Hemp History B.C.
26,900 B.C. The first known Hemp rope was found in Czechoslovakia in 1997 and dated from 26,900 B.C.
8000 B.C. Hemp was the first plant known to have been domestically cultivated. The oldest relic of human history is Hemp fabric dated to 8,000 BC from ancient Mesopotamia, an area in present-day Turkey.
Civilization, agriculture and Hemp textile industries begin in Europe and Asia. Hemp is woven into fabric and grows in popularity over time on a global scale to eventually provide over 80% of all textiles and fabrics. Including over 50% of the fabric called linen.
7000 B.C. Castellar del Vallès is a municipality of Catalonia in the comarca of Vallès Occidental.
Wine, olive tree, wheat, dried fruit and nuts complemented by products of the vegetable garden. Linen and Hemp have been grown on the banks of the Ripoll river since the Middle Ages.
7th Century B.C. to 4th Century A.D. Scythians:
Herodotus reports that Scythians used Cannabis, both to weave their clothing and to cleanse themselves in its smoke. Archaeology has confirmed the use of Cannabis in funeral rituals.
Clothing was sewn from plain-weave wool, Hemp cloth, silk fabrics, felt, leather and hides.
5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C. The Yangshao culture produced silk to a small degree and wove Hemp.
4800 B.C. Yangshao culture amphora with Hemp cord design.
-Textile archaeologists found the first traces of woven Hemp in Kazakhstan.
2727 B.C. Cannabis called a "superior" herb in the world's first medical text, Shen Nung's Pen Ts'ao, in China. Including ailments to fight malaria, rheumatism and as a sédative.
2700 B.C. Cannabis, as Hemp fabric and cordage, medicine, and food has been incorporated into virtually all cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, China, Japan, and Africa.
2665 B.C. The earliest longbow known from England, found at Ashcott Heath, Somerset.
Bow strings were, and still are, made of Hemp, flax or silk. They are attached to the wood via horn "nocks" that fit onto the end of the bow. Modern synthetic materials (often Dacron) are now commonly used for strings.
2300 B.C. Nomadic tribes from the East migrate into the Mediterranean regions and eventually Europe. They introduce Hemp along the way.
2nd Century B.C. The types of clothing worn and the materials used during the Han period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could afford silk robes, skirts, socks and mittens. Coats made of badger or fox fur, duck plumes and slippers with inlaid leather, pearls and silk lining. Peasants commonly wore clothes made of Hemp, wool and ferret skins.
2000-1400 B.C. The earliest known reports regarding the sacred status of Cannabis in India and Nepal come from the Atharva Veda, which mentions Cannabis as one of the "five sacred plants". There are three types of Cannabis preparations used in India and Nepal.
The first, Bhang, consists of the leaves and plant tops of the Marijuana plant. It is usually consumed as an infusion in beverage form, and varies in strength according to how much Cannabis is used in the preparation.
The second, Ganja, consisting of the leaves and the plant tops, is smoked.
The third, called Charas or Hashish, consists of the resinous buds and/or extracted resin from the leaves of the Marijuana plant.
Typically, Bhang is the most commonly used form of Cannabis in religious festivals.
1500 B.C. Cannabis-using Scythians sweep through Europe and Asia. They settle down everywhere and invent the scythe.
Cannabis has been used in a religious and spiritual context in India since the Vedic period dating back to approximately 1500 B.C. but perhaps as far back as 2000 BC. There are several references in Greek mythology to a powerful drug that eliminated anguish and sorrow. Herodotus wrote about early ceremonial practices by the Scythians, thought to have occurred from the 5th to 2nd Century B.C. Itinerant Hindu saints have used it in India for centuries.
1269 B.C. Goods bought and sold at the estate of Cui Shi:
Hempen cloth and Hemp seeds.
1000 B.C. to 1883 A.D. Hemp is the world's largest agricultural crop, providing materials to support civilization's most important industries. Fiber for fabric and rope, lamp oil for lighting, paper, medicine and food for both humans and domesticated animals.
1000 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Hemp Extracts are the #1, #2 and #3 most important and most frequently used medicine for two-thirds of the world's population.
544 B.C. Gautama Buddah survives by eating one Hempseed a day.
-Herodotus described the fine linens of the Scythes and their steam baths made by throwing Hemp on burning stones.
500 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Ninety percent of the sailcloth and rigging lines used for all sea-going vessels is made from Hemp.
450 B.C. Herodotus records Scythians and Thracians as consuming Cannabis and making fine linens of Hemp.
300 B.C. Carthage and Rome struggle for political and commercial power over Hemp and spice trade routes in Mediterranean.
2nd Century B.C. Dress in classical antiquity favored wide, unsewn lengths of fabric, pinned and draped to the body in various ways.
The toga of ancient Rome was also an unsewn length of wool cloth, worn by male citizens draped around the body in various fashions, over a simple tunic.
Early tunics were two simple rectangles joined at the shoulders and sides; later tunics had sewn sleeves.
Women wore the draped stola or an ankle-length tunic, with a shawl-like palla as an outer garment.
Wool was the preferred fabric, although linen, Hemp, and small amounts of expensive imported silk and cotton were also worn.
270-215 B.C. Hiero II the King of Syracuse, purchased Hemp from the Rhone River area in Gaul. He had it made into ropes and sailcloth used in his powerful fleet of ships.
236 B.C. The first reference to an elevator is in the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius, who reported that Archimedes (c. 287 B.C.–c. 212 B.C.) built his first elevator probably in 236 B.C. In some literary sources of later historical periods, elevators were mentioned as cabs on a Hemp rope and powered by hand or by animals.
221 B.C. Junk (ship): For caulking the Chinese used a mix of ground lime with Tung oil together with chopped Hemp from old fishing nets which set hard in 18 hours.
206 B.C. to 220 A.D. The types of clothing worn and the materials used during the Han period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could afford silk robes, skirts, socks, and mittens, coats made of badger or fox fur, duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather, pearls and silk lining. Peasants commonly wore clothes made of Hemp, wool, and ferret skins.
8000 B.C. Hemp was the first plant known to have been domestically cultivated. The oldest relic of human history is Hemp fabric dated to 8,000 BC from ancient Mesopotamia, an area in present-day Turkey.
Civilization, agriculture and Hemp textile industries begin in Europe and Asia. Hemp is woven into fabric and grows in popularity over time on a global scale to eventually provide over 80% of all textiles and fabrics. Including over 50% of the fabric called linen.
7000 B.C. Castellar del Vallès is a municipality of Catalonia in the comarca of Vallès Occidental.
Wine, olive tree, wheat, dried fruit and nuts complemented by products of the vegetable garden. Linen and Hemp have been grown on the banks of the Ripoll river since the Middle Ages.
7th Century B.C. to 4th Century A.D. Scythians:
Herodotus reports that Scythians used Cannabis, both to weave their clothing and to cleanse themselves in its smoke. Archaeology has confirmed the use of Cannabis in funeral rituals.
Clothing was sewn from plain-weave wool, Hemp cloth, silk fabrics, felt, leather and hides.
5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C. The Yangshao culture produced silk to a small degree and wove Hemp.
4800 B.C. Yangshao culture amphora with Hemp cord design.
-Textile archaeologists found the first traces of woven Hemp in Kazakhstan.
2727 B.C. Cannabis called a "superior" herb in the world's first medical text, Shen Nung's Pen Ts'ao, in China. Including ailments to fight malaria, rheumatism and as a sédative.
2700 B.C. Cannabis, as Hemp fabric and cordage, medicine, and food has been incorporated into virtually all cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, China, Japan, and Africa.
2665 B.C. The earliest longbow known from England, found at Ashcott Heath, Somerset.
Bow strings were, and still are, made of Hemp, flax or silk. They are attached to the wood via horn "nocks" that fit onto the end of the bow. Modern synthetic materials (often Dacron) are now commonly used for strings.
2300 B.C. Nomadic tribes from the East migrate into the Mediterranean regions and eventually Europe. They introduce Hemp along the way.
2nd Century B.C. The types of clothing worn and the materials used during the Han period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could afford silk robes, skirts, socks and mittens. Coats made of badger or fox fur, duck plumes and slippers with inlaid leather, pearls and silk lining. Peasants commonly wore clothes made of Hemp, wool and ferret skins.
2000-1400 B.C. The earliest known reports regarding the sacred status of Cannabis in India and Nepal come from the Atharva Veda, which mentions Cannabis as one of the "five sacred plants". There are three types of Cannabis preparations used in India and Nepal.
The first, Bhang, consists of the leaves and plant tops of the Marijuana plant. It is usually consumed as an infusion in beverage form, and varies in strength according to how much Cannabis is used in the preparation.
The second, Ganja, consisting of the leaves and the plant tops, is smoked.
The third, called Charas or Hashish, consists of the resinous buds and/or extracted resin from the leaves of the Marijuana plant.
Typically, Bhang is the most commonly used form of Cannabis in religious festivals.
1500 B.C. Cannabis-using Scythians sweep through Europe and Asia. They settle down everywhere and invent the scythe.
Cannabis has been used in a religious and spiritual context in India since the Vedic period dating back to approximately 1500 B.C. but perhaps as far back as 2000 BC. There are several references in Greek mythology to a powerful drug that eliminated anguish and sorrow. Herodotus wrote about early ceremonial practices by the Scythians, thought to have occurred from the 5th to 2nd Century B.C. Itinerant Hindu saints have used it in India for centuries.
1269 B.C. Goods bought and sold at the estate of Cui Shi:
Hempen cloth and Hemp seeds.
1000 B.C. to 1883 A.D. Hemp is the world's largest agricultural crop, providing materials to support civilization's most important industries. Fiber for fabric and rope, lamp oil for lighting, paper, medicine and food for both humans and domesticated animals.
1000 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Hemp Extracts are the #1, #2 and #3 most important and most frequently used medicine for two-thirds of the world's population.
544 B.C. Gautama Buddah survives by eating one Hempseed a day.
-Herodotus described the fine linens of the Scythes and their steam baths made by throwing Hemp on burning stones.
500 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Ninety percent of the sailcloth and rigging lines used for all sea-going vessels is made from Hemp.
450 B.C. Herodotus records Scythians and Thracians as consuming Cannabis and making fine linens of Hemp.
300 B.C. Carthage and Rome struggle for political and commercial power over Hemp and spice trade routes in Mediterranean.
2nd Century B.C. Dress in classical antiquity favored wide, unsewn lengths of fabric, pinned and draped to the body in various ways.
The toga of ancient Rome was also an unsewn length of wool cloth, worn by male citizens draped around the body in various fashions, over a simple tunic.
Early tunics were two simple rectangles joined at the shoulders and sides; later tunics had sewn sleeves.
Women wore the draped stola or an ankle-length tunic, with a shawl-like palla as an outer garment.
Wool was the preferred fabric, although linen, Hemp, and small amounts of expensive imported silk and cotton were also worn.
270-215 B.C. Hiero II the King of Syracuse, purchased Hemp from the Rhone River area in Gaul. He had it made into ropes and sailcloth used in his powerful fleet of ships.
236 B.C. The first reference to an elevator is in the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius, who reported that Archimedes (c. 287 B.C.–c. 212 B.C.) built his first elevator probably in 236 B.C. In some literary sources of later historical periods, elevators were mentioned as cabs on a Hemp rope and powered by hand or by animals.
221 B.C. Junk (ship): For caulking the Chinese used a mix of ground lime with Tung oil together with chopped Hemp from old fishing nets which set hard in 18 hours.
206 B.C. to 220 A.D. The types of clothing worn and the materials used during the Han period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could afford silk robes, skirts, socks, and mittens, coats made of badger or fox fur, duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather, pearls and silk lining. Peasants commonly wore clothes made of Hemp, wool, and ferret skins.
Hemp History A.D.
50 A.D. Texts mention Hemp rope mixed with a vegetation-based putty during the Gallo-Roman era.
100 A.D. Roman surgeon Dioscorides names the plant Cannabis Sativa and describes various medicinal uses. Pliny tells of industrial uses and writes a manual on farming Hemp.
The mythological Chinese emperor Shennong wrote the first Chinese pharmacopoeia, the "Shennong Ben Cao Jing". The "Shennong Ben Cao Jing" lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses - including Ephedra (the shrub that introduced the drug ephedrine to modern medicine), Hemp, and chaulmoogra (one of the first effective treatments for leprosy).
105 A.D. In the papermaking process established by Cai Lun, an official attached to the Imperial court during the Han Dynasty, a boiled mixture of mulberry tree bark, Hemp, old linens and fish nets created a pulp that was pounded into paste and stirred with water.
200 A.D. Far East - The earliest true crank handle in Han China occurs, as Han era glazed-earthenware tomb models portray. The crank was used thereafter in China for silk-reeling and Hemp-spinning, in the water-powered flour-sifter, for hydraulic-powered metallurgic bellows and in the well windlass.
2nd Century A.D. Ebrey lists items found in a 2nd-century AD tomb in Wuwei, Gansu.
Fourteen pieces of pottery; wooden objects such as a horse, pig, ox, chicken, chicken coop, and a single-horned animal. Seventy copper cash; a crossbow mechanism made of bronze, a writing brush, a lacquer-encased inkstone, a lacquer tray and bowl. A wooden comb, a jade ornament, a pair of Hemp shoes, a straw bag, the remains of an inscribed banner, a bamboo hairpin, two straw satchels, and a stone lamp.
330-386 A.D. "Supplementary Records of Famous Physicians" Hemp-seeds are very little used in medicine, but the magician-technicians (shujia) say that if one consumes them with ginseng it will give one preternatural knowledge of events in the future.
500 A.D. First botanical drawing of Hemp in Constantinopolitanus.
-A bridge in the south of France dated at 500-700 A.D. was built with a mixture of Hemp.
600 A.D. Germans, Franks, Vikings, etc. all use Hemp fibre.
618-907 A.D. China during the T'ang dynasty
The traditional costumes are made up of decorative fabrics, which they achieve by pattern weaving and wax resist. Almost all the Miao decorate Hemp and cotton by applying hot wax then dipping the cloth in an indigo dye. The cloth is then used for skirts, panels on jackets, aprons and baby carriers.
670 A.D. Woodblock printing: The earliest specimen of woodblock printing is a single-sheet Dharani Sutra in Sanskrit that was printed on Hemp paper. It was unearthed in 1974 from a Tang tomb near Xi'an.
700 A.D. The Kvalslund ship was built. It is the first with a true keel.
Nearly all longships were clinker (also known as lapstrake) built, meaning that each hull plank overlapped the next.
Each overlap was stuffed with wool or animal hair or sometimes Hemp soaked in pine tar to ensure water tightness.
800-1400 A.D. Hemp and flax are regarded as the oldest industrial crops in Denmark, with flax cultivated by the Iron Age period and Hemp at least by the Middle Ages.
8th-11th Century A.D. Viking Age arms and armour:
Some rune stones depict what appears to be armour which is likely not maille.
Several layers of stout linen or Hemp canvas would provide a good level of protection, at reasonable expense, as would winter clothing made from thick woolen cloth.
1000 A.D. The English word 'Hempe' first listed in a dictionary.
1085 A.D. Paper in Europe:
The first paper manufactured in Europe was made of vegetable fibre including linen, Hemp, and cotton.
1098-1179 A.D. For Hildegard von Bingen, Hemp cured phlebitis and stomach pains.
11th Century A.D. The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of Silos, using paper made in the Islamic part of the Iberian Peninsula. They used Hemp and linen rags as a source of fiber.
1150 A.D. Moslems use Hemp to start Europe's first paper mill. Most paper is made from Hemp for the next 700 years.
1150-1300 A.D. Scotland:
Warm dry summers and less severe winters allowed cultivation at much greater heights above sea level and made land more productive. Arable farming grew significantly, but was still more common in low-lying areas than in high-lying areas such as the Highlands, Galloway and the Southern Uplands.
Key crops included kale, Hemp, and flax.
1151 A.D. The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of Silos from the 11th century, probably using paper made in the Islamic part of Spain. They used Hemp and linen rags as a source of fibre. The first recorded paper mill in Spain was in Xàtiva. Xàtiva/Sativa
1209 A.D. First Appearance of Various Industrial Mills in Medieval Europe, 770-1443 A.D.
100 A.D. Roman surgeon Dioscorides names the plant Cannabis Sativa and describes various medicinal uses. Pliny tells of industrial uses and writes a manual on farming Hemp.
The mythological Chinese emperor Shennong wrote the first Chinese pharmacopoeia, the "Shennong Ben Cao Jing". The "Shennong Ben Cao Jing" lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses - including Ephedra (the shrub that introduced the drug ephedrine to modern medicine), Hemp, and chaulmoogra (one of the first effective treatments for leprosy).
105 A.D. In the papermaking process established by Cai Lun, an official attached to the Imperial court during the Han Dynasty, a boiled mixture of mulberry tree bark, Hemp, old linens and fish nets created a pulp that was pounded into paste and stirred with water.
200 A.D. Far East - The earliest true crank handle in Han China occurs, as Han era glazed-earthenware tomb models portray. The crank was used thereafter in China for silk-reeling and Hemp-spinning, in the water-powered flour-sifter, for hydraulic-powered metallurgic bellows and in the well windlass.
2nd Century A.D. Ebrey lists items found in a 2nd-century AD tomb in Wuwei, Gansu.
Fourteen pieces of pottery; wooden objects such as a horse, pig, ox, chicken, chicken coop, and a single-horned animal. Seventy copper cash; a crossbow mechanism made of bronze, a writing brush, a lacquer-encased inkstone, a lacquer tray and bowl. A wooden comb, a jade ornament, a pair of Hemp shoes, a straw bag, the remains of an inscribed banner, a bamboo hairpin, two straw satchels, and a stone lamp.
330-386 A.D. "Supplementary Records of Famous Physicians" Hemp-seeds are very little used in medicine, but the magician-technicians (shujia) say that if one consumes them with ginseng it will give one preternatural knowledge of events in the future.
500 A.D. First botanical drawing of Hemp in Constantinopolitanus.
-A bridge in the south of France dated at 500-700 A.D. was built with a mixture of Hemp.
600 A.D. Germans, Franks, Vikings, etc. all use Hemp fibre.
618-907 A.D. China during the T'ang dynasty
The traditional costumes are made up of decorative fabrics, which they achieve by pattern weaving and wax resist. Almost all the Miao decorate Hemp and cotton by applying hot wax then dipping the cloth in an indigo dye. The cloth is then used for skirts, panels on jackets, aprons and baby carriers.
670 A.D. Woodblock printing: The earliest specimen of woodblock printing is a single-sheet Dharani Sutra in Sanskrit that was printed on Hemp paper. It was unearthed in 1974 from a Tang tomb near Xi'an.
700 A.D. The Kvalslund ship was built. It is the first with a true keel.
Nearly all longships were clinker (also known as lapstrake) built, meaning that each hull plank overlapped the next.
Each overlap was stuffed with wool or animal hair or sometimes Hemp soaked in pine tar to ensure water tightness.
800-1400 A.D. Hemp and flax are regarded as the oldest industrial crops in Denmark, with flax cultivated by the Iron Age period and Hemp at least by the Middle Ages.
8th-11th Century A.D. Viking Age arms and armour:
Some rune stones depict what appears to be armour which is likely not maille.
Several layers of stout linen or Hemp canvas would provide a good level of protection, at reasonable expense, as would winter clothing made from thick woolen cloth.
1000 A.D. The English word 'Hempe' first listed in a dictionary.
1085 A.D. Paper in Europe:
The first paper manufactured in Europe was made of vegetable fibre including linen, Hemp, and cotton.
1098-1179 A.D. For Hildegard von Bingen, Hemp cured phlebitis and stomach pains.
11th Century A.D. The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of Silos, using paper made in the Islamic part of the Iberian Peninsula. They used Hemp and linen rags as a source of fiber.
1150 A.D. Moslems use Hemp to start Europe's first paper mill. Most paper is made from Hemp for the next 700 years.
1150-1300 A.D. Scotland:
Warm dry summers and less severe winters allowed cultivation at much greater heights above sea level and made land more productive. Arable farming grew significantly, but was still more common in low-lying areas than in high-lying areas such as the Highlands, Galloway and the Southern Uplands.
Key crops included kale, Hemp, and flax.
1151 A.D. The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of Silos from the 11th century, probably using paper made in the Islamic part of Spain. They used Hemp and linen rags as a source of fibre. The first recorded paper mill in Spain was in Xàtiva. Xàtiva/Sativa
1209 A.D. First Appearance of Various Industrial Mills in Medieval Europe, 770-1443 A.D.
Type of mill
Malt mill
Fulling mill Tanning mill Forge mill Tool-sharpening mill Hemp mill |
Date
770 A.D.
1080 A.D. 1134 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1203 A.D. 1209 A.D. |
Country
France
France France England, France France France |
1215 A.D. The Magna Carta is written on Hemp paper.
1232 A.D. Birmingham was a flourishing medieval market town.
Hemp and flax are being used for making rope, canvas, and linen. Kilns producing local pottery also exist.
1292 A.D. The European traveler Marco Polo described Indian vessels:
"...built of fir timber, having a sheath of boards laid over the planking in every part, caulked with oakum and fastened with iron nails. The bottoms were smeared with a preparation of quicklime and Hemp, pounded together and mixed with oil from a certain tree which is a better material than pith."
13th Century A.D. The word canvas is derived from the Anglo-French canevaz and the Old French canevas. Both may be derivatives of the Vulgar Latin cannapaceus for "made of Hemp". Originating from the Greek.
Modern canvas is usually made of cotton or linen, although historically it was made from Hemp. It differs from other heavy cotton fabrics, such as denim, in being plain weave rather than twill weave. Canvas comes in two basic types: plain and duck. The threads in duck canvas are more tightly woven. The term duck comes from the Dutch word for cloth, doek.
Canvas and Duck at this time were words for Hemp fabric.
1315 A.D. An edict of Louis X, declaring that all Frenchmen were "free according to the law of nature" but the lot of the free peasant was hard, even under a gentle lord.
His thatched hut was unfloored and windowless. His garments were of
coarse Hempen cloth. Wool being reserved for his betters.
14th Century A.D. Château-d'Œx is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut.
At the beginning of the 14th Century, the castle at La Motte was rebuilt for the Counts of Gruyere. Another stronghold stood on the rocky spur which was known as Château Cottier.
After clearing the woods, the region was intensively farmed and produced barley, hay, Hemp, and cheese.
14th-16th Century A.D. The proscenium:
The competition among royals to produce elegant and elaborate entertainments fueled and financed the expansion of European court theatres.
The proscenium, which often was extremely decorative in the manner of a triumphal arch, "framed" the prospective picture.
A "full-fly" stage could store the entire height of scenery above the visible stage using the pin-rails before or during performance, whereas a "half-fly" stage (common in smaller locations) could only store props of limited size and thus required more careful backdrop and scenery design.
Theatres using these rope systems, which are manually operated by stage hands, are known as Hemp houses. They have been largely supplanted by counterweight fly systems.
1456 A.D. Gutenberg Bible is printed on Hemp paper.
1485-1603 A.D. Clare, Suffolk:
"Wood-pasture region, mainly pasture, meadow, engaged in rearing and dairying with some beekeeping, horse breeding, and poultry. Crops mainly barley with some wheat, rye, oats, peas, vetches, hops, and occasionally Hemp."
1469 A.D. Coastal distribution of imports and local goods at Southampton.
5 1/2 sacks of Hemp, and 3 Bales of Hemp.
1492 A.D. Hempen sails, caulking, and rigging ignite an age of discovery and help Columbus and his ships reach America.
Hemp sails and ropes carried the European settlers to America for hundreds of years. From 1492 to the advent of steamships in the early 1800's.
1495 A.D. The Reisszug is a private funicular railway providing goods access to the Hohensalzburg Castle at Salzburg in Austria. It is notable for its extreme age.
The line originally used wooden rails and a Hemp haulage rope. It was operated by human or animal power. The line still exists, albeit in updated form, and is one of the oldest railways still to operate.
1500's A.D. Access to Hemp had become an obvious weak point in Britain's defensive and offensive ability. The obvious solution was to look to the west where the New World of the Americas had been discovered and was being settled by an increasing number of European peoples. All of the European powers with settlements in the New World were particularly interested in growing Hemp and laws were made stipulating that the recipients of land grants in the new colonies must devote a portion of their land and labour to growing Hemp. All trade depended on it and all naval military strategy was equally reliant on a steady and secure supply of Hemp.
1500 A.D. Hemp farming began in Central and South America during the time of the Spanish Conquest.
1534 A.D. Rabelais was so enamored with Hemp that in his
estimation it stood at the very pinnacle of plant life: “in this pantagruel ion have I found so much efficacy and energy, so much completeness and excellency, so much exquisiteness and rarity, and so many admirable effects and operations of a transcendent nature...”
1545 A.D. Hemp agriculture crosses the continent overland to Chile.
1564 A.D. King Philip II of Spain mandated the cultivation of Hemp for food, fiber, and medicine throughout his empire. From modern-day Argentina to Oregon.
-The Spaniards brought Hemp to the Western Hemisphere and cultivated it in Chile.
1590's A.D. The Netherlands had the most commercialized agriculture in all of Europe at this time. Growing many industrial crops such as flax, Hemp, and hops.
1596 A.D. Pocahontas is born. By the age of 8 or 10, she was making twine from Hemp plants.
15th Century A.D. Britain had been importing Hemp from the Baltic
region since Roman times. When Britain's maritime and naval fleet began to grow at the end of the 15th century, so did the demand for Hemp. Other European naval and maritime powers also created a demand for this increasingly important resource. Cannabis became a Strategic Raw Material and one to be fought over.
