Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-06

the rest of North America together
1t was at one time almost as much of
legal tender to Kentuckians as gold
and silver are to the people of today
Even the editor of the Kentucky Ga
zette advertised that he would be glad
to have subscriptions paid in hacked
hemp. Kentuckians and others saw
great visions of prosperity for Lexing-
ton by reason of it's situation amid the
hemp fields. Hezekiah Niles declared
in his Register that Lexington prom
ised then to 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 Ken
lucky women. In one speech in con-
gress he told how the venerable Colonel
Shelby-hero of Kings mountain-had
his family clad by the labor of it's own
hands, how 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 sheer
at these things" he exclaimed; "the
daughters of Isaac Shelby, whether at
the spinning wheel or in the drawing
room, possess a real dignity that would
of its own force put to flight whole
squadron of these semi-men called
dandies."
There was always a great desire or
the part of the Kentucky hemp growers
to excel the rest of the world in the ex-
cellenoe of their hemp. They were Just
as anxious that it should be stronger
than Russian hemp as they were that
their horses should outrun the Virginia
thoroughbreds. At one time they had a
test on the Connecticut river between
Kentucky water-rotted hemp and the
best Russian hemp. Each was made
into rope two and half inches in cir
conference and the test applied The
Russian rope parted at BIB pounds
strain. The Kentucky product broke at
3209 pounds. No horse race won ever
brought more joy to the hearts of Ken
tuckians than that test brought them.
In all such tests the Kentucky hemp
proved superior to the Russian product.
AT last it was decided to rig one side
of the ship Constellation with rope
from Kentucky hemp and the other
side with Russian hemp rope. After a
two years cruise the captain declared
that if there was any preference It was
in favor of the Russian. But the Ken
lucky rope was made from dew-rotted
hemp, and the navy department has all
ways declared water-rotted to be pre-
ferable to dew-rotted, and buys that
kind to this day. Had the Constella-
tion used the Kentucky water-rotted
every son Of the Blue Grass state be-
lieves the American eagle would have
vanquished the Russian bear in that
contest.
The cut worm is one Of the worst
enemies of hemp. Col. Jack Chinn not
long ago tried sowing salt to keep them
out of his fields. The cut worms dis
appeared, and most people concluded
that the salt had proved efficacious.
But subsequent similar experiments
1ad RI the CnNRlJIcfnJ fhaf CninnaI
Chinn's cut worms would have disap-
peared, anyway. 1t is estimated that a
crop of hemp requires twenty inches of
rain in growing, or nearly half mill
lion gallons per acre.
Hemp harvest comes hundred days
after sowing. In Kentucky 1t is usual
ly cut about frost time. In later
years this has been done by machin-
cry After 1t has been cured and
stacked or shocked, and the autumnal
equinoxial storms set in, 1t Is spread
out and allowed to rot. When the fiber
has thus been set free from the bind
ing material Of the stalk, 1t is gath
cred UP and the breaking process be-
gins. This is getting the fiber out of
the stalk. From time out of mind the
rate for breaking has been a cent a
pound. Two hundred pounds is re-
garded as good average, though some
have gone as high as a hundred pounds
an hour and 600 pounds a day. Ex-
pertness counts more than main
strength, but those who possess that
quality will not impart it to others, not
even to their own children, In many
cases. The scarcity of labor has led to
a great demand for machinery for the
breaking of hemp, but as yet little
progress has been made, and the little
old five-slatted hand break is still the
favorite implement. There are some
300 patents on hemp-breaking ma
chimes registered in the patent office.
but the one which fills the bill satisfac-
torily has not yet been invented.
The hemp seed business has been
brought down to a specialized basis
Broom rape is the arch enemy Of hemp,
and in order to get pure seed much
pains is taken. The dealers furnish
the growers a gallon of seed in the
spring in exchange for a bushel in the
fall. When the frost season comes
each stalk of seed hemp Is carefully
cut tn prevent a SCATTERING of the seed.
Three or four are stacked up together,
and when they become dry the seed is
beaten out into a sheet. The Chinese
seed is so high priced that person
can proftably buy cloth to place
around the stalks while yet standing
in order to get the early seed.
The decline of shipping, the rise OF
jute of sisal and of Manila hemp have
all had a hand in the decadence OF
American hemp growing. But the ro-
nance of it, growing always in a close
association with bluegrass and thor
oughbred horses, can never decay.
Member of the mulberry family, cous-
in german of ramie and of hops, Ameri-
can hemp, in spite of its so per cent
decline in production. still feels itself
one of the blue bloods of the plant
world and an aristocrat in the fiber
kingdom.
Copyright. 1909. by Frederic J. Haskin)