while during the Second World War. In the
|
|
wake of Pearl Harbour and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines,
|
|
the US was cut off from its supplies of Manila rope and twine, and
|
|
made considerable efforts to revive its by then sagging hemp trade.
|
|
Planters' manuals were rapidly reprinted, and the estimated area
|
|
under cultivation increase from 585 hectares in 1939 to 59,500
|
|
hectares in 1943. By 1946 the total had dropped back to 1950
|
|
hectares and the industry was on its way to extinction in the
|
|
industrial West.
|
|
A number of factors combined to bring about this state of
|
|
affairs. The production of high-quality hemp fibre is a labour-
|
|
intensive business. The hemp stalks must be dried in the field,
|
|
then transported to a "retting pit" where they are left in water
|
|
for several days to start the process of separating the fibre from
|
|
the woody core (known as hurds) of the stalk. The retted plants are
|
|
then taken back to the farm to be dried out in buildings similar to
|
|
hop oast houses. The stalks are passed through what is essentially
|
|
a large mangle separating fibre from broken hurd. The hurds are
|
|
then shaken out, and after "scutching and heckling" (a process of
|
|
cleaning and separating individual strands) the long, strong fibres
|
|
are ready for spinning and weaving. In a pre-industrial society,
|
|
the bulk of this work could be carried out during the winter when
|
|
farmers had little to do. With the importation of cheap tropical
|
|
fibers and the demise of the sail, however, such labour-intensive
|
|
work no longer proved financially viable. A mechanical hemp
|
|
"breaker" was introduced in the early 1900s, but it had arrived too
|
|
late to save a trade which by then was having to cope with
|
|
international cannabis prohibition and a new image for the plant,
|
|
from essential crop to assassin of youth.
|
|
Synthetic textiles also helped hasten hemp's decline, as so,
|
|
too, did the 19th century introduction of the chemical woodpulping
|
|
process. As already mentioned, hemp textiles were one essential
|
|
source for rag paper. After the Second World War, for instance,
|
|
Robert Fletcher and Sons, the paper manufacturer owned by the
|
|
Imperial Tobacco Group, brought up large stocks of Nazi
|
|
concentration camp uniforms made from hemp, which it converted into
|
|
paper. Since then, Fletchers has stopped using textiles for paper
|
|
because it is almost impossible to obtain them free of synthetic
|
|
materials which wreak havoc on the machinery. It now imports raw
|
|
hemp fibres from France.
|
|
For, curiously enough, as wood-pulp paper replaced rag paper
|
|
and hemp textile products disappeared from the market, a new
|
|
process was being developed in France that used the raw hemp fibres
|
|
for the production of high-quality, strong papers. The fibre is
|
|
extremely resilient and ideal for the manufacture of cigarette
|
|
paper, which must combine high tensile strength with extreme
|
|
lightness. Fibre for paper is cheaper to produce than fibre for
|
|
textiles, because it needs neither to be as long nor of such high
|
|
quality. Paralleling the growth in the consumption of illicit,
|
|
high-THC forms of cannabis, the new hemp cigarette paper industry
|
|
was launched in the early 1960s in France, and established its
|
|
present prominence in the halcyon years between 1967 and 1971.
|
|
Statistics show a decline in the area of French cannabis sown for
|
|
textiles from 1084 hectares in 1961 to 147 hectares in 1968, the
|
|
last year for which official records of this type of cultivation
|
|
exist. In contrast, areas dedicated to paper production increased
|
|
from 61 hectares in 1961 to 3181 hectares in 1968, peaking at
|
|
10,595 hectares in 1977.
|
|
The growth of this new market for the plant in France was
|
|
accompanied by a radical restructuring of the economics of the hemp
|
|
business. Though a few farmers grow the crop principally for the
|
|
sake of the subsidies they receive (1405 francs per hectare last
|
|
year), the bulk of current production comes from mechanised
|
|
concerns with high levels of productivity. One of the great
|
|
advantages of hemp for farmers lies in its use as a rotation crop,
|
|
breaking up the soil with its deep root system and also eliminating
|
|
weeds, thus leaving the land ready for the direct sowing of a
|
|
winter wheat crop before the arrival of the first frosts. An
|
|
enthusiastic response to this potential has brought about the
|
|
large-scale introduction of hemp into areas where it was not
|
|
traditionally cultivated, and in Bar-sur-Aube, for instance, 200 km
|
|
south-east of Paris, a flourishing cooperative has been established
|
|
to represent the interests of part of the new hemp agribusiness.