Whenever Britain went to war with a continental power, the first tactic brought to bear against the island state was to block its northern sea route to the Baltic. Although individually weaker than Britain, Holland and France grew as maritime powers because they had superior access to the Baltic trade routes and a more secure supply of Hemp.
16th-17th Century A.D. Dutch achieve Golden Age through Hemp commerce.
-Explorers find 'Wilde Hempe' in North America.
1600 A.D. Rembrandt paints on Hemp canvas.
1604 A.D. One of the most famous engravings from European alchemy is a woodcut esoteric mandala designed by alchemical adept and doctor of medicine, Hienrich Khunrath, for his masterful treatise Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom published in 1604.
In Khunrath ’s time Hemp was a ubiquitous crop. It's fiber was essential to global economic trade, for the sails of the world merchant fleets could be made from Hemp fiber only. No other vegetable fiber sail cloth could endure the stresses of wind and salt air on long ocean voyages. Paradoxically, using Hemp flowers as a religious sacrament was prohibited yet fields of Hemp flowers could be found nearly everywhere.
1607 A.D. Virginia Company early industries:
Lumbering, manufacture of wood by-products, soap making, glass making, silk making, wine making, iron production, perfume and dye making. Growing of Hemp, flax, and salt production.
-In May, "Hempe" was among the crops Gabriel Archer observed being cultivated by the natives at the main Powhatan village, where Richmond, Virginia is now situated.
1609 A.D. At about the same time, the company issued its Crown-appointed governor, Sir Thomas Gates, confidential instructions on Virginia's priorities.
The instructions still emphasized discovering gold, silver, and a passage to the Pacific as the primary purpose of the colony. They also included finding other natural resources. Extracting tribute from the Indians. Manufacturing various items such as wine, tar, iron, steel, Hemp, and silk for sale. Converting the native people to Christianity.
1611 A.D. King James Bible is printed on Hemp paper.
1613 A.D. Samuell Argall reported wild Hemp, "better than that in England", growing along the shores of the upper Potomac.
1615 A.D. An Italian physician and demonologist, Giovanni De Ninault, listed Hemp as the main ingredient in the ointments and unguents used by the “Devils followers.”
1616 A.D. For laborers, if those that sow Hemp, rape, turnips, parsnips, carrots, cabbage, and such like: give 20, 30, 40, 50 shillings yearly for an acre of ground.
1617 A.D. Baron Porcarès had among his “noble” possessions a castle called Roquedols featuring towers and moats, fields, and other lands. Mills to grind wheat with their lock, mulching, threshing grain, gardens, oven, Canabière (Hemp), and a poultry farm.
1618 A.D. Laws enacted by the First General Assembly of Virginia:
"For Hemp also, both English and Indian and for English flax and aniseeds, we do require and enjoin all householders of this colony, that have any of those seeds, to make trial thereof the next season."
1619 A.D. America's first Hemp law is enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, ordering all farmers to grow Hemp.
The Virginia General Assembly required settlers to grow mulberry trees to feed silkworms and to plant grape vines. In addition to glass, silk, and wine, promoters encouraged the production of other industries. Including iron, perfumes, medicines, dyes, Hemp, flax, and salt.
-Proceedings of the Virginia Assembly
Monday, August 2nd
"For Hempe also both English and Indian and for English flax and Anniseeds, we do require and enjoine all householders of this Colony that have any of those seeds to make tryal thereof the nexte season."
July 30-August 4. The first legislative assembly meets in Jamestown, in the choir of the church.
Guided by the Company's instructions, the Assembly passes measures to encourage the production of wine, Hemp, flax, and, above all, an adequate food supply. The cultivation of tobacco is restricted.
1620 A.D. John Taylor (24 August 1578–1653) was an English poet who dubbed himself "The Water Poet".
THE P R A I S E O F H E M P-S E E D: Written by John Taylor
"The Profits arising by Hemp-seed are Cloathing, Food, Fishing, Shipping, Pleasure, Profit, Iustice, Whipping"
-The Mayflower was the ship that in 1620 transported 102 English Pilgrims, including a core group of Separatists, to New England.
In addition to wine and wool, The Mayflower had transported hats, Hemp, Spanish salt, hops, and vinegar to Norway.
-The Virginia Company: Other industries that were hoped to develop in the colony are suggested by a list of tradesmen the company invited to adventure to Virginia in 1620. Among them, sawyers, joiners, shipwrights, millwrights, coopers, weavers, tanners, potters, fishermen, fishhook makers, net-makers, leather dressers, lime-burners, and dressers of Hemp, and flax.
1621 A.D. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore had long maintained an interest in the exploration and settlement of the New World.
In 1620, Calvert purchased a tract of land (Avalon) in Newfoundland from Sir William Vaughan, who had earlier failed to establish a colony on the island.
Calvert dispatched Captain Edward Wynne and a group of Welsh colonists to Ferryland, where they landed in August 1621 and set about constructing a settlement. Wynne sent positive reports concerning the potential for local fisheries and for the production of salt, Hemp, flax, tar, iron, timber, and hops.
-A census taken shows that there were then 10,000 strangers in the city of London alone carrying on 121 different trades. Of 1343 persons whose occupations are specified, there were found to be 11 preachers, 16 schoolmasters, 349 weavers, 183 merchants, 148 tailors, 64 sleeve-makers, 43 shoemakers, 39 dyers, 37 brewers, 35 jewelers, 25 diamond-cutters, 22 cutlers, 20 goldsmiths, 20 joiners, 15 clockmakers, 12 silk-throwsters, and 10 glass-makers. There also were Hemp-dressers, thread-makers, button-makers, coopers, engravers, gun-makers, painters, smiths, watchmakers, and other skilled craftsmen.
1628 A.D. Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company. It was built in Amsterdam in 1628 and armed with 24 cast-iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage.
The Batavia replica was built (1985-1995) with traditional materials, such as oak and Hemp.
1629 A.D. Salem, Massachusetts:
Flax and Hemp were cultivated in the valleys of the Connecticut and the Merrimac.
Hemp seems to have been planted in Salem in 1629, and a rope walk was constructed in Boston the same year.
Other manufactories of cordage were established in the colony. Although the industry has never been largely productive and profitable it was important. It's development is to be traced to those factors which gave rise to the shipbuilding industry, to which it was a necessary adjunct.
1631 A.D. 'Must grow' Hemp laws are enacted throughout Massachusetts.
-Hemp used as money throughout American colonies.
1631 to early 1800's A.D. Hemp is 'legal tender' and taxes may be paid with Hemp throughout most of the Americas.
1632 to mid 1700's A.D. 'Must grow' Hemp laws enacted in Connecticut and the Chesapeake Colonies.
1633 A.D. ACTS MADE BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HOLDEN AT JAMES CITTY, THE 21st AUGUST, 1633. "IT is ordered, That the 25th act made 4th day of September 1632 be repealed and voyd. And that every planter as soone as he may, provide seede of flaxe and Hempe and sowe the same."
1640 A.D. In the second and third decades of the colony, Maryland increased its reliance on the tobacco crop, suffered through economic depression, and instituted a series of regulatory reforms to try to curb the impact of fluctuations in tobacco prices on the colony’s economy.
In hopes of moving the economy away from tobacco, the colonial assembly subsidized the production of Hemp and flax.
1645 A.D. The Puritans are first known to have cultivated Hemp in New England in 1645.
1666 A.D. La Canebière is the historic high street in the old quarter of Marseille, France.
The name 'Canebière' ('Canabiera' in Provençal dialect) comes from 'Cannabis' in Latin, as the area around the Old Port were originally Hemp fields. Marseille was one of the world's largest traders of Hemp baskets and ropes from the Middle Ages until the 1930s.
1694 A.D. Edmund Dummer (1651–1713) was an English naval engineer and shipbuilder who, as Surveyor of the Navy, designed and supervised the construction of the Royal Navy dockyard at Devonport, Plymouth.
His survey of the south coast ports is a valuable and well-known historic document.
His "Account of the Generall Progress and Advancement of his Majestie’s New Docks and Yard at Plymouth" was presented to the Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy in December 1694.
His survey included plans of the site, the yard, and the dry dock. Plans and elevations for the officers' dwelling houses, the great store house, Hemp house, rope house, and rope yard buildings.
1700 A.D. Gainsborough paints on Hemp canvas.
1700's A.D. American farmers are required by law to grow Hemp in Virginia and other colonies.
-By the late 1700s a major ship-of-the-line in the British navy required 80 tons of Hemp in sail and rope, this equated with 350 acres of Hemp production.
1710 A.D. The British Crown believed that the Palatines could work and be “useful to this kingdom, particularly in the production of naval stores, and as a frontier against the French and their Indians.” Naval stores which the British needed were Hemp, tar, and pitch.
1713 A.D. The British promoted the Maritimes as a source of Hemp for rope for the Royal Navy, with moderate success.
1716 A.D. England's famed Society of Gentlemen published a treatise on the use of a practical material other than linen or cotton for paper-making. Advancing "the idea of using raw Hemp without spinning or weaving."
1717 A.D. The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, covered wagon that was used extensively during the 18th and 19th Centuries.
The wagons were large enough to transport loads up to 8 tons (7 metric tons), and were drawn by horses, mules or oxen. It was designed to help keep its contents from moving about when in motion and to aid it in crossing rivers and streams, though it sometimes leaked unless caulked.
They were named after the "Conestoga River" or "Conestoga Township" in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The Conestoga, often in long wagon trains, was the primary overland cargo vehicle over the Appalachian Mountains until the development of the railroad.
The wagon was pulled by a team of up to eight horses or up to a dozen oxen. For this purpose, the Conestoga horse, a special breed of medium to heavy draft horses, was developed.
In Canada, the Conestoga wagons were used by Pennsylvania German migrants who left the United States for Southern Ontario, settling various communities in Niagara Region, Kitchener-Waterloo area and York Region (mostly in Markham, Ontario and Stouffville, Ontario).
The term "Conestoga wagon" refers specifically to this type of vehicle. It is not a generic term for "covered wagon". The wagons used in the westward expansion of the United States were, for the most part, ordinary farm wagons fitted with canvas
covers.
ALL Canvas in this era was made of Hemp.
1718 A.D. Rudnica, Lubusz Voivodeship:
The arable land was divided into three cleared fields. Sandy fiefs containing poor soil were recorded in the census. The annual sowing was 63% rye, barley 21%, 5% vetch, and 10% flax and Hemp.
1720 A.D The Museum of South Somerset is in Hendford, Yeovil, Somerset, England. It is also the location of a Tourist information centre.
There are displays of local history and geology particularly local industries such as leather and glove-making, flax and Hemp production, stone working, engineering and newspaper printing.
1725-1840 A.D. Pennsylvania became a leading exporter of wheat, corn, rye, Hemp, and flax. Making it the leading food producer in the colonies and later states.
1726 A.D. Windham is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States established on May 12th.
Early settlers were farmers who grew crops such as wheat, rye, corn, barley, flax, and Hemp, as well as raising livestock.
1728 A.D. Anchor Wharf Store Houses are the largest storehouses ever built for the navy.
The Ropery consists of Hemp Houses (1728 extended 1812), Yarn Houses and a double Rope House with attached Hatchelling House. The Ropery is still in use being operated by Master Ropemakers Ltd.
1729-1845 A.D. Pennsylvania's Lancaster County alone contained more than 100 water-powered Hemp mills. Dozens more were located in York County.
1740 to 1940 A.D. Russia is the world's largest and 'best quality' producer of Hemp. Supplying 80% of Western Hemp rope.
1742 A.D. Shipwreck of the Isles of Scilly.
9 March, Nancy (ship) carrying Bristol compound spirits, Hemp, iron, and gunpowder caught fire and blew up in New Grimsby. There was damage to several ships in the vicinity.
1748 A.D. Jared Eliot (1685-1763) was a farmer, minister, and physician in Guilford, Connecticut. A physician to many people and most of all a farmer who wrote several articles on husbandry.
His first article was written for the betterment of land improvement. In different areas he states how the land could be used. Swamps are rich with soil for grounds of crops. Red clover, Indian corn, flax, Hemp, and watermelons would grow marvelously there.
1750's A.D. Benjamin Franklin starts one of America's first Hemp-rag paper mills.
1752 A.D. 46-year old Benjamin Franklin tied a key to some Hemp rope attached to a kite and raised the kite into the air above his Philadelphia home.
1763 A.D. East Florida was the site of the largest single importation of white settlers in the colonial period. Dr Andrew Turnbull transplanted around 1,500 indentured settlers, from Minorca, Majorca, Ibiza, Smyrna, Crete, Mani Peninsula, and Sicily, to grow Hemp, sugarcane, indigo, and to produce rum.
1763-1767 A.D. Farmers who do not grow Hemp can be arrested and jailed in Virginia.
1764 A.D. Bambú is a brand of rolling paper sold by Bambu Sales Inc. of Westbury, New York. The company writes that Bambú began manufacturing paper in Spain in 1764, originally for the Bible. The paper it sells is still manufactured in that country, by Miguel y Costas & Miguel, S.A. They offer a number of paper sizes ranging from regular, big, half extra, and double wide. Including a line of pure Hemp papers.
1765 A.D. George Washington to Robert Cary & Company
Mount Vernon, September 20, 1765.
"In order thereto you woud do me a singular favour in advising of the general price one might expect for good Hemp in your Port watered and prepared according to Act of Parliament, with an estimate of the freight, and all other Incident charges pr. Tonn that I may form some Idea of the profits resulting from the growth. I shoud be very glad to know at the sametime how rough and undressd Flax has generally, and may probably sell; for this year I have made an Essay in both, and altho I suffer pretty considerably by the attempt, owing principally to the severity of the Drougth, and my inexperience in the management I am not altogether discouraged from a further prosecution of the Scheme provided I find the Sales with you are not clogd with too much difficulty and expence."
1774 A.D. The Ford Mansion is a classic 18th Century American home built by Jacob Ford, Jr.
The Ford family had businesses in iron mines, iron forges, a gristmill, a Hemp-mill, and a gunpowder mill that were all stationed near the house. These businesses were useful to the army in getting resources.
-Monticello December 29:
"Wrote to Tom Stewart of Augusta for 10. bushels of flaxseed & 10. do. of hemp seed. (Wrote to James Black for. ..100 lb hemp ready dressed for spinninq.) Never sent them."
1775 A.D. Historical Marker #1279 in Danville notes the first recorded Hemp crop in Kentucky, which was grown on Clark's Run Creek.
They obtained their cash from sales of burley tobacco, Hemp, horses, and mules.
The Hemp was spun and woven for cotton bale bagging and ropes.
1776 A.D. Between May and June, Betsy Ross hand stitched perhaps the most important example of Hemp fabric in American history. The first U.S. flag, known as The Stars and Stripes, was made of Hemp.
-The first draft of the Declaration of Independence was written on Dutch Hemp paper June 28, 1776.
The second draft was also written on Hemp paper July 2, 1776.
-The patriotic populace organizes spinning bees to turn Hemp fiber into clothing for General Washington's Continental Army.
-A Hemp shirt cost .50 cents to $1.00. A cotton shirt cost $100-$200.
-Hemp production was labour intensive and a source of cheap labour proved valuable to secure a constant supply.
When the thirteen colonies in North America declared their independence from Britain in 1776, Britain was dealt a serious blow.
1777 A.D. The Stars and Stripes is endorsed as the Capitol Flag of the U.S.A. The flag was made of Hemp fabric.
1779 A.D. December 30. Jefferson to Samuel Huntington:
"They (General Assembly) had however, early in the present year, laid a Tax payable in specific commodities; and, in their late session, directed the executive to raise from proceeds of that Tax, six hundred thousand pounds towards making up the quota's of money for which they were called on by Congress. The articles Specified were Wheat, Indian Corn, rye, Barley, Oats, Hemp and Tobacco at the option of the payer but it is conjectured that paiment will be made almost wholly in Indian Corn and Tobacco."
1780 A.D. Russia attempted to act as a mediator between France and Great Britain during the American Revolution.
The Russian Navy captured two British cargo vessels. Their cargo were Hemp and iron.
1781 A.D. The British lost the battle of Yorktown in 1781 and the Baltic supplies of Cannabis, tar and timber were seriously diminished by the League of Armed Neutrality (an alliance of Holland and other northern European powers). With the Baltic sea route blocked and the north American Colonies lost Britain was isolated from her sources of strategic raw materials. No Cannabis, No Canvas. No Canvas, No trade.
-Monticello:
List of Virginia plants useful for fabrication includes Virginia Hemp. Acnida
Cannabina. Tobacco, Hemp, flax, and cotton are staple commodities. "During this time (the Revolutionary War) we have manufactured within our families the most necessary articles of cloathing. Those of cotton will bear some comparison with the same kinds of manufacture in Europe; but those of wool, flax and Hemp are very coarse, unsightly, and unpleasant."
"Besides these [Arabian horses] there will be other valuable substitutes when the cultivation of tobacco shall be discontinued, such as cotton in the eastern parts of the state, and Hemp and flax in the western."
"Other losses by the British in 1781 at Elkhill. 250. lb. Hemp in the house 250. lb. do. growing"
-Letters to Jefferson: March 29. The Tax Commissioners of Culpeper County to Jefferson:
"On settlement yesterday with the Collectors of the Additional Tax, we find the greatest part has been received in Tobacco and Hemp, only about fifty Thousand pounds in money. The Hemp cannot be sold for the price directed by Law; you'll please observe this County has to furnish 106."
-April 15. David Ross to Jefferson:
"This (Hemp) is an Article very much in demand at Philadelphia and a valuable Fund as far as it will go, tho a very unweildy one but it must be used.''
-May 16. David Ross to Jefferson:
"My agent at Philadelphia writes me that 2,000 Stand of Arms will be ready this Week. He was obliged to engage Hemp to pay for the repairs and has no encouragement from Congress that they can do any thing for him in money matters."
-May 23. David Ross to Jefferson:
"I have engaged a Mr. Richard Mathies to inspect, pack and prize the Hemp in the several Counties and to employ waggons may be forwarded to Philadelphia immediately. The inspecting and prizing the Hemp is very necessary and can only be done by people of some experience in the business, wherefore I think it will best to load those waggons with the rope yarns and Hemp, which I saved from the works at Warwick before the Enemy got there. I dont know but there is a sufficient quantity to load the whole of them with the Hemp in this county. If so it will be best not to interfere with the operations of Mr. Mathies."
1783 A.D. Britain desperately fought to regain control of the American colonies but to no avail. 1783 saw their final defeat and the British Navy and nation was in a desperate situation when proposals to found a colony in the distant land of 'New South Wales' began to appear at the Home Office.
-August, The American Loyalist James Matra writes "A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales" proposing the establishment of a colony composed of American Loyalists, Chinese and South Sea Islanders but not convicts.
Matra reasoned that the land country was suitable for plantations of sugar, cotton, and tobacco. New Zealand timber and Hemp or flax could prove valuable commodities. It could form a base for Pacific trade and it could be a suitable compensation for displaced American Loyalists.
"I must not omit the mention of a very important article, which
may be obtained in any quantity, if this settlement be made the
proper use of, which would be of very considerable consequence,
both amonfj the necessaries and conveniences of life. I mean the
New Zealand Hemp or flax-plant, an object equally of curiosity
and utility. By proper operations it would serve the vai'ious purposes of Hemp, flax, and silk, and it is more easily manufactured than any one of them. In naval equipments it would be of the greatest importance ; a cable of the circumference of ten inches would be equal in strength to one of eighteen inches made of
European Hemp. Our manufacturers are of opinion that canvas
made of it would be superior in strength and beauty to any canvas
of our own country."
1784 A.D. August 20. James Madison to Jefferson:
"The price of Hemp however has been reduced as much by the peace as that of Tobacco has been raised, being sold I am told as low as 20/. per Ct. beyond the mountains."
-June, Notes on Commerce of the Northern States:
"They (New Hampshire inhabitants) raise a little Hemp, but their sail duck and most of their cordage is from Europe."
1784-1789 A.D. Thomas Jefferson lived in Paris as the US envoy and minister to France.
Jefferson went to great expense and considerable risk to himself and his secret agents to procure particularly good Hemp seeds smuggled illegally into Turkey from China.
The Chinese Mandarins (political rulers) so valued their Hemp seeds that they made their exportation a capital offense.
1786 A.D. Norfolk Island is located in the South Pacific Ocean, east of the Australian mainland.
The decision to settle Norfolk Island was taken due to Empress Catherine II of Russia's decision to restrict sales of Hemp. Practically all the Hemp and flax required by the Royal Navy for cordage and sailcloth was imported from Russia.
-Waveland State Historic Site, also known as the Joseph Bryan House, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Daniel Boone Bryan settled the land around Waveland by 1786. The name Waveland came from the waves that were visible when the wind blew the fields of grain and Hemp surrounding the house. The area was once the home of the biggest Hemp and rope producers of the nation.
-Britain desperately fought to regain control of the American colonies but to no avail. 1783 saw their final defeat and the British Navy and nation was in a desperate situation when proposals to found a colony in the distant land of 'New South Wales' began to appear at the Home Office.
1786-1807 A.D. Maysville is a city in Mason County, Kentucky, United States and is the seat of Mason County.
It exported Hemp and tobacco. Both produced mainly by African American slaves before the Civil War.
1788 A.D. Sir Joseph gave a bag of Hemp seeds as a gift to the First Fleet in 1788. A letter received by Joseph Banks from the East India Company in 1801 shows that he was still handing out bags of Hemp seeds in the Australian colonies 13 years later.
-A sailcloth factory was established in Boston.
1789 A.D. The Hawkins House, also known as the Cantrill House, is an historic building located on East Jackson Street in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Taking full advantage of the plentiful Hemp crops in Scott County, Thomas Hawkins established a ropewalk and bagging factory on the property. Land deeds show that the property continued to be used as a Hemp establishment as late as the 1850's.
1790 A.D. The straitjacket was invented in France by an upholsterer named Guilleret, for Bicêtre Hospital.
Due to the strength of the material, canvas or duck cloth is often used for making institutional straitjackets.
Canvas and Duck at this time were not only words for Hemp cloth, they were both literally made from Hemp. Canvas comes from the word Cannabis.
-Monticello July 4 Jefferson to Nicholas Lewis:
"For this purpose it is vastly desireable to be getting under way with our domestic cultivation and manufacture of Hemp, flax, cotton and wool for the negroes."
1790's A.D. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, our founding fathers, grow Hemp and extol its benefits.
1791 A.D. President Washington sets duties on Hemp to encourage domestic industry. Jefferson calls Hemp "a necessity" and urges farmers to grow Hemp instead of tobacco.
-The arrival of the Loyalists in Upper Canada (where they were given the title United Empire Loyalists) in the late 18th century resulted in the cultivation of Hemp.
-José Martín Altolaguirre. Agronomist. Close friend of Manuel Belgrano.
Martin was a key figure in the life of Manuel in respects to which he had no experience. Altolaguirre introduced the cultivation of Hemp and flax to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Located in the elegant Recoleta district, resides the first gum tree of Buenos Aires. Actually linked to the Martín José de Altolaguirre story, famous agronomist of this period who had his enormous farm named "De La Recoleta" (in 1791). This building extended from the kitchen garden of the Recoletas right up to the river Río de la Plata. He planted fruits, trees and exotic species there.
At this time, La Recoleta was a cultivation zone. Hemp was grown on this land during this period.
1792 A.D. January 1, David Humphreys to Jefferson:
"This may be a favorable time for Americans "to come forward with proposals for furnishing at certain rates, Timber, Hemp, Tar and cotton."
-Goyard, established in 1792, is the oldest Parisian trunk maker still in business. It has been passed down from generation to generation up until today.
Right from the start, Goyardine was made with cloth, although its appearance is very similar to leather. Goyard uses three plant fibres: Hemp, linen, and cotton.
Hemp is particularly sought after for its hydrophobic qualities.
-Merchant Thomas Russell (1740-1796):
He became a delegate from Boston to the convention in Massachusetts for the adoption of the US Federal Constitution in 1788, Later he became president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Russell by 1792 was sending American ships to mainland Russia, dealing in iron, Hemp, and sail cloth.
-September 23. Memorandums for Manoah Clarkson, Monticello overseer.
"Tend the next year two acres of Hemp on east side the river, and 1000 cotton hills for every working hand."
1793 A.D. John Breckinridge (December 2, 1760 – December 14, 1806) was a lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Virginia.
His family, along with 25 slaves, arrived in April and established their plantation, Cabell's Dale.
Eventually, his crops at Cabell's Dale included corn, wheat, rye, barley, hay, grass seed, and Hemp.
-Monticello: June 30. Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph.
Jefferson's plans for his farms included the following articles. "Hemp, turneps, pumpkins. in the new clearings."
July 11. Thomas Mann Randolph to Jefferson.
"It is necessary to break up meadow grounds once in 5 or 6 years, and on this 5th. or 6th. part of mine I [rely?] for Hemp and flax which, with us, thrive no where so well as in the flat grounds on our little streams."
1794 A.D. George Washington: To WILLIAM PEARCE
Philadelphia, February 24, 1794.
"I am very glad to hear that the Gardener has saved so much of the St. foin seed, and that of the India Hemp. Make the most you can of both, by sowing them again in drills. Where to sow the first I am a little at a loss (as Hares are very destructive to it) but think, as the Lucern which was sown broad in the Inclosure by the Spring, has come to nothing; as the ground is good; and probably as free from Hares as any other place, it might as well be put there; as I am very desirous of getting into a full stock of seed as soon as possible. Let the ground be well prepared, and the Seed (St. loin) be sown in April. The Hemp may be sown any where."
