Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-05-21
THE HEMP INDUSTRY
BY Frederic j. Haskin

1t is probable that American history
does not present another such remarkable
decline of an industry as that shown by
the statistics of hemp growing. Fifty
years ago this season the high water
mark of American hemp production was
reached. The crop that year yielded 49,
100000 pounds of fibre, more than half OF
which was produced in the state of Ken
lucky. Today the annual production OF
the whole country amounts to less than
one-sxth as much as was grown in Ken
lucky in 1859. One county of the Blue
grass state produced as much hemp then
as the whole United States produces now.
The latest figures show that there are
about 1000 American farms on which
hemp is grown today, with an average of
1876 acres to the farm. The average yield
per acre was 1872 pounds. Kentucky has
IS per cent Of the acreage and about the
same proportion of the total crop is raised
there. Sixty-nine out Of every hundred
pounds OF hemp grown in the United
States is grown in FIVE counties of the
bluegress region of the state. Illinois,
Nebraska, and California grow nearly all
of the remaining IL per cent of the Amer
lean hemp crop.
The reason for the decline of hemp pro-
duction is closely connected with the in
vention of the steamboat. When Rumsey
and Fulton were inventing their steam
boats they were signing the death war
rant of the hemp industry. AS sail power
was swept from the seas by steam power,
the demand for canvas and rope fell off.
Then came cheaper hemp from other
quarters of the globe. and the decline of
profits to point below that which could
be made cultivating other crops which
will grow in bluegrass soil.
II is the opinion of the department
of agriculture that the American farmer
is losing millions of dollars by the refus-
al of American Irvine manufacturers to
use American hemp fibre in the making
of binder Irvine A score of years ago,
when the consumption of binder Irvine
was fifty thousand tons a year as COM
pared with 1250O0 tons today, the depart
ment estimated that If one-half Of II had
been made from American grown hemp
the saving to the farmer would have
amounted to 81, $50. 600 But the Irvine
makers would have nothing to do with the
proposal of the department that Ameri-
can hemp fibre should be used. They de-
clared It made soft Irvine" which was
not as satisfactory as sisal or Manila
Irvine. To this the department answered
with a letter from large harvester man.
ufacturer showing that American hemp
Irvine worked as satisfactorily any
other in the operation of the harvesters.
The efforts of the department never avail
ed to restore American hemp Irvine to
favor.
While the growing of hemp in the
United States has become a negligible
quantity, the importations of fiber have
increased at a rapid rate. We are annual
! ly spending some fifteen million dollars
for the hundred thousand tons of sisal
grass that are imported, S11, 100000 for the
$4,000 tons of Manila hemp, besides other
smaller items, and the importations are
expected to increase more than ever be-
fore. The Manila hemp produced in the
Philippines annually is equal in value
to the purchase price of the islands.
The hemp industry in the Philippines
had its birth some two and a half GER
turtles ago monk of the Franciscan or
der Padre Pedro Espallergas, impressed
with the poverty of the people, set to
work to train them in the growing of
hemp, and the separation of the fiber from
the stalk. 1t is related that he expert
enced great difficulty in overcoming tho
natural laziness of the people, but that
/ with certain rude instruments he was able
, to fashion, they were able to do the
work quite satisfactorily. These instru-
ments have been in use without important
, change from that day to this.
! The history of the hemp industry in the
United States is an interesting one. Vir-
! ginia tried to establish hemp growing in
A e
the house of burgesses that as a prepara-
/ ton for war, the county courts should
distribute to each tithable colonist a quart
of fax seed and a quart of hemp seed.
J in return for which there should be given
/ to the tithing master after the next harv-
est, one pound of dressed fax and one
pound of dressed hemp. or two pounds
Of either. under oath that the tithable
colonist had grown it. Later bounties were
offered for the production of dressed hemp
and flax. Colonel William Byrd, of West
over. was one of the hemp growers who
received bounties from the state. But
hemp growing never got to be a passion
with Virginians.
: Kentucky early got into the hemp-rais-
/ ing business and from the beginning Lex
ington has been the center Of the hemp
growing district Within twenty-five miles
: Of that town there has been more hemp
grown than in all the rest of North Amer
! lea together. 1t was at one time almost
as much of a legal tender to Kentuclxians
as gold and silver are to the people Of
today. Even the editor of the Kentucky
| Gazette advertised that he would be glad
to have subscriptions paid in hacked
hemp. Kentuckians and others saw great
visions of prosperity for Lexington by
reason of it's situation amid the hemp
! fields Hezekah Niles declared in his Reg
/ lister that Lexington promised them to
J be the great inland city of the western
world
Henry Clay never reached greater
/ heights of oratory than when he was
talking Of Kentucky hemp and Kentucky
women. In one speech in congress he
I told now the venerable Colonel Shelby -
hero of Kings Mountain-had his fam.
I lily clad by the labor of its own hands,
haw the spinning wheel and the loom
were in motion at daybreak. and how
! the matron delighted to show her friends
! the stores of goods laid aside for her
daughters when they married. Let the
painted dolls of our cities sneer at these
things" he exclaimed, "the daughters
Of Isaac Shelby, whether at the spin
ming wheel or in the drawing room, pos
| scss a real dignity that would, of it,
own force. put TO flight a whole squadron
OF these semi-men called handles"