Time Line of Hemp Noted Event’s,

1861 B.C.-1910

1861

{footnote] – Lexington KY – Battle of the Hempfields – Civil War Excerpt: There are many claimants for the credit of having first suggested the hemp-bale strategy. General Harris's official report says: "I directed the bales to be wet in the river to protect them against the casualties of fire of our troops and of the enemy, but it was soon found that the wetting so materially increased the weight as to prevent our men, in their exhausted condition, from rolling it to the crest of the hill. I then adopted the idea of wetting the hemp after it had been transported to its position…

October 8, 1862

October 8 1862

MORMON HEMP HISTORY Journal of Discourses Volume 10,pg 121 George Albert Smith I hope that all that has been said by the brethren in reference to the culture of hemp, flax, indigo, and in fact all that will tend to build up Zion will be attended to, for let it be remembered that it is coming to this necessity of producing for ourselves or go without, and the question resolves itself in to the simple proposition, "Clothes or no clothes." We must make our own woolen, flax, hemp and cotton good or we must go naked. We cannot get these articles much longer from the States, according to the present prospect. The vengeance of the Almighty is sweeping the land with the besom of destruction; millions of men are forsaking their industrial pursuits for the purpose of destroying each other. Let us each and all attend to this, that the beauty of our garments may be the beauty of the workmanship of our own hands, or we shall find ourselves without many of the necessaries of life altogether

1870

Lancaster County Pennsylvania Reports 230 tons of hemp still grown in Lancaster County Pennsylvania

1842

1896

Several [varieties of hemp] are grown in this country, that cultivated in Kentucky and having a hollow stem, being the most common. China hemp, with slender stems, growing very erect, has a wide range of culture. Smyrna hemp is adapted to cultivation over a still wider range and Japanese hemp is beginning to be cultivated, particularly in California, where it reaches a height of 15 feet. Russian and Italian seed have been experimented with, but the former produces a short stalk, while the latter only grows to a medium height. A small quantity of Piedmontese hemp seed from Italy was distributed by the Department in 1893, having been received through the Chicago Exposition...." Dodge, C. A. 1896. A report on the culture of hemp and jute in the United States. USDA Office of Fiber Investigations Report No. 8. p.7.

1890

There is a reasonable prospect of establishing an extensive hemp industry in the United States on new lines, involving the use of either a taller variety or two crops of the short variety, growing the crop on large areas of cheap land, plowing deep, putting on the necessary fertilizers, reaping and breaking by machinery, and using the process of water retting :REPORT OF THE SECRETARY - HEMP James Wilson, Secretary Dept of Agriculture End of page 64

1891

A variety of cannabis and hashish extracts were the first second, and third most prescribed medicines in the United States

A variety of cannabis and hashish extracts were the first, second, and third most prescribed medicines in the United States.

1891

W. H. Holmes an ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institute recovers a large piece of hemp fabric buriedwith a man at an archeological dig in Morgan County, TENNESSE.

1892

Rudolph Diesel invented diesel engine intended to specifically run on vegetable & seed oils.

1894

The Report of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission, running to over three thousand pages in seven volumes, is published. This inquiry, commissioned by the British government, concluded: "There is no evidence of any weight regarding the mental and moral injuries from the moderate use of these drugs. .. . . Moderation does not lead to excess in hemp any more than it does in alcohol. Regular, moderate use of ganja or bhang produces the same effects as moderate and regular doses of whiskey." The commission's proposal to tax bhang is never put into effect, in part, perhaps, because one of the commissioners, an Indian, cautions that Moslem law and Hindu custom forbid"taxing anything that gives pleasure to the poor."

1896

USDA – 1895-1896 Yearbook US Dept of Ag - Author: Gilbert H. Hicks; Asst, Div. of Botany, USDA End of Pgs 198 -,Hemp notwithstanding its oily content, loses its germinative power quickly, usually by the end of one year; hence only fresh seed should be sown. Neither cracked nor dull-looking seed will germinate well. Hemp culture in America is mostly confined to Kentucky and Missouri, principally the former State. The value of hemp for fiber, birdseed, and oil would seem to make its cultivation a very profitable one.

1902

"In Nebraska, where the [hemp] industry is being established, a new and important step has been taken in cutting the crop with an ordinary mowing machine. A simple attachment which bends the stalks over in the direction in which the machine is going facilitates the cutting... The cost of cutting hemp in this manner is 50 cents per acre, as compared with $3 to $4 per acre, the rates paid for cutting by hand in Kentucky." USDA. 1902. Yearbook of Agrt. p. 23.

1905

"The most important fact to be recorded in connection with the hemp industry during the past year is the successful operation of a machine brake in the fields of Kentucky. This machine breaks the retted stalks and cleans the fiber, producing clean, straight fiber equal to the best grades prepared on hand brakes, and it has a capacity of 1000 pounds or more of clean fiber per hour. So far as we have any record, this is the first machine having sufficient capacity to be commercially practical that has cleaned bast fiber in an entirely satisfactory manner." USDA1905 Report Office Fiber Investigations.Bureau PlantIndustry.p 145

1910

FIBER INVESTIGATIONS - HEMP & FLAX 1909 Yearbook of the US Dept of Agriculture Many plant fibers and many questions pertaining to fiber production have been investigated during the past year, but attention has been directed especially to hemp and flax, which, aside from cotton, are regarded as the most promising fiber-producing plants for this country.