|
|
There, 93 farmers helped finance their own breaking mill which in
|
|
1978 was processing 2500 hectares of hemp.
|
|
|
|
STREAMLINED MECHANIZATION
|
|
A certain amount of trade secrecy surrounds the exact
|
|
mechanical process involved in "breaking" the dried hemp stalks and
|
|
separating bast fiber--the phloem fibres, most suitable for paper
|
|
production--from the woody hurds. The director of the Bar-sur-Aube
|
|
cooperative politely refused us saying that as he sold 20 per cent
|
|
of his product to England, he did not wish to encourage "English
|
|
competition." The De Mauduit mill likewise refused to receive us,
|
|
even though the FNPC intervened on our behalf.
|
|
Their reticence is understandable. It is streamlined
|
|
mechanisation in the breaking mills which has made the production
|
|
of crude bast fibre for paper much more cost-effective when
|
|
undertaken on a large industrial scale. Not surprisingly this new
|
|
system has led to an ever-increasing centralisation of the hemp
|
|
business. Various small mills were involved in the early 1960s, but
|
|
in the past decade the field has narrowed to two major concerns,
|
|
besides the Bar-sur-Aube cooperative. One is the relatively
|
|
traditional Job cigarette paper company in Toulouse, and the other
|
|
giant De Mauduit factory in Quimperele, which has prevailed over
|
|
all its competitors in the main hemp-growing areas of central and
|
|
north-eastern France. Its aggressive business acumen--De Mauduit is
|
|
actually a subsidiary of the US paper multinational Kimberly-Clark
|
|
who makes Kleenex tissues--is based upon a fine understanding of
|
|
the profitability of the trade: French farmers receive 435 francs
|
|
per tonne for the dried hemp stalks and De Mauduit charges 2500
|
|
francs for the prepared bast paper fibre, for which the British
|
|
paper maker ends up paying 650 Pounds per tonne. De Mauduit's
|
|
treated paper fibre, hemp pulp board, costs an astonishing 6500
|
|
francs per tonne.
|
|
Since the break mills have a virtual monopoly, the FNPC in Le
|
|
Mans is looking for ways of diversifying the market for the hemp
|
|
its members produce. Research is being undertaken into the
|
|
possibility of including a proportion of hemp in various coarser
|
|
grades of paper, including wrapping paper, as a means of
|
|
increasing strength. Some printing paper manufactures, including
|
|
the company that produces the glossy pages of Paris Match, are
|
|
considering introducing a proportion of hemp into their paper pulp.
|
|
So far the only indication that British companies other than Robert
|
|
Fletcher and Sons are actively researching hemp's paper potential
|
|
comes from the Manchester University's Department of Paper Science,
|
|
which refused to divulge information on recent work in this area
|
|
because what information it had was a "trade secret."
|
|
Further potential for hemp in paper manufacture involves
|
|
utilising the plant's woody core, the hurds. While the average
|
|
fibre yield per hectare is approximately 185 kg, fully two-and-a-
|
|
half tonnes of hurds are produced from the same area. These are now
|
|
being sold for animal bedding and for producing building boards
|
|
with good sound-proofing properties. As far back as 1916, however,
|
|
the US Department of Agriculture carried out a number of semi-
|
|
commercial tests on the use of hurds for paper production and
|
|
concluded:"After several trials, under conditions of treatment and
|
|
manufacture which are regarded as favourable in comparison with
|
|
those used with wood pulp, paper was produced which received very
|
|
favourable comment both from investigators and from the trade and
|
|
which according to official tests would be classed as No.1 machine
|
|
finish printing paper." Not only could hemp hurds compete with wood
|
|
pulp on cost and quality, but they were also found to be far more
|
|
economical in terms of land use. "Every tract of 10,000 acres which
|
|
is devoted to hemp raising year by year is equivalent to a
|
|
sustained pulp producing capacity of 40,500 acres of average pulp-
|
|
wood lands." Despite a 1977 Italian study which found that this
|
|
usage remained commercially viable, paper companies are apparently
|
|
disregarding the potential for hurds, even though paper production
|
|
from hurds is much less polluting than from wood-pulp. Hemp hurds
|
|
contain on average 4 per cent lignin, as opposed to 18-30 per cent
|
|
in wood, and it is the effluent resulting from washing out the
|
|
lignin that causes the most serious pollution in the chemical
|
|
pulping process.
