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Time Line of Hemp Noted Event’s,   1915 -1935 

California Outlaws Cannabis

1916

USDA Bulletin #404 calls for a new program to expand hemp to replace uses of timber in industry.

THE SEED SUPPLY OF THE NATION - HEMP “Hemp must be specially planted for seed production, and in view of the increasing importance of the crop, seed production should be strongly encouraged. Chile offers possibilities in this connection, but for the present our efforts should be exerted at home. Our planting requirements, based on the acreage of 1917, are about 2,100,000 pounds of seed”  1917 Yearbook of the USDA Author: R.A. Oakley, Agronomist in Charge of Seed Distribution, Bureau of PlantIndustry Pages: 526-527

1917

American George W. Schlichten patented a new machine for separating the hemp fiber from the internal woody core (“hurds”), reducing the labor cost 100 times and increasing fiber yield by 60 times. That combined with new technology to fashion paper and plastics from hemp derived cellulose,

"Early maturing varieties, chiefly of Italian origin, are being grown at Madison, Wisconsin, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. This is the third year of selection for some varieties, and the results give promise of the successful production in that State of seed of hemp fully equal to the Ferrara of northern Italy." USDA. Bureau of Plant Industry. 1918. Report of the Chief. p. 28

When the work with hemp was begun in Wisconsin, there were no  satisfactory machines for harvesting, spreading, binding, or breaking. All of these processes were performed by hand. Due to such methods, the hemp  industry in the United States had all but disappeared. As it was realized from the very  beginning of the work in Wisconsin that no permanent progress could be made so long as it was necessary to  depend upon hand labor, immediate attention was given to solving the problem of power machinery. Nearly every kind of hemp machine was studied and tested. The obstacles were great, but through the cooperation of experienced hemp men and one large harvesting machinery company, this problem has been nearly solved. The hemp crop can now be handled entirely by machinery."  Wright, Andrew. 1918. Wisconsin's Hemp Industry. Wisconsin Ag Experiment Station Bulletin # 293. p.5.

1918

1917 Yearbook USDA Author: W.W. Stockberger, Physiologist in Charge of Drug-Plant and Poisonous-Plant Investigations,Bureau of Plant Industry Pages: Excerpts from 169 & 171 PRODUCTION OF DRUG-PLANT CROPS IN THE UNITED STATES Medicinal plants have been cultivated in the United States for more than two centuries. Only a few decades have elapsed since healing herbs shared with small fruits and vegetables a place in every kitchen garden, and in certain localities their production and sale at one time formed the basis of small industries. In time, however, the numerous convenient preparations obtainable at every drug store rendered the domestic herb garden no longer necessary, and the great development of foreign commerce made it possible to obtain supplies of most crude drugs from sources where the cost of production was less than in this country. 1917 Yearbook USDA Author: W.W. Stockberger, Physiologist in Charge of Drug-Plant and Poisonous-Plant Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry Pages: Excerpts from 169 & 171.Cannabis is now grown commercially as a side line by a few farmers in South Carolina and by occasional individuals in some other States. Two large drug manufacturers also grow sufficient cannabis for their own needs. Considerable technical skill is required to produce cannabis of a quality that will meet the standard requirements for this drug. Cannabis grown in some localities is deficient in the active principles upon which its value depends, and preliminary tests to determine the quality of the product are therefore always advisable before  planting this crop on a commercial scale

1919

Texas outlaws Cannabis - Senator said on the floor of the Senate: "All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy."

1920

"The work of breeding improved strains of hemp is being continued at Arlington Farm, Va., and all previous records were broken in the selection plats of 1919. The three best strains, Kymington, Chington and Tochimington, averaged, respectively, 14 feet 11 inches, 15 feet 5”, and 15 feet 9 inches, while the tallest individual plant was 19 feet. The improvement by selection is shown not alone in increased height but also in longer internodes, yielding fiber of better quality and increased quantity." USDA. Bureau of Plant Industry.1920  Report of the Chief

1921

"The organized hemp growers of Wisconsin, working in cooperation with the field agent of fiber investigations [Andrew Wright], have so improved the quality and standardized the grades of hemp fiber produced there that it has found a market even in dull times. The hemp acreage in that State has been kept up, although there has been a reduction in every other hemp-producing area throughout the world." USDA. Annual Report  Dept of Ag:  p. 46.

1929

"In 1929 three selected varieties of hemp (Michigan Early, Chinamington and Simple Leaf) were grown in comparison with unselected common Kentucky seed near Juneau, Wis. Each of the varieties had been developed by 10 years or more of selection from the progeny of individual plants. The yields of fiber per acre were as follows: Simple Leaf, 360 pounds; Michigan Early, 694 pounds; Chinamington, 1054 lbs; common Kentucky, 680 pounds." USDA. 1929. Bureau of Plant Industry, Annual Report. p. 27.

1931

Andrew Mellon, Treasury Secretary and head of Bank of Pittsburgh, which loaned Dupont 80% of its money, appoints his nephew-in-law,  Harry J. Anslinger, to head newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics (later to become the DEA)

1935

"The hemp breeding work, carried on by the Bureau for more than 20 years, was discontinued in 1933, but practical results are still evident in commercial fields. A hemp grower in Kentucky reported a yield of 1750 pounds per acre of clean, dew-retted fiber from 100 acres of the pedigreed variety Chinamington grown in 1934. This is more than twice the average yield obtained from ordinary unselected hemp seed." USDA. 1935. Annual Reports Dept of Agriculture, p.6.

Date

Year

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
 

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

1842-96

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.

1891

W. H. Holmes an ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institute

recovers a large piece of hemp fabric buried with 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."  USDA. 1905 Report of Office of Fiber Investigations.

Bureau of Plant Industry. 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.