HEMP 



HEMP 



379 



acre to cut by machinery and three dollars per 

 acre to cut by hand. 



After the hemp is cut, it is spread evenly over 

 the ground, the butts being placed down the hill 

 if there is a slope. The stalks are placed in par- 

 allel lines. In about one week it is suificiently dry 

 to rake up into small bundles. These bundles are 

 tied with small stalks of hemp and are placed in 

 shocks (Fig. 569) or stacks (Fig. 570). The Ken- 

 tucky Experiment Station 'has shown that it pays 

 to stack the hemp, as the loss of fiber is not so 

 great and the quality is much improved. Stacked 

 hemp rets more evenly and makes a much better 

 fiber than when shocked. In the latter case, too 

 much of the outer layer sunburns and over-rets. 

 The shocks are liable to blow down, greatly to the 

 damage of the crop. The shocked hemp, however, 

 is much less expensive to handle and can be spread 

 out at different periods, so that the quantity retted 

 at one time can be controlled. 



If the hemp is allowed to remain on the ground 

 too long after cutting, it will sunburn and the 

 quality will be destroyed. It requires considerable 

 judgment to stack hemp to avoid the sunburn. 

 Care should be taken not to stack it before it is 

 suificiently dry, as it will heat in the stack with 

 much injury to the quality. 



Retting. — ^About the middle of November or the 

 first of December, the hemp is taken from the 

 stack and spread over the ground as before stack- 

 ing, to ret, a process which separates or liberates 

 the bast. If the weather conditions are favorable, 

 it will ret in about two months sufficiently to break. 

 Ideal weather conditions for retting are alternate 

 freezing and thawing, with an occasional snow that 

 does not remain long on the ground. Early and 

 late retting are not so good as winter retting ; and 

 hemp retted during heavy freezes is much better 

 than when rain-retted. After the hemp has retted 

 sufficiently to allow the fiber to break readily from 

 the hards (or "hurds")- it should be placed in shocks 

 to prevent further retting. The artificial methods 

 of retting have never been completely successful. 



Breaking. — The fiber is removed or extracted 

 from the other tissue by the process of breaking. 

 Most of the hemp of Kentucky is still broken by 

 the old-fashioned hand-brake that has been in use 

 for more than one hundred years. Large sums have 

 been spent in trying to devise machinery for this 

 operation, but so far most of the attempts have 

 failed. Within the last year or so, however, ma- 

 chines have been designed that promise successfully 

 to break the hemp. 



Marketing. 



After being broken in the field, the hemp is tied 

 up in hanks of six to eight pounds. These are put 

 in about 150-pound bales, which are taken to the 

 market, where the hemp is rehandled by the dealer. 

 The rehandling consists in running the hemp 

 through hackles of various degrees of fineness. The 

 hackled hemp is shipped directly, to the twine 

 manufacturer. The best hemp fibers, which are 

 water-retted, come from abroad, especially from 

 Italy and France. 



Returns per acre. 



SuflScient seed to sow an acre costs about $3 ; 

 the breaking of the land costs $1.25 ; harrowing, 

 50 cents ; breaking and rolling, 50 cents ; drilling 

 the seed, 50 cents ; cutting, $3 ; tying and shock- 

 ing, $1.25 ; spreading, 50 cents ; taking up and 

 shocking, 50 cents ; putting in stacks, $1 ; break- 

 ing, $1 per hundred, or about $15 per acre, thus 

 making the total cost $27 per acre. Twelve hun- 

 dred pounds is considered a good crop, and 1,800 

 pounds is often produced. The average price is 

 about five cents per pound, making a gross income 

 of $60 to $90 per acre, or a net income of $33 to 

 $63 per acre. 



Enemies. 



The hemp plant is subject to few enemies. There 

 is a parasitic plant that is causing a great deal 

 of damage to the crop in central Kentucky. This 

 parasite belongs to the broom rapes. It has been 

 discussed in several bulletins issued by the Ken- 

 tucky Station. Cutworms and a small fiy (Pegemyia 

 fusei^ps) sometimes damage it seriously. 



Methods employed in Nebraska, California and 

 Minnesota. 



At Havelock, Nebraska, where hemp follows 

 hemp or a crop leaving the soil in equally good 

 condition, the land is prepared and the seed sown 

 and covered at one operation. A traction engine 

 draws a gang of plows followed by a harrow, then 

 a special drill and a second harrow to cover the 

 seeds and settle the soil. The hemp is cut with 



Fig. 571. 



Hemp-cleaning macliine in operation 

 in Kentucky. 



ordinary mowing machines with an attachment 

 to throw the stalks smoothly in the direction the 

 machine is going. The stalks lie where they fall 

 until retted. They are then raked up with horse- 

 rakes and taken to the power brake, consisting of 

 fiuted rollers followed by beating wheels, which 

 prepares the fiber in the form of long tow. In Cal- 

 ifornia hemp is cut with special self-rake reapers, 

 bound and set up in shocks, until conditions are 

 favorable for retting. It is then spread for dew- 

 retting and afterward broken on the Heaney hemp 

 brake, similar to the one at Havelock, making long 

 tow. At Northfield, Minnesota, hemp is cut by self- 

 binders of special construction and, after curing in 

 the field, is water-retted in tanks and broken by 

 machinery, producing a light yellowish fiber some- 

 what like Italian hemp. 