|
|
Some thought is now going into researching non-paper
|
|
applications for hemp products. At present seeds (farmers receive
|
|
10 francs per kg; average yield is 50 kg/ha) have a limited use,
|
|
being sold mainly as animal feed, bird food and anglers' bait.
|
|
However, cannabis seeds contain 30-45 per cent high protein oil,
|
|
which is edible, or may be used in future in paint production.
|
|
The French hemp industry is of course entirely disregarding
|
|
cannabis' textile potential, despite the fact that in Brittany some
|
|
small farmers still produce hempen sheets and other hard-wearing
|
|
cloth for their own use. We were informed in France that the
|
|
production of the high quality fibres required for textiles remains
|
|
prohibitively costly and that rope and sacking are imported from
|
|
Eastern Bloc countries where labour costs remain lower. Scottish
|
|
hemp fiber importers obtain a large percentage of their material
|
|
from Poland. According to our research, the finest hemp cloth has
|
|
always been produced by the Chinese and Italians, and Yugoslavia,
|
|
India and Japan are still producing hemp textiles, the latter in
|
|
combination with synthetic fibres.
|
|
What might be the future for a revitalised hemp fibre industry
|
|
in the UK? Certainly, the British paper-makers could not but
|
|
welcome any attempt to undercut prices they pay for imported hemp,
|
|
but in order to achieve this, considerable capital must be invested
|
|
in British breaking mills. However, what is possibly of more
|
|
interest than the now established use of fibre for high-quality
|
|
paper is the future of hemp fibre in textiles. Given careful
|
|
preparation, high-quality hemp cloth can be produced in Britain
|
|
that is both comfortable and more durable than any other natural
|
|
textile. A hemp/wool mix was once widely used in France, being
|
|
known generically as berlinge. Demand is growing for durable
|
|
natural fibre products where the public will pay a somewhat higher
|
|
price for a superior product. Certain clothing manufacturers in the
|
|
US have expressed an interest in hemp jeans (Levi Strauss's
|
|
original jeans were made from hempen sailcloth,) while the outdoor
|
|
equipment industry is also returning where possible to natural
|
|
fibres, and hemp might be ideal in, for instance, specialists
|
|
mountaineering backpacks. Given the mess in which the British
|
|
textile industry finds itself, such innovative ideas could well
|
|
bear fruit, particularly if the technology can be developed from
|
|
the existing machinery in the linen industry to keep the cost of
|
|
preparing weaving quality hemp fibre within reasonable limits.
|
|
All this, of course, presumes a more sensible government
|
|
attitude to British cultivation laws. (Cannabis stalks and seeds
|
|
are already legal, and can be safely imported.) While international
|
|
law governing cannabis cultivation makes a specific exemption for
|
|
industrial uses, no such exemption exists in British law, and
|
|
growers must obtain a special license from the Home Secretary. The
|
|
only farmer to apply for such a license in 1980 was refused. In
|
|
France, the law is more flexible, but no less precise. Farmers must
|
|
have a guaranteed purchaser of their crop and must obtain their
|
|
official, low-THC seed directly from the FNPC, informing the
|
|
Ministries of Health and Agriculture of their intentions. Such a
|
|
model could easily be introduced into this country in conformity
|
|
with the Common Agricultural Policy. Since the rapid expansion of
|
|
the French industry furnishes proof of profit potential, British
|
|
farmers might be justifiably annoyed at being threatened with a 14
|
|
year jail sentence for growing a plant, generously subsidised by
|
|
the EEC on the continent, from which their French neighbours are
|
|
making good money. Or perhaps Her Majesty's government should sue
|
|
the EEC commissioners for conspiring to aid and abet a criminal
|
|
offence?
|
|
-=[*]=-
|
|
END
|
|
|
|
.................................................................
|
|
Contributor's Note: The following article is provided courtesy of
|
|
the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp (BACH), Historic Reprint
|
|
Series.
