HEMP (in O. Eng. henep, cf. Dutch hennep, Ger. Hanf, cognate with Gr. {kánnabis}, Lat. cannabis), an annual herb (Cannabis sativa) having angular rough stems and alternate deeply lobed leaves. The bast fibres 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 fibre 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 fibre 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, Cannabinaceæ, 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 fibre 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 fibres are mixed in the same material. The hemp fibre 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 fibre 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 fibre 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 fibre. 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 fibres 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 fibres. 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 than 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 than 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. Check out what we're offering in the way of HEMP FOOD PRODUCTS!
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! I will try to round up some photo's to post as well as some links in the near future.
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! You can make it all from hemp!
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! ANYTHING! Why are we not doing this. Any country in the world could support their carbon fuel needs with hemp and we wouldn't have to ship fuel around the planet as well as it wouldn't increase the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere! The hemp would actually reduce the CO2! Why don't we all grow it, everywhere, it's the answer to all of our ever and fuel needs well into the 22nd century!
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 billions of years! How could we have been so stupid in the first place to have made hemp illegal. We now have a radioactive planet, no trees and global warming. We are so stupid, it's up to this generation to change the process of destruction and begin the ENVIRONMENTAL REVOLUTION! Treat the planet like a garden and economies will flourish. Treat her like a toxic waste dump and we will all perish! Think about it!