-Boston owes its Public Garden to Mayor Quincy's foresight. We have seen how in 1794, out of a mixture of sympathy for the unfortunate and a desire to get an unsightly nuisance into a remote spot, the town had imprudently granted limited and qualified rights to the flats at the foot of the Common for the construction of ropewalks. Thirty years later in February 1824, when the site so cheerfully granted away was no longer remote, the city regained this land by paying the occupants the large sum of $55,000. With a marked difference of opinion among inhabitants about the future of the tract, Mayor Quincy submitted the problem to a general meeting of the citizens on 26 July 1824, which overwhelmingly sustained the view that the land now comprising the Public Garden should be annexed to the Common "and forever after kept open and free of buildings of any kind, for the use of the citizens."
-There were fourteen large ropewalks in Boston at this time.
-Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine economist, lawyer, politician, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina. He is regarded as one of the main Libertadores of the country.
Belgrano tried to promote the diversification of agriculture via the production of linen and Hemp, following experiences with his friend Martín de Altolaguirre.
1795 A.D. John Wesley Hunt (1773–1849) was a prominent businessman and early civic leader in Lexington, Kentucky.
Moving to Lexington in 1795, Hunt became a merchant, horse-breeder, Hemp manufacturer, and banker.
1796 A.D. Monticello April 23:
"Gave Page to buy Hemp seed."
1797 A.D. The 44-gun USS CONSTITUTION was built (1794) in Boston and launched on Oct. 21st. It was outfitted with 60 tons of Hemp sails and rigging.
18th Century A.D. Hemp used for smallpox sores, burns, gonorrhea, and palpitations.
1800 A.D. Central Kentucky, the Bluegrass region, was the center of the greatest slaveholding, as planters cultivated tobacco and Hemp.
-While France tried to be more self-sufficient in Hemp, Britain exploited the Baltic trade in Hemp. Its rise to commercial dominance depended on access to large amounts of cheap Hemp. British demand created the Russian Hemp trade.
In 1800, half of Russia´s Hemp went to Britain. The implications of Britain´s need for Hemp made the Hemp trade a strategic target in times of war, as this brief overview of the Hemp Question shows.
Although the strategy of reliance on Russian Hemp was risky, it was the basis of empire. Without the Russian Hemp trade, the British Empire would never have been as great. Great as Great Britain became, its empire dangled by that ribbon of Hempen trade that wound its way through the narrow and dangerous passages of the Baltic Sea.
1800's A.D. Van Gogh paints on Hemp canvas.
-Hemp seed oil, long the most popular lighting oil in the world, falls to second place in popularity as whale oil becomes widely accessible.
-The use of Hemp extracts as a recreational stimulant spreads through Western culture and romantic writers expound on individual freedom and human dignity extolling Cannabis use.
Their works include: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass. Mark Twain often wrote about Hemp.
1801 A.D. Certain premiums offered to encourage the cultivation of Hemp in Upper and Lower Canada.
1803-1815 A.D. Isaac Solly (1769 – 22 February 1853), was a London merchant in the Baltic trade. During the Napoleonic wars Isaac Solly and Sons were principal contractors supplying Hemp and timber to government dockyards.
1804 A.D. The War of the Third Coalition was a European conflict spanning the years 1803 to 1806. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I defeated an alliance of Austria, Russia, and others.
The Baltic was dominated by Russia, something Britain had been uncomfortable with since the area provided valuable commodities like timber, tar, and Hemp.
Crucial supplies to the British Royal Navy.
1806 A.D. During Napoleon’s time, the continental blockade put England in danger. France opened the Baltic ports so the country could get the Hemp it needed for ship sails and rigging. This engendered, among other events, the fire of Copenhagen.
Napoleon demanded that Russia’s Tzar pay subsidies to be able to ship his country’s Hemp to England. The Hemp War and the Treaty of Tilsit was a financial disaster for Russia.
1807 A.D. Canson filed a patent for tracing paper made from Hemp tow.
-"Jack and the Beanstalk" is a British fairy tale. The earliest known appearance in print is Benjamin Tabart's moralised version of 1807.
If people wanted to survive the Dark Ages and use Cannabis they had better be discreet in referring to it. Both Rabelais and the medieval European farmers used the word “bean” in conjunction with Hemp. The Europeans used the term in a
celebration, King and Queen of the bean, done in the hopes of having a tall Hemp crop.
Consider if you will the tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk". Jack is “the widow’s son.” This term is often used to refer to an initiate starting out on the path. For example, it is used in reference to Jesus, Parzival in the famous Grail Romances,
and it was a cherished designation in Freemasonry. The cow that young Jack trades for the beans is his sacred cow that he must sacrifice if he wants to
discover the truth of things. A parallel can easily be drawn between Jack’s reluctant trade of the family cow and the of the Magi saviour Mithras, who slew the sacred bull unwillingly, and obtained the sacred vine of the mysteries. The
beans are Hemp seeds which will enable him to climb to the place of the Giants. The angry Giant is a manifestation of Jack’s personal demons that have been exposed and magnified by his climb up the beanstalk, or more precisely by his ingestion of Hemp. Although this journey is fraught with danger, young Jack has the chance to hear the heavenly music of the Golden Harp, cast from the fine Gold of the true alchemists. And if the young hero is able to overcome the Giant, who represents his own lower nature, he will be able to return home and share the music of the Golden harp with his widowed mother and the rest of humanity.
1808 A.D. Monticello March 22. Jefferson to Anne Cary Randolph:
"The plant [benne] grows somewhat like Hemp."
1809 A.D. Patent right issued to Nathaniel Foster of Fleming County, Ky. for a machine for spinning Hemp and flax.
Dated June 28, 1809 and signed by President James Madison, Secretary of State R. Smith, and Attorney General Caesar A. Rodney.
-Monticello January 26. Edmund Bacon, Monticello overseer to Jefferson.
"I can Get flax and Hemp seed plenty."
1810 A.D. There were 173 ropewalks in the United States, scattered over the country from Maine to Kentucky.
1811 A.D. Monticello March 1. Jefferson's Scheme for a System of Agricultural Societies:
"And principally the cultivation of our primary staples of wheat, tobacco, and Hemp, for market."
December. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman, Poplar Forest overseer:
"An acre of the best ground for Hemp, is to be selected, and sown in Hemp and to be kept for a permanent Hemp patch." "Hemp should be immediately prepared to set them [the spinners] at work, and a supply be kept up."
1812 A.D. America goes to war with Great Britain over free-trade access to Russian Hemp.
-Historian Louis Hacker says that in Kentucky about 1812:
"Farms were for sale with from ten to fifty acres cleared, possessing log houses, peach and sometimes apple orchards, inclosed in fences, and having plenty of standing timber for fuel. The land was sown in wheat and corn, which were the staples, while Hemp [for making rope] was being cultivated in increasing quantities in the fertile river bottoms...."
-Henry Clay, Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
By 1812, Clay owned a productive 600-acre (240 ha) plantation, which he called "Ashland". Numerous slaves worked the land. He held 60 slaves at the peak of operations and produced tobacco and Hemp. The two chief commodity crops of the Bluegrass Region.
-Napoleon's principle reason for invading Russia in 1812 was due to Russian Hemp supplies.
-The war between America and Great Britain in 1812 was mainly about access to Russian Hemp.
-Monticello:
-January 21. Jefferson to John Adams:
"We consider a sheep for every person in the family as sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, Hemp and flax which we raise ourselves."
-April 20. Jefferson to Robert Livingston.
"There being scarcely a family in the country which does not clothe itself, as far as coarse woolens, or those of midling quality are required. So also as to Hemp, flax, and cotton."
-May 19. "Left with Mr. Goodman...for 100. lb. more of Hemp."
-October 11. Jefferson to James Ronaldson:
"This (cotton) is spun so much more cheaply than Hemp and flax that it will be substituted entirely for coarse shirting instead of oznabrigs and ticklenburg."
-December 12. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman:
"Sow about half an acre of Hemp."
1813 A.D. Monticello:
-January 12. Jefferson to James Ronaldson:
"But we must acknowledge their [Southern fellow citizens] services in furnishing us an abundance of cotton, a substitute for silk, flax and Hemp. The ease with which it is spun will occasion it to supplant the two last, and its cleanliness the first."
-September 8. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman:
"Sow from half an acre to an acre in Hemp."
1814 A.D. Monticello November 4. Memorandums for Jeremiah Goodman:
"Sow from half an acre to an acre of Hemp, and 4. acres of pumpkins."
1815 A.D. Monticello:
Summary of notations in Farm Book:
There were three Hemp spinners in the Monticello textile factory, Aggy, Nanny, and Isabel. The annual Hemp requirement was 400 lbs. To be spun by the three in 26 weeks.
-January 6. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman:
"We can very illy spare it [wool], not having enough for our people here [Monticello], but we will try a mixture of Hemp and cotton for the negro children here, in order to help out for your people."
-March 21. Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale:
"I make the same saw-gate (of Monticello sawmill) move another lever at the other end of which is suspended the upper head-block of a common Hemp break (but much heavier than common). The break is ranged under that arm of the lever, in the same plane, and the center of it's motion is nearly as may be under that of the lever. While two persons feed the break with the Hemp stalks, a third holds the Hemp already beaten and formed into a twist, under the head block, which beats it most perfectly; but as one beater is not enough for 2 breakers, I lengthen that arm of the lever beyond the point of suspension of the head block, and at the end suspend a pestle, which falling on a block under it, presents a beater. To make this work true, a section of a circle (like the felloe of a cart wheel, but shorter) is mortised on the end of the lever, with a groove in it for the suspending chain to lie in. The following is a coarse side view of the whole. Two breakers and beaters will compleatly break and beat 400. lb. in a day, and they need not be men. A patent has been obtained for fixing the upper swords to the underside of the saw gate, and placing the bench and lower swords under it, and the patentee gave me leave to use it; but that place being wet and inconvenient, I thought it better to remove the action by a lever to a drier and more convenient spot, outside of the mill. I wish to make the same agent work an apparatus for fulling our homespun, but have not yet attempted it, tho' we need it much, as we clothe ourselves chiefly, and our laborers entirely in what we spin and weave in our family."
-December 29. Jefferson to George Fleming:
"Hemp...is abundantly productive and will grow for ever on the same spot, but the breaking and beating it, which has always been done by hand, is so slow, so laborious, and so much complained of by our laborers, that I have given it up, and purchased and manufactured cotton for their shirting, the advance price of this however now makes it a serious item of expence; and in the mean time a method of removing the difficulty of preparing Hemp occurred to me, so simple and so cheap, that I return to it's culture and manufacture. To a person having a threshing machine, the addition of a Hemp break will not cost more than 12. or 15. You know that the first mover in that machine is a horizontal horsewheel with cogs on it's upper face. On these is placed a wallower and shaft which give motion to the threshing apparatus, on the opposite side of this same wheel I place another wallower and shaft, thro' which, and near it's outer end, I pass a cross-arm of sufficient strength, projecting on each side 15. I. in this form. Nearly under the cross arm is placed a very strong Hempbreak, much stronger and heavier than those for the hand. It's head block particularly is massive, and high, and near it's upper end, in front, is fixed a strong pin (which we may call it's horn). By this the cross arm lifts and lets fall the break twice in every revolution of the wallower. A man feeds the break with Hemp stalks, and a little person holds under the head block a large twist of the Hemp which has been broken, resembling a twist of tobacco but larger, where it is more perfectly beaten than I have ever seen done by hand. If the horse wheel has 144. cogs, the wallower 11. rounds, and the horse goes 3 times round in a minute, it will give about 80. strokes in a minute. I had fixed a break to be moved by the gate of my sawmill, which broke and beat at the rate of 200. lb. a day. But the inconveniences of interrupting that induced me to try the power of a horse, and I have found it answer perfectly. The power being less, so also probably will be the effect, of which I cannot make a fair trial until I commence on my new crop. I expect that a single horse will do the breaking and beating of 10 men. Something of this kind has been so long wanted by the cultivators of Hemp, that as soon as I can speak of it's effect with certainty, I shall probably describe it anonymously in the public papers, in order to forestall the prevention of it's use by some interloping patentee."
1816 A.D. Farmington (Louisville, Kentucky) is an 18-acre (7.3 ha), 14-room federal-style home that was the center of the 19th Century Hemp plantation of John and Lucy Speed.
-Monticello, May 8. Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale:
"In a former letter I mentioned to you that I had adapted a Hemp break to my sawmill, which did good work. I have since fixed one to my threshing machine in Bedford, which breaks and beats about 80. lb a day with a single horse. The horizontal horsewheel of the threshing machine drives a wallower and shaft, at the outer end of which shaft is a crank which lifts a common Hemp-break the head of which is made heavy enough to break the hemp with it's knives, and to beat it with it's head.''
1817 A.D. Monticello:
"1. lb spun cotton will make 5. yds of shirting mixed with Hemp."
1818 A.D. Monticello, March 14. Jefferson to Joel Yancey, Poplar Forest overseer:
"If we are to make for ourselves it will never do to break up the establishment on every temporary variation of the material. The wool we have, the Hemp we may make, and may in a great measure make it take the place of cotton in the shirting. By doing this, little cotton will be wanting, and I believe we might easily make this. You once suggested it, and I liked the proposition, and think it would be an excellent supplementary employment for the spinners."
1819 A.D. Monticello:
Needed for clothing 52 slave children were 48 lbs of Hemp and 32 lb. cotton.
"30. yds cotton & Hemp weigh 15. lb. The 30. yds require 6 lb cotton & 9 lb Hemp."
1820 A.D. Lafayette County is a county located in west central Missouri in the United States. The county was organized November 16, 1820.
Lafayette County was settled primarily from migrants from the Upper Southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. They brought slaves and slaveholding traditions and started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: Hemp and tobacco.
As a result, this part of Missouri, and neighboring counties, became known as Little Dixie.
-Saline County is a county located in west central Missouri.
They quickly started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: Hemp and tobacco.
-Monticello, January 21. Thomas Appleton to Jefferson:
"I have inclos'd in the bag of Hemp seed, four little bundles of the white, gentilli wheat..."
1821 A.D. Monticello, February 15. Isaac A. Coles to Jefferson:
"I send you enclosed a specimen of Wild Hemp which I find in great abundance on many parts of my Land (Clarksville, Pike County, Missouri). We have collected a sufficient quantity of it for all our purposes, and find that it makes a much stronger rope than the Hemp of Virginia. The stem is generally of the size of ones finger, and from 5 to 10 feet in height. It is a perennial Plant, delights in low, moist, rich land, and yields fully as well (I think) as the common Hemp. The seeds are small, resembling very much the seed of the Yellow Jessamine but larger and more full, and are contained in pods on the top of the Plant. As these burst open in the early part of winter, I have not been able to procure any of the seed to send you. The specimen enclosed was from a stalk which I yesterday cut in the woods and prepared as you see it, by merely rubbing it between my fingers and then combing it straight with my pocket comb. It has stood out exposed in the woods the whole winter. As there is now nothing remaining of this Plant, but the naked stem and the roots (which are exceedingly numerous) it will be difficult to class it, but it does not appear to me to resemble at all either Hemp or flax. Whatever it may be, it must, I think, prove a Plant of great value. The strength, delicacy, softness and whiteness of the fibre, will no doubt be greatly improved by being cut at the proper time, and healed in a proper manner, and being a perennial, when once sowed it will last for ages, and, may be cut with as little trouble as a timothy meadow. I do not dispair still of being able to procure a few of the seed, and if I succeed they shall be forwarded to you. An inch or two of the top of the Plant, with two pods are also inclosed."
1822 A.D. Clay County is a county located in Northwest Missouri in the United States.
Clay County was settled primarily from migrants from the Upper Southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. They brought slaves and slaveholding traditions with them and quickly started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: Hemp and tobacco.
-Kruševlje is a small settlement (hamlet) in Serbia. It is situated in the Sombor municipality, West Bačka District, Vojvodina province.
The main occupations of Kruševlje villagers were agriculture. Mostly wheat and maize, called Kukrutz in Swabian. Cattle-breeding, mainly livestock such as cows, pigs, oxen, bulls and some poultry. Silk-worm raising and Hemp cultivating and manufacture.
-John Aull (Lexington, Missouri) opened a mercantile store and he was soon joined by his brothers James and Robert Aull.
The Aull Brothers firm soon had a frontier chain, also operating stores in Independence, Westport, and Liberty. Other merchants came, as did farmers and planters who specialized in Hemp, tobacco and cattle.
-THE Journal Of Anexile:
"Greece, England, Spain, Paris, supplied ample food for all; and the crowd and conversation seemed to be as varied as the rich piles of fruit and goods that lay along the wharfs mixed with ropes and huge iron rings, and casks of oil. The fishermen, in their red caps and coarse rough brown jackets, were dropping about in their Spanish-looking boats; and a watchful gendarme was lounging along here and there, and occasionally snatching the forbidden cigar from the detected sailor. For the use of this luxury is strictly forbidden upon the quay, lest some unlucky spark might communicate with the vast quantity of Hemp and flax which Marseilles imports from the north."
1824 A.D. The Rural District of Novo Hamburgo, Lomba Grande, received the first German immigrants who settled in the Hemp Linen factory. Then owned by the municipality of Sao Leopoldo.
1829 A.D. Daniel Treadwell (10 October 1791-27 February 1872) was an American inventor, born at Ipswich, Massachusetts. Amongst his most important inventions are a Hemp-spinning machine for the production of cordage completed in 1829.
1831-1834 A.D. The first successful stranded iron wire rope was developed by Wilhelm Albert, a mining official of Clausthal in the Harz Mountains in Saxony. Even when first tried for hauling and hoisting in his mine, it proved so superior to Hemp rope in serviceability and cost that its use soon became widespread in European mining.
This stranded wire rope consisted of individual wires twisted about a Hemp rope core to form the strand. Six such strands then being twisted about a larger Hemp rope core in reverse direction to form the rope. Prior to this, wire rope had already been made in the form of a selvage cable—a bundle of individual wires stretched out into a long length and arranged parallel to one another, then bound together and covered with tarred Hemp yarns.
-The famed 19th century Russian born mystic, world traveler, feminist, Theosophical Society co-founder, and author of occult classics Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrova Blavatsky (1831-1891) is also reputed to have been a user of Cannabis.
1834-1839 A.D. William Shepard Wetmore's profit and loss ledgers reveal that the primary goods brokered by Wetmore & Co. were tea, tea papers, silks and spices. Lesser cargoes were wines, ports, Hemp, pearl buttons, copper, and coffee.
1835 A.D. Luke Pryor Blackburn married his distant cousin, Ella Gist Boswell. The couple's only child, son Cary Bell Blackburn, was born in 1837. Just before Cary's birth, Blackburn invested heavily in the Hemp rope and bagging industry and suffered a significant financial loss when the business venture subsequently failed.
-The National Theatre is the only traditional Broadway-style theatre in Washington, D.C.
The stage house and foundations date to 1835 and the theatre has been in operation since that year.
Hemp House (NO COUNTERWEIGHT)
Maximum Flying Height 36’0” for rigged Hemp system.
Manual with Capstan Hemp/Twist Dacron/Braided Dacron.
Weight Capacity 750 lbs. max for Hemp.
1836 A.D. Dutch Bible made of Hemp
1837-1901 A.D. Queen Victoria uses Cannabis resins to treat menstrual cramps. Sparking enormous interest in the uses of Cannabis as a medicine in the English speaking world.
1839 A.D. Viola Denisa Rowe Gross (August 25, 1921 – February 20, 2012) from Danville, Kentucky, was a teacher, businesswoman, clubwoman, and author.
In 2005 she donated sixty-five original documents pertaining to the Doram-Rowe family to the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History (KHS) in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Dennis Doram was a respected landowner and businessman in Danville, with a rope factory and a Hemp business as well as running the Caldwell School for Women.
1840-1870 A.D. Since the full impact of the Industrial Revolution, France passed in a single generation from a local to a continental and even a world economy.
For many centuries, France had resources which were moderate, yet ample. She produced wheat, wine, fine breeds of horses and cattle, wool, flax, and Hemp for her textile mills. Good building stone, timber, slate, and tile were not lacking.
1840 A.D. Abraham Lincoln uses Hemp-seed oil to fuel his household lamps.
He also writes as a general statement on government function and legislation: "Prohibition...goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by making a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
-East End of London:
The first railway ('The Commercial Railway') to be built was a passenger service based on cable haulage by stationary steam engines that ran the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Minories to Blackwall on a pair of tracks. It required 14 miles (22.5 km) of Hemp rope.
1840-1860 A.D. Louisville led the nation in Hemp manufacturing and cotton bagging.
Hemp was Kentucky's leading agricultural product from 1840 to 1860 and the leading commodity crop of the fertile Bluegrass Region.
1841 A.D. The system of inclines and levels that moved the boats and conventional railroad cars was a state-owned enterprise, the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The railroad cars were pulled up and down the inclines by a long loop of thick Hemp rope, up to 7 cm thick.
1842-1890 A.D. Extracts and derivatives of the Hemp plant are the second and third most prescribed medicines in the U.S.A.
Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Squibb, Brothers Smith and other firms produce these medicines through 1930. During this time, not one death or severe side-effect is recorded as an attribute to use.
1843 A.D. Charles Sreeve Peterson (July 28, 1818 – September 26, 1889) was an early Mormon leader who was the first settler of Utah's Morgan Valley. A member of the Utah Territorial Legislature and one of the first settlers in the Mormon colonies in Mexico.
Once in Nauvoo, Charles found work with William Law, breaking Hemp for one cent a day.
-"This morning, about half past six o'clock, an hour after the workmen had commenced operations, the boiler of a six horse power engine in the patent cordage manufactory of Michael Wormsted & Son, on South and Marlborough streets, exploded. Mr. John Green, the engineer, who was probably standing in front of the furnace, was instantly killed, . . . This was the first steam engine erected in Newbury, and had been in use five or six years."
The fact that the town's first steam engine was used to process Hemp exemplifies the value that people placed on Hemp.
-Rope walks, slaughter houses, a foundry, and a furniture factory were among other early Lexington industries.
1843-1846 A.D. Kirkcaldy is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland.
To cope with increasing imports of flax, timber, and Hemp, and exports of coal, salt, and linen, a new wet dock and pier was built at the harbour.
1848 A.D. Dr. G. F. Saltonstall, was born in New London, Conn., and was a graduate of a medical college in Philadelphia.
In 1848 he moved to Missouri and settled at Fayette, Howard County. He retired from the profession and engaged in the manufacture of Hemp rope and bagging.
1850 A.D. U.S. census records 8,327 Hemp plantations of 2,000 acres or more and an uncalculated number of small Hemp farms.
-Planters who grew Hemp and tobacco made the greatest use of slave labor, as these were labor-intensive crops.
1850's A.D. Petrochemical age begins. Toxic sulfite and chlorine processes make paper from trees, steamships replace sails and tropical fibres are introduced.
-In the fifteen states constituting the American South, slavery was established legally. While it was fading away in the cities and border states, it remained strong in plantation areas that grew cotton for export, sugar, tobacco or Hemp.
1855 A.D. The Golden West was an 1852 extreme clipper built by Paul Curtis. The ship had a very active career in the California trade, the guano trade, the coolie trade, the Far East, and Australia.
She struck a reef in 1855 in Gaspar Strait and jettisoned 200 tons of Hemp to get off it.
1860 A.D. 'Ganjah Wallah Hasheesh Candy Company' produces one of the most popular candies in the U.S. It is made from Cannabis derivatives and maple sugar. The candy is sold over-the-counter and in Sears-Roebuck catalogs. It retains its popularity as a totally harmless and fun candy for over forty years.
1861 A.D. A farmer, named Bernagozzi from Bologna, manufactured a machine called a "scavezzatrice," a decorticator for Hemp.
-The First Battle of Lexington also known as the Battle of the Hemp Bales, was an engagement of the American Civil War, occurring from September 13 to September 20, 1861, between the Union Army and the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard, in Lexington, the county seat of Lafayette County, Missouri.
On the evening of September 19, soldiers of Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Harris's 2nd Division (State Guard) began using hemp bales seized from nearby warehouses to construct a movable breastwork facing the Union entrenchment. These bales were all soaked in river water overnight, to render them impervious to any heated rounds fired from the Federal guns.
-Planning to distribute the benefits of a tariff to all sectors of the economy and also hoping to broaden support for his party, Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, rejected the traditional system of protection by proposing tariff duties on agricultural, mining, and fishing products, as well as on manufactures. Sugar, wool, flax-seed, hides, beef, pork, corn, grain, Hemp, wool, and minerals would all be protected by the Morrill Tariff.
1865 A.D. Alice in Wonderland is published on Hemp paper.
1866 A.D. The Victoria (Dayton, Ohio), one of the oldest continually operated theaters on the continent, was opened to the public as the Turner Opera House on New Year's Day.
Al Jolson, The Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Fannie Brice, George M. Cohan, Lynn Fontayne, Gertrude Lawrence, Alfred Lunt, Harry Houdini, and many other names performed there.
During revitalization efforts in the late 1970s, the stage manager, Gary Kuzkin, overhauled much of the stage's technical capabilities. Crews from the Stagehands Union (IATSE) local restored much of the theater's ancient Hemp-and-sandbag fly galley, replacing several hundred thousand feet of rope—along with miles of electrical wiring.
1867 A.D. The Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 4AG, England
The stage represents perhaps the most complete
working example of the English wood stage -possessing four bridges, eight cuts, one carpet cut, two corner traps, two staircase traps, three object traps and one grave trap. Overhead there is a series of drum and shaft mechanisms to operate synchronised scene-changes, and a Hemp fly floor stage left with drum and shaft for the act drop.
1870's A.D. The popularity of smoking female Cannabis tops to ease the back-breaking labor of working sugar cane fields and tolerate the hot sun as well as to relax recreationally with no alcohol "hang-over. This practice begins to spread in the West Indies with the immigration of Hindus who are imported to provide cheap labor. Gradually, this popularity makes its way into the United States through St. Louis.
