|
An annual herb
having angular rough stems and alternate deeply lobed leaves. The bast fibers
of Cannabis are the hemp of commerce, but, unfortunately, the products
from many totally different plants are often included under the general
name of hemp. In some cases the fiber is
obtained from the stem, while in others it comes from the leaf. Sunn hemp,
Manila hemp, Sisal hemp, and Phormium (New Zealand flax, which is neither
flax nor hemp) are treated separately. All these, however, are often
classed under the above general name, and so are the following: -- Deccan
or Ambari hemp, Hibiscus cannabinus, an Indian and East Indian malvaceous
plant, the fiber from which is often known as brown hemp or Bombay hemp;
Pité hemp, which is obtained from the American aloe, Agave americana; and
Moorva or bowstring-hemp, Sansevieria zeylanica, which is obtained from an
aloe-like plant, and is a native of India and Ceylon. Then there are
Canada hemp, Apocynum cannabinum, Kentucky hemp, Urtica cannabina, and
others.
The hemp plant, like the hop, which is of the same natural order,
Cannabinaceć, is dioecious, i.e. the male and female flowers are borne on
separate plants. The female plant grows to a greater height than the male,
and its foliage is darker and more luxuriant, but the plant takes from
five to six weeks longer to ripen. When the male plants are ripe they are
pulled, put up into bundles, and steeped in a similar manner to flax, but
the female plants are allowed to remain until the seed is perfectly ripe.
They are then pulled, and after the seed has been removed are retted in
the ordinary way. The seed is also a value product; the finest is kept for
sowing, a large quantity is sold for food, while the remainder is sent to
the oil mills to be crushed. The extracted oil is used in the manufacture
of soap, paint, plastics and even fuel oil, while the solid remains, known
as oil-cake, are valuable as a food for cattle as well as humans in the
form of flour. The leaves of hemp have five to seven leaflets, the form of
which is lanceolate-acuminate, with a serrate margin. The loose panicles
of male flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, arise from the
axils of the upper leaves. The height of the plant varies greatly with
season, soil and manuring; in some districts it varies from 3 to 8 ft.,
but in the Piedmont province it is not unusual to see them from 8 to 16
ft. in height, whilst a variety (Cannabis setiva, variety gigantea) has
produced specimens over 17 ft. in height.
All cultivated hemp belongs to the same species, Cannabis sativa; the
special varieties such as Cannabis indica, Cannabis chinensis, &c., owe
their differences to climate and soil, and they lose many of their
peculiarities when cultivated in temperate regions. Rumphius (in the 17th
century) had noticed these differences between Indian and European hemp.
Wild hemp still grows on the banks of the lower Ural, and the Volga, near
the Caspian Sea. It extends to Persia, the Altai range and northern and
western China. The authors of the Pharmacographia say: -- "It is found in
Kashmir and in the Himálaya, growing 10 to 12 ft. high, and thriving
vigorously at an elevation of 6000 to 10,000 ft." Wild hemp is, however,
of very little use as a fiber producer, although a drug is obtained from
it.
It would appear that the native country of the hemp plant is in some part
of temperate Asia, probably near the Caspian Sea. It spread westward
throughout Europe, and southward through the Indian peninsula.
The satisfactory growth of hemp demands a light rich and fertile soil,
but, unlike most substances, it may be reared for a few years in
succession. The time of sowing, the quantity of seed per acre (about three
bushels) and the method of gathering and retting are very similar to those
of flax; but, as a rule, it is a hardier plant than flax, does not possess
the same pliability, is much coarser and more brittle, and does not
require the same amount of attention during the first few weeks of its
growth.
The very finest hemp is very similar to flax, and in many cases the two
fibers are mixed in the same material. The hemp fiber has always been
valuable for the rope industry, and it was at one time very extensively
used in the production of yarns for the manufacture of sail cloth,
sheeting, covers, bagging, sacking, &c. Much of the finer quality is still
made into cloth, but almost all the coarser quality finds its way into
ropes and similar material.
