HEMP HUEDS AS PAPEE-MAKING MATEEIAL. 9 



supply would not be sufficient to justify the installation of a pulp mill 

 nor would its transportation to existing mills appear feasible, it 

 is expected that the available annual tonnage, especially in certain 

 general sections, wiU increase, due to the increased use of the machine 

 brake. The present tonnage per annum is approximately as follows: 

 In the region of Ohio and Indiana, 2,500 tons; in the Wisconsin sec- 

 tion, 1,000 tons; in the California region, 1,400 tons. 



In years of adverse weather conditions there are often large areas 

 of hemp which are not harvested on account of its poor quality; 

 there are also large areas of cut hemp which become overretted, due 

 to inclement weather. It has been suggested by some of the hemp 

 raisers that this large amount of material might be utilized as a paper 

 stock. In these cases the cost of the whole material would probably 

 be somewhat higher than that of the hurds, because either all or part 

 of the cost of harvesting and the total cost of breaking would have to 

 be borne by the paper maker. Moreover, the quality of this material 

 would be so very irregular and the supply so uncertain that it prob- 

 ably would not appeal to the paper manufacturer. 



Without doubt, hemp will continue to be one of the staple agri- 

 cultural crops of the United States. The wholesale destruction of 

 the supply by fire, as frequently happens in the case of wood, is pre- 

 cluded by the very nature of the hemp-raising industry. Since 

 only one year's growth can be harvested annually the supply is not 

 endangered by the pernicious practice of overcroppmg, which has 

 contributed so much to the present high and increasing cost of pulp 

 wood. The permanency of the supply of hemp hurds thus seems 

 assured. 



The favorable location geographically of the hemp regions in re- 

 lation to the pulp and paper industry is a factor of considerable 

 importance. The Kentucky region is not at present in a position 

 to supply hurds, as machine methods have not been adopted there 

 to any appreciable degree. The Ohio and Indiana region, which at 

 present has the greatest annual tonnage, with the prospect of an in- 

 *crease, is situated south of the Wisconsin and Michigan wood-pulp 

 producing region and at a distance from the eastern wood-pulp 

 producing regions ; therefore, it is in a favorable position to compete 

 in the large Ohio and Indiana markets. Since, as wUl be shown, 

 the hurd pulp acts far more like soda poplar stock than sulphite 

 stock, competition would be strongest from the eastern miUs; in 

 fact, the hurd stock might very possibly meet with favor as a book- 

 stock furnish in the Michigan and Wisconsin paper miUs, which are 

 within the sulphite fiber-producing region. Because of its very close 

 proximity to paper mills, this latter possibility applies with far 

 greater force to the Wisconsin hemp region, where a considerable 

 extension of the hemp industry is anticipated. 



