484 FIELD CROPS 



under is the better practice, since they are of some value for 

 both vegetable matter and fertilizer. Some successful 

 attempts have been made to produce paper from cotton 

 stalks and from cotton-seed hulls, but the industry has not 

 yet been developed on a commercial scale. With the rapid 

 depletion of our supply of wood pulp, it is probable that 

 cotton and corn stalks will soon be put to this use. 



FLAX 



635. Fiber Flax. The cultivation of this crop has already 

 been discussed (page 248). In the United States, flax is 

 grown almost entirely as a grain crop, and the use of the straw 

 for fiber is incidental. It is largely grown for the production 

 of fiber in some portions of Europe, particularly in Russia. 

 It ranks next to cotton in importance among vegetable fibers, 

 the annual production for the five years from 1905 to 1909 

 averaging 1,730,000,000 pounds as compared with 9,430,- 

 000,000 pounds of lint cotton. 



HEMP 



636. History. Hemp is a native of western and central 

 Asia. It is one of the oldest of cultivated plants, dating back 

 at least 3,500 years. It is a member of the Moraceae, or 

 mulberry family, to which the mulberry, the osage orange, 

 and the hop also belong. Hemp, Cannabis saliva, is a rank, 

 leafy annual, reaching a height of from 8 to 10 or 12 feet. 

 The staminate and pistillate flowers are produced on separate 

 plants; the pistillate plants are more branched and the fiber 

 from them is of less value than that from the staminate. The 

 production of hemp in the United States is confined mostly 

 to central Kentucky, central Tennessee, New York, and 

 Nebraska. . 