|
|
-=]*[=-
|
|
--Excerpted From U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin #404--
|
|
By Jason L. Merrill
|
|
US Dept. Of Agriculture Paper-Plant Chemist
|
|
October 14, 1916
|
|
INTRODUCTION:
|
|
Page 7
|
|
Since hemp hurds are to be treated in this report as a raw
|
|
material for the manufacture of book and printing papers, the
|
|
qualities, supply, probable future, and cost of the material will
|
|
be considered in comparison with wood in which it must compete.
|
|
There seems to be little doubt that the present wood supply can not
|
|
withstand indefinitely the demands placed upon it and ;, with
|
|
increased scarcity, economy in the use of wood will become
|
|
imperative. This effect is already apparent in many wood-using
|
|
industries.
|
|
COMPARISON TO WOOD:
|
|
Page 24
|
|
The most important point derived from our calculation is in
|
|
regard to areas required for sustained supply, which are in the
|
|
ratio of 4 to 1.
|
|
Every tract of 10,000 acres which is devoted to hemp raising
|
|
year by year is equivalent to a sustained pulp-producing capacity
|
|
of 40,500 acres of average pulp-wood lands. In other words, in
|
|
order to secure additional raw material for the production of 25
|
|
tons of fiber per day,m there exists the possibility of utilizing
|
|
the agricultural waste already produced on 10,000 acres of hemp
|
|
lands instead of securing, holding, reforesting and protecting
|
|
40,500 acres of pulp-wood land.
|
|
The annual growth per acre, although decidedly in favor of
|
|
hurds, has little bearing on the project, because the utilization
|
|
of the hurds is subordinate to the raising of hemp, and the paper
|
|
manufacturer probably could afford to use only hurds resulting from
|
|
the hemp industry.
|
|
ADVANTAGES OF HEMP HURDS:
|
|
Page 9
|
|
Without doubt, hemp will continue to be one of the staple
|
|
agricultural crops of the United States. The wholesale destruction
|
|
of the supply by fire, as frequently happened in the case of wood,
|
|
is precluded by the very nature of the hemp raising industry.
|
|
Since only one year's growth can be harvested annually, the
|
|
supply is not endangered by the pernicious practice of over-
|
|
cropping, which has contributed so much to the present high hand
|
|
increasing cost of pulp wood. The permanency of the supply of hemp
|
|
hurds thus seems assured.
|
|
The favorable location geographically of the hemp regions in
|
|
relation to the pulp and paper industry is a factor of considerable
|
|
importance. The Kentucky region is not at present in a position to
|
|
supply hurds, as machine methods have not been adopted there to any
|
|
appreciable degree.
|
|
The Ohio and Indiana region, which at present has the greatest
|
|
annual tonnage with the prospect of an increase, is situated south
|
|
of the Wisconsin and Michigan wood-pulp producing region, and at a
|
|
distance from the eastern wood-pulp producing regions. Therefore,
|
|
it is in a favorable position to compete in the large Ohio and
|
|
Indiana markets.
|
|
Since, as will be shown, the hurd pulp acts far more like soda
|
|
poplar stock than sulphite stock, the competition would be
|
|
strongest from the eastern mills. In fact, the hurd stock might
|
|
very possibly meet with favor as a bookstock furnish in the
|
|
Michigan and Wisconsin paper mills, which are within the sulphite
|
|
fiber-producing region, where a considerable extension of the hemp
|
|
industry is anticipated.
|
|
CONCLUSIONS:
|
|
Page 25
|
|
There appears to be little doubt that under the present system
|
|
of forest use and consumption the present supply cannot withstand
|
|
the demands placed upon it.
|
|
By the time improved methods of forestry have established an
|
|
equilibrium between production and consumption, the price of pulp
|
|
wood may be such that a knowledge of other available raw materials
|
|
may be imperative.
|
|
Semi-commercial paper-making tests were conducted, therefore,
|
|
on hemp hurds, in cooperation with a paper manufacturer. After
|
|
several trials, under conditions of treatment and manufacture which
|
|
are regarded as favorable in comparison with those used with pulp
|
|
wood, paper was produced which received very favorable comment both
|
|
from investigators and from the trade which according to official
|
|
test would be classed as a No.1 machine finished printing paper.