1872 A.D. The HMS Challenger, built in 1858, undertook the first global marine research expedition called the Challenger expedition in 1872.
In all she was supplied with 181 miles (291 km) of Italian Hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging. As the first true oceanographic cruise, the Challenger expedition laid the groundwork for an entire academic and research discipline.
1873 A.D. Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent to make the first riveted men's work pants out of denim. The first blue jeans in the world were made by Levi's. They were made with Hemp fibre.
1882 A.D. Andrea Antonini, who owned a Hemp rope mill in Venice, joined with fellow businessmen Pacifico Ceresa and Angelo Zorzetto to build the Canapificio Veneto Antonini Ceresa, on the west bank of the Brentella, which opened its doors in May 1883.
1883 A.D. Hashish smoking parlors have opened in every major American city, including an estimated 500 such establishments in New York City alone.
-Up until 1883 between 75 and 90% of all the world’s paper was made from Hemp.
1884 A.D. A.J. Miller House, also known as the Miller-Hemp House, is a historic home located near Middlebrook, Augusta County, Virginia. It was built in 1884, and is a two-story, three bay, brick dwelling in the Italianate style.
1886 A.D. Karl Benz (Mercedes Benz) patents the first gas powered automobile originally built in 1885.
The Motorwagen was patented on January 29, 1886 as DRP-37435: "automobile fueled by gas".
1887 A.D. The National Cordage Company was formed in New Jersey, for the importation of Hemp and the manufacture and sale of cordage.
1889 A.D. NGR 4-6-2TT Havelock:
During the South African War the Havelock saw action while serving on armoured trains. Unlike usual practice in such cases, the engine was not equipped with armour plate protection, but was draped in strands of thick Hemp rope that covered it from front to back. This earned the locomotive the apt nickname "Hairy Mary" amongst the troops.
1890 A.D. Robert Charles Leslie's Old Sea Wings, Ways and Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp.
-Congress passed legislation giving federal sponsorship to an exposition to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World. The act had established a World's Columbian Exposition Commission to oversee the fair.
An undeveloped site of 686 acres (278 ha) on the shores of Lake Michigan was selected for the fairgrounds. The buildings were in the classical style, reflecting Greek and Roman influences and were composed of a combination of plaster of paris and Hemp called "staff" which resembled marble.
1890-1940's A.D. USDA Chief Botanist, Lyster Dewey, grows five varieties of Hemp at Arlington Farms in Virginia, the current site of the Pentagon.
1890's A.D. Popular American 'marriage guides' recommend Cannabis extracts for heightened marital pleasures. Women's temperance groups, lobbying for alcohol prohibition, suggest Cannabis as a suitable substitute for the 'demon drink'.
1893 A.D. The box kite was invented in 1893 by Lawrence Hargrave, an Englishman who emigrated to Australia, as part of his attempt to develop a manned flying machine. Hargrave linked several of his box kites (Hargrave cells) together, creating sufficient lift for him to fly some 16 ft (4.9 m) off the ground.
Before Dacron, Spectra and Kevlar were available, high performance box kites used oiled silk, linen or Hemp sails, and were flown with steel cable. Silk, linen and Hemp were used because they could be spun finer than cotton and stretched relatively little when wet.
-The National Cordage Company (the most actively traded stock at the time) went into receivership as a result of its bankers calling their loans in response to rumors regarding the NCC's financial distress.
The company, a rope manufacturer, had tried to corner the market for imported Hemp.
1894 A.D. Idries Shaw’s comments on the cupbearer and the cup’s miraculous qualities parallel the Grail myth immensely. Further examination of Shaw’s comments shed even more illumination on the subject. First, let us look at the name Khidr , which is also spelled Khizr. It is a Moslem name used in reference to the Biblical prophet Elijah. As J.M. Campbell recorded in his classic 1894 essay, “On the Religion of Hemp”.
1896 A.D. When Rudolph Diesel produced his famous engine in 1896, he assumed that the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Rudolph Diesel, like most engineers then, believed vegetable fuels were superior to petroleum. Hemp is the most efficient vegetable.
-In a diary kept by Lyster Dewey from 1896 to 1944: Dewey cultivated Hemp on a plot called Arlington Farms, which today is the site of the Pentagon.
1901-1937 A.D. U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts repeatedly that with the advent of machinery capable of harvesting, stripping and separating the Hemp fiber from the pulp, Hemp will again be America's "Number One" crop.
1905 A.D. The Galilee was a brigantine, built in 1891, designed by Matthew Turner. In 1905 she was chartered by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and converted into a magnetic observatory. She was used to make observations of Earth's magnetic field on three cruises over a period of three years from 1905 to 1908 in the Pacific Ocean.
The amount of magnetic materials on the ship was reduced to a minimum. The steel rigging was replaced by Hemp ropes and a new observation bridge was constructed to lift the observation point as far as possible above the remaining iron parts of the ship.
1907 A.D. Kings Theater, Southsea Hemp House
The theatre opened on 30 September 1907 with a production of Charles 1 followed by 2 further of Sir Henry Irving's Works.
Much of the backstage area is still fully manual, allowing it to retain the tag of a traditional Hemp house, though powered flying bars have now been installed to allow large scale productions.
-British mountain climber, magician and cabalist, Aleister Crowley , (1875-1947), was influenced by the experiences recorded in the writings that came out of Paris’s Hashish Club, as well as those of Rabelais .
" In order to keep this paper within limits, I may premise that the preparation and properties of Cannabis Indica can be studied in the proper pharmaceutical treatises, though, as this drug is more potent psychologically than physically, all strictly medical accounts of it, so far as I am aware, have been hitherto both meager and misleading. Deeper and clearer is the information to be gained from the brilliant studies by Baudelaire , unsurpassed for insight and impartiality, and Ludlow, tainted by admiration of de Quincey and the sentimentalists…. This was my hypothesis: Perhaps hashish is the drug which “loosens the girders of the soul,” but is in itself neither good nor bad. Perhaps, as Baudelaire thinks, “it merely exaggerates and distorts the natural man and his mood of the moment.” The whole of Ludlow’s wonderful introspection seemed to me to fortify this suggestion. Well, then, let me see whether by first exalting myself mystically and continuing my invocations while the drug dissolved the matrix of my diamond Soul, that diamond might not manifest limpid and sparkling, a radiance “not of the Sun, nor the Moon, nor the Stars;” and then, of course, I remembered that this ceremonial intoxication constitutes the supreme ritual of all religions."
A. Crowley, “The Psychology of Hashish”
1908 A.D. Rochester Opera House, located on the second floor of Rochester City Hall, originally opened on Memorial Day 1908.
Rochester Opera House is a Hemp house.
1916 A.D. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BULLETIN NO. 404 - HEMP HURDS AS PAPER-MAKING MATERIAL:
Authors: Lyster H. Dewey, Botanist in Charge of Fiber-Plant Investigations, and Jason L. Merrill, Paper-Plant Chemist, Paper-Plant Investigations.
"The most important point derived from this calculation is in regard to areas required for a sustained supply, which are in the ration of 4 to 1. Every tract of 10,000 acres which is devoted to Hemp raising year by year is equivalent to a sustained pulp-producing capacity of 40,500 acres of average pulp-wood lands."
1917 A.D. The creation of the Wisconsin Experiment Association in 1901 helped initiate the development of the Agronomy Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agriculture. Later it evolved into the Wisconsin Crop Improvement Association and led to the development of the County Order in 1908, the Hemp Order in 1917, the Sorghum Order in 1920 and the Alfalfa Order in 1911.
1918 A.D. Wisconsin, Madison. Bulletin #293
"Hemp has been grown in Wisconsin for ten years. It has been found that Hemp can be grown very successfully in the state, that the climate and certain soils of Wisconsin are particularly suited to the crop, and that the development of labor saving machinery has made the Hemp industry one of far reaching importance."
"Several hundred acres must be grown in a vicinity to make Hemp production profitable. Cooperative growing is necessary. The state Hemp association is stabilizing the industry in the state."
"Wisconsin is the second largest Hemp producing state in the Union. The principal centers of production are Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Dodge, and Racine Counties."
"Hemp fiber is a national necessity. In addition to its important use for wrapping cords of all kinds, it is now being used for such vital purposes as thread for sewing army shoes and harness, as caulking in battle ships, and for binder twine."
-USS Aniwa (ID-3146) was a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter that served in the United States Navy from 1918 to 1919.
Aniwa arrived off the mouth of the Dvina River on 11 October 1918 and ascended the river on 12 October 1918.
Unloading operations proceeded nearly without incident. However, on the afternoon of 23 October 1918, two Russian stevedores, obviously feeling the shortage of foodstuffs ashore, were caught trying to leave the ship with small quantities of Aniwa's cargo of flour. Then, on 5 November 1918, a sling broke, dropping a bale of Hemp on a Russian stevedore. Fortunately, he was not badly hurt and was soon on his way to a Russian hospital for treatment.
1920 A.D. To this point in time, U.S. Government papers were written, by law, on "Hempen rag paper".
1927 A.D. U.S.D.A. Yearbook of Agriculture:
Author Lyster H. Dewey, B.S., Botanist, in Charge Office of Fiber Plants, Bureau of Plant Industry
Pages: 358 - 361
HEMP VARIETIES OF IMPROVED TYPE ARE RESULT OF SELECTION
"Methods of Hemp selection devised in 1913 have been followed since with only slight modifications. The plots of different strains are placed as far apart as possible (40 rods or more) to avoid cross-pollination. The seed is sown early in April in drills 6 feet apart. The plants are cultivated as soon as the rows can be seen and about four times later. In June the plants are thinned to 10 to 15 inches apart in the drill. As soon as the staminate buds can be distinguished in August the plots are rogued. All plants of poor type are removed, and superfluous staminate plants are cut out. In September, when the plants have attained full size and the staminate plants have shed their pollen, notes and measurements are recorded for each pistillate plant as follows: Diameter, number of nodes and height to alternate branches (from which to compute length of internodes), total height, notes as to divergence from type. The tallest and best plants are tagged with their numbers and covered with a cheesecloth sack to protect the seeds from birds.
The plants are harvested late in October and the seed is threshed (beaten off) about a week later. The seed of each selected plant is cleaned separately by means of a small fanning mill. The seed from the other plants is cleaned and sent in small quantities to Hempseed growers. One pound, containing about 27,000 seeds, is sufficient to plant an acre of seed Hemp with hills 5 feet apart each way.
The selected individual plants are subjected to further competition based on length of internode, total height, and weight of seed, to determine which ones will be used for planting the following season. Each row in the selection plot is grown from the seed of an individual selected plant of the preceding year.
Kymington
The variety called Kymington (Kentucky-Minnesota-Washington, from the origin of the seed and places of development) is a result of successive individual selections from the progeny of the best single plant of Minnesota No. 8 grown in 1912. This mother plant was 10 feet 6 inches tall. The 311 plants in the initial plot of 1914, on clay loam upland at the Arlington Experiment Farm, averaged 9 feet 11 1/2 inches in height. (Fig. 105.) Each plant selected to furnish seed for the following year was taller than the mother plant of 1912. The average length of internodes in this initial plot was 4.37 inches. These measurements increased until 1923, when the average height was 16 feet 9 1/4 inches and the average length of internodes was 5.94 inches. (Fig. 106.) Since 1923 the measurements have declined somewhat, due in part to unfavorable soils and seasons, but in all instances the average measurements have been above those of the original plot, and in 1927 they were slightly better than in 1926.
This variety has been grown extensively by Kentucky Hempseed growers, some of whom have kept the seed pure.
Chington
The Chington (China-Washington) variety has been developed by successive individual selections from the progeny of a single plant in 1913. The seed was received from Hankow, China, through the Office of Foreign Plant Introduction and given the S.P.I. number 35251. It was planted in the testing garden, and unlike most of the numerous introductions of Hempseed, it gave promise of value. It averaged 5 feet 11 inches in height, and the best single plant from which seed was saved was 10 feet 6 inches tall. Seed from this best plant was sown at the Arlington farm in 1914, and the annual selection has been continued. This strain also reached its greatest development in 1923, when it averaged 16 feet 8 inches in height with internodes averaging 6 1/2 inches. A few plants attained a height of 20 feet. Since 1923 the measurements have declined a little, though remaining always above those of the mother plant of 1913 and the average of the initial plot of 1914. With the slight reduction there is greater uniformity.
The Chington variety has been grown extensively by Hempseed growers in Kentucky, and in some instances efforts have been made to keep it pure. Large fields of fiber Hemp sown with pure Chington seed are remarkably uniform and give good yields of excellent uniform fiber.
Ferramington
The Ferramington variety has been developed by successive selection from the progeny of a cross made in 1916. In that year a row of Ferrara, the best Hemp of northern Italy, was grown in the plot of Kymington, and all of the Ferrara staminate plants were removed before they shed any pollen. (Fig. 107.) Seed from the best Ferrara plants was saved, and this has been grown and selected at the experiment station at Madison, Wis. The cross was made for the purpose of combining the earliness and smaller diameter of stalks of the Italian Hemp with the greater height and longer internodes of Kymington. This result has been achieved after many years of selection to eliminate diverse types from the progeny of the cross.
This Ferramington has been tried in Wisconsin, where it gave a very good crop nearly two weeks earlier than the main Hemp harvest. It has also been tried near Bologna, Italy, where it produced fiber fully equal in quality to that of the Ferrara hemp grown in the same field, and about 1 foot longer.
Arlington
The Arlington variety is being developed by successive selection of individual plants from the progeny of a cross made in 1919 between Kymington as a pistillate parent and Chington as the staminate parent. It shows increased vigor both in growth and in production of seed, and the stalks are slender and more elastic than those of any of the other varieties. It is a little earlier than either of the parent varieties, both of which are later than most of the hemp from unselected Kentucky seed."
1929 A.D. Henry Ford begins extensive research into the production of methanol (as a fuel) and the manufacture of plastics from renewable vegetable crops, including Hemp.
1930 A.D. The Amerigo Vespucci, built in 1930 at the (formerly Royal) Naval Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia (Naples).
The three steel masts are 50, 54 and 43 metres high, and carry sails totalling 2824 m² (30400 ft²) The Amerigo Vespucci has 26 sails – square sails, staysails, and jibs: all are traditional canvas sails. When under sail in severe sea and wind conditions she can reach 12 knots (22 km/h). The rig, some 30 km of ropes, uses only traditional Hemp ropes; only the mooring lines are synthetic, to comply with port regulations.
1930's A.D. New machines invented to break Hemp, process the fibre, and convert pulp or hurds into paper, plastics, etc.
-Racist fears of Mexicans, Asians, and African Americans leads to outcry for Cannabis to be outlawed.
-The Ford Motor Company also saw a future in biomass fuels. Ford operated a successful biomass conversion plant that included Hemp at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl acetate, and creosote—all fundamental ingredients for modern industry, and now supplied by oil-related industries.
1931 A.D. Hemp uses:
Wrapping twines for heavy packages.
Mattress twine for sewing mattresses.
Spring twine for tying springs in overstuffed furniture and in box springs.
Sacking twine for sewing sacks containing sugar, wool, peanuts, stock feed, or fertilizer.
Bailing twine, similar to sacking twine, for sewing burlap covering on bales and packages.
Broom twines for sewing brooms.
Sewing twine for sewing cheesecloth for shade-grown tobacco.
Hop twine for holding up hop vines in hop yards.
Ham-strings for hanging up hams.
Tag twines for shipping tags.
Meter cord for tying diaphragms in gas meters.
Blocking cord used in blocking men's hats.
Webbing yarns which are woven into strong webbing.
Belting yarns to be woven into belts.
Mar-lines for binding the ends of ropes, cables, and hawsers to keep them from fraying.
Hemp packing or coarse yarn used in packing valve pumps.
Plumber's oakum, usually tarred, for packing the joints of pipes.
Marine oakum, also tarred, for calking the seams of ships and other water craft.
1935 A.D. 116 million pounds of Hemp seed are used commercially in America to manufacture paint and varnish.
1937 A.D. February issue of Mechanical Engineering includes the feature story "The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown" which tells about the new machines being used to harvest Hemp.
-4 million pounds of Hemp seed are sold retail as song-bird food in the U.S.A.
-An estimated 10 million aces of Hemp grows wild in the U.S.A. Providing an important food source for hundreds of millions of birds.
-Marijuana Tax Act forbids Hemp farming in the US. -Dupont files patent for nylon.
-Hemp seed was the #1 selling bird feed. 4 million pounds were sold in the U.S. that year alone.
-Until 1937, 70-90% of all rope and twine was made with Hemp.
-On the day the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act was enacted, Oct. 2, 1937, police raided the Lexington Hotel. Arresting Samuel R. Caldwell, 58, an unemployed labourer and Moses Baca, 26. On Oct. 5, Caldwell went into the history trivia books as the first Marijuana seller convicted under U.S. federal law. His customer, Baca, was found guilty of possession.
Caldwell was sentenced to four years of hard labour in Leavenworth Penitentiary, plus a $1,000 fine. Baca received 18 months incarceration. Both men served every day of their sentence. A year after Caldwell was released from prison, he died.
He was born on February 11, 1880. He was arrested on October 2, 1937, the same day that the Marihuana Tax Act was enacted. He was released from prison in 1940. Caldwell died on June 24, 1941
Caldwell’s crime was not buying the $1 stamp that was a tax levied on the purchase and sale of Marijuana. Apparently it was no legal defense that the stamp was not available. He was arrested the day the law was enacted as the stamps did not exist yet.
Caldwell's wares, two marijuana cigarettes, deeply offended Judge Foster Symes, who said:
"I consider marijuana the worst of all narcotics, far worse than the use of morphine or cocaine. Under its influence men become beasts. Marijuana destroys life itself. I have no sympathy with those who sell this weed. The government is going to enforce this new law to the letter."
1938 A.D. The February issue of Popular Mechanics runs a story titled: "New Billion Dollar Crop." It tells about the new machine for harvesting Hemp which "solves a problem more than 6,000 years old." It further states that increased Hemp production "will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products" and calls Hemp the "standard fiber of the world." Popular Mechanics goes on to say Hemp can "produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane." This is the first time ever in U.S. history the term 'billion-dollar' is applied to the potential for an agricultural harvest.
-Canada prohibits production of Hemp under Opium And Narcotics Control Act.
1940 A.D. Pinguin was a German auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) which served as a commerce raider in World War II. The Pinguin was known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 33, and designated HSK 5. The most successful commerce raider of the war, she was known to the British Royal Navy as Raider F.
On 12 September a freighter was spotted 330 miles east of the island.
The ship was identified as the British freighter Benavon on her way to London from Manila and Singapore with a cargo of Hemp, jute and rubber.
-A tonnage war is a military strategy aimed at merchant shipping. The premise is that an enemy has only a finite number of ships, and a finite capacity to build replacements for them.
The concept was made famous by U-boat commander Karl Dönitz, who wrote: The shipping of the enemy powers is one great whole. It is therefore in this connection immaterial where a ship is sunk—it must still in the final analysis be replaced by a new ship.
By concentrating available naval units forces near the major French ports, the Royal Navy was usually able to strangle French trade and create significant economic difficulties. Similarly, an enemy may focus on ships carrying strategically vital cargos such as Hemp and timber or, in modern times, oil and iron.
1941 A.D. December issue of Popular Mechanics features a story on Henry Ford. Showing a picture of the car he "grew from the soil." The automobile's "plastic panels with impact strength 10 times greater than steel were made from flax, wheat, Hemp, and spruce pulp." The auto weighed 1/3 less than its 100% steel contemporaries and was fueled by Hemp.
1942 A.D. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shut off foreign supplies of "manilla hemp" fiber from the Phillipines. Spurring World War II.
-U.S. government overrides its own ban on hemp and distributes 400,000 pounds of Hemp seed to U.S farmers who produce 42,000 tons of Hemp fiber annually to support the war effort until 1946.
-U.S. farmers, including youthful 4-H Club members, are inundated by "Uncle Sam" with incentives to grow Hemp. The U.S.D.A. makes it mandatory for farmers to attend showings of the "Hemp For Victory" film. Farmers and their sons who agree to grow Hemp are exempt from military service, even though America is at war.
-After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines cut off the supply of manila (Abaca) Hemp, the U.S. government distributed 400,000 pounds of Cannabis seeds to American farmers from Wisconsin to Kentucky, who produced 42,000 tons of Hemp fiber annually for the war effort until 1946.
1942–43 A.D. Farmers were made to attend showings of the USDA film Hemp for Victory, sign that they had seen the film and read a Hemp cultivation booklet.
-The U.S. government formed War Hemp Industries and subsidized Hemp cultivation during the War.
U.S. farmers grew about a million acres of Hemp across the midwest as part of that program.
1942-1945 A.D. Farmers who agreed to grow Hemp were waived from serving in the military, along with their sons. That's how vitally important Hemp was to America during World War II.
1942-1946 A.D. American farmers from Kentucky to Maine to Wisconsin harvest over 150,000 acres of Hemp through the USDA's Hemp for Victory program.
1955 A.D. Hemp farming again banned.
-Mayflower II is a replica of the 17th-century ship Mayflower, celebrated for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World.
The work drew from reconstructed ship blueprints held by the American museum with hand construction by English shipbuilders' using traditional methods.
Within a few details (electric lights added and ladder replaced with a lower-deck staircase), the ship is considered a faithful replica, with solid oak timbers, tarred Hemp rigging, and hand-coloured maps.
1957 A.D. Hemp is last grown in the U.S. due to government confusion over Hemp and drug varieties of the plant, while new government incentives for industry replace natural fibers with plastics, ultimately bankrupting key Hemp processors.
1961 A.D. The Canadian Narcotics Control Act (CNCA) allowed Cannabis to be grown, at the discretion of the Health Minister, for research purposes only.
1964 A.D. With the discovery of hundreds of acres of wild Hemp growing in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, authorities responded with a massive eradication campaign. However, the baby-boomers of the 60's responded to the "evil threat" in a very different manner to the previous generation. Groups of surfers and hippies flocked to the Hunter Region in search of the wild weed which was described in reports as "a powerful psychoactive aphrodisiac".
These groups became known as the Weed Raiders. Legendary characters, bearing tales of plants up to three metres tall.
1967 A.D. The Ngaio Marsh Theatre is a 400-seat proscenium-arch theatre housed within the University of Canterbury Students' Association building in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is named in honour of Dame Ngaio Marsh, who was a director and patron of
theatre, and indeed the theatre's opening production — Shakespeare's Twelfth Night — was directed by Marsh.
Technically, the theatre is well-equipped, with a Strand 520i lighting control desk and a Yamaha GA24/12 sound desk, and a good stock of lanterns. It is a Hemp or handline theatre, with the house tabs and three of the four on-stage lighting bars being winched, the house border, projection screen, mid-and up-stage tabs and cyclorama being on free-running counterweights, and all other bars on handlines.
-Sula Benet:
Born in Poland, Benet was fascinated with peasant culture of Poland since her early youth. This interest eventually led her to enroll as a student of literature and philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities in the University of Warsaw but graduated with a degree in anthropology. Upon receiving her degree in 1935, she attended graduate school at Columbia University, where she received her doctorate in 1944. Also at this time (1936) she first made known at a seminar in Warsaw her theory that Calamus in the Bible is Hemp.
According to Benet's research, Cannabis appears in ancient Hebrew texts spelled with the Hebrew letters: “Kuph, Nun, Hé Bet, Shin, Mem,” translated into western alphabetic forms as ¹aneh-bosm, kaneh-bosm or kineboisin. The book of Exodus records the event of Moses receiving the instructions for making and distributing the Hemp enriched holy oil, in the most auspicious tones.
"Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp" by Sula Benet
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of qaneh-bosm (Cannabis), 500 shekels of cassia-all according to the sanctuary shekel-and a hind of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil” (Exodus 30: 22-33).
1968 A.D. India: The specifications cover all the essential requirements of the manufacture of the Indian flag including sizes, dye colour, chromatic values, brightness, thread count and Hemp cordage.
The guidelines are covered under civil and criminal laws and defects in the manufacturing process can result in punishments that include fines or jail terms.
-Congress prohibited the cultivation of Cannabis-related crops, including Hemp, as part of anti-drug legislation, although Hemp does not have psychoactive properties.
1972 A.D. U.S.D.A. finds that Hemp seed is lower in saturated fats than any other vegetable oil (including soybean and canola).
-Other studies note that until this century Hemp-cake (the by-product of pressing the seed for oil ) was one of the world's principle animal feeds.
-It is also found that Hemp seed, like soybeans, can produce a tofu-like curd and be spiced to taste like chicken, steak or pork. Hemp can be sprouted for salads, ground into meal, and also made into margarine.
-Hemp seed is recommended as a nutritionally balanced food for domestic pets and farm animals.
1973 A.D. In 1973 tribes of hippies attended the Aquarius Festival in the Northern New South Wales town of Nimbin.
1974 A.D. Thomas Wolfe is a “Hemp Fly House”
1975 A.D. Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discover that Cannabis is incredibly successful for reducing the size of many types of tumors, both benign and cancerous.
1979 A.D. September: Robert Platshorn was the first marijuana dealer to be prosecuted under the so-called Kingpin Statute. A 1970 law that targets elaborate large-scale drug syndicates. He was sentenced to 64 years in prison, making him America’s longest serving marijuana prisoner.
The syndicate was eventually brought down by a joint FBI-DEA effort known as Operation Banco. The first joint effort between the two agencies.
Robert served the longest Drug War sentence to date of nearly 30 years.
