What we have here is believed to be the first ever article on hemp to appear in an American magazine. There certainly are earlier appearances in British and other language papers, but this is American, published and printed by Ben Franklin in 1791.

Contents

24. New mode of raising and cultivating hemp, - - 338

The new mode of cultivating and dressing hemp. By Abbe Braille. Printed by order of the lords of council for foreign trade and plantations.

It is sufficiently known, that land intended for a crop of hemp, must be well manured, well ploughed, cleansed, and gotten fine. The season being arrived, (which varies much according the soil, weather and conveniency of the cultivator, extending from the 25th March to the 15th June) sow the hemp seed, which ought always to be new seed, thin, not exceeding two bushels to an acre, and if you have the advantage of a drill plough, still less will do. After the land is sown, go through the whole with a shovel, and with it make little paths at seven feet distance from each other, the lengthway of your piece, so that at the proper season you may reach the female hemp, which you will have occasion to pull out, without trampling on the male, which must stand at least a month longer, to ripen its seed. The female hemp (that which bears only flowers and no seed) is known to be ripe by the flowers fading, the farina fæcundans falling, and some of the stems turning yellow. You must then draw out carefully the whole of the female hemp, breaking as little as possible the stems of what you take, or what you leave.

Immediately as it is gathered, take it in as large handfuls as you can, and either cutting the roots off, or leaving them on, as you like best (I prefer cutting them off) hold the root end uppermost, and with a wooden sword dress off the flower and leaves, which you leave on the field, since they assist in manuring. Pick out any weeds or spoiled plants; put twelve handfuls together to make a bundle; then lay the bundles in water; which ought to be a running and clear water, and if shaded and overhung with trees, the better. Lay poles, or planks, or whatever else you have, that is suitable, across a large number together, so as to keep them at least two inches under water. Take particular notice which you lay in first, and how you lay the bundles, that you may be able to get them out again successively as they were laid in without breaking or tangling. At the end of six days, visit the hemp, and see whether the reed will draw out from some of the bundles. The time required for soaking depends very much on the nature of the hemp, the weather, and the water it is soaked in-from six days to nine, or even eleven. It is a trouble that is not ill bestowed, to sort the hemp for soaking, if it be of unequal sizes-the slenderest generally requiring most soaking.

When you find any quantity sufficiently soaked, take it with care, putting the hands under it to prevent breakage, and transport it to a trough or to a table; for there are two methods of working it. If you work it in a trough, you must be provided with one somewhat longer than any hemp that you mean to work in it- twelve or fourteen inches deep, and of what width you think proper, according to the number of persons you employ at it, as one, two or four. To this trough must be fitted two pieces of plank, of about a foot length, but of such width as to stretch over a bundle of the hemp as it lies opened in the water: These planks must be set on one side with teeth of brass wire, and when the hemp is ready for drawing, must be laid on it as it lies in the water to keep it straight and immerged.

If you work the hemp on a table, you must, before taking it out of the water, open the bundles a little, and rub the stems between your hands, to get off what you can of the slime, and to loosen the rind. You must likewise push the bundle along in the water, with the root end foremost, to loosen the rind at that end where the operation is to be begun. If you do not thus rub and scour your hemp in the water where you soak it, you must do it in the trough. But in either case, you must be careful to keep an even and steady hand to avoid breaking the reed, which, as many times as it happens, renders the operation of getting the reeds out tedious. If it be wrought on a table, the bundle must be frequently but slightly wetted. If any suitable method could be taken to make water drip gently on it, it would be best. A plank must be laid on the bundle to keep it steady.

All matters being properly disposed, either on the table or in the trough, you must begin at the root end, to push back a little the rind from the stem. Then taking hold of one stem at a time, and rather near the outside than the middle of the bundle, keep your hand and the reed under water (if you work in a trough) and draw it out from the bundle as strait as possible ; you will find it come out clean as a sword from its scabbard. As you proceed, you may take two, afterwards four, and up to six or more reeds at a time, which will draw out still more easily. When you have drawn out all the reeds that you can find at the root end, lift up the spiked plank which was at the upper end, leaving on that which was in the middle, and draw out such pieces of reed as you may find at the upper end, and which have remained after drawing out what you could at the root end, because they were broken. Lastly, take off the plank, which lay on the middle, and take out all the relics of reed you can perceive. If your hemp were in good condition for drawing, you will now find all your reeds perfectly clean on the floor, and the rind, which is the hemp, lying in straight threads in the water or on the table.

You will perceive, that among the hemp there is a great quantity of gum left, looking like a jelly. This you will wash out, as if you were washing any long straight piece of cloth, observing not to displace or twist the threads, which would thwart the future operation of dressing or heckling. The finer and whiter you desire the hemp to be, the more waters you will run it through, squeezing it out at each time of washing. But I think it always right at the last to run it through a water in which a slight quantity of soft soap has been beat up, after the rate of an ounce of soft soap, to three pounds of the hemp, when dry. Do not squeeze it out from this soap water, but hang it to drain, and, when a little stiffened, open the bundle a little, and lay it to dry on a grass plat or floor; the former is preferable. This soap water is not absolutely necessary ; but is certainly of great use for softening the hemp, and rendering it pleasant and easy to dress ; but may be dispensed with, where it is very inconvenient, and where the hemp is intended for coarse purposes. It is obvious that all these operations would be carried on to the most advantage near some running stream, or large lake, if it be a standing water, on account of the great use that is made of that element, and to save a great deal of the trouble of transportation.

When thus dried, the hemp is proper either for dressing or storing: if the latter, particular care must be taken that it be thoroughly dry : it will otherwise heat and spoil. As the hemp peculiarly intended to be hitherto spoken of, is the female, or flower-bearing hemp, which is intended for fine uses, it is to be observed, that it must be worked with heckles or hatchels, such as are sued for flax dressing, and may be brought to an extreme fineness ; and the shorts, having no pieces of straw or reed among them, may be carded and spun, and brought into use for all the same purposes as cotton, and the same methods used for bleaching and softening. It is likewise requisite to work this hemp as soon as pulled, without which the greatest softness and whiteness cannot be obtained : and as this sort is generally ripe between hay time and harvest, when the weather is warm and fine, and the women most at liberty, it will be a suitable occasion to draw and cleanse the hemp. The dressing may be reserved for winter.

I now proceed to speak of the make hemp, which, being a more considerable crop, cannot all be worked at fast as it is pulled or cut. It is known to be ripe enough be the stems becoming pale ; for if you stay till the tuft containing the seed appears ripe, or the stem turns brown, the hemp will be in a great measure spoiled. When it is come to a proper maturity, you must get a good number of hands, so as to expedite the business; because, such as remains standing, after it is ripe, will have its rind fixed to the reed, the gum turned hard and dark-coloured, and the whole operation of drawing becomes difficult, troublesome, and ungrateful. The leaves are to be stripped off with a wooden sword, in the same manner as those of the female hemp, as are likewise the seed, the branches which grow laterally, and even the tuft bearing seed at the top : but if this latter should not come off clean, it must be chopt off with an iron instrument. All this must be done over a cloth, or on a spot of ground in the field, well levelled and smoothed, to avoid losing any of the seed. And it is proposed, and said to be successful, to leave the feed abroad, covered with the leaves, &c. to preserve it from birds, in order that it may heat, and be thrashed in the field, and the leaves and chaff strewed on the land. This certainly saves trouble, and is practised in many parts, but seems to me slovenly : and I should rather take it home to a barn. But I would certainly burn all the roots, and such parts as are too hard to rot easily, and strew the ashes as well as the leaves, and such other parts as will easily rot, upon the ground ; as these matters are reckoned to go half way towards manuring the land for next year's crop. The male hemp, thus stript of leaves and seed, will generally dry for storing in twenty-four hours ; but at any rate must not be left long abroad, but rather taken into sheds to dry, which, when thus stript, it will speedily do. Sun and rain would soon spoil it. That, which can be wrought green, must be treated as before set forth for the female hemp : and it is obvious that it is a great advantage to work it in this manner, rather than to dry and store it, which causes much trouble and expense, and produces less and worse hemp ; but where the crop is considerable, and the hands few, it is unavoidable. If, however, much rain come, it is impracticable to dry it for storing without spoiling, as every year's experience shows in the present received method : whereas, working the hemp green entirely avoids this disadvantage and inconveniency, and the hands engaged may continue their employment under the shelter of trees, or of a temporary shed made of a few rough poles and hurdles, covered with straw, reeds, &c.

All the same procedure is to be used with the male as with the female hemp, as to drawing, scouring, &c. : but as the reeds of it are less brittle, and the rind coarser, it requires more soaking, but is easier to draw, and produces much more and stronger hemp. What is stored must, when wanted to be wrought, be soaked, pealed, washed, and in general treated as before said. In cold weather, it takes long soaking.

Suppose the expenses under-rated 20s. per acre, and the gain over-rated 4l. 15s. there still remains 10l. clear gain; to which is to be added, that the further improvement of the material in dressing and spinning, employs the poor, and particularly women and children, who are a heavy burden to the farmer in all countries.

DETACHED OBSERVATIONS ON HEMP.

It is capable of being cultivated on all kinds of land ; the poorer land producing the hemp finer in quality, though smaller in quantity ; and the rankest land producing strong and long, though coarse ; and this sort being the easiest to draw and work in the new mode, the quantity of manure requisite in the first instance is not above half, and the subsequent years not above quarter of that for wheat, and the hemp still improving in quality. All the work in the new method, not even excepting the dressing, is fitter for women than men, and may be practised advantageously by every cottager.

No bleaching is wanted for the linen made of hemp prepared in the new method: and it is nearly certain, that if the hemp be fine, well managed, and dressed with the finest flax-heckle, it may supercede almost all the uses of flax, which is a more uncertain and less abundant crop, requires more culture and better land, which it exhausts ; whereas hemp-grounds increase in goodness. If the male hemp, intended for cords, has been treated with little attention, and but little scoured or bleached, the shorts which come from it in dressing, may be scoured over again, to render them more fit for use. The hackle, and even the hemp itself, may be a little oiled in the dressing, which will much facilitate that business, and, instead of fouling, will rather assist in bleaching the threads, when they come to be washed.

Both the dressing and spinning of hemp are best carried on in a damp place. Hemp is naturally inclined to twist too much in spinning.

The greatest injury, that can befal hemp, is that of sunbaking. But after all the greatest injuries that can be done to hemp, the new operation may be performed on it ; though with less success, yet sufficient to render it better than that which is procured by any other operation, whereof I have, at this moment, the proof under my eye. The greatest whiteness can never be procured but by working it green. If stored, the greener it is got in, the whiter it will be. The more the colour is changed, the worse will be the colour of the thread.

Fifteen pounds of male hemp may be gotten off in a day by one person ; only seven pounds of female. It is necessary to pick the hemp plants over at several different periods, in order to avoid having any bad stems among the good, which might spoil a whole parcel, especially if intended for fine linen.

There is great reason, from a slight attempt that has been made, to think that a dye might be procured from the water in which the hemp is scoured, after it is gotten off from the reed.
It is likewise thought that an instrument may be imagined for drawing the reeds from the threads or rind, or else the rind or threads from the reed, more expeditiously. A few bundles have been cleared with a common rake.

In France, it is common, at the time of pulling the female hemp, to scatter turnip seeds in among the stems of the male hemp, which are left standing, and these turnips frequently produce a good deal of seed for sheep of cattle after the male hemp is taken off. It is obvious, that whatever has this effect, has, besides the benefit of supporting the stock of a farm, that of aiding to manure the hempgrounds, especially if sheep be fed on it ; therefore, if this method fail, it would be prudent, immediately as the hemp is off the ground, to plough it up, and sow turnips, cole-feed, rye, or any other thing proper for sheep feed, which can be gotten off early in the next spring, so as to be able to till the land well in time for receiving the hemp seed.

It is a less injury to the hemp to pull the plants before they are ripe enough, than to leave them too long standing. It is a less injury, in soaking the hemp, to leave it too long in the water, than to take it out before it is sufficiently soaked.

The more the hemp is cleansed after getting off the reed, the finer it becomes, and the finer dressing it requires : nothing but experience can mark the degrees.

The most advantageous time to begin the culture of hemp on any land, is immediately after a crop of turnips ;-exactly the same as if you were about to sow barley.

The coarsest black soap, which costs in France only three pence per lb. will suffice for making the suds through which the hemp should pass.

It is asserted from experience, that putting the clusters, containing the hemp seeds, to sweat and heat, causes many of the seeds to come to perfection, which in the common method, would wither and become dead ; and that it of course improves both the quantity and quality.

London,1790.