|
|
TECHNICAL REPORT ON OPERATIONS INVOLVED IN PERFORMING A TEST:
|
|
Page 13
|
|
A complete test on hurds comprises seven distinct operations,
|
|
and the method will be described, operation by operation, in the
|
|
order in which they were conducted.
|
|
SIEVING:The hurds for the first test were not sieved to remove
|
|
sand and dirt, but the resulting paper was so dirty that sieving
|
|
was practiced in all subsequent tests. The hurds were raked along
|
|
a horizontal galvanized iron screen 15 feet long and 3 feet wide,
|
|
with 11 1/2 meshes per linear inch, the screen being agitated by
|
|
hand from below.
|
|
Various amounts of dirt and chaff could be removed,depending
|
|
on the degree of action, but it was found that if much more than 3%
|
|
of the material was removed it consisted chiefly of fine pieces of
|
|
wood with practically no additional sand or dirt' in most of the
|
|
tests, therefore, the material was screened so as to remove
|
|
approximately 3%. It became apparent that a finer screen would
|
|
probably serve as well and effect a saving of small but good hurds.
|
|
COOKING: Cooking is the technical term for the operation by
|
|
which fibrous raw materials are reduced to a residue of cellulose
|
|
pulp by means of chemical treatment. In these tests, about 300
|
|
pounds of hurds were charged into the rotary with the addition of
|
|
a caustic-soda solution, such as is regularly employed in pulp
|
|
mills and which tested an average of 109.5 grams of caustic soda
|
|
per liter, or 0.916 pound per gallon, and averaged 85% causticity.
|
|
Sufficient caustic solution was added to furnish 25% or 30% of
|
|
actual caustic soda, calculated on the bone-dry weight of hurds in
|
|
the charge.
|
|
After closing the rotary head, it was started rotating at the
|
|
rate of one-half revolution per minute, and in about five minutes
|
|
steam at 120 pounds per square inch was admitted at such a rate
|
|
that the charge was heated in one hour to 170 C, which is the
|
|
theoretical equivalent of 100 pounds of steam pressure per square
|
|
inch. It was found, however, that when the temperature reached 170
|
|
C the pressure was usually 115 or 120 pounds instead of 100 pounds,
|
|
due to air and gases closed in the rotary. At this point the rotary
|
|
was stopped and steam and air relieved until the pressure dropped
|
|
to 100 pounds, or a solid steam pressure.
|
|
The temperature was maintained at this point for the number of
|
|
hours required to reduce the hurds, which was found to be about
|
|
five, after this, the rotary was stopped and steam relieved until
|
|
the pressure was reduced to zero, the head was removed and the
|
|
stock was emptied into a tank underneath, measuring 5 1/2 by 2 feet
|
|
deep, where it was drained and washed.
|
|
Samples of waste soda solution, or 'black liquor,' which were
|
|
taken from some of the 'cooks' for analysis, were drawn while the
|
|
stock was being thus emptied into the drainer.
|
|
DETERMINATION OF YIELD: For determining the yield of cellulose
|
|
fiber, the water was sucked from the stock in the drain tank by
|
|
means of a vacuum pump communicating with the space between the
|
|
bottom and the false perforated bottom, leaving the fiber with a
|
|
very uniform moisture content throughout its entire mass and
|
|
weighing for a yield determination. Tests have shown that it is
|
|
possible to sample and calculate the yield of bone-dry fiber within
|
|
0.05% of the actual amount.
|
|
It has been found that stocks from different materials vary
|
|
greatly in their ability to mat in the drain tank, thereby enabling
|
|
a good vacuum to be obtained, some stocks permitting a 25-inch
|
|
vacuum to be obtained, while others will not permit more than five
|
|
inches. For this reason, the moisture control of the stock will
|
|
vary from 65% to 85%.
|
|
WASHING AND BLEACHING: Washing and bleaching were performed
|
|
for the purpose of bleaching the brown colored cooked stock to a
|
|
white product, since it was regarded as highly probable that the
|
|
fiber would be suitable for book-paper manufacture.
|
|
The colored stock was charged into a 400-pound beating and
|
|
washing engine of regular construction and washed about one hour,
|
|
the cylinder washer being covered with 60 mesh wire cloth in order
|
|
to remove fine loose dirt and chemical residues.
