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WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
HEMP CULTURE IN WISCONSIN. 
BY HON. J. Gr. KNAPP, MADISON. 
This plant, called by the botanists cannabis , its ancient Greek 
name, is a sub-order in the large family ot nettles, and was 
first noticed by historians as coming from Persia. The fibre, 
the principal element of the bark, makes it eminently useful 
to man. It is a dioecious, herbaceous annual known to all, as 
it has been acclimated in all parts of Europe and America; 
scattered from fields and bird cages it grows wild almost 
wherever civilized man has lived. 
Can it be Grown in Wisconsin? —Many, who know its 
market value, are at a loss about its growth here. Such have 
formed their opinions from the fact that it is grown in Ken¬ 
tucky. Hemp is a coarse plant, grows rapidly to the height of 
from five to eight feet, and needs for the greatest production a 
strong, loamy soil. Being an annual it requires but a short 
period for its maturity—less days than flint corn—but the 
period of its growth should consist of hot, sunny days. The 
brief hot summer of northern Russia give it ample time to 
mature, and the Russian hemp is as noted in the markets of 
the world as the flax of Ireland. The young plants are not 
liable to be killed by the frosts which destroy flax and many 
other plants ; and from the fact that its seeds lie over winter 
in the ground in a wild state, it is inferred that they might be 
sown in the fall. However that may be, it will mature its lint 
is less time than corn requires to ripen. 
In the minds of those who understand the nature and habits 
of the hemp plant and the climate of Wisconsin, not a shadow 
of doubt exists but that we can produce better lint than any 
of the states farther south ; and time will demonstrate that 