Robert wrote the "Black Tuna Diaries" and was part of a film called "Square Grouper". He also was an integral part of "Should Grandma Smoke Pot". A film educating seniors as to the benefits of Medical Marijuana.
1982 A.D. HOSTOS CENTER FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE
Available line sets when using house drapes - 12 Line Sets including 1 Hemp Line.
1984-1999 A.D. The McGillicuddy Serious Party (McGSP) was a satirical political party in New Zealand in the late 20th century.
Between 1984 and 1999 it provided "colour" to ensure that citizens not take the political process too seriously.
Replacing the Queen's chain with Hemp:
The Labour Party had a policy of protecting and extending the Queen's chain (publicly accessible land bordering watercourses), forcing farmers and iwi to allow public access to waterways.
Candidate Dominic Worthington proposed replacing the chain with more environmentally sound Hemp; with the Queen, of course, replaced by Prince Geoffie the reluctant.
Rather than limiting the chain to protecting water in aqueous form, the King's Hemp would also serve to hold together water in solid form, as in the ice in glaciers and in the Ross Dependency. In particular, the Ross Ice Shelf, alleviating environmentalists' concerns that the ice shelf might collapse and raise sea-levels.
1985 A.D. Olympias is a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme and an important example of experimental archaeology.
The ship was built to drawings by the naval architect John F. Coates which he developed through long discussions with the historian J. S. Morrison following the longest correspondence on any subject in The Times of London in the early 1980's.
The work was also advised by the classics teacher Charles Willink and drew on evidence gained from Greek literature, history of art and archaeology above and below water.
The important hypozomata (bracing ropes) had to be replaced by a steel rope as neither natural fibre ropes nor synthetic fibre ropes with about the same elastic modulus as Hemp could be obtained.
1989 A.D. Garments containing Hemp fiber are available to the American public for the first time in over 50 years, however, this clothing must be imported to the U.S. from China (via Hong Kong) and carries a huge protective tariff.
1992 A.D. The Nimbin Hemp Embassy is a non-profit association that was established in 1992. The embassy's objectives are Cannabis law reform via an education program for the community about Hemp products and Cannabis and "promoting a more tolerant and compassionate attitude to people in general".
-Australia licences Hemp farming.
1993 A.D. England eases restriction on Hemp farming. News media declare Hemp clothes and Cannabis leaf logo hottest new fashion.
-MardiGrass is a Cannabis law reform rally and festival held annually in the town of Nimbin, in North East New South Wales, Australia.
After a decade of raids and arrests, and a particularly intensive recent period of random street searches, arrests, and rough treatment, a spontaneous demonstration erupted.
In March, the Nimbin police station had already been laid siege. Undercover police officers had been discovered buying Cannabis in the area. This enraged a small portion of the townsfolk to such an extent that they chased the police officers back to the police station and pelted them with eggs. Concerned about bad publicity some of the townsfolk decided to come up with a more peaceful form of protest that ordinary people could comfortably join.
On May 1st, people gathered by the local creek for the rally. There was only a small group at the start along with a giant joint made of a large sheet and other assorted household goods. The big joint acted as a giant magnet for the townsfolk. By the time they reached the police station they were, by most accounts, over a thousand strong.
Shortly after, backup arrived, but not before the media who began to broadcast images of the event to the country and world. The cops found themselves in the unenviable situation of not being able to act against the townsfolk.
Their intention is to hold a MardiGrass every year until prohibition ends.
1994 A.D. Under the CNCA, one license was granted to a Canadian company, Hempline Inc., to grow Hemp experimentally in Canada under the strict supervision of the authorities.
1996 A.D. On June 1st, Lee County was pushed into the National spotlight after actor & comedian Woody Harrelson made a trip to Lee County to protest Hemp production rights for farmers in The Commonwealth of Kentucky. Harrelson arrived in Lee County with his Attorney, his Agent and a camera crew from CNN. While at a local hotel Harrelson phoned then Lee County Sheriff Junior Kilburn to advise him of his intentions. Kilburn and Deputy Sheriff Danny Towsend arrived to the location where Harrelson told them he would be. While camera crews we're rolling Harrelson proceded plant 4 Hemp seeds in the ground all while Sheriff Kilburn was watching over his shoulder.
Once the seeds were planted, Sheriff Kilburn placed Harrelson under arrest on the charge of cultivating Marijuana. Harrelson was booked into the Lee County Jail later that day June 1st and quickly was released after posting $200 bail. After his release Harrelson would sign autographs and pose with a few deputies for pictures. On August 24th 2000 with the help of his attorney former Kentucky Governor Louie B. Nunn, Harrelson was acquitted of the charges after the jury deliberated for only 25 minutes.
-The Canadian federal government passed Bill C8 stating that mature Hemp stalks are exempt from the list of controlled substances.
1998 A.D. Phytotech, along with Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP) and the Ukraine's Institute of Bast Crops, planted industrial Hemp for the purpose of removing contaminants near the Chernobyl site.
-The U.S. begins to import food-grade Hemp seed and oil.
-The Canadian government legalizes the commercial growth of industrial Hemp.
-Industrial Hemp is used to make Hempcrete a material used for concrete block for building as well as other products.
The Oglala were denied their sovereign right to grow industrial Hemp by the Federal government of the United States.
After doing research and noting the worldwide market for Hemp, in July 1998, the Tribal Council approved 'industrial Hemp agriculture' for the reservation.
With demand high for the crop, three Lakota farmers, Tom Cook, his wife Afraid of Bear and American Horse grandson of Chief American Horse formed the Slim Butte Land-Use Association.
1999 A.D. Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism.
1999 A.D. U.S. Patent 6,630,507
Publication date Oct 7, 2003
Filing date Apr 21, 1999
This new found property makes Cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The Cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.
Non-psychoactive Cannabinoids, such as Cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive Cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.
2000 A.D. Louie Broady Nunn (March 8, 1924 – January 29, 2004) was the 52nd governor of Kentucky.
August 24th, Nunn secured an acquittal for actor Woody Harrelson, who came to Lee County, Kentucky, and planted Hemp seeds in open defiance of Kentucky's law forbidding the cultivation of Hemp.
In his later years, he supported the political ambitions of his son, Steve, and advocated for the legalization of industrial Hemp in Kentucky.
Nunn also became an advocate of legalizing industrial Hemp in Kentucky, writing, "Frankly, I was opposed to the legalization of Hemp for years because I had been of the opinion Hemp was Marijuana. I was short-sighted in my thinking, and I was wrong."
Later, he traveled to South Dakota where, at the base of Mount Rushmore, he publicly presented an Oglala Lakota leader with bales of Hemp after the tribe's crop was confiscated by officers from the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
-The law in the U.S. is enforced by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In August 2000 and July 2001, federal DEA agents destroyed industrial Hemp crops on the Pine Ridge reservation.
To emphasize the issue of Sioux sovereignty in land use, they publicly announced the first planting of industrial Hemp seeds on April 29, 2000, on the 132nd anniversary of the signing of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which established the reservation.
The Association believed production of industrial Hemp-based concrete could help solve the severe shortage of suitable dwellings on the reservation, as it is a sustainable construction material, and work for the unemployed.
Hemp can also be processed to yield oil for cooking and other products.
2000-2010 A.D. New processing technologies arise to commercialize "cottonized" Hemp, Hemp concrete, high-tech Hemp composites and other novel Hemp applications.
2004 A.D. Ninth Circuit Court decision in Hemp Industries Association vs. DEA permanently protects sales of Hemp foods and body care products in the U.S.
2005 A.D. A bill is introduced in the U.S. Congress for the first time to allow states to regulate Hemp farming, but to date no committee hearing or floor vote has taken place.
2006 A.D. After the raid destroyed his crops, the farmer Alex White Plume appealed a DEA court order that prohibited his growing the crop, but the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court ruling in United States v. White Plume, (8th Cir. 2006), that the Lakota had to comply with DEA registration process and get a permit to cultivate Hemp. The former crop is currently growing wild in the area.
2007 A.D. The first Hemp licenses in over 50 years are granted to two North Dakota farmers.
The North Dakota legislature has authorized Hemp growing statewide and issued the nation's first two state licenses to grow Hemp. The licensed farmers may face DEA legal problems if they do not acquire DEA permits. As the DEA had not yet acted on their requests, in June 2007 the men filed a lawsuit seeking federal court permission to grow the crop without being subject to federal criminal charges.
2008 A.D. Criss Angel Believe is a theatrical production of Cirque du Soleil and magician Criss Angel at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas, scheduled for 4,600 performances in the 1,600-capacity theater.
Mérédith Caron, costume designer, drew much inspiration from the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Victorian era. The fabrics chosen reflected the themes of desire, seduction, and dreams. The many materials for the characters include linen, cotton netting, crushed velvet, jute, Hemp, and crinyl.
2009 A.D. Friar received permission from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries for a pilot program to study the potential commercialisation of Hemp. Friar cultivated 500 Cannabis plants and suggested potential applications in the "textile and construction industries".
2010 A.D. 1st Annual Hemp History Week produces 200 events in 32 states exposing 100,000 people to Hemp and the cause.
-Hemp Industries Association uncovers diaries and photographs of the USDA's Chief Botanist Lyster Dewey, who grew 5 varieties of Hemp on the current site of the Pentagon.
-Rep. Ron Paul makes Congressional statement in support of Hemp History Week.
2011 A.D. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) introduces H.R. 1831, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act, in the House of Representatives.
2012 A.D. February 25, 2012, True Hemp Clothing International is founded in Miami, Florida.
-The new permanent exhibition space at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, which opened in 2012, has been designed by three internationally renowned designers with different cultural backgrounds.
Each architect has worked on a theme; Gringo Cardia (from Brazil) has worked on the theme of “defending human dignity”, Shigeru Ban (from Japan) on “refusing fatality” and Diébédo Francis Kéré on “reconstructing the family link”.
The dark entrance passage, bounded by Hemp concrete walls, encourages the visitor to consider the frightened and suffocating emotions of family tragedy during conflict. Central to this part of the exhibition is a tower, also made of Hemp concrete, which is an architectural reference to a traditional hut for a nuclear family.
-Fast Fiber Plastics and Hemp make for a strong, light, fuel-efficient body.
The Kestrel, a three-door hatchback, is made of a "Hemp composite as strong as the fiberglass in boats, yet incredibly lightweight," says Nathan Armstrong, the president of Motive industries, Kestrel's manufacturer.
Whereas a comparably sized Ford Fusion weighs 3,720 pounds, the Kestrel will be just 2,500 pounds with the battery.
To make this resilient, lightweight compound, Hemp stalks are combed and rolled into a mat that is infused with a polymer resin. the hemp makes the biocomposite's flexibility similar to the carbon fiber used in racecars.
-Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduces S. 3501, the Senate companion bill to H.R. 1831.
-October 30th Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
The Lime Tree Theatre is a brand new, state-of-the-art 510 seat theatre, situated in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick city centre.
The venue hosts a wide range of performances, including theatre, music, comedy, traditional arts, schools’ performances and conferences. As a large scale theatre, it will be a significant addition to the national cultural infrastructure and, most especially to the cultural, social and economic life of Limerick and the mid-west.
All ropes in this theatre are made of Hemp and it is probably the most intricate Hemp rope system ever made in world history.
2013 A.D. April 21, True Hemp Clothing International proclaims 4/21 International Hemp day to coincide with 4/20 Marijuana day and 4/22 Earth day.
-September 23, America's first (known) Hemp harvest in more than fifty years began in southeastern Colorado.
Farmer Ryan Loflin planted 55 acres of Marijuana's sober sister, Hemp. Advocates from across the country came to watch as Loflin and others harvested the first plants by hand.
-December 10, Uruguay First Country to legalize Marijuana Industry.
-The historic Freede Little Theatre offers seating for 286 and is the ideal venue for smaller-scale shows, recitals, movies and seminars. One of the last remaining Hemp houses in the United States.
-In recent years farmers have been producing alternative crops which are economically viable, and amongst these are organic farm crops. Hemp and wool from sheep are the main areas of fibre production of Canada.
-Dehradun is located in the Doon Valley on the foothills of the Himalayas nestled between two of India's mightiest rivers - the Ganges on the east and the Yamuna on the west.
Hemp is grown in great quantities in this region, so its yarn is frequently used as lining.
-Iran: Wheat, the most important crop, is grown mainly in the west and northwest. Rice is the major crop in the Caspian region. Other crops include barley, corn, cotton, sugar beets, tea, Hemp, tobacco, fruits, potatoes, legumes (beans and lentils), vegetables, fodder plants (alfalfa and clover), almonds, walnuts and spices including cumin and sumac.
-MALANA, HIMACHAL PRADESH, India: Cannabis is their only crop.
-Hmong people originate from the high steppes of Mongolia and Tibet. They migrated from China to Laos between 1810 and 1900.
Hmong women are renowned for their embroidery and weaving. Traditionally clothes are made from Hemp and cotton.
-Nepal's exports of mainly carpets, clothing, Hemp natural fiber, leather goods, jute goods and grain total $822 million.
2014 A.D. January 1st, Colorado:
The first legal, recreational sale of Marijuana in the history of the United States. No Cannabis related deaths, arrests or violence are reported. Colorado makes over one million dollars on the first day of legal sales.
1232 A.D. Birmingham was a flourishing medieval market town.
Hemp and flax are being used for making rope, canvas, and linen. Kilns producing local pottery also exist.
1292 A.D. The European traveler Marco Polo described Indian vessels:
"...built of fir timber, having a sheath of boards laid over the planking in every part, caulked with oakum and fastened with iron nails. The bottoms were smeared with a preparation of quicklime and Hemp, pounded together and mixed with oil from a certain tree which is a better material than pith."
13th Century A.D. The word canvas is derived from the Anglo-French canevaz and the Old French canevas. Both may be derivatives of the Vulgar Latin cannapaceus for "made of Hemp". Originating from the Greek.
Modern canvas is usually made of cotton or linen, although historically it was made from Hemp. It differs from other heavy cotton fabrics, such as denim, in being plain weave rather than twill weave. Canvas comes in two basic types: plain and duck. The threads in duck canvas are more tightly woven. The term duck comes from the Dutch word for cloth, doek.
Canvas and Duck at this time were words for Hemp fabric.
1315 A.D. An edict of Louis X, declaring that all Frenchmen were "free according to the law of nature" but the lot of the free peasant was hard, even under a gentle lord.
His thatched hut was unfloored and windowless. His garments were of
coarse Hempen cloth. Wool being reserved for his betters.
14th Century A.D. Château-d'Œx is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut.
At the beginning of the 14th Century, the castle at La Motte was rebuilt for the Counts of Gruyere. Another stronghold stood on the rocky spur which was known as Château Cottier.
After clearing the woods, the region was intensively farmed and produced barley, hay, Hemp, and cheese.
14th-16th Century A.D. The proscenium:
The competition among royals to produce elegant and elaborate entertainments fueled and financed the expansion of European court theatres.
The proscenium, which often was extremely decorative in the manner of a triumphal arch, "framed" the prospective picture.
A "full-fly" stage could store the entire height of scenery above the visible stage using the pin-rails before or during performance, whereas a "half-fly" stage (common in smaller locations) could only store props of limited size and thus required more careful backdrop and scenery design.
Theatres using these rope systems, which are manually operated by stage hands, are known as Hemp houses. They have been largely supplanted by counterweight fly systems.
1456 A.D. Gutenberg Bible is printed on Hemp paper.
1485-1603 A.D. Clare, Suffolk:
"Wood-pasture region, mainly pasture, meadow, engaged in rearing and dairying with some beekeeping, horse breeding, and poultry. Crops mainly barley with some wheat, rye, oats, peas, vetches, hops, and occasionally Hemp."
1469 A.D. Coastal distribution of imports and local goods at Southampton.
5 1/2 sacks of Hemp, and 3 Bales of Hemp.
1492 A.D. Hempen sails, caulking, and rigging ignite an age of discovery and help Columbus and his ships reach America.
Hemp sails and ropes carried the European settlers to America for hundreds of years. From 1492 to the advent of steamships in the early 1800's.
1495 A.D. The Reisszug is a private funicular railway providing goods access to the Hohensalzburg Castle at Salzburg in Austria. It is notable for its extreme age.
The line originally used wooden rails and a Hemp haulage rope. It was operated by human or animal power. The line still exists, albeit in updated form, and is one of the oldest railways still to operate.
1500's A.D. Access to Hemp had become an obvious weak point in Britain's defensive and offensive ability. The obvious solution was to look to the west where the New World of the Americas had been discovered and was being settled by an increasing number of European peoples. All of the European powers with settlements in the New World were particularly interested in growing Hemp and laws were made stipulating that the recipients of land grants in the new colonies must devote a portion of their land and labour to growing Hemp. All trade depended on it and all naval military strategy was equally reliant on a steady and secure supply of Hemp.
1500 A.D. Hemp farming began in Central and South America during the time of the Spanish Conquest.
1534 A.D. Rabelais was so enamored with Hemp that in his
estimation it stood at the very pinnacle of plant life: “in this pantagruel ion have I found so much efficacy and energy, so much completeness and excellency, so much exquisiteness and rarity, and so many admirable effects and operations of a transcendent nature...”
1545 A.D. Hemp agriculture crosses the continent overland to Chile.
1564 A.D. King Philip II of Spain mandated the cultivation of Hemp for food, fiber, and medicine throughout his empire. From modern-day Argentina to Oregon.
-The Spaniards brought Hemp to the Western Hemisphere and cultivated it in Chile.
1590's A.D. The Netherlands had the most commercialized agriculture in all of Europe at this time. Growing many industrial crops such as flax, Hemp, and hops.
1596 A.D. Pocahontas is born. By the age of 8 or 10, she was making twine from Hemp plants.
15th Century A.D. Britain had been importing Hemp from the Baltic
region since Roman times. When Britain's maritime and naval fleet began to grow at the end of the 15th century, so did the demand for Hemp. Other European naval and maritime powers also created a demand for this increasingly important resource. Cannabis became a Strategic Raw Material and one to be fought over.
Whenever Britain went to war with a continental power, the first tactic brought to bear against the island state was to block its northern sea route to the Baltic. Although individually weaker than Britain, Holland and France grew as maritime powers because they had superior access to the Baltic trade routes and a more secure supply of Hemp.
16th-17th Century A.D. Dutch achieve Golden Age through Hemp commerce.
-Explorers find 'Wilde Hempe' in North America.
1600 A.D. Rembrandt paints on Hemp canvas.
1604 A.D. One of the most famous engravings from European alchemy is a woodcut esoteric mandala designed by alchemical adept and doctor of medicine, Hienrich Khunrath, for his masterful treatise Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom published in 1604.
In Khunrath ’s time Hemp was a ubiquitous crop. It's fiber was essential to global economic trade, for the sails of the world merchant fleets could be made from Hemp fiber only. No other vegetable fiber sail cloth could endure the stresses of wind and salt air on long ocean voyages. Paradoxically, using Hemp flowers as a religious sacrament was prohibited yet fields of Hemp flowers could be found nearly everywhere.
1607 A.D. Virginia Company early industries:
Lumbering, manufacture of wood by-products, soap making, glass making, silk making, wine making, iron production, perfume and dye making. Growing of Hemp, flax, and salt production.
-In May, "Hempe" was among the crops Gabriel Archer observed being cultivated by the natives at the main Powhatan village, where Richmond, Virginia is now situated.
1609 A.D. At about the same time, the company issued its Crown-appointed governor, Sir Thomas Gates, confidential instructions on Virginia's priorities.
The instructions still emphasized discovering gold, silver, and a passage to the Pacific as the primary purpose of the colony. They also included finding other natural resources. Extracting tribute from the Indians. Manufacturing various items such as wine, tar, iron, steel, Hemp, and silk for sale. Converting the native people to Christianity.
1611 A.D. King James Bible is printed on Hemp paper.
1613 A.D. Samuell Argall reported wild Hemp, "better than that in England", growing along the shores of the upper Potomac.
1615 A.D. An Italian physician and demonologist, Giovanni De Ninault, listed Hemp as the main ingredient in the ointments and unguents used by the “Devils followers.”
1616 A.D. For laborers, if those that sow Hemp, rape, turnips, parsnips, carrots, cabbage, and such like: give 20, 30, 40, 50 shillings yearly for an acre of ground.
1617 A.D. Baron Porcarès had among his “noble” possessions a castle called Roquedols featuring towers and moats, fields, and other lands. Mills to grind wheat with their lock, mulching, threshing grain, gardens, oven, Canabière (Hemp), and a poultry farm.
1618 A.D. Laws enacted by the First General Assembly of Virginia:
"For Hemp also, both English and Indian and for English flax and aniseeds, we do require and enjoin all householders of this colony, that have any of those seeds, to make trial thereof the next season."
1619 A.D. America's first Hemp law is enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, ordering all farmers to grow Hemp.
The Virginia General Assembly required settlers to grow mulberry trees to feed silkworms and to plant grape vines. In addition to glass, silk, and wine, promoters encouraged the production of other industries. Including iron, perfumes, medicines, dyes, Hemp, flax, and salt.
-Proceedings of the Virginia Assembly
Monday, August 2nd
"For Hempe also both English and Indian and for English flax and Anniseeds, we do require and enjoine all householders of this Colony that have any of those seeds to make tryal thereof the nexte season."
July 30-August 4. The first legislative assembly meets in Jamestown, in the choir of the church.
Guided by the Company's instructions, the Assembly passes measures to encourage the production of wine, Hemp, flax, and, above all, an adequate food supply. The cultivation of tobacco is restricted.
1620 A.D. John Taylor (24 August 1578–1653) was an English poet who dubbed himself "The Water Poet".
THE P R A I S E O F H E M P-S E E D: Written by John Taylor
"The Profits arising by Hemp-seed are Cloathing, Food, Fishing, Shipping, Pleasure, Profit, Iustice, Whipping"
-The Mayflower was the ship that in 1620 transported 102 English Pilgrims, including a core group of Separatists, to New England.
In addition to wine and wool, The Mayflower had transported hats, Hemp, Spanish salt, hops, and vinegar to Norway.
-The Virginia Company: Other industries that were hoped to develop in the colony are suggested by a list of tradesmen the company invited to adventure to Virginia in 1620. Among them, sawyers, joiners, shipwrights, millwrights, coopers, weavers, tanners, potters, fishermen, fishhook makers, net-makers, leather dressers, lime-burners, and dressers of Hemp, and flax.
1621 A.D. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore had long maintained an interest in the exploration and settlement of the New World.
In 1620, Calvert purchased a tract of land (Avalon) in Newfoundland from Sir William Vaughan, who had earlier failed to establish a colony on the island.
Calvert dispatched Captain Edward Wynne and a group of Welsh colonists to Ferryland, where they landed in August 1621 and set about constructing a settlement. Wynne sent positive reports concerning the potential for local fisheries and for the production of salt, Hemp, flax, tar, iron, timber, and hops.
-A census taken shows that there were then 10,000 strangers in the city of London alone carrying on 121 different trades. Of 1343 persons whose occupations are specified, there were found to be 11 preachers, 16 schoolmasters, 349 weavers, 183 merchants, 148 tailors, 64 sleeve-makers, 43 shoemakers, 39 dyers, 37 brewers, 35 jewelers, 25 diamond-cutters, 22 cutlers, 20 goldsmiths, 20 joiners, 15 clockmakers, 12 silk-throwsters, and 10 glass-makers. There also were Hemp-dressers, thread-makers, button-makers, coopers, engravers, gun-makers, painters, smiths, watchmakers, and other skilled craftsmen.
1628 A.D. Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company. It was built in Amsterdam in 1628 and armed with 24 cast-iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage.
The Batavia replica was built (1985-1995) with traditional materials, such as oak and Hemp.
1629 A.D. Salem, Massachusetts:
Flax and Hemp were cultivated in the valleys of the Connecticut and the Merrimac.
Hemp seems to have been planted in Salem in 1629, and a rope walk was constructed in Boston the same year.
Other manufactories of cordage were established in the colony. Although the industry has never been largely productive and profitable it was important. It's development is to be traced to those factors which gave rise to the shipbuilding industry, to which it was a necessary adjunct.
1631 A.D. 'Must grow' Hemp laws are enacted throughout Massachusetts.
-Hemp used as money throughout American colonies.
1631 to early 1800's A.D. Hemp is 'legal tender' and taxes may be paid with Hemp throughout most of the Americas.
1632 to mid 1700's A.D. 'Must grow' Hemp laws enacted in Connecticut and the Chesapeake Colonies.
1633 A.D. ACTS MADE BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HOLDEN AT JAMES CITTY, THE 21st AUGUST, 1633. "IT is ordered, That the 25th act made 4th day of September 1632 be repealed and voyd. And that every planter as soone as he may, provide seede of flaxe and Hempe and sowe the same."
1640 A.D. In the second and third decades of the colony, Maryland increased its reliance on the tobacco crop, suffered through economic depression, and instituted a series of regulatory reforms to try to curb the impact of fluctuations in tobacco prices on the colony’s economy.
In hopes of moving the economy away from tobacco, the colonial assembly subsidized the production of Hemp and flax.
1645 A.D. The Puritans are first known to have cultivated Hemp in New England in 1645.
1666 A.D. La Canebière is the historic high street in the old quarter of Marseille, France.
The name 'Canebière' ('Canabiera' in Provençal dialect) comes from 'Cannabis' in Latin, as the area around the Old Port were originally Hemp fields. Marseille was one of the world's largest traders of Hemp baskets and ropes from the Middle Ages until the 1930s.
1694 A.D. Edmund Dummer (1651–1713) was an English naval engineer and shipbuilder who, as Surveyor of the Navy, designed and supervised the construction of the Royal Navy dockyard at Devonport, Plymouth.
His survey of the south coast ports is a valuable and well-known historic document.