Hemp is grown for three products -- (1) the fiber of its stem; (2) the
resinous secretion which is developed in hot countries upon its leaves and
flowering heads; (3) its oily seeds.
Hemp has been employed for its fiber from ancient times. Herodotus (iv.
74) mentions the wild and cultivated hemp of Scythia, and describes the
hempen garments made by the Thracians as equal to linen in fineness.
Hesychius says the Thracian women made sheets of hemp. Moschion (about 200
B.C.) records the use of hempen ropes for rigging the ship "Syracusia"
built for Hiero II. The hemp plant has been cultivated in northern India
from a considerable antiquity for its fiber. The Anglo-Saxons were well
acquainted with the mode of preparing hemp. Hempen cloth became common in
central and southern Europe in the 13th century.
Uses
When people ask me about the uses for hemp I generally say, "Look around
you, what do you see?" they spout off what they can see to which I
respond, "everything you just said except the windows can be made from
hemp!" This is generally true, with 40,000 uses that we know of there are
a lot of things you can do with hemp. Here is an overview of the main
groups:
Clothing/Textiles: Hemp makes a very good strong and soft cloth! There are
several different feels and types of hemp cloth. There are hemp blends as
well with fibers like organic cotton and silk to name just a few. If you
were to imagine your bedroom as an example; You could make your sheets
from hemp and silk cloth! They will keep you warm in winter and cool in
summer! Your walls could be papered with hemp wallpaper! You pillow,
stuffed with soft hemp hurds and hemp seed shells would have a hemp silk
cover. Your bed made from hemp press board with a hemp futon as a
mattress. Your carpet, woven hemp fibers. The drapes, died hemp and
organic cotton! Your clothes, all pure hemp, hemp silk and hemp and
organic cotton mixes, wool and hemp for your socks and hemp and silk for
your underwear! Your world can be made of hemp!
Paper: Hemp paper is the most wonderful thing. It is of a higher quality
then tree paper so it has an expensive feel to it. Because no acids are
needed to process the hemp into paper, hemp paper will not yellow soon
after printing. It lasts thousands of years rather then a few decades for
tree paper. It can be recycled many times over, 7 I have heard as opposed
to 3 for tree paper. It looks and feels great. The best thing about hemp
paper is that we no longer need to cut down trees for pulp, we can and
should be using hemp! Would you like to see the paper industry switch to
hemp pulp instead of trees? Want to order some hemp paper? Try Ecosource
in Victoria B.C.!
Food: Ah hemp food. Well imagine the entire dairy, pasta, soup, sauce,
meat, and snack section of your supermarket. All of those things can be
made from hemp seeds or can substituted by hemp seeds! Really, you can get
any protein, any carbohydrate and any mix of the two from hemp seeds.
Building Materials: Here's where it gets interesting. Building materials.
Press board, wood substitute, concrete. Yes, lighter and stronger
concrete. Anything that is required to make a house except the windows can
be made from hemp! The perfect construction would be a post and beam type
house with hemp bales for insolation and hemp press board for interior
walls. This would be a brilliant construction! The walls would be R56 or
better and has a really nice look to the, really thick!
Plastics: Well, amazing as it may seem, you can make plastic from hemp
hurd. So imagine the possibilities! Car bodies, like Henry Ford made in
the 1940's. All the way to soothers for babies. As well as it being
completely non-toxic it would be edible, so if we use it for food
packaging, you could eat it afterwards!
Petrochemicals: Oils for paints, fuels for our cars, busses, trains and
plains! So much stuff, anything that carbon based petrochemicals can be
refined into can be made from hemp! The hemp can
actually reduce the CO2! Why don't we all grow it, everywhere, it's the
answer to all of our fuel needs.
Energy: With hemp pyrolysis reactors, we
can power our cities with hemp as well. The concept isn't too far from
nuclear energy except the waste is fertilizer not deadly for
millions of years.
|
