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History See other History Articles Title: Hemp: It's All About The History I like plowing through old agricultural entries, books and journals. Hemp is one of my favorite topics to research and not for the reasons that you might assume as obvious. None of us has ever lived in a world where we're "allowed" to even grow the most useful plant on the planet much less use it to its fullest potential, so looking at how hemp used to be cultivated strikes me as a fruitful endeavor. It's also a window into a world that's long gone but could be partially regained if only a critical mass had both knowledge and motivation. There's much knowledge and folklore about hemp that's been forgotten. Hemp used to be as prevalent as high fructose corn syrup, cash machines or bad TV shows. In Elizabeth's England, the town of Bridport was known for its flax, hemp, ropes, yarns and canvas sails (the word 'canvas' comes from the Latin word for hemp, cannabis), materials that ensured the defeat of the Spanish Armada. As such, the hangman's rope was also known as a Bridport dagger, made from the Bridport's hemp. The reason that Bridport's canvas was so good was because the material used to make it was boiled and sized, never rotting or shrinking on the rigging. Rotting and shrinking sails were a life-threatening hazard for anyone using ships, much as bad tires make for dangerous driving today. Thomas Tusser, 16th century author of Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, has some things to say about hemp in his couplets. While going through this book, I found this tidbit: He said it very matter of factly, as though it was known that hemp was a natural herbicide. It was a fact unknown to me, mostly because I'm a thoroughly free and modern fellow that isn't permitted to grow one of the oldest cultivated plants on earth because banks, oil companies, drug companies and a host of other centralized industries and their various political dependents might lose their grip and their shirts should we all be "allowed" to compete with them via agriculture. But I digress... This couplet got me curious about what other information regarding hemp as an herbicide might be obtained. In looking at available material (thank you, Google Books), we find that hemp was known as both an herbicide and a natural pesticide. Hemp oil itself, obtained from hemp seeds, can be used to kill fleas, lice and other historical traveling companions of both humans and beasts. Here's another area where hemp's very existence conflicts with the interests of the aforementioned centralized Capital-Industrial Complex. The huge agrochemical market, representing tens of billions to be shared by the likes of DuPont, Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dow, etc., would be quite threatened by an unpatentable natural herbicide/pesticide that grows most anywhere. Considering the decades, effort and money that large agrocorps have put into positioning agriculture in a full nelson, for them to allow hemp to be grown is as crazy an idea as legal hemp is to the Prison-Industrial Complex, one of the few industries that profits from hemp's existence. In closing, a few links that will hopefully back up my balderdash. Please note the sources. I look forward to the day when governments are advising people on how to grow hemp again rather than throw them in jail to protect the financial interests of a few. Entry for Hemp, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1810 The British farmer's cyclopaedia, 1808 In the season when there was no green hemp, they make use of mould and old hemp, and with equal success, except that it requires a longer time to destroy the insects. —Malcolm's Compendium Flax and hemp: their culture and manipulation, 1854 ...Land does not tire of bearing hemp several years in succession, as it does of almost every other thing, provided there is no spare of ploughing and manuring, by means of which it may be made to continue this service as long as you choose. The strong smell of hemp chases from the ground many noxious herbs and troublesome animals; a very useful thing in gardens. When they are attacked by these nuisances, hemp is grown in them a couple of years successively, which thus ameliorates and renovates the soil, to the great benefit of such herbs as affect fresh ground." A history of the vegetable kingdom, 1841 Agriculturists sometimes take advantage of this well known fact, and by sowing a crop or two of hemp on the rankest soils, they subdue all noxious weeds, and entirely cleanse the ground from these troublesome intruders. One of the greatest difficulties attending the clearing a tract of ground in the vicinity of Naples, the swamp near the Lago di Patria, was to rid it of an exuberant growth of canne, or reeds, that rose considerably above the head of a man on horseback. The sowing of hemp was found to be by far the most efficacious means. After hemp, Indian corn was very successfully sown in some of the fields. It is said that this plant has likewise the peculiar property of destroying caterpillars and other insects which prey upon vegetables; it is therefore very usual, in those countries where hemp is much cultivated, for the peasantry to secure their vegetable gardens from insects, by encircling the beds with a border of hemp, which in this manner proves a most efficient barrier against all such depredators. United States Department of Agriculture, 1896 Report of the Director, University of Wisconsin. Agricultural Experiment Station, 1911 Experiments have been conducted by the Agronomy department on the value of hemp as a means of eradicating noxious weeds. On the state prison farm at Waupun, a field of 3% acres, infested with quack grass and Canada thistles, was treated two years ago. This field was heavily manured and plowed in July, being harrowed weekly and the loose roots removed with ;j hay rake. The following spring it was sown to hemp at the rate of one bushel per acre, and a yield of over 2100 pounds of fibre per acre, valued at $118, secured. This treatment resulted in complete destruction of thistles, and nearly complete annihilation of quack grass. As a result this year over 125 acres of hemp have been sown on the quack and thistle infested lands surrounding Waupun. In all cases, except where sowing was made too late and growth was therefore checked by the drought, marketable hemp has been produced. In many instances, this land was not previously summer fallowed, nevertheless the growth of these noxious weeds was seriously checked. "Where previous summer fallowing is practiced, this treatment appears efficacious in the destruction of these weeds. The fact that land can be used for the growth of a money crop during the process of eradication makes the method the more valuable. Scientific American: Supplement 1907 Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#1. To: Artisan, christine, farmfriend, Original_Intent, HOUNDDAWG, Lod, Jethro Tull, Ferret, PatrickHenry, noone222, Esso, Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
I'm sure I'm missing people. Pardons if this topic is of no interest to you...
Thanks for the ping - a fascinating article.
There are no replies to Comment # 3. End Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
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