|
|
The washer was then raised, the stock heated by steam to about
|
|
40 C, and a solution of commercial bleaching powder was added in
|
|
the quantity judged to be as necessary, after which the stock was
|
|
pumped to a large wooden tank, to remain and bleach overnight. If
|
|
the stock was bleached sufficiently white it was drained and washed
|
|
from bleach residues. If not, more bleach was added until a good
|
|
color was obtained.
|
|
The bleaching powder used was estimated to contain 35% of
|
|
available chlorine, as this is the commercial practice, and the
|
|
amount required was calculated to the bone-dry weight of the
|
|
unbleached stock. More bleach is required for undercooked stock
|
|
than for stock which is properly cooked or overcooked; therefore,
|
|
the percentage of bleach required is an indication of the quality
|
|
of the cooked stock.
|
|
Since bleaching is usually more expensive than cooking it is
|
|
desirable to cook to such a degree that consumption of bleach will
|
|
be held within certain limits, depending on the raw materials used
|
|
and the quality of the paper to be produced. In these tests it was
|
|
desired to cook the hurds so that consumption of bleach would not
|
|
be over about 10% of the fiber.
|
|
FURNISHING: Furnishing is the operation of charging the
|
|
beating engine with the desired kind or kinds of fiber in the
|
|
proper proportion and amount and the adding of such loading and
|
|
sizing agents as may be necessary.
|
|
As shown in the record of results, the furnish in these tests
|
|
consisted of hurd stock alone and of various proportions of hurds,
|
|
sulphite fiber and soda fiber. The percentages to be given in the
|
|
record of the furnishes refer to the percentage of the total fiber
|
|
furnish, and this likewise applies to the loading and sizing
|
|
agents. In case sulphite or soda fiber was used, the commercial
|
|
product in the dry state was charged into the beating engine and
|
|
disintegrated, after which the hurd stock was added in the wet
|
|
condition.
|
|
BEATING: Beating is that operation concerning which the paper
|
|
makers often say "there is where the paper is really made."
|
|
Although the statement may not be literally true, it contains a
|
|
great deal of truth. It is the operation whereby the fibers are
|
|
separated from each other, reduced to the proper lengths, and put
|
|
in such a physical or chemical condition that they felt properly
|
|
and form into a satisfactory sheet.
|
|
It is probable that the quality of the sheet depends more upon
|
|
the proper beater action than upon any other single operation. The
|
|
action consists in drawing a water suspension of the fiber between
|
|
two sets of rather blunt knives, one set being located in the
|
|
bottom of a circulating trough and the other set on the periphery
|
|
of a roll revolving just above the former set of knives. It is
|
|
during this operation that the loading and sizing agents are
|
|
incorporated and the whole furnish is tinted either to produce a
|
|
satisfactory white or the desired color.
|
|
PAPERMAKING: The term "papermaking," as used in this
|
|
publication, means the operation of forming the finished sheet of
|
|
paper from stock which has been furnished and prepared in the
|
|
beater. In these tests, a 30-inch Fourdrinier machine of regular
|
|
construction was used-a machine which is often used for the
|
|
production of paper for filling regular commercial orders. The
|
|
machine is designed to cause the water suspension to fibers to flow
|
|
on to a traveling wire cloth, whereby the water drains away. More
|
|
water is removed by passing the wet sheet through a series of press
|
|
rolls, after which the sheet is dried on steam-heated drums and
|
|
passed through polished iron rolls, which impart a finish to the
|
|
sheet. A Jordan refining machine was employed in conjunction with
|
|
the machine to improve further the quality of the fiber, and a pulp
|
|
screen was used in order to remove coarse and extraneous materials
|
|
from the fiber.
|
|
-=]*[=-
|
|
This condensation presented as a public service by:
|
|
BUSINESS ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE IN HEMP
|
|
For more on the many uses of hemp, send $1 & a large, stamped self-
|
|
addressed envelope. For a catalog of documents, send $2 to
|
|
BACH, POB 71093, L A, CA 90071-0093 213/288 4152
|
|
-=]*[=-
|
|
END
|
|
|
|
.................................................................
