PART OF 15,000 TONS OF RAW HEMP AT DANVILLE 

 Farmers grew the crop, hauled it in, got nothing for it. 



AeMfilSNO 

 BONANZA 



Gr oners Lose $213,000 in 



Amheinpco Failure fit 



Danville 



\ AST month as hemp growers 

 in Vermilion, Irocjiiois and 

 C^liampaign eountics tried in 

 vain to collet! S2n.()()() owed them 

 for their 193" crop by tiie bankrupt 

 Amhempto (Corporation of Danville, 

 farmer.s in Piatt county were investi- 

 e.itint; hemp as a possible cash crop. 



I'irst to warn prospective hemp grow- 

 ers of probable losses was Vermilion 

 toimty's farm adviser, I. E. Parctt. He 

 had seen farmers grow three crops, get 

 paid for two. He had seen the manu- 

 facture of a cotton substitute ■ begin 

 ,md fail wiien the price of cotton to- 

 bogganed froin 1-J to seven cents per 

 pound. 



When tlie movement to grow raw 

 materials for industry on farms reached 

 a peak in 193-4, Ball Brothers of Mun- 

 cic, Indiana, and W. and J. Sloan. 

 New York City carpet makers, organ- 

 ized the Amhempco Corporation. As- 

 sets of the new company included" the 

 six-year-old. half million dollar plant 

 and equipment of the defunct Corn- 

 stalks Products Company near Danville. 



During 193-4, corporation chemists 

 experimented with various farm crops 

 in an attempt to discover one that 

 could be economically refined and prof- 

 itably .sold to makers of consumer 

 goods. Since the factory was equipped 

 to handle fiber crops for paper making, 

 hemp was one of the crops studied. 



The chemists announced later in the 

 year that they had perfected processes 

 for making a cotton substitute, plastics 

 and paper pulp from hemp. They dis- 

 played samples to prove that it can be 

 done. 



Armed with laboratory samples and 

 word pictures of a glowing future of 

 the industry, company agents went to 

 the country. They secured the aid of 

 prominent farmers in the vicinity in 

 their campaign to seuirc an adequ.ite 

 •Krcage of hemp. 



In a period when other crops were 

 bringing less than normal returns, 

 hemp was a promising cash crop. Am- 

 hempco promised to pay SIO per ton 



for properly cured stalks on delivery 

 Yields, growers were told, would vary 

 from two and one-halt to three tons 

 per acre. 



In 193"^. more than 900 acres ol 

 hemp was grown in the Danville area. 

 ^X'hile the crop was no bonanza, it paid 

 better than oats. It required no cuiti 

 vation, no threshing and no sj^'Ccial 

 machinery other than harvesters that 

 were furnished by the comjianv. In 

 addition, hemp turned out to be a top- 

 notch weed killer and fitted well into 

 crop rotations. 



\\'ith a bumper crop in 193'>, pros- 

 perity smiled on the new industry. 

 (Contracts with the U. S. Navy, rug 

 makers and building materials distri- 

 butors assured success. The plant em- 

 ployed 60 to SO persons regularly and 

 all growers were paid. 



The 1936 crop was not as large as 

 the one before but growers got Sl'> 

 per ton. The plant operated steadily 

 turning out hemp fiber at a cost of 

 9' 2 cents a pound. With cotton sell- 

 ing for 12 cents a pound and above, 

 there was, apparently, a margin of 

 profit. 



When the 193"^ crop season came. 



the henij^ primssing plant .seemed well 

 cst.iblishcil and more than 30<) tariiicr-. 

 pl.inti.d .1 total of 1000 aires in llic 

 iroji. In June both hemp and wiicat 

 I rops gave promise ol large rctLirns. 

 I hen things began to happen. Rust 

 ruined the vk heat crop; it wasn t worth 

 har\esting. Hem|^ prospttts reni.iineii 

 good until word got around that Am 

 liempto had tailed to p.iy its workers 



IIr cotton market was weak anti 

 the prKc dropped to ten cents, (.on 

 tracts lor hemp, fiber were cancelled, 

 l-'rom July until most of the hemp was 

 harvested in October, lotton lontinucd' 

 Its downward trend and Amhempio 

 lost Its (ibcr market. 



In ,uidition to their loss ol market 

 the hemp processors sutfered two liis- 

 •istrous tires Ihe first txturred on 

 October 31 and consumed one-quarter 

 of the 193" hemp crop. 6.000 tons 

 valued at S'^2.000. whuh had been 

 stacked near the Dixie liighway in 

 Iroquois county. The second fire, Dc 

 lemher II. burned part of the factory, 

 caused S'>00,00(> damage. 



Reported the Danvilk Commt-rcial- 

 News, At one 'time there were seven 

 tires in ditferent parts of the plant, four 



DECEMBER U, SEVEN FIRES AT ONE TIME 

 Ruins of the hemp plant, a graveyard for 5500,000. 



W'^, ^ 



