HEMP HUEDS AS PAPEE-MAKING MATEEIAL. \) 
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, will 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 overcropping, 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 will be shown, 
the hurd pulp acts far more like soda poplar stock than sulphite 
stock, competition would be strongest from the eastern mills; in 
fact, the hurd stock might very possibly meet with favor as a book- 
stock furnish in the Michigan and Wisconsin paper mills, 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. 
