Christine L. Smith, age 10, of Lynn, Mass., for her question:
What is hemp?
Hemp is a plant which grows long, strong fibers in it’s stem. These sturdy fibers are used to make rope, twine, canvas and rough cloth. Nowadays, the hemp plant grows in most warm and temperate lands. But its original home was Asia, north of the snowy Himalaya Mountains. Therem the Chinese were using it 5,000 years ago. Their written records about hemp fiber date back to 2800 B.C. This makes it one of the first fiber plants used by man.
The hemp plant is grown from little round seeds about the size of wheat grains. It takes about tyro years for the crop to be ready for harvest. And a field of hemp looks like a crop of two different plants. About half of them are heavy, with dark, leafy fronds. The others, though just as tall, are scruffy and bare pale, sick looking leaves.
Actually, both plants are in splendid health. They happen to be of two different sorts, male and female. The scrawny follows ore the males. The male bears pollen, the female bears pistils and the egg cells which develop into clusters of seeds. The male hemp's work is done when his pollen ripens and blows on the wind. These tiny pollen grains fertilize the egg cells so that they can develop into seeds. The work of the female hemp is to nourish the developing seeds. She must remain healthy and busy for a longer period of time.
The stem of the hemp is hollow. The strong fiber tissues grow in the inner bark of the stem. At harvest time, the whole crop is cut close to the ground and allowed to rot. It may be left on the ground to soak up the rain and the dew or it may be soaked in water. The soaking process is called rotting. The bundles of damp hemp are then soaked together to dry.
When dry, the outer bark and inner wood pulp can be scraped from the sturdy hemp fibers. These fibers are peeled away in long pale ribbons called tuxies. They cling, and wood pulp is scraped away and the fibers remain. The long fibers are called line hemp, the short stubby ends called tow hemp.
The hemp harvest also yields a plentiful supply of seeds. Some are saved for next year's crop and some are sold as bird seed. Much of the bird seed you buy at a pest shop is hemp seed. The seed also yields a rich oil suitable for use in making paints and varnishes.
Those are the good qualities of hemp. It is also the plant which gave us the terrible word assassin. This word comas from the Arabic word hashish and hashish is a drug which drives men to terrible deeds. In the east it is extracted from hemp and under its influence men have boon known to commit violence and even murder.
The early settlers of Now England grew hemp and used it to make cloth. The canvas sails and the ropes of old sailing ship are often made of hemp. Nowadays ropes and canvas are made from other fiber plants which may be called hemp but are not true hemp. We use true hemp only for such things as twine, webbing, bolting and sacking.