|
|
Contributor's Note: The following is a Transcript of the Original
|
|
Film "HEMP FOR VICTORY!" produced by the U S Department of
|
|
Agriculture in 1942 to encourage American Farmers to grow hemp for
|
|
the War Effort...for years the USDA denied the existence of this
|
|
film. It was uncovered in the Library of Congress by Mr. Jack Herer
|
|
while doing research for his book :"The Emperor Wears No Clothes."
|
|
...
|
|
-=[*]=-
|
|
Long ago when these ancient Grecian temples were new, hemp was
|
|
already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even
|
|
then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and
|
|
elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850 all the
|
|
ships that sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and
|
|
sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was
|
|
indispensable.
|
|
A 44-gun frigate like our cherished Old Ironsides took over 60
|
|
tons of hemp for rigging, including an anchor cable 25 inches in
|
|
circumference. The Conestoga wagons and prairie schooners of
|
|
pioneer days were covered with hemp canvas. Indeed the very word
|
|
canvas comes from the Arabic word for hemp. In those days hemp was
|
|
an important crop in Kentucky and Missouri. Then came cheaper
|
|
imported fibers for cordage, like jute, sisal and Manila hemp, and
|
|
the culture of hemp in America declined.
|
|
But now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the
|
|
hands of the Japanese,and shipment of jute from India curtailed,
|
|
American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as
|
|
of our industry. In 1942, patriotic farmers at the government's
|
|
request planted 36,000 acres of seed hemp, an increase of several
|
|
thousand percent. The goal for 1943 is 50,000 acres of seed hemp.
|
|
In Kentucky much of the seed hemp acreages is on river bottom
|
|
land such as this. Some of these fields are inaccessible except by
|
|
boat. Thus plans are afoot for a great expansion of a hemp industry
|
|
as a part of the war program. This film is designed to tell farmers
|
|
how to handle this ancient crop now little known outside Kentucky
|
|
and Wisconsin.
|
|
This is hemp seed. Be careful how you use it. For to grow hemp
|
|
legally you must have a federal registration and tax stamp. This is
|
|
provided for in you contract. Ask your county agent about it. Don't
|
|
forget.
|
|
Hemp demands a rich, well-drained soil such as is found here
|
|
in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky or in central Wisconsin. It
|
|
must be loose and rich in organic matter. Poor soils won't do. Soil
|
|
that will grow good corn will usually grow hemp.
|
|
Hemp is not hard on the soil. In Kentucky it has been grown
|
|
for several years on the same ground, though this practice is not
|
|
recommended. A dense and shady crop, hemp tends to choke out weeds.
|
|
Here's a Canada thistle that couldn't stand the competition, dead
|
|
as a dodo. Thus hemp leaves the ground in good condition for the
|
|
following crop.
|
|
For fiber, hemp should be sewn closely, the closer the rows,
|
|
the better. These rows are spaced about four inches. This hemp has
|
|
been broadcast. Either way it should be sewn thick enough to grow
|
|
a slender stalk. Here's an ideal stand: the right height to be
|
|
harvested easily, thick enough to grow slender stalks that are easy
|
|
to cut and process.
|
|
Stalks like these here on the left yield the most fiber and
|
|
the best. Those on the right are too coarse and woody. For seed,
|
|
hemp is planted in hills like corn. Sometimes by hand. Hemp is a
|
|
dioecious plant. The female flower is inconspicuous. But the male
|
|
flower is easily spotted. In seed production after the pollen has
|
|
been shed, these male plants are cut out. These are the seeds on a
|
|
female plant.
|
|
Hemp for fiber is ready to harvest when the pollen is shedding
|
|
and leaves are falling. In Kentucky, hemp harvest comes in August.
|
|
Here the old standby has been the self-rake reaper, which has been
|
|
used for a generation or more.
|
|
Hemp grows so luxuriantly in Kentucky that harvesting is
|
|
sometimes difficult, which may account for the popularity of the
|
|
self-rake with its lateral stroke. A modified rice binder has been
|
|
used to some extent. This machine works will on average hemp.
|
|
Recently, the improved hemp harvester, used for many years in
|
|
Wisconsin, has been introduced in Kentucky. This machine spreads
|
|
the hemp in a continuous swath. It is a far cry from this fast and
|
|
efficient modern harvester, that doesn't stall in the heaviest
|
|
hemp.
|
|
In Kentucky, hand cutting is practicing in opening fields for
|
|
the machine. In Kentucky, hemp is shucked as soon as safe, after
|
|
cutting, to be spread out for retting later in the fall.
