Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-05-21

part of the Kentucky hemp growers to
excel the rest of the world in the ex-
cellence of their hemp. They were just
as anxious that IL 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 circumfer-
ence and the test applied. The Russian
rope parted at 3.1lS pounds strain. The
Kentucky product broke at 3.209 pounds.
No horse race won ever brought more
joy to the hearts of Kentuckians than
that test brought them. In all such tests
the Kentucky hemp proved superior to
the Russian product. At last it was de-
cided to rig one side of the ship Con-
stellation with rope from Kentucky
hemp and the other side with Russian
hemp-rope. After a two years cruise
the captain declared that II there was
any preference 1t was in favor of the
Russian. But the Kentucky rope was
made from dew-rotted hemp, and the
navy department has always declared
water-rotted to be preferable to dew-rot-
ted, and buys that kind to this day. Had
the Constellation used the Kentucky wa
ter-rotted, every son of the Bluegrass
state believes the American eagle would
have vanquished the Russian bear in that
contest.
The cut worm is one of the worst enc
mics of hemp. Colonel 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 sub
I sequent similar experiments led to the
conclusion that Colonel Chinn's cut
worms would have disappeared anyway.
| 1t is estimated that a crop of hemp re-
qures twenty inches of rain In growing,
or nearly half million gallons per acre.
| Home harvet comes a hundred days af-
! ter sowing. In Kentcuky 1t is usually cut
| about frost time. In latter years this
has been done by machinery. After 1T
| has been cured and stacked or shock
| ed and the autumnal eQuinoxial storms
| set in, 1t is spread out and allowed to
rot When the fibre has thus been set
free from the binding material of the
stalk 1t is gathered up and the breaking
process begins. This is getting the fibre
| out of the stank From time out of mind
the rate for breaking has been cent
pound Two hundred pounds is regarded
as a good average, though some have
| gone as high as a hundred pounds an
hour and 600 pounds a day. EXPERIENCES
| counts more than main strength, but
! those who possess that quality will not
| impart II to others, not even to their
| own children, in many cases. The scare
/ ity 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 800 patents on hemp-breaking ma
! L., H. nff hut
| the one which fills the bill satisfactorily
| 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 grow
! ers a gallon of seed in the spring I'm ex-
change for a bushel in the fall. When
! the frost season comes each stalk of
seed hemp is carefully cut to prevent a
shattering 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 a person con profitably buy
! cloth to place around the stalks while
yet standing in order to get the early
| seed
The decline of shipping, the rise of iute,
| of sisal and the Manila hemp, have all
had a hand in the decadence Of Ameri-
can hemp growing. But the romance of
| IT, growing always in close associa-
| ton with bluegrass and thoroughbred
horses, can never decay. Member of the
mulberry family, cousin-german of ramie
and of hops, American hemp, in spite of
its 80 per cent decline in production, still
feels itself one of the blue bloods of the
| plant world and an aristocrat in the fl
bre acknowledgement 1909, by Fred
| eric ]. HasEing,.