OTHER FARM CROPS 577 



most economical if large areas of hemp are to be sown or if hemp is 

 to be raised year after year as a regular crop. 



After seeding it is best to roll the land in order to have a smooth 

 surface that will permit close cutting with machinery. After seed- 

 ing, the crop requires no further attention until harvesting. 



Harvesting. Most of the hemp is now cut with self-rake reapers 

 made especially for harvesting this crop. These machines require 2 

 men, or a man and a boy, and 4 horses for their operation and 1 man 

 to keep the knives sharp. They cut a swath of about 5 feet, or about 

 5 or 6 acres per day. They leave the hemp stalks in gavels. After 

 lying in the gavel for two or three days the stalks are either spread 

 for retting, set in shocks without binding, or tied in bundles and set 

 in shocks. When the harvest is late, or in the North, where there 

 is little danger of hot dry weather that would "sunburn" the stalks, 

 labor may be saved by spreading the hemp for retting immediately 

 after cutting. If there is danger of hot dry weather after harvest the 

 hemp should be cured in shocks. If it is to be stacked it must be 

 bound in bundles before shocking. Stacking is not regarded as a 

 necessary step in the preparation of hemp, but a greater weight and 

 also a better quality of fiber are obtained from stalks which have 

 been stacked. If the stacks are properly made they may be left 

 almost indefinitely before retting. Three men will put up two stacks 

 a day of about 8 tons each. 



In Nebraska the hemp is cut with a mowing machine with a spe- 

 cial homemade attachment, bending the stalks over in the same 

 direction that the machine is cutting. One man with one span of 

 horses will cut from 7 to 9 acres per day. The ordinary price paid 

 there for cutting hemp is 50 cents per acre, including team and 

 machine. The hemp is left on the ground as it falls until retted, 

 when it is raked up with a horserake and hauled to the machine brake 

 to be made into long tow. 



Retting. Practically all of the hemp produced in Kentucky is 

 dew-retted. It is spread on the ground, either from the gavel, shock, 

 or stack, in rows with the stalks side by side and not more than two, 

 or at most three, stalks in thickness, the butts all even and in one 

 direction. It is left in this manner for from four to twelve weeks, 

 or sometimes even longer, until the bark, including the fiber, sepa- 

 rates readily from the woody portion of the stalk. The stalks are 

 then raked up and set up in shocks to dry. As soon as dried they are 

 ready for breaking. 



Breaking. Much of the hemp produced in Kentucky is still 

 broken by the old-fashioned hand brake, but this method is not 

 recommended for introduction into any new locality because it re- 

 quires a degree of skill that would be difficult to secure in laborers 

 not accustomed to the work. Even in Kentucky the newer genera- 

 tion of laborers do not learn to break hemp, and this is one of the 

 principal reasons that the industry is not carried on there to any 

 greater extent. At least six different kinds of machines for breaking 

 hemp and preparing the fiber have been in use during the past three 