His "Account of the Generall Progress and Advancement of his Majestie’s New Docks and Yard at Plymouth" was presented to the Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy in December 1694.
His survey included plans of the site, the yard, and the dry dock. Plans and elevations for the officers' dwelling houses, the great store house, Hemp house, rope house, and rope yard buildings.
1700 A.D. Gainsborough paints on Hemp canvas.
1700's A.D. American farmers are required by law to grow Hemp in Virginia and other colonies.
-By the late 1700s a major ship-of-the-line in the British navy required 80 tons of Hemp in sail and rope, this equated with 350 acres of Hemp production.
1710 A.D. The British Crown believed that the Palatines could work and be “useful to this kingdom, particularly in the production of naval stores, and as a frontier against the French and their Indians.” Naval stores which the British needed were Hemp, tar, and pitch.
1713 A.D. The British promoted the Maritimes as a source of Hemp for rope for the Royal Navy, with moderate success.
1716 A.D. England's famed Society of Gentlemen published a treatise on the use of a practical material other than linen or cotton for paper-making. Advancing "the idea of using raw Hemp without spinning or weaving."
1717 A.D. The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, covered wagon that was used extensively during the 18th and 19th Centuries.
The wagons were large enough to transport loads up to 8 tons (7 metric tons), and were drawn by horses, mules or oxen. It was designed to help keep its contents from moving about when in motion and to aid it in crossing rivers and streams, though it sometimes leaked unless caulked.
They were named after the "Conestoga River" or "Conestoga Township" in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The Conestoga, often in long wagon trains, was the primary overland cargo vehicle over the Appalachian Mountains until the development of the railroad.
The wagon was pulled by a team of up to eight horses or up to a dozen oxen. For this purpose, the Conestoga horse, a special breed of medium to heavy draft horses, was developed.
In Canada, the Conestoga wagons were used by Pennsylvania German migrants who left the United States for Southern Ontario, settling various communities in Niagara Region, Kitchener-Waterloo area and York Region (mostly in Markham, Ontario and Stouffville, Ontario).
The term "Conestoga wagon" refers specifically to this type of vehicle. It is not a generic term for "covered wagon". The wagons used in the westward expansion of the United States were, for the most part, ordinary farm wagons fitted with canvas
covers.
ALL Canvas in this era was made of Hemp.
1718 A.D. Rudnica, Lubusz Voivodeship:
The arable land was divided into three cleared fields. Sandy fiefs containing poor soil were recorded in the census. The annual sowing was 63% rye, barley 21%, 5% vetch, and 10% flax and Hemp.
1720 A.D The Museum of South Somerset is in Hendford, Yeovil, Somerset, England. It is also the location of a Tourist information centre.
There are displays of local history and geology particularly local industries such as leather and glove-making, flax and Hemp production, stone working, engineering and newspaper printing.
1725-1840 A.D. Pennsylvania became a leading exporter of wheat, corn, rye, Hemp, and flax. Making it the leading food producer in the colonies and later states.
1726 A.D. Windham is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States established on May 12th.
Early settlers were farmers who grew crops such as wheat, rye, corn, barley, flax, and Hemp, as well as raising livestock.
1728 A.D. Anchor Wharf Store Houses are the largest storehouses ever built for the navy.
The Ropery consists of Hemp Houses (1728 extended 1812), Yarn Houses and a double Rope House with attached Hatchelling House. The Ropery is still in use being operated by Master Ropemakers Ltd.
1729-1845 A.D. Pennsylvania's Lancaster County alone contained more than 100 water-powered Hemp mills. Dozens more were located in York County.
1740 to 1940 A.D. Russia is the world's largest and 'best quality' producer of Hemp. Supplying 80% of Western Hemp rope.
1742 A.D. Shipwreck of the Isles of Scilly.
9 March, Nancy (ship) carrying Bristol compound spirits, Hemp, iron, and gunpowder caught fire and blew up in New Grimsby. There was damage to several ships in the vicinity.
1748 A.D. Jared Eliot (1685-1763) was a farmer, minister, and physician in Guilford, Connecticut. A physician to many people and most of all a farmer who wrote several articles on husbandry.
His first article was written for the betterment of land improvement. In different areas he states how the land could be used. Swamps are rich with soil for grounds of crops. Red clover, Indian corn, flax, Hemp, and watermelons would grow marvelously there.
1750's A.D. Benjamin Franklin starts one of America's first Hemp-rag paper mills.
1752 A.D. 46-year old Benjamin Franklin tied a key to some Hemp rope attached to a kite and raised the kite into the air above his Philadelphia home.
1763 A.D. East Florida was the site of the largest single importation of white settlers in the colonial period. Dr Andrew Turnbull transplanted around 1,500 indentured settlers, from Minorca, Majorca, Ibiza, Smyrna, Crete, Mani Peninsula, and Sicily, to grow Hemp, sugarcane, indigo, and to produce rum.
1763-1767 A.D. Farmers who do not grow Hemp can be arrested and jailed in Virginia.
1764 A.D. Bambú is a brand of rolling paper sold by Bambu Sales Inc. of Westbury, New York. The company writes that Bambú began manufacturing paper in Spain in 1764, originally for the Bible. The paper it sells is still manufactured in that country, by Miguel y Costas & Miguel, S.A. They offer a number of paper sizes ranging from regular, big, half extra, and double wide. Including a line of pure Hemp papers.
1765 A.D. George Washington to Robert Cary & Company
Mount Vernon, September 20, 1765.
"In order thereto you woud do me a singular favour in advising of the general price one might expect for good Hemp in your Port watered and prepared according to Act of Parliament, with an estimate of the freight, and all other Incident charges pr. Tonn that I may form some Idea of the profits resulting from the growth. I shoud be very glad to know at the sametime how rough and undressd Flax has generally, and may probably sell; for this year I have made an Essay in both, and altho I suffer pretty considerably by the attempt, owing principally to the severity of the Drougth, and my inexperience in the management I am not altogether discouraged from a further prosecution of the Scheme provided I find the Sales with you are not clogd with too much difficulty and expence."
1774 A.D. The Ford Mansion is a classic 18th Century American home built by Jacob Ford, Jr.
The Ford family had businesses in iron mines, iron forges, a gristmill, a Hemp-mill, and a gunpowder mill that were all stationed near the house. These businesses were useful to the army in getting resources.
-Monticello December 29:
"Wrote to Tom Stewart of Augusta for 10. bushels of flaxseed & 10. do. of hemp seed. (Wrote to James Black for. ..100 lb hemp ready dressed for spinninq.) Never sent them."
1775 A.D. Historical Marker #1279 in Danville notes the first recorded Hemp crop in Kentucky, which was grown on Clark's Run Creek.
They obtained their cash from sales of burley tobacco, Hemp, horses, and mules.
The Hemp was spun and woven for cotton bale bagging and ropes.
1776 A.D. Between May and June, Betsy Ross hand stitched perhaps the most important example of Hemp fabric in American history. The first U.S. flag, known as The Stars and Stripes, was made of Hemp.
-The first draft of the Declaration of Independence was written on Dutch Hemp paper June 28, 1776.
The second draft was also written on Hemp paper July 2, 1776.
-The patriotic populace organizes spinning bees to turn Hemp fiber into clothing for General Washington's Continental Army.
-A Hemp shirt cost .50 cents to $1.00. A cotton shirt cost $100-$200.
-Hemp production was labour intensive and a source of cheap labour proved valuable to secure a constant supply.
When the thirteen colonies in North America declared their independence from Britain in 1776, Britain was dealt a serious blow.
1777 A.D. The Stars and Stripes is endorsed as the Capitol Flag of the U.S.A. The flag was made of Hemp fabric.
1779 A.D. December 30. Jefferson to Samuel Huntington:
"They (General Assembly) had however, early in the present year, laid a Tax payable in specific commodities; and, in their late session, directed the executive to raise from proceeds of that Tax, six hundred thousand pounds towards making up the quota's of money for which they were called on by Congress. The articles Specified were Wheat, Indian Corn, rye, Barley, Oats, Hemp and Tobacco at the option of the payer but it is conjectured that paiment will be made almost wholly in Indian Corn and Tobacco."
1780 A.D. Russia attempted to act as a mediator between France and Great Britain during the American Revolution.
The Russian Navy captured two British cargo vessels. Their cargo were Hemp and iron.
1781 A.D. The British lost the battle of Yorktown in 1781 and the Baltic supplies of Cannabis, tar and timber were seriously diminished by the League of Armed Neutrality (an alliance of Holland and other northern European powers). With the Baltic sea route blocked and the north American Colonies lost Britain was isolated from her sources of strategic raw materials. No Cannabis, No Canvas. No Canvas, No trade.
-Monticello:
List of Virginia plants useful for fabrication includes Virginia Hemp. Acnida
Cannabina. Tobacco, Hemp, flax, and cotton are staple commodities. "During this time (the Revolutionary War) we have manufactured within our families the most necessary articles of cloathing. Those of cotton will bear some comparison with the same kinds of manufacture in Europe; but those of wool, flax and Hemp are very coarse, unsightly, and unpleasant."
"Besides these [Arabian horses] there will be other valuable substitutes when the cultivation of tobacco shall be discontinued, such as cotton in the eastern parts of the state, and Hemp and flax in the western."
"Other losses by the British in 1781 at Elkhill. 250. lb. Hemp in the house 250. lb. do. growing"
-Letters to Jefferson: March 29. The Tax Commissioners of Culpeper County to Jefferson:
"On settlement yesterday with the Collectors of the Additional Tax, we find the greatest part has been received in Tobacco and Hemp, only about fifty Thousand pounds in money. The Hemp cannot be sold for the price directed by Law; you'll please observe this County has to furnish 106."
-April 15. David Ross to Jefferson:
"This (Hemp) is an Article very much in demand at Philadelphia and a valuable Fund as far as it will go, tho a very unweildy one but it must be used.''
-May 16. David Ross to Jefferson:
"My agent at Philadelphia writes me that 2,000 Stand of Arms will be ready this Week. He was obliged to engage Hemp to pay for the repairs and has no encouragement from Congress that they can do any thing for him in money matters."
-May 23. David Ross to Jefferson:
"I have engaged a Mr. Richard Mathies to inspect, pack and prize the Hemp in the several Counties and to employ waggons may be forwarded to Philadelphia immediately. The inspecting and prizing the Hemp is very necessary and can only be done by people of some experience in the business, wherefore I think it will best to load those waggons with the rope yarns and Hemp, which I saved from the works at Warwick before the Enemy got there. I dont know but there is a sufficient quantity to load the whole of them with the Hemp in this county. If so it will be best not to interfere with the operations of Mr. Mathies."
1783 A.D. Britain desperately fought to regain control of the American colonies but to no avail. 1783 saw their final defeat and the British Navy and nation was in a desperate situation when proposals to found a colony in the distant land of 'New South Wales' began to appear at the Home Office.
-August, The American Loyalist James Matra writes "A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales" proposing the establishment of a colony composed of American Loyalists, Chinese and South Sea Islanders but not convicts.
Matra reasoned that the land country was suitable for plantations of sugar, cotton, and tobacco. New Zealand timber and Hemp or flax could prove valuable commodities. It could form a base for Pacific trade and it could be a suitable compensation for displaced American Loyalists.
"I must not omit the mention of a very important article, which
may be obtained in any quantity, if this settlement be made the
proper use of, which would be of very considerable consequence,
both amonfj the necessaries and conveniences of life. I mean the
New Zealand Hemp or flax-plant, an object equally of curiosity
and utility. By proper operations it would serve the vai'ious purposes of Hemp, flax, and silk, and it is more easily manufactured than any one of them. In naval equipments it would be of the greatest importance ; a cable of the circumference of ten inches would be equal in strength to one of eighteen inches made of
European Hemp. Our manufacturers are of opinion that canvas
made of it would be superior in strength and beauty to any canvas
of our own country."
1784 A.D. August 20. James Madison to Jefferson:
"The price of Hemp however has been reduced as much by the peace as that of Tobacco has been raised, being sold I am told as low as 20/. per Ct. beyond the mountains."
-June, Notes on Commerce of the Northern States:
"They (New Hampshire inhabitants) raise a little Hemp, but their sail duck and most of their cordage is from Europe."
1784-1789 A.D. Thomas Jefferson lived in Paris as the US envoy and minister to France.
Jefferson went to great expense and considerable risk to himself and his secret agents to procure particularly good Hemp seeds smuggled illegally into Turkey from China.
The Chinese Mandarins (political rulers) so valued their Hemp seeds that they made their exportation a capital offense.
1786 A.D. Norfolk Island is located in the South Pacific Ocean, east of the Australian mainland.
The decision to settle Norfolk Island was taken due to Empress Catherine II of Russia's decision to restrict sales of Hemp. Practically all the Hemp and flax required by the Royal Navy for cordage and sailcloth was imported from Russia.
-Waveland State Historic Site, also known as the Joseph Bryan House, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Daniel Boone Bryan settled the land around Waveland by 1786. The name Waveland came from the waves that were visible when the wind blew the fields of grain and Hemp surrounding the house. The area was once the home of the biggest Hemp and rope producers of the nation.
-Britain desperately fought to regain control of the American colonies but to no avail. 1783 saw their final defeat and the British Navy and nation was in a desperate situation when proposals to found a colony in the distant land of 'New South Wales' began to appear at the Home Office.
1786-1807 A.D. Maysville is a city in Mason County, Kentucky, United States and is the seat of Mason County.
It exported Hemp and tobacco. Both produced mainly by African American slaves before the Civil War.
1788 A.D. Sir Joseph gave a bag of Hemp seeds as a gift to the First Fleet in 1788. A letter received by Joseph Banks from the East India Company in 1801 shows that he was still handing out bags of Hemp seeds in the Australian colonies 13 years later.
-A sailcloth factory was established in Boston.
1789 A.D. The Hawkins House, also known as the Cantrill House, is an historic building located on East Jackson Street in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Taking full advantage of the plentiful Hemp crops in Scott County, Thomas Hawkins established a ropewalk and bagging factory on the property. Land deeds show that the property continued to be used as a Hemp establishment as late as the 1850's.
1790 A.D. The straitjacket was invented in France by an upholsterer named Guilleret, for Bicêtre Hospital.
Due to the strength of the material, canvas or duck cloth is often used for making institutional straitjackets.
Canvas and Duck at this time were not only words for Hemp cloth, they were both literally made from Hemp. Canvas comes from the word Cannabis.
-Monticello July 4 Jefferson to Nicholas Lewis:
"For this purpose it is vastly desireable to be getting under way with our domestic cultivation and manufacture of Hemp, flax, cotton and wool for the negroes."
1790's A.D. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, our founding fathers, grow Hemp and extol its benefits.
1791 A.D. President Washington sets duties on Hemp to encourage domestic industry. Jefferson calls Hemp "a necessity" and urges farmers to grow Hemp instead of tobacco.
-The arrival of the Loyalists in Upper Canada (where they were given the title United Empire Loyalists) in the late 18th century resulted in the cultivation of Hemp.
-José Martín Altolaguirre. Agronomist. Close friend of Manuel Belgrano.
Martin was a key figure in the life of Manuel in respects to which he had no experience. Altolaguirre introduced the cultivation of Hemp and flax to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Located in the elegant Recoleta district, resides the first gum tree of Buenos Aires. Actually linked to the Martín José de Altolaguirre story, famous agronomist of this period who had his enormous farm named "De La Recoleta" (in 1791). This building extended from the kitchen garden of the Recoletas right up to the river Río de la Plata. He planted fruits, trees and exotic species there.
At this time, La Recoleta was a cultivation zone. Hemp was grown on this land during this period.
1792 A.D. January 1, David Humphreys to Jefferson:
"This may be a favorable time for Americans "to come forward with proposals for furnishing at certain rates, Timber, Hemp, Tar and cotton."
-Goyard, established in 1792, is the oldest Parisian trunk maker still in business. It has been passed down from generation to generation up until today.
Right from the start, Goyardine was made with cloth, although its appearance is very similar to leather. Goyard uses three plant fibres: Hemp, linen, and cotton.
Hemp is particularly sought after for its hydrophobic qualities.
-Merchant Thomas Russell (1740-1796):
He became a delegate from Boston to the convention in Massachusetts for the adoption of the US Federal Constitution in 1788, Later he became president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Russell by 1792 was sending American ships to mainland Russia, dealing in iron, Hemp, and sail cloth.
-September 23. Memorandums for Manoah Clarkson, Monticello overseer.
"Tend the next year two acres of Hemp on east side the river, and 1000 cotton hills for every working hand."
1793 A.D. John Breckinridge (December 2, 1760 – December 14, 1806) was a lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Virginia.
His family, along with 25 slaves, arrived in April and established their plantation, Cabell's Dale.
Eventually, his crops at Cabell's Dale included corn, wheat, rye, barley, hay, grass seed, and Hemp.
-Monticello: June 30. Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph.
Jefferson's plans for his farms included the following articles. "Hemp, turneps, pumpkins. in the new clearings."
July 11. Thomas Mann Randolph to Jefferson.
"It is necessary to break up meadow grounds once in 5 or 6 years, and on this 5th. or 6th. part of mine I [rely?] for Hemp and flax which, with us, thrive no where so well as in the flat grounds on our little streams."
1794 A.D. George Washington: To WILLIAM PEARCE
Philadelphia, February 24, 1794.
"I am very glad to hear that the Gardener has saved so much of the St. foin seed, and that of the India Hemp. Make the most you can of both, by sowing them again in drills. Where to sow the first I am a little at a loss (as Hares are very destructive to it) but think, as the Lucern which was sown broad in the Inclosure by the Spring, has come to nothing; as the ground is good; and probably as free from Hares as any other place, it might as well be put there; as I am very desirous of getting into a full stock of seed as soon as possible. Let the ground be well prepared, and the Seed (St. loin) be sown in April. The Hemp may be sown any where."
-Boston owes its Public Garden to Mayor Quincy's foresight. We have seen how in 1794, out of a mixture of sympathy for the unfortunate and a desire to get an unsightly nuisance into a remote spot, the town had imprudently granted limited and qualified rights to the flats at the foot of the Common for the construction of ropewalks. Thirty years later in February 1824, when the site so cheerfully granted away was no longer remote, the city regained this land by paying the occupants the large sum of $55,000. With a marked difference of opinion among inhabitants about the future of the tract, Mayor Quincy submitted the problem to a general meeting of the citizens on 26 July 1824, which overwhelmingly sustained the view that the land now comprising the Public Garden should be annexed to the Common "and forever after kept open and free of buildings of any kind, for the use of the citizens."
-There were fourteen large ropewalks in Boston at this time.
-Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine economist, lawyer, politician, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina. He is regarded as one of the main Libertadores of the country.
Belgrano tried to promote the diversification of agriculture via the production of linen and Hemp, following experiences with his friend Martín de Altolaguirre.
1795 A.D. John Wesley Hunt (1773–1849) was a prominent businessman and early civic leader in Lexington, Kentucky.
Moving to Lexington in 1795, Hunt became a merchant, horse-breeder, Hemp manufacturer, and banker.
1796 A.D. Monticello April 23:
"Gave Page to buy Hemp seed."
1797 A.D. The 44-gun USS CONSTITUTION was built (1794) in Boston and launched on Oct. 21st. It was outfitted with 60 tons of Hemp sails and rigging.
18th Century A.D. Hemp used for smallpox sores, burns, gonorrhea, and palpitations.
1800 A.D. Central Kentucky, the Bluegrass region, was the center of the greatest slaveholding, as planters cultivated tobacco and Hemp.
-While France tried to be more self-sufficient in Hemp, Britain exploited the Baltic trade in Hemp. Its rise to commercial dominance depended on access to large amounts of cheap Hemp. British demand created the Russian Hemp trade.
In 1800, half of Russia´s Hemp went to Britain. The implications of Britain´s need for Hemp made the Hemp trade a strategic target in times of war, as this brief overview of the Hemp Question shows.
Although the strategy of reliance on Russian Hemp was risky, it was the basis of empire. Without the Russian Hemp trade, the British Empire would never have been as great. Great as Great Britain became, its empire dangled by that ribbon of Hempen trade that wound its way through the narrow and dangerous passages of the Baltic Sea.
1800's A.D. Van Gogh paints on Hemp canvas.
-Hemp seed oil, long the most popular lighting oil in the world, falls to second place in popularity as whale oil becomes widely accessible.
-The use of Hemp extracts as a recreational stimulant spreads through Western culture and romantic writers expound on individual freedom and human dignity extolling Cannabis use.
Their works include: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass. Mark Twain often wrote about Hemp.
1801 A.D. Certain premiums offered to encourage the cultivation of Hemp in Upper and Lower Canada.
1803-1815 A.D. Isaac Solly (1769 – 22 February 1853), was a London merchant in the Baltic trade. During the Napoleonic wars Isaac Solly and Sons were principal contractors supplying Hemp and timber to government dockyards.
1804 A.D. The War of the Third Coalition was a European conflict spanning the years 1803 to 1806. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I defeated an alliance of Austria, Russia, and others.
The Baltic was dominated by Russia, something Britain had been uncomfortable with since the area provided valuable commodities like timber, tar, and Hemp.
Crucial supplies to the British Royal Navy.
1806 A.D. During Napoleon’s time, the continental blockade put England in danger. France opened the Baltic ports so the country could get the Hemp it needed for ship sails and rigging. This engendered, among other events, the fire of Copenhagen.
Napoleon demanded that Russia’s Tzar pay subsidies to be able to ship his country’s Hemp to England. The Hemp War and the Treaty of Tilsit was a financial disaster for Russia.
1807 A.D. Canson filed a patent for tracing paper made from Hemp tow.
-"Jack and the Beanstalk" is a British fairy tale. The earliest known appearance in print is Benjamin Tabart's moralised version of 1807.
If people wanted to survive the Dark Ages and use Cannabis they had better be discreet in referring to it. Both Rabelais and the medieval European farmers used the word “bean” in conjunction with Hemp. The Europeans used the term in a
celebration, King and Queen of the bean, done in the hopes of having a tall Hemp crop.
Consider if you will the tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk". Jack is “the widow’s son.” This term is often used to refer to an initiate starting out on the path. For example, it is used in reference to Jesus, Parzival in the famous Grail Romances,
and it was a cherished designation in Freemasonry. The cow that young Jack trades for the beans is his sacred cow that he must sacrifice if he wants to
discover the truth of things. A parallel can easily be drawn between Jack’s reluctant trade of the family cow and the of the Magi saviour Mithras, who slew the sacred bull unwillingly, and obtained the sacred vine of the mysteries. The
beans are Hemp seeds which will enable him to climb to the place of the Giants. The angry Giant is a manifestation of Jack’s personal demons that have been exposed and magnified by his climb up the beanstalk, or more precisely by his ingestion of Hemp. Although this journey is fraught with danger, young Jack has the chance to hear the heavenly music of the Golden Harp, cast from the fine Gold of the true alchemists. And if the young hero is able to overcome the Giant, who represents his own lower nature, he will be able to return home and share the music of the Golden harp with his widowed mother and the rest of humanity.
1808 A.D. Monticello March 22. Jefferson to Anne Cary Randolph:
"The plant [benne] grows somewhat like Hemp."
1809 A.D. Patent right issued to Nathaniel Foster of Fleming County, Ky. for a machine for spinning Hemp and flax.
Dated June 28, 1809 and signed by President James Madison, Secretary of State R. Smith, and Attorney General Caesar A. Rodney.
-Monticello January 26. Edmund Bacon, Monticello overseer to Jefferson.
"I can Get flax and Hemp seed plenty."
1810 A.D. There were 173 ropewalks in the United States, scattered over the country from Maine to Kentucky.
1811 A.D. Monticello March 1. Jefferson's Scheme for a System of Agricultural Societies:
"And principally the cultivation of our primary staples of wheat, tobacco, and Hemp, for market."
December. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman, Poplar Forest overseer:
"An acre of the best ground for Hemp, is to be selected, and sown in Hemp and to be kept for a permanent Hemp patch." "Hemp should be immediately prepared to set them [the spinners] at work, and a supply be kept up."
1812 A.D. America goes to war with Great Britain over free-trade access to Russian Hemp.
-Historian Louis Hacker says that in Kentucky about 1812:
"Farms were for sale with from ten to fifty acres cleared, possessing log houses, peach and sometimes apple orchards, inclosed in fences, and having plenty of standing timber for fuel. The land was sown in wheat and corn, which were the staples, while Hemp [for making rope] was being cultivated in increasing quantities in the fertile river bottoms...."
-Henry Clay, Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
By 1812, Clay owned a productive 600-acre (240 ha) plantation, which he called "Ashland". Numerous slaves worked the land. He held 60 slaves at the peak of operations and produced tobacco and Hemp. The two chief commodity crops of the Bluegrass Region.
-Napoleon's principle reason for invading Russia in 1812 was due to Russian Hemp supplies.
-The war between America and Great Britain in 1812 was mainly about access to Russian Hemp.
-Monticello:
-January 21. Jefferson to John Adams:
"We consider a sheep for every person in the family as sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, Hemp and flax which we raise ourselves."
-April 20. Jefferson to Robert Livingston.
"There being scarcely a family in the country which does not clothe itself, as far as coarse woolens, or those of midling quality are required. So also as to Hemp, flax, and cotton."
-May 19. "Left with Mr. Goodman...for 100. lb. more of Hemp."
-October 11. Jefferson to James Ronaldson:
"This (cotton) is spun so much more cheaply than Hemp and flax that it will be substituted entirely for coarse shirting instead of oznabrigs and ticklenburg."
-December 12. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman:
"Sow about half an acre of Hemp."
