Ä Area: FidoNet - Marijuana Chat ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Msg#: 1691 Date: 06-09-93 22:25 From: Northcoast OH NORML Read: Yes Replied: No To: All Mark: Subj: Fairbanks Comp. #7 ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ [...continued from previous posting] [FROM THE AMERICAN FARMER] Cultivation and Preparation of Hemp as practiced in Kentucky. The most fertile of our lands are selected for the production of hemp, and that which has been used as meadow or pasture for a long time, is preferred to any other, experience having proved that it is best adapted to the purpose. This (if practicable) is ploughed late in the autumn, and exposed, untrodden by stock, to the frosts of winter; ploughed again immediately preceding the sowing of the seed. Great care is taken to harrow the ground until the clods are completely broken, and to give it as even a surface as can be produced by the use of the common harrow. The seed is sown from the 20th of April to the middle of May, (after spring is over,) at the rate of from a bushel and a fourth to a bushel and a half per acre, and twice harrowed. The crop then requires no further attention until it is cut. Its fitness for the knife must be determined by the appearance of the hemp, and not by the length of the time it has been growing, or the season of the year. The indications of a fitness for cutting are a change in the colour of the leaf from a deep green to a yellow, and the rising, upon the least agitation, of vegetable dust from the hemp. The ripening of the crop is generally partial and unequal in different parts of the same field, and regard ought to be paid to that circumstance in cutting it, taking such portions of it first as give the strongest indications of ripeness. It is not necessary or proper to wait for decided change of color in all the leaves, before the harvest commences; on the contrary, it is more advantageous to commence when the change is only partial, and as soon as the dust spoken of begins to rise, or is produced by agitating the hemp with a stick or the hand. In Kentucky, the practice of cutting hemp has in a great measure superseded the old practice of pulling it by the roots, and is found to be generally preferable, being less laborious, and rendering the hemp better and easier to handle. The operation is performed with a knife, (commonly called a hemp hook,) made somewhat in the shape of a sickle, but heavier and not so long, and having a smooth and sharp edge. As the hemp is cut, it is spread upon the ground from which it is taken, and permitted to remain there until the leaves are well wilted, and will easily separate from the stalks. It is then gathered into sheaves, but not bound, and the leaves beaten off with a stick, and immediately immersed, if water rotting is intended; if not it is set up in stacks of from three to five feet in diameter at the ground and tied closely together at the tops so as to prevent it from falling; the middle of the stack is left hollow to give it air near the earth. It is then suffered to stand until perfectly dry, when it is separated and bound into small sheaves, and put into stacks or ricks, and secured by a covering of boards or straw, to secure it from getting wet in the interior of the stack. It can, however, be so stacked as to be secured from water without any other covering than a thatch of hemp, but some skill to be acquired only by practice is necessary to do it well. It remains in the stack until the season for rotting arrives; it is then taken down and spread out (on grass if to be had,) as equally as possible, and exposed to the weather until it is found to be ready for the brake. (Our western autumns and winters are attended with so little snow as to give us a choice of time from September until February for rotting.) Care must be taken to take the hemp up as soon as it is fit for the brake, or a loss will be sustained. (If, however, it should be found at any time to be injured by too long exposure, it is not thrown away, but again stacked, and brought to the brake the succeeding year, when it will be found to have regained its strength, if not absolutely rotted before it was taken up.) When ready for the brake, we take it from the ground and stack it in small stacks, as in the first instance after cutting, and then proceed to break it, on brakes made on the plan of a common flax brake, but much larger, say from five to six feet in length, having the slats much deeper and wider apart, and wider in proportion at the head of the brake than the flax brake. With such a brake, a good laborer will break 100lbs. in a day in February, and some will break double that quantity. The seed is raised by planting in hills like Indian corn, planting four or five seeds and pulling all out but the most thrifty plant. A single acre of rich land has been known to produce 60 bushels of seed. We are very little in the habit of water rotting our hemp, but what has been thus prepared is found to be equal to the best Russian hemp; from three to five days, in a very warm season, is found to be sufficient for this process, if the water be stagnant; longer if running. An opinion prevails where the cultivation of hemp is not common, that it is a very exhausting crop. The fact however, is otherwise, and we cultivate three sucessive crops on the same land with less exhaustion than is occasioned by either the corn or wheat crop; and no crop leaves the ground so light as to entirely destroy the production of weeds. A KENTUCKIAN. -!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- METHOD OF HARVESTING FOR THE SEED AND LINT. The following letter on the subject of harvesting hemp, for seed or lint, is well entitled to the particular attention of hemp growers in this section, -- where but little practical knowledge exists as to this important article. The value of Mr. Hines' remarks will be obvious to every experienced farmer, and when he perceives the ease with which hemp is cultivated and looks to the extensive home market secured to it by the tariff, he can no longer hesitate as to the policy of turning his attention to the production of an article for which there must always be a high demand. "There is no invariable rule as to the time of cutting hemp planted for seed, by the general complexion of either the male or female; but particular care must be had to the colour of the seed, when the hull that encloses it is taken off. The seed should be generally changed to a grey or brownish cast. If two-thirds of the seed wear that appearance, the sooner you cut the better. It should be bound in small bundles immediately after cutting, and set up in small stacks, -- from four to six bundles in a stack -- binding in all the branches, by putting three bands round the same near the top of the shocks or stacks. It may stand in this situation until dry enough to thresh, -- say five or ten days, as the weather may be for drying. "The seed may be threshed in the field on sheets made of strong cloth, or on a floor. Great care should be used in moving the hemp to the place of threshing. If threshed in the field, it should be moved on a cloth attached to two poles, to save the loose seed. If removed to a barn, it should be done on a cart or wagon, with a cloth or tight box. "We clean with a common fanning mill, taking care to give the proper speed, and to gauge every part to suit the weight of the seed. "After the seed is cleaned and put into bins or casks, it will be well to shovel it over, to prevent it from heating. I am quite sure that seed kept from heating and from wet will be good as long as three ;years, if kept cool in the summer. "If your hemp is sown broadcast, and you design to save the seed, cut it when about half the seeds have begun to change their colour, and proceed as above directed -- only you will thresh it in four fair days, without breaking the bundles, and put the hemp under cover to completely cure, -- and when thoroughly cured, you may thresh again, breaking the bands as other grain. "Mr. Lewis Buffett, of Schaghticoke, the last year, sowed five bushels of seed on two and a half acres of land. -- He cut his hemp with a cradle, and practised as here directed. He saved sixty-six bushels of seed, of a good quality; and his share of the hemp sold for seventy-two dollars, after paying for the dressing in hemp. -- Total value of the lint, one hundred and eight dollars. Such hemp, when broken in an unrotted state, and subjected to a water process after breaking, and properly cleaned, will equal the best Russian hemp. "We use the common corn cutter for cutting planted hemp; but use it carefully, so as not to jar off the seed. "In all cases where you wish to save the lint, you will be careful to put the stem under cover as soon as you can, to prevent it from being stained by the weather. I am, in great haste, your obd't serv't. JOSEPH HINES." Stillwater, N.Y. Aug.21, 1828. [Continued on next posting...] Help Fight Back - Support Your Local NORML Chapter! Northcoast Ohio NORML Chapter Contact: John Hartman Phone: +[1]-216-521-WEED -!- ! Origin: Amiga University +[1]-216-637-6647 [Cortland, OH] (1:237/533.0)