|
|
In Wisconsin, hemp is harvested in September. Here the hemp
|
|
harvester with automatic spreader is standard equipment. Note how
|
|
smoothly the rotating apron lays the swaths preparatory to retting.
|
|
Here it is a common and essential practice to leave headlands
|
|
around hemp fields. These strips may be planted with other crops,
|
|
preferably small grain. Thus the harvester has room to make its
|
|
first round with preparatory hand cutting. The other machine is
|
|
running over corn stubble. When the cutter bar is much shorter than
|
|
the hemp is tall, overlapping occurs. Not so good for retting. The
|
|
standard cut is eight to nine feet.
|
|
The length of time hemp is left on the ground to ret depends
|
|
on the weather. The swaths must be turned to get a uniform ret.
|
|
When the woody core breaks away readily like this, the hemp is
|
|
about ready to pick up and grey. The fiber tends to pull away from
|
|
the stalks. The presence of stalks in the bough-string stage
|
|
indicates that retting is well underway. When hemp is short or
|
|
tangled or when the ground is too wet for machines, it's bound by
|
|
hand. A wooden bucket is used. Twine will do for tying, but the
|
|
hemp itself makes a good band.
|
|
When conditions are favorable, the pickup binder is commonly
|
|
used. The swaths should lie smooth and even with the stalks
|
|
parallel. The picker won't work well in tangled hemp. After
|
|
binding, hemp is shucked as soon as possible to stop further
|
|
retting. In 1942, 14,000 acres of fiber hemp were harvested in the
|
|
United States. The goal for the old standby cordage fiber, is
|
|
staging a strong comeback.
|
|
This is Kentucky hemp going into the dryer over mill at
|
|
Versailles. In the old days braking was done by hand. One of the
|
|
hardest jobs known to man. Now the power braker makes quick work of
|
|
it.
|
|
Spinning American hemp into rope yarn or twine in the old
|
|
Kentucky river mill at Frankfort, Kentucky. Another pioneer plant
|
|
that has been making cordage for more than a century. All such
|
|
plants will presently be turning out products spun from American-
|
|
grown hemp: twine of various kinds for tying and upholster's work;
|
|
rope for marine rigging and towing; for hay forks, derricks, and
|
|
heavy duty tackle; light duty firehose; thread for shoes for
|
|
millions of American Soldiers; and parachute webbing for our
|
|
paratroopers. As for the United States Navy, every battleship
|
|
requires 34,000 feet of rope. Here in the Boston Navy Yard, where
|
|
cables for frigates were made long ago, crews are now working night
|
|
and day making cordage for the fleet. In the old days rope yarn was
|
|
spun by hand. The rope yarn feeds through holes in an iron plate.
|
|
This is Manila hemp from the Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves.
|
|
When it is gone, American hemp will go on duty again; hemp for
|
|
mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp
|
|
for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the
|
|
days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious with her hempen
|
|
shrouds and hempen sails. HEMP FOR VICTORY!
|
|
-=]*[=-
|
|
END
|
|
|
|
Contributor's note: This film can be view in the reading room area
|
|
of HEMPware, etc, 1090 S. Wadsworth, Unit D, Lakewood CO. HEMPware,
|
|
etc is Colorado's first hempery, carrying a variety of legal, non-
|
|
smoking hemp products such as clothing, hemp-seed oil, etc. They
|
|
also carry "The Emperor Wears No Clothes!" by Jack Herer...this is
|
|
the "bible" of the contemporary hemp movement.
|
|
Colorado, as well as several other states, will be attempting
|
|
to re-legalize hemp in 1992 by Citizen's Initiative Ballot Access.
|
|
Signatures of 50,000 registered voters are required during the
|
|
petitioning process. To learn more, call 303-470-1100 via touch-
|
|
tone-phone for free recorded information. Feel free to leave a
|
|
message.
|
|
-=]*[=-
|
|
|
|
***********************************************************************
|
|
* Upload this, and other hemp files, to all your favorite BBSes... we *
|
|
* are out-gunned in the mass media...we must use alternative *
|
|
* electronic means to teach everyone the truth about hemp. *
|
|
***********************************************************************
|
|
|
|
.END OF FILE
|