AJH70UNCEt£EM': Again wo aro going to hear from Undo Sam' s Natural- 

 ists of the United States Department of Agriculture. Every tuo weeks 

 this Station cooperates with the Department in presenting these tr.lks 

 in which our Wildnan trios to givo us inside information on life in 

 the outdoors*— — Well, Mr. Wildm£3n?- 



"The timo has come, • the Walrus said, 



'To talk of many things: 

 Of shoes— and ships ~and sealing wax— 

 Of cabbages —and kings — " 



With your permission, 1*11 amend those words of the Walrus "by 

 leaving out "cabbages". But we will get around to those other subjects. 



Lot*s start with ships, particularly sail ships. Now that "Old 

 Ironsides" otherwise known as U.S. "Constitution" has been ro-fitted, wc 

 can sec her as she v/as in the days of her glory. 



1*11 admit, I get a thrill at the mere idea of that sturdy old 

 warship plowing through the waves with all sails sot. And I also love 

 to think of those fomous clipper ships that came along a little later 

 and carried the merchandiso on the seven seas and made our flag known in 

 every port. 



Those old sail ships wore outfitted v/ith sails, and ropes, and 

 cables, and halyards, and shrouds .oil made of hecrp fiber. And the seams 

 in the hull were caulked with hemp. To meet the demand for hcsop for ? 

 sloips, new land was sown to hecip and nQf\7 hemp mills were sot up. 



Of course, wo liad had homp before that. In fact, the Pilgrim 

 Fathers at Plymouth and the Cavaliers at James tovm planted honp and 

 flax among their earliest crops. The clotlilng of the men was hcmpcji 

 homespun, and it did not quickly wear out. The very word "oanvasf corner 

 from the Arabic name for heap. But the spread of our sail shipping 

 caused a big boost to her^ growing, and oven the prairie schooners which 

 crossed the plains before 1860 wore covered with canvas made from hemp* 