1813 A.D. Monticello:
-January 12. Jefferson to James Ronaldson:
"But we must acknowledge their [Southern fellow citizens] services in furnishing us an abundance of cotton, a substitute for silk, flax and Hemp. The ease with which it is spun will occasion it to supplant the two last, and its cleanliness the first."
-September 8. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman:
"Sow from half an acre to an acre in Hemp."
1814 A.D. Monticello November 4. Memorandums for Jeremiah Goodman:
"Sow from half an acre to an acre of Hemp, and 4. acres of pumpkins."
1815 A.D. Monticello:
Summary of notations in Farm Book:
There were three Hemp spinners in the Monticello textile factory, Aggy, Nanny, and Isabel. The annual Hemp requirement was 400 lbs. To be spun by the three in 26 weeks.
-January 6. Jefferson to Jeremiah Goodman:
"We can very illy spare it [wool], not having enough for our people here [Monticello], but we will try a mixture of Hemp and cotton for the negro children here, in order to help out for your people."
-March 21. Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale:
"I make the same saw-gate (of Monticello sawmill) move another lever at the other end of which is suspended the upper head-block of a common Hemp break (but much heavier than common). The break is ranged under that arm of the lever, in the same plane, and the center of it's motion is nearly as may be under that of the lever. While two persons feed the break with the Hemp stalks, a third holds the Hemp already beaten and formed into a twist, under the head block, which beats it most perfectly; but as one beater is not enough for 2 breakers, I lengthen that arm of the lever beyond the point of suspension of the head block, and at the end suspend a pestle, which falling on a block under it, presents a beater. To make this work true, a section of a circle (like the felloe of a cart wheel, but shorter) is mortised on the end of the lever, with a groove in it for the suspending chain to lie in. The following is a coarse side view of the whole. Two breakers and beaters will compleatly break and beat 400. lb. in a day, and they need not be men. A patent has been obtained for fixing the upper swords to the underside of the saw gate, and placing the bench and lower swords under it, and the patentee gave me leave to use it; but that place being wet and inconvenient, I thought it better to remove the action by a lever to a drier and more convenient spot, outside of the mill. I wish to make the same agent work an apparatus for fulling our homespun, but have not yet attempted it, tho' we need it much, as we clothe ourselves chiefly, and our laborers entirely in what we spin and weave in our family."
-December 29. Jefferson to George Fleming:
"Hemp...is abundantly productive and will grow for ever on the same spot, but the breaking and beating it, which has always been done by hand, is so slow, so laborious, and so much complained of by our laborers, that I have given it up, and purchased and manufactured cotton for their shirting, the advance price of this however now makes it a serious item of expence; and in the mean time a method of removing the difficulty of preparing Hemp occurred to me, so simple and so cheap, that I return to it's culture and manufacture. To a person having a threshing machine, the addition of a Hemp break will not cost more than 12. or 15. You know that the first mover in that machine is a horizontal horsewheel with cogs on it's upper face. On these is placed a wallower and shaft which give motion to the threshing apparatus, on the opposite side of this same wheel I place another wallower and shaft, thro' which, and near it's outer end, I pass a cross-arm of sufficient strength, projecting on each side 15. I. in this form. Nearly under the cross arm is placed a very strong Hempbreak, much stronger and heavier than those for the hand. It's head block particularly is massive, and high, and near it's upper end, in front, is fixed a strong pin (which we may call it's horn). By this the cross arm lifts and lets fall the break twice in every revolution of the wallower. A man feeds the break with Hemp stalks, and a little person holds under the head block a large twist of the Hemp which has been broken, resembling a twist of tobacco but larger, where it is more perfectly beaten than I have ever seen done by hand. If the horse wheel has 144. cogs, the wallower 11. rounds, and the horse goes 3 times round in a minute, it will give about 80. strokes in a minute. I had fixed a break to be moved by the gate of my sawmill, which broke and beat at the rate of 200. lb. a day. But the inconveniences of interrupting that induced me to try the power of a horse, and I have found it answer perfectly. The power being less, so also probably will be the effect, of which I cannot make a fair trial until I commence on my new crop. I expect that a single horse will do the breaking and beating of 10 men. Something of this kind has been so long wanted by the cultivators of Hemp, that as soon as I can speak of it's effect with certainty, I shall probably describe it anonymously in the public papers, in order to forestall the prevention of it's use by some interloping patentee."
1816 A.D. Farmington (Louisville, Kentucky) is an 18-acre (7.3 ha), 14-room federal-style home that was the center of the 19th Century Hemp plantation of John and Lucy Speed.
-Monticello, May 8. Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale:
"In a former letter I mentioned to you that I had adapted a Hemp break to my sawmill, which did good work. I have since fixed one to my threshing machine in Bedford, which breaks and beats about 80. lb a day with a single horse. The horizontal horsewheel of the threshing machine drives a wallower and shaft, at the outer end of which shaft is a crank which lifts a common Hemp-break the head of which is made heavy enough to break the hemp with it's knives, and to beat it with it's head.''
1817 A.D. Monticello:
"1. lb spun cotton will make 5. yds of shirting mixed with Hemp."
1818 A.D. Monticello, March 14. Jefferson to Joel Yancey, Poplar Forest overseer:
"If we are to make for ourselves it will never do to break up the establishment on every temporary variation of the material. The wool we have, the Hemp we may make, and may in a great measure make it take the place of cotton in the shirting. By doing this, little cotton will be wanting, and I believe we might easily make this. You once suggested it, and I liked the proposition, and think it would be an excellent supplementary employment for the spinners."
1819 A.D. Monticello:
Needed for clothing 52 slave children were 48 lbs of Hemp and 32 lb. cotton.
"30. yds cotton & Hemp weigh 15. lb. The 30. yds require 6 lb cotton & 9 lb Hemp."
1820 A.D. Lafayette County is a county located in west central Missouri in the United States. The county was organized November 16, 1820.
Lafayette County was settled primarily from migrants from the Upper Southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. They brought slaves and slaveholding traditions and started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: Hemp and tobacco.
As a result, this part of Missouri, and neighboring counties, became known as Little Dixie.
-Saline County is a county located in west central Missouri.
They quickly started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: Hemp and tobacco.
-Monticello, January 21. Thomas Appleton to Jefferson:
"I have inclos'd in the bag of Hemp seed, four little bundles of the white, gentilli wheat..."
1821 A.D. Monticello, February 15. Isaac A. Coles to Jefferson:
"I send you enclosed a specimen of Wild Hemp which I find in great abundance on many parts of my Land (Clarksville, Pike County, Missouri). We have collected a sufficient quantity of it for all our purposes, and find that it makes a much stronger rope than the Hemp of Virginia. The stem is generally of the size of ones finger, and from 5 to 10 feet in height. It is a perennial Plant, delights in low, moist, rich land, and yields fully as well (I think) as the common Hemp. The seeds are small, resembling very much the seed of the Yellow Jessamine but larger and more full, and are contained in pods on the top of the Plant. As these burst open in the early part of winter, I have not been able to procure any of the seed to send you. The specimen enclosed was from a stalk which I yesterday cut in the woods and prepared as you see it, by merely rubbing it between my fingers and then combing it straight with my pocket comb. It has stood out exposed in the woods the whole winter. As there is now nothing remaining of this Plant, but the naked stem and the roots (which are exceedingly numerous) it will be difficult to class it, but it does not appear to me to resemble at all either Hemp or flax. Whatever it may be, it must, I think, prove a Plant of great value. The strength, delicacy, softness and whiteness of the fibre, will no doubt be greatly improved by being cut at the proper time, and healed in a proper manner, and being a perennial, when once sowed it will last for ages, and, may be cut with as little trouble as a timothy meadow. I do not dispair still of being able to procure a few of the seed, and if I succeed they shall be forwarded to you. An inch or two of the top of the Plant, with two pods are also inclosed."
1822 A.D. Clay County is a county located in Northwest Missouri in the United States.
Clay County was settled primarily from migrants from the Upper Southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. They brought slaves and slaveholding traditions with them and quickly started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and Kentucky: Hemp and tobacco.
-Kruševlje is a small settlement (hamlet) in Serbia. It is situated in the Sombor municipality, West Bačka District, Vojvodina province.
The main occupations of Kruševlje villagers were agriculture. Mostly wheat and maize, called Kukrutz in Swabian. Cattle-breeding, mainly livestock such as cows, pigs, oxen, bulls and some poultry. Silk-worm raising and Hemp cultivating and manufacture.
-John Aull (Lexington, Missouri) opened a mercantile store and he was soon joined by his brothers James and Robert Aull.
The Aull Brothers firm soon had a frontier chain, also operating stores in Independence, Westport, and Liberty. Other merchants came, as did farmers and planters who specialized in Hemp, tobacco and cattle.
-THE Journal Of Anexile:
"Greece, England, Spain, Paris, supplied ample food for all; and the crowd and conversation seemed to be as varied as the rich piles of fruit and goods that lay along the wharfs mixed with ropes and huge iron rings, and casks of oil. The fishermen, in their red caps and coarse rough brown jackets, were dropping about in their Spanish-looking boats; and a watchful gendarme was lounging along here and there, and occasionally snatching the forbidden cigar from the detected sailor. For the use of this luxury is strictly forbidden upon the quay, lest some unlucky spark might communicate with the vast quantity of Hemp and flax which Marseilles imports from the north."
1824 A.D. The Rural District of Novo Hamburgo, Lomba Grande, received the first German immigrants who settled in the Hemp Linen factory. Then owned by the municipality of Sao Leopoldo.
1829 A.D. Daniel Treadwell (10 October 1791-27 February 1872) was an American inventor, born at Ipswich, Massachusetts. Amongst his most important inventions are a Hemp-spinning machine for the production of cordage completed in 1829.
1831-1834 A.D. The first successful stranded iron wire rope was developed by Wilhelm Albert, a mining official of Clausthal in the Harz Mountains in Saxony. Even when first tried for hauling and hoisting in his mine, it proved so superior to Hemp rope in serviceability and cost that its use soon became widespread in European mining.
This stranded wire rope consisted of individual wires twisted about a Hemp rope core to form the strand. Six such strands then being twisted about a larger Hemp rope core in reverse direction to form the rope. Prior to this, wire rope had already been made in the form of a selvage cable—a bundle of individual wires stretched out into a long length and arranged parallel to one another, then bound together and covered with tarred Hemp yarns.
-The famed 19th century Russian born mystic, world traveler, feminist, Theosophical Society co-founder, and author of occult classics Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrova Blavatsky (1831-1891) is also reputed to have been a user of Cannabis.
1834-1839 A.D. William Shepard Wetmore's profit and loss ledgers reveal that the primary goods brokered by Wetmore & Co. were tea, tea papers, silks and spices. Lesser cargoes were wines, ports, Hemp, pearl buttons, copper, and coffee.
1835 A.D. Luke Pryor Blackburn married his distant cousin, Ella Gist Boswell. The couple's only child, son Cary Bell Blackburn, was born in 1837. Just before Cary's birth, Blackburn invested heavily in the Hemp rope and bagging industry and suffered a significant financial loss when the business venture subsequently failed.
-The National Theatre is the only traditional Broadway-style theatre in Washington, D.C.
The stage house and foundations date to 1835 and the theatre has been in operation since that year.
Hemp House (NO COUNTERWEIGHT)
Maximum Flying Height 36’0” for rigged Hemp system.
Manual with Capstan Hemp/Twist Dacron/Braided Dacron.
Weight Capacity 750 lbs. max for Hemp.
1836 A.D. Dutch Bible made of Hemp
1837-1901 A.D. Queen Victoria uses Cannabis resins to treat menstrual cramps. Sparking enormous interest in the uses of Cannabis as a medicine in the English speaking world.
1839 A.D. Viola Denisa Rowe Gross (August 25, 1921 – February 20, 2012) from Danville, Kentucky, was a teacher, businesswoman, clubwoman, and author.
In 2005 she donated sixty-five original documents pertaining to the Doram-Rowe family to the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History (KHS) in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Dennis Doram was a respected landowner and businessman in Danville, with a rope factory and a Hemp business as well as running the Caldwell School for Women.
1840-1870 A.D. Since the full impact of the Industrial Revolution, France passed in a single generation from a local to a continental and even a world economy.
For many centuries, France had resources which were moderate, yet ample. She produced wheat, wine, fine breeds of horses and cattle, wool, flax, and Hemp for her textile mills. Good building stone, timber, slate, and tile were not lacking.
1840 A.D. Abraham Lincoln uses Hemp-seed oil to fuel his household lamps.
He also writes as a general statement on government function and legislation: "Prohibition...goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by making a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
-East End of London:
The first railway ('The Commercial Railway') to be built was a passenger service based on cable haulage by stationary steam engines that ran the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Minories to Blackwall on a pair of tracks. It required 14 miles (22.5 km) of Hemp rope.
1840-1860 A.D. Louisville led the nation in Hemp manufacturing and cotton bagging.
Hemp was Kentucky's leading agricultural product from 1840 to 1860 and the leading commodity crop of the fertile Bluegrass Region.
1841 A.D. The system of inclines and levels that moved the boats and conventional railroad cars was a state-owned enterprise, the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The railroad cars were pulled up and down the inclines by a long loop of thick Hemp rope, up to 7 cm thick.
1842-1890 A.D. Extracts and derivatives of the Hemp plant are the second and third most prescribed medicines in the U.S.A.
Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Squibb, Brothers Smith and other firms produce these medicines through 1930. During this time, not one death or severe side-effect is recorded as an attribute to use.
1843 A.D. Charles Sreeve Peterson (July 28, 1818 – September 26, 1889) was an early Mormon leader who was the first settler of Utah's Morgan Valley. A member of the Utah Territorial Legislature and one of the first settlers in the Mormon colonies in Mexico.
Once in Nauvoo, Charles found work with William Law, breaking Hemp for one cent a day.
-"This morning, about half past six o'clock, an hour after the workmen had commenced operations, the boiler of a six horse power engine in the patent cordage manufactory of Michael Wormsted & Son, on South and Marlborough streets, exploded. Mr. John Green, the engineer, who was probably standing in front of the furnace, was instantly killed, . . . This was the first steam engine erected in Newbury, and had been in use five or six years."
The fact that the town's first steam engine was used to process Hemp exemplifies the value that people placed on Hemp.
-Rope walks, slaughter houses, a foundry, and a furniture factory were among other early Lexington industries.
1843-1846 A.D. Kirkcaldy is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland.
To cope with increasing imports of flax, timber, and Hemp, and exports of coal, salt, and linen, a new wet dock and pier was built at the harbour.
1848 A.D. Dr. G. F. Saltonstall, was born in New London, Conn., and was a graduate of a medical college in Philadelphia.
In 1848 he moved to Missouri and settled at Fayette, Howard County. He retired from the profession and engaged in the manufacture of Hemp rope and bagging.
1850 A.D. U.S. census records 8,327 Hemp plantations of 2,000 acres or more and an uncalculated number of small Hemp farms.
-Planters who grew Hemp and tobacco made the greatest use of slave labor, as these were labor-intensive crops.
1850's A.D. Petrochemical age begins. Toxic sulfite and chlorine processes make paper from trees, steamships replace sails and tropical fibres are introduced.
-In the fifteen states constituting the American South, slavery was established legally. While it was fading away in the cities and border states, it remained strong in plantation areas that grew cotton for export, sugar, tobacco or Hemp.
1855 A.D. The Golden West was an 1852 extreme clipper built by Paul Curtis. The ship had a very active career in the California trade, the guano trade, the coolie trade, the Far East, and Australia.
She struck a reef in 1855 in Gaspar Strait and jettisoned 200 tons of Hemp to get off it.
1860 A.D. 'Ganjah Wallah Hasheesh Candy Company' produces one of the most popular candies in the U.S. It is made from Cannabis derivatives and maple sugar. The candy is sold over-the-counter and in Sears-Roebuck catalogs. It retains its popularity as a totally harmless and fun candy for over forty years.
1861 A.D. A farmer, named Bernagozzi from Bologna, manufactured a machine called a "scavezzatrice," a decorticator for Hemp.
-The First Battle of Lexington also known as the Battle of the Hemp Bales, was an engagement of the American Civil War, occurring from September 13 to September 20, 1861, between the Union Army and the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard, in Lexington, the county seat of Lafayette County, Missouri.
On the evening of September 19, soldiers of Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Harris's 2nd Division (State Guard) began using hemp bales seized from nearby warehouses to construct a movable breastwork facing the Union entrenchment. These bales were all soaked in river water overnight, to render them impervious to any heated rounds fired from the Federal guns.
-Planning to distribute the benefits of a tariff to all sectors of the economy and also hoping to broaden support for his party, Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, rejected the traditional system of protection by proposing tariff duties on agricultural, mining, and fishing products, as well as on manufactures. Sugar, wool, flax-seed, hides, beef, pork, corn, grain, Hemp, wool, and minerals would all be protected by the Morrill Tariff.
1865 A.D. Alice in Wonderland is published on Hemp paper.
1866 A.D. The Victoria (Dayton, Ohio), one of the oldest continually operated theaters on the continent, was opened to the public as the Turner Opera House on New Year's Day.
Al Jolson, The Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Fannie Brice, George M. Cohan, Lynn Fontayne, Gertrude Lawrence, Alfred Lunt, Harry Houdini, and many other names performed there.
During revitalization efforts in the late 1970s, the stage manager, Gary Kuzkin, overhauled much of the stage's technical capabilities. Crews from the Stagehands Union (IATSE) local restored much of the theater's ancient Hemp-and-sandbag fly galley, replacing several hundred thousand feet of rope—along with miles of electrical wiring.
1867 A.D. The Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 4AG, England
The stage represents perhaps the most complete
working example of the English wood stage -possessing four bridges, eight cuts, one carpet cut, two corner traps, two staircase traps, three object traps and one grave trap. Overhead there is a series of drum and shaft mechanisms to operate synchronised scene-changes, and a Hemp fly floor stage left with drum and shaft for the act drop.
1870's A.D. The popularity of smoking female Cannabis tops to ease the back-breaking labor of working sugar cane fields and tolerate the hot sun as well as to relax recreationally with no alcohol "hang-over. This practice begins to spread in the West Indies with the immigration of Hindus who are imported to provide cheap labor. Gradually, this popularity makes its way into the United States through St. Louis.
1872 A.D. The HMS Challenger, built in 1858, undertook the first global marine research expedition called the Challenger expedition in 1872.
In all she was supplied with 181 miles (291 km) of Italian Hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging. As the first true oceanographic cruise, the Challenger expedition laid the groundwork for an entire academic and research discipline.
1873 A.D. Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent to make the first riveted men's work pants out of denim. The first blue jeans in the world were made by Levi's. They were made with Hemp fibre.
1882 A.D. Andrea Antonini, who owned a Hemp rope mill in Venice, joined with fellow businessmen Pacifico Ceresa and Angelo Zorzetto to build the Canapificio Veneto Antonini Ceresa, on the west bank of the Brentella, which opened its doors in May 1883.
1883 A.D. Hashish smoking parlors have opened in every major American city, including an estimated 500 such establishments in New York City alone.
-Up until 1883 between 75 and 90% of all the world’s paper was made from Hemp.
1884 A.D. A.J. Miller House, also known as the Miller-Hemp House, is a historic home located near Middlebrook, Augusta County, Virginia. It was built in 1884, and is a two-story, three bay, brick dwelling in the Italianate style.
1886 A.D. Karl Benz (Mercedes Benz) patents the first gas powered automobile originally built in 1885.
The Motorwagen was patented on January 29, 1886 as DRP-37435: "automobile fueled by gas".
1887 A.D. The National Cordage Company was formed in New Jersey, for the importation of Hemp and the manufacture and sale of cordage.
1889 A.D. NGR 4-6-2TT Havelock:
During the South African War the Havelock saw action while serving on armoured trains. Unlike usual practice in such cases, the engine was not equipped with armour plate protection, but was draped in strands of thick Hemp rope that covered it from front to back. This earned the locomotive the apt nickname "Hairy Mary" amongst the troops.
1890 A.D. Robert Charles Leslie's Old Sea Wings, Ways and Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp.
-Congress passed legislation giving federal sponsorship to an exposition to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World. The act had established a World's Columbian Exposition Commission to oversee the fair.
An undeveloped site of 686 acres (278 ha) on the shores of Lake Michigan was selected for the fairgrounds. The buildings were in the classical style, reflecting Greek and Roman influences and were composed of a combination of plaster of paris and Hemp called "staff" which resembled marble.
1890-1940's A.D. USDA Chief Botanist, Lyster Dewey, grows five varieties of Hemp at Arlington Farms in Virginia, the current site of the Pentagon.
1890's A.D. Popular American 'marriage guides' recommend Cannabis extracts for heightened marital pleasures. Women's temperance groups, lobbying for alcohol prohibition, suggest Cannabis as a suitable substitute for the 'demon drink'.
1893 A.D. The box kite was invented in 1893 by Lawrence Hargrave, an Englishman who emigrated to Australia, as part of his attempt to develop a manned flying machine. Hargrave linked several of his box kites (Hargrave cells) together, creating sufficient lift for him to fly some 16 ft (4.9 m) off the ground.
Before Dacron, Spectra and Kevlar were available, high performance box kites used oiled silk, linen or Hemp sails, and were flown with steel cable. Silk, linen and Hemp were used because they could be spun finer than cotton and stretched relatively little when wet.
-The National Cordage Company (the most actively traded stock at the time) went into receivership as a result of its bankers calling their loans in response to rumors regarding the NCC's financial distress.
The company, a rope manufacturer, had tried to corner the market for imported Hemp.
1894 A.D. Idries Shaw’s comments on the cupbearer and the cup’s miraculous qualities parallel the Grail myth immensely. Further examination of Shaw’s comments shed even more illumination on the subject. First, let us look at the name Khidr , which is also spelled Khizr. It is a Moslem name used in reference to the Biblical prophet Elijah. As J.M. Campbell recorded in his classic 1894 essay, “On the Religion of Hemp”.
1896 A.D. When Rudolph Diesel produced his famous engine in 1896, he assumed that the diesel engine would be powered by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils. Rudolph Diesel, like most engineers then, believed vegetable fuels were superior to petroleum. Hemp is the most efficient vegetable.
-In a diary kept by Lyster Dewey from 1896 to 1944: Dewey cultivated Hemp on a plot called Arlington Farms, which today is the site of the Pentagon.
1901-1937 A.D. U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts repeatedly that with the advent of machinery capable of harvesting, stripping and separating the Hemp fiber from the pulp, Hemp will again be America's "Number One" crop.
1905 A.D. The Galilee was a brigantine, built in 1891, designed by Matthew Turner. In 1905 she was chartered by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and converted into a magnetic observatory. She was used to make observations of Earth's magnetic field on three cruises over a period of three years from 1905 to 1908 in the Pacific Ocean.
The amount of magnetic materials on the ship was reduced to a minimum. The steel rigging was replaced by Hemp ropes and a new observation bridge was constructed to lift the observation point as far as possible above the remaining iron parts of the ship.
1907 A.D. Kings Theater, Southsea Hemp House
The theatre opened on 30 September 1907 with a production of Charles 1 followed by 2 further of Sir Henry Irving's Works.
Much of the backstage area is still fully manual, allowing it to retain the tag of a traditional Hemp house, though powered flying bars have now been installed to allow large scale productions.
-British mountain climber, magician and cabalist, Aleister Crowley , (1875-1947), was influenced by the experiences recorded in the writings that came out of Paris’s Hashish Club, as well as those of Rabelais .
" In order to keep this paper within limits, I may premise that the preparation and properties of Cannabis Indica can be studied in the proper pharmaceutical treatises, though, as this drug is more potent psychologically than physically, all strictly medical accounts of it, so far as I am aware, have been hitherto both meager and misleading. Deeper and clearer is the information to be gained from the brilliant studies by Baudelaire , unsurpassed for insight and impartiality, and Ludlow, tainted by admiration of de Quincey and the sentimentalists…. This was my hypothesis: Perhaps hashish is the drug which “loosens the girders of the soul,” but is in itself neither good nor bad. Perhaps, as Baudelaire thinks, “it merely exaggerates and distorts the natural man and his mood of the moment.” The whole of Ludlow’s wonderful introspection seemed to me to fortify this suggestion. Well, then, let me see whether by first exalting myself mystically and continuing my invocations while the drug dissolved the matrix of my diamond Soul, that diamond might not manifest limpid and sparkling, a radiance “not of the Sun, nor the Moon, nor the Stars;” and then, of course, I remembered that this ceremonial intoxication constitutes the supreme ritual of all religions."
A. Crowley, “The Psychology of Hashish”
1908 A.D. Rochester Opera House, located on the second floor of Rochester City Hall, originally opened on Memorial Day 1908.
Rochester Opera House is a Hemp house.
1916 A.D. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BULLETIN NO. 404 - HEMP HURDS AS PAPER-MAKING MATERIAL:
Authors: Lyster H. Dewey, Botanist in Charge of Fiber-Plant Investigations, and Jason L. Merrill, Paper-Plant Chemist, Paper-Plant Investigations.
"The most important point derived from this calculation is in regard to areas required for a sustained supply, which are in the ration of 4 to 1. Every tract of 10,000 acres which is devoted to Hemp raising year by year is equivalent to a sustained pulp-producing capacity of 40,500 acres of average pulp-wood lands."
1917 A.D. The creation of the Wisconsin Experiment Association in 1901 helped initiate the development of the Agronomy Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agriculture. Later it evolved into the Wisconsin Crop Improvement Association and led to the development of the County Order in 1908, the Hemp Order in 1917, the Sorghum Order in 1920 and the Alfalfa Order in 1911.
1918 A.D. Wisconsin, Madison. Bulletin #293
"Hemp has been grown in Wisconsin for ten years. It has been found that Hemp can be grown very successfully in the state, that the climate and certain soils of Wisconsin are particularly suited to the crop, and that the development of labor saving machinery has made the Hemp industry one of far reaching importance."
"Several hundred acres must be grown in a vicinity to make Hemp production profitable. Cooperative growing is necessary. The state Hemp association is stabilizing the industry in the state."
"Wisconsin is the second largest Hemp producing state in the Union. The principal centers of production are Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Dodge, and Racine Counties."
"Hemp fiber is a national necessity. In addition to its important use for wrapping cords of all kinds, it is now being used for such vital purposes as thread for sewing army shoes and harness, as caulking in battle ships, and for binder twine."
-USS Aniwa (ID-3146) was a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter that served in the United States Navy from 1918 to 1919.
Aniwa arrived off the mouth of the Dvina River on 11 October 1918 and ascended the river on 12 October 1918.
Unloading operations proceeded nearly without incident. However, on the afternoon of 23 October 1918, two Russian stevedores, obviously feeling the shortage of foodstuffs ashore, were caught trying to leave the ship with small quantities of Aniwa's cargo of flour. Then, on 5 November 1918, a sling broke, dropping a bale of Hemp on a Russian stevedore. Fortunately, he was not badly hurt and was soon on his way to a Russian hospital for treatment.
1920 A.D. To this point in time, U.S. Government papers were written, by law, on "Hempen rag paper".
1927 A.D. U.S.D.A. Yearbook of Agriculture:
Author Lyster H. Dewey, B.S., Botanist, in Charge Office of Fiber Plants, Bureau of Plant Industry
Pages: 358 - 361
HEMP VARIETIES OF IMPROVED TYPE ARE RESULT OF SELECTION
"Methods of Hemp selection devised in 1913 have been followed since with only slight modifications. The plots of different strains are placed as far apart as possible (40 rods or more) to avoid cross-pollination. The seed is sown early in April in drills 6 feet apart. The plants are cultivated as soon as the rows can be seen and about four times later. In June the plants are thinned to 10 to 15 inches apart in the drill. As soon as the staminate buds can be distinguished in August the plots are rogued. All plants of poor type are removed, and superfluous staminate plants are cut out. In September, when the plants have attained full size and the staminate plants have shed their pollen, notes and measurements are recorded for each pistillate plant as follows: Diameter, number of nodes and height to alternate branches (from which to compute length of internodes), total height, notes as to divergence from type. The tallest and best plants are tagged with their numbers and covered with a cheesecloth sack to protect the seeds from birds.
The plants are harvested late in October and the seed is threshed (beaten off) about a week later. The seed of each selected plant is cleaned separately by means of a small fanning mill. The seed from the other plants is cleaned and sent in small quantities to Hempseed growers. One pound, containing about 27,000 seeds, is sufficient to plant an acre of seed Hemp with hills 5 feet apart each way.
The selected individual plants are subjected to further competition based on length of internode, total height, and weight of seed, to determine which ones will be used for planting the following season. Each row in the selection plot is grown from the seed of an individual selected plant of the preceding year.
Kymington
The variety called Kymington (Kentucky-Minnesota-Washington, from the origin of the seed and places of development) is a result of successive individual selections from the progeny of the best single plant of Minnesota No. 8 grown in 1912. This mother plant was 10 feet 6 inches tall. The 311 plants in the initial plot of 1914, on clay loam upland at the Arlington Experiment Farm, averaged 9 feet 11 1/2 inches in height. (Fig. 105.) Each plant selected to furnish seed for the following year was taller than the mother plant of 1912. The average length of internodes in this initial plot was 4.37 inches. These measurements increased until 1923, when the average height was 16 feet 9 1/4 inches and the average length of internodes was 5.94 inches. (Fig. 106.) Since 1923 the measurements have declined somewhat, due in part to unfavorable soils and seasons, but in all instances the average measurements have been above those of the original plot, and in 1927 they were slightly better than in 1926.
This variety has been grown extensively by Kentucky Hempseed growers, some of whom have kept the seed pure.
Chington
The Chington (China-Washington) variety has been developed by successive individual selections from the progeny of a single plant in 1913. The seed was received from Hankow, China, through the Office of Foreign Plant Introduction and given the S.P.I. number 35251. It was planted in the testing garden, and unlike most of the numerous introductions of Hempseed, it gave promise of value. It averaged 5 feet 11 inches in height, and the best single plant from which seed was saved was 10 feet 6 inches tall. Seed from this best plant was sown at the Arlington farm in 1914, and the annual selection has been continued. This strain also reached its greatest development in 1923, when it averaged 16 feet 8 inches in height with internodes averaging 6 1/2 inches. A few plants attained a height of 20 feet. Since 1923 the measurements have declined a little, though remaining always above those of the mother plant of 1913 and the average of the initial plot of 1914. With the slight reduction there is greater uniformity.
The Chington variety has been grown extensively by Hempseed growers in Kentucky, and in some instances efforts have been made to keep it pure. Large fields of fiber Hemp sown with pure Chington seed are remarkably uniform and give good yields of excellent uniform fiber.
Ferramington
The Ferramington variety has been developed by successive selection from the progeny of a cross made in 1916. In that year a row of Ferrara, the best Hemp of northern Italy, was grown in the plot of Kymington, and all of the Ferrara staminate plants were removed before they shed any pollen. (Fig. 107.) Seed from the best Ferrara plants was saved, and this has been grown and selected at the experiment station at Madison, Wis. The cross was made for the purpose of combining the earliness and smaller diameter of stalks of the Italian Hemp with the greater height and longer internodes of Kymington. This result has been achieved after many years of selection to eliminate diverse types from the progeny of the cross.
This Ferramington has been tried in Wisconsin, where it gave a very good crop nearly two weeks earlier than the main Hemp harvest. It has also been tried near Bologna, Italy, where it produced fiber fully equal in quality to that of the Ferrara hemp grown in the same field, and about 1 foot longer.
Arlington
The Arlington variety is being developed by successive selection of individual plants from the progeny of a cross made in 1919 between Kymington as a pistillate parent and Chington as the staminate parent. It shows increased vigor both in growth and in production of seed, and the stalks are slender and more elastic than those of any of the other varieties. It is a little earlier than either of the parent varieties, both of which are later than most of the hemp from unselected Kentucky seed."
1929 A.D. Henry Ford begins extensive research into the production of methanol (as a fuel) and the manufacture of plastics from renewable vegetable crops, including Hemp.
1930 A.D. The Amerigo Vespucci, built in 1930 at the (formerly Royal) Naval Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia (Naples).
The three steel masts are 50, 54 and 43 metres high, and carry sails totalling 2824 m² (30400 ft²) The Amerigo Vespucci has 26 sails – square sails, staysails, and jibs: all are traditional canvas sails. When under sail in severe sea and wind conditions she can reach 12 knots (22 km/h). The rig, some 30 km of ropes, uses only traditional Hemp ropes; only the mooring lines are synthetic, to comply with port regulations.
1930's A.D. New machines invented to break Hemp, process the fibre, and convert pulp or hurds into paper, plastics, etc.
-Racist fears of Mexicans, Asians, and African Americans leads to outcry for Cannabis to be outlawed.
-The Ford Motor Company also saw a future in biomass fuels. Ford operated a successful biomass conversion plant that included Hemp at their Iron Mountain facility in Michigan. Ford engineers extracted methanol, charcoal fuel, tar, pitch, ethyl acetate, and creosote—all fundamental ingredients for modern industry, and now supplied by oil-related industries.
1931 A.D. Hemp uses:
Wrapping twines for heavy packages.
Mattress twine for sewing mattresses.
Spring twine for tying springs in overstuffed furniture and in box springs.
Sacking twine for sewing sacks containing sugar, wool, peanuts, stock feed, or fertilizer.
Bailing twine, similar to sacking twine, for sewing burlap covering on bales and packages.
Broom twines for sewing brooms.
Sewing twine for sewing cheesecloth for shade-grown tobacco.
Hop twine for holding up hop vines in hop yards.
Ham-strings for hanging up hams.
Tag twines for shipping tags.
Meter cord for tying diaphragms in gas meters.
Blocking cord used in blocking men's hats.
Webbing yarns which are woven into strong webbing.
Belting yarns to be woven into belts.
Mar-lines for binding the ends of ropes, cables, and hawsers to keep them from fraying.
Hemp packing or coarse yarn used in packing valve pumps.
Plumber's oakum, usually tarred, for packing the joints of pipes.
Marine oakum, also tarred, for calking the seams of ships and other water craft.
1935 A.D. 116 million pounds of Hemp seed are used commercially in America to manufacture paint and varnish.
1937 A.D. February issue of Mechanical Engineering includes the feature story "The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown" which tells about the new machines being used to harvest Hemp.
-4 million pounds of Hemp seed are sold retail as song-bird food in the U.S.A.
-An estimated 10 million aces of Hemp grows wild in the U.S.A. Providing an important food source for hundreds of millions of birds.
-Marijuana Tax Act forbids Hemp farming in the US. -Dupont files patent for nylon.
-Hemp seed was the #1 selling bird feed. 4 million pounds were sold in the U.S. that year alone.
-Until 1937, 70-90% of all rope and twine was made with Hemp.
-On the day the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act was enacted, Oct. 2, 1937, police raided the Lexington Hotel. Arresting Samuel R. Caldwell, 58, an unemployed labourer and Moses Baca, 26. On Oct. 5, Caldwell went into the history trivia books as the first Marijuana seller convicted under U.S. federal law. His customer, Baca, was found guilty of possession.
Caldwell was sentenced to four years of hard labour in Leavenworth Penitentiary, plus a $1,000 fine. Baca received 18 months incarceration. Both men served every day of their sentence. A year after Caldwell was released from prison, he died.
He was born on February 11, 1880. He was arrested on October 2, 1937, the same day that the Marihuana Tax Act was enacted. He was released from prison in 1940. Caldwell died on June 24, 1941
Caldwell’s crime was not buying the $1 stamp that was a tax levied on the purchase and sale of Marijuana. Apparently it was no legal defense that the stamp was not available. He was arrested the day the law was enacted as the stamps did not exist yet.
Caldwell's wares, two marijuana cigarettes, deeply offended Judge Foster Symes, who said:
"I consider marijuana the worst of all narcotics, far worse than the use of morphine or cocaine. Under its influence men become beasts. Marijuana destroys life itself. I have no sympathy with those who sell this weed. The government is going to enforce this new law to the letter."
1938 A.D. The February issue of Popular Mechanics runs a story titled: "New Billion Dollar Crop." It tells about the new machine for harvesting Hemp which "solves a problem more than 6,000 years old." It further states that increased Hemp production "will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products" and calls Hemp the "standard fiber of the world." Popular Mechanics goes on to say Hemp can "produce more than 25,000 products, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane." This is the first time ever in U.S. history the term 'billion-dollar' is applied to the potential for an agricultural harvest.
-Canada prohibits production of Hemp under Opium And Narcotics Control Act.
1940 A.D. Pinguin was a German auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) which served as a commerce raider in World War II. The Pinguin was known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 33, and designated HSK 5. The most successful commerce raider of the war, she was known to the British Royal Navy as Raider F.
On 12 September a freighter was spotted 330 miles east of the island.
The ship was identified as the British freighter Benavon on her way to London from Manila and Singapore with a cargo of Hemp, jute and rubber.
-A tonnage war is a military strategy aimed at merchant shipping. The premise is that an enemy has only a finite number of ships, and a finite capacity to build replacements for them.
The concept was made famous by U-boat commander Karl Dönitz, who wrote: The shipping of the enemy powers is one great whole. It is therefore in this connection immaterial where a ship is sunk—it must still in the final analysis be replaced by a new ship.
By concentrating available naval units forces near the major French ports, the Royal Navy was usually able to strangle French trade and create significant economic difficulties. Similarly, an enemy may focus on ships carrying strategically vital cargos such as Hemp and timber or, in modern times, oil and iron.
1941 A.D. December issue of Popular Mechanics features a story on Henry Ford. Showing a picture of the car he "grew from the soil." The automobile's "plastic panels with impact strength 10 times greater than steel were made from flax, wheat, Hemp, and spruce pulp." The auto weighed 1/3 less than its 100% steel contemporaries and was fueled by Hemp.
1942 A.D. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shut off foreign supplies of "manilla hemp" fiber from the Phillipines. Spurring World War II.
-U.S. government overrides its own ban on hemp and distributes 400,000 pounds of Hemp seed to U.S farmers who produce 42,000 tons of Hemp fiber annually to support the war effort until 1946.
-U.S. farmers, including youthful 4-H Club members, are inundated by "Uncle Sam" with incentives to grow Hemp. The U.S.D.A. makes it mandatory for farmers to attend showings of the "Hemp For Victory" film. Farmers and their sons who agree to grow Hemp are exempt from military service, even though America is at war.
-After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines cut off the supply of manila (Abaca) Hemp, the U.S. government distributed 400,000 pounds of Cannabis seeds to American farmers from Wisconsin to Kentucky, who produced 42,000 tons of Hemp fiber annually for the war effort until 1946.
1942–43 A.D. Farmers were made to attend showings of the USDA film Hemp for Victory, sign that they had seen the film and read a Hemp cultivation booklet.
-The U.S. government formed War Hemp Industries and subsidized Hemp cultivation during the War.
U.S. farmers grew about a million acres of Hemp across the midwest as part of that program.
1942-1945 A.D. Farmers who agreed to grow Hemp were waived from serving in the military, along with their sons. That's how vitally important Hemp was to America during World War II.
1942-1946 A.D. American farmers from Kentucky to Maine to Wisconsin harvest over 150,000 acres of Hemp through the USDA's Hemp for Victory program.
1955 A.D. Hemp farming again banned.
-Mayflower II is a replica of the 17th-century ship Mayflower, celebrated for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World.
The work drew from reconstructed ship blueprints held by the American museum with hand construction by English shipbuilders' using traditional methods.
Within a few details (electric lights added and ladder replaced with a lower-deck staircase), the ship is considered a faithful replica, with solid oak timbers, tarred Hemp rigging, and hand-coloured maps.
1957 A.D. Hemp is last grown in the U.S. due to government confusion over Hemp and drug varieties of the plant, while new government incentives for industry replace natural fibers with plastics, ultimately bankrupting key Hemp processors.
1961 A.D. The Canadian Narcotics Control Act (CNCA) allowed Cannabis to be grown, at the discretion of the Health Minister, for research purposes only.
1964 A.D. With the discovery of hundreds of acres of wild Hemp growing in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, authorities responded with a massive eradication campaign. However, the baby-boomers of the 60's responded to the "evil threat" in a very different manner to the previous generation. Groups of surfers and hippies flocked to the Hunter Region in search of the wild weed which was described in reports as "a powerful psychoactive aphrodisiac".
These groups became known as the Weed Raiders. Legendary characters, bearing tales of plants up to three metres tall.
1967 A.D. The Ngaio Marsh Theatre is a 400-seat proscenium-arch theatre housed within the University of Canterbury Students' Association building in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is named in honour of Dame Ngaio Marsh, who was a director and patron of
theatre, and indeed the theatre's opening production — Shakespeare's Twelfth Night — was directed by Marsh.
Technically, the theatre is well-equipped, with a Strand 520i lighting control desk and a Yamaha GA24/12 sound desk, and a good stock of lanterns. It is a Hemp or handline theatre, with the house tabs and three of the four on-stage lighting bars being winched, the house border, projection screen, mid-and up-stage tabs and cyclorama being on free-running counterweights, and all other bars on handlines.
-Sula Benet:
Born in Poland, Benet was fascinated with peasant culture of Poland since her early youth. This interest eventually led her to enroll as a student of literature and philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities in the University of Warsaw but graduated with a degree in anthropology. Upon receiving her degree in 1935, she attended graduate school at Columbia University, where she received her doctorate in 1944. Also at this time (1936) she first made known at a seminar in Warsaw her theory that Calamus in the Bible is Hemp.
According to Benet's research, Cannabis appears in ancient Hebrew texts spelled with the Hebrew letters: “Kuph, Nun, Hé Bet, Shin, Mem,” translated into western alphabetic forms as ¹aneh-bosm, kaneh-bosm or kineboisin. The book of Exodus records the event of Moses receiving the instructions for making and distributing the Hemp enriched holy oil, in the most auspicious tones.
"Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp" by Sula Benet
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of qaneh-bosm (Cannabis), 500 shekels of cassia-all according to the sanctuary shekel-and a hind of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil” (Exodus 30: 22-33).
1968 A.D. India: The specifications cover all the essential requirements of the manufacture of the Indian flag including sizes, dye colour, chromatic values, brightness, thread count and Hemp cordage.
The guidelines are covered under civil and criminal laws and defects in the manufacturing process can result in punishments that include fines or jail terms.
-Congress prohibited the cultivation of Cannabis-related crops, including Hemp, as part of anti-drug legislation, although Hemp does not have psychoactive properties.
1972 A.D. U.S.D.A. finds that Hemp seed is lower in saturated fats than any other vegetable oil (including soybean and canola).
-Other studies note that until this century Hemp-cake (the by-product of pressing the seed for oil ) was one of the world's principle animal feeds.
-It is also found that Hemp seed, like soybeans, can produce a tofu-like curd and be spiced to taste like chicken, steak or pork. Hemp can be sprouted for salads, ground into meal, and also made into margarine.
-Hemp seed is recommended as a nutritionally balanced food for domestic pets and farm animals.
1973 A.D. In 1973 tribes of hippies attended the Aquarius Festival in the Northern New South Wales town of Nimbin.
1974 A.D. Thomas Wolfe is a “Hemp Fly House”
1975 A.D. Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discover that Cannabis is incredibly successful for reducing the size of many types of tumors, both benign and cancerous.
1979 A.D. September: Robert Platshorn was the first marijuana dealer to be prosecuted under the so-called Kingpin Statute. A 1970 law that targets elaborate large-scale drug syndicates. He was sentenced to 64 years in prison, making him America’s longest serving marijuana prisoner.
The syndicate was eventually brought down by a joint FBI-DEA effort known as Operation Banco. The first joint effort between the two agencies.
Robert served the longest Drug War sentence to date of nearly 30 years.
Robert wrote the "Black Tuna Diaries" and was part of a film called "Square Grouper". He also was an integral part of "Should Grandma Smoke Pot". A film educating seniors as to the benefits of Medical Marijuana.
1982 A.D. HOSTOS CENTER FOR THE ARTS & CULTURE
Available line sets when using house drapes - 12 Line Sets including 1 Hemp Line.
1984-1999 A.D. The McGillicuddy Serious Party (McGSP) was a satirical political party in New Zealand in the late 20th century.
Between 1984 and 1999 it provided "colour" to ensure that citizens not take the political process too seriously.
Replacing the Queen's chain with Hemp:
The Labour Party had a policy of protecting and extending the Queen's chain (publicly accessible land bordering watercourses), forcing farmers and iwi to allow public access to waterways.
Candidate Dominic Worthington proposed replacing the chain with more environmentally sound Hemp; with the Queen, of course, replaced by Prince Geoffie the reluctant.
Rather than limiting the chain to protecting water in aqueous form, the King's Hemp would also serve to hold together water in solid form, as in the ice in glaciers and in the Ross Dependency. In particular, the Ross Ice Shelf, alleviating environmentalists' concerns that the ice shelf might collapse and raise sea-levels.
1985 A.D. Olympias is a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme and an important example of experimental archaeology.
The ship was built to drawings by the naval architect John F. Coates which he developed through long discussions with the historian J. S. Morrison following the longest correspondence on any subject in The Times of London in the early 1980's.
The work was also advised by the classics teacher Charles Willink and drew on evidence gained from Greek literature, history of art and archaeology above and below water.
The important hypozomata (bracing ropes) had to be replaced by a steel rope as neither natural fibre ropes nor synthetic fibre ropes with about the same elastic modulus as Hemp could be obtained.
1989 A.D. Garments containing Hemp fiber are available to the American public for the first time in over 50 years, however, this clothing must be imported to the U.S. from China (via Hong Kong) and carries a huge protective tariff.
1992 A.D. The Nimbin Hemp Embassy is a non-profit association that was established in 1992. The embassy's objectives are Cannabis law reform via an education program for the community about Hemp products and Cannabis and "promoting a more tolerant and compassionate attitude to people in general".
-Australia licences Hemp farming.
1993 A.D. England eases restriction on Hemp farming. News media declare Hemp clothes and Cannabis leaf logo hottest new fashion.
-MardiGrass is a Cannabis law reform rally and festival held annually in the town of Nimbin, in North East New South Wales, Australia.
After a decade of raids and arrests, and a particularly intensive recent period of random street searches, arrests, and rough treatment, a spontaneous demonstration erupted.
In March, the Nimbin police station had already been laid siege. Undercover police officers had been discovered buying Cannabis in the area. This enraged a small portion of the townsfolk to such an extent that they chased the police officers back to the police station and pelted them with eggs. Concerned about bad publicity some of the townsfolk decided to come up with a more peaceful form of protest that ordinary people could comfortably join.
On May 1st, people gathered by the local creek for the rally. There was only a small group at the start along with a giant joint made of a large sheet and other assorted household goods. The big joint acted as a giant magnet for the townsfolk. By the time they reached the police station they were, by most accounts, over a thousand strong.
Shortly after, backup arrived, but not before the media who began to broadcast images of the event to the country and world. The cops found themselves in the unenviable situation of not being able to act against the townsfolk.
Their intention is to hold a MardiGrass every year until prohibition ends.
1994 A.D. Under the CNCA, one license was granted to a Canadian company, Hempline Inc., to grow Hemp experimentally in Canada under the strict supervision of the authorities.
1996 A.D. On June 1st, Lee County was pushed into the National spotlight after actor & comedian Woody Harrelson made a trip to Lee County to protest Hemp production rights for farmers in The Commonwealth of Kentucky. Harrelson arrived in Lee County with his Attorney, his Agent and a camera crew from CNN. While at a local hotel Harrelson phoned then Lee County Sheriff Junior Kilburn to advise him of his intentions. Kilburn and Deputy Sheriff Danny Towsend arrived to the location where Harrelson told them he would be. While camera crews we're rolling Harrelson proceded plant 4 Hemp seeds in the ground all while Sheriff Kilburn was watching over his shoulder.
Once the seeds were planted, Sheriff Kilburn placed Harrelson under arrest on the charge of cultivating Marijuana. Harrelson was booked into the Lee County Jail later that day June 1st and quickly was released after posting $200 bail. After his release Harrelson would sign autographs and pose with a few deputies for pictures. On August 24th 2000 with the help of his attorney former Kentucky Governor Louie B. Nunn, Harrelson was acquitted of the charges after the jury deliberated for only 25 minutes.
-The Canadian federal government passed Bill C8 stating that mature Hemp stalks are exempt from the list of controlled substances.
1998 A.D. Phytotech, along with Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP) and the Ukraine's Institute of Bast Crops, planted industrial Hemp for the purpose of removing contaminants near the Chernobyl site.
-The U.S. begins to import food-grade Hemp seed and oil.
-The Canadian government legalizes the commercial growth of industrial Hemp.
-Industrial Hemp is used to make Hempcrete a material used for concrete block for building as well as other products.
The Oglala were denied their sovereign right to grow industrial Hemp by the Federal government of the United States.
After doing research and noting the worldwide market for Hemp, in July 1998, the Tribal Council approved 'industrial Hemp agriculture' for the reservation.
With demand high for the crop, three Lakota farmers, Tom Cook, his wife Afraid of Bear and American Horse grandson of Chief American Horse formed the Slim Butte Land-Use Association.
1999 A.D. Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism.
1999 A.D. U.S. Patent 6,630,507
Publication date Oct 7, 2003
Filing date Apr 21, 1999
This new found property makes Cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The Cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.
Non-psychoactive Cannabinoids, such as Cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive Cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.
2000 A.D. Louie Broady Nunn (March 8, 1924 – January 29, 2004) was the 52nd governor of Kentucky.
August 24th, Nunn secured an acquittal for actor Woody Harrelson, who came to Lee County, Kentucky, and planted Hemp seeds in open defiance of Kentucky's law forbidding the cultivation of Hemp.
In his later years, he supported the political ambitions of his son, Steve, and advocated for the legalization of industrial Hemp in Kentucky.
Nunn also became an advocate of legalizing industrial Hemp in Kentucky, writing, "Frankly, I was opposed to the legalization of Hemp for years because I had been of the opinion Hemp was Marijuana. I was short-sighted in my thinking, and I was wrong."
Later, he traveled to South Dakota where, at the base of Mount Rushmore, he publicly presented an Oglala Lakota leader with bales of Hemp after the tribe's crop was confiscated by officers from the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
-The law in the U.S. is enforced by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In August 2000 and July 2001, federal DEA agents destroyed industrial Hemp crops on the Pine Ridge reservation.
To emphasize the issue of Sioux sovereignty in land use, they publicly announced the first planting of industrial Hemp seeds on April 29, 2000, on the 132nd anniversary of the signing of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which established the reservation.
The Association believed production of industrial Hemp-based concrete could help solve the severe shortage of suitable dwellings on the reservation, as it is a sustainable construction material, and work for the unemployed.
Hemp can also be processed to yield oil for cooking and other products.
2000-2010 A.D. New processing technologies arise to commercialize "cottonized" Hemp, Hemp concrete, high-tech Hemp composites and other novel Hemp applications.
2004 A.D. Ninth Circuit Court decision in Hemp Industries Association vs. DEA permanently protects sales of Hemp foods and body care products in the U.S.
2005 A.D. A bill is introduced in the U.S. Congress for the first time to allow states to regulate Hemp farming, but to date no committee hearing or floor vote has taken place.
2006 A.D. After the raid destroyed his crops, the farmer Alex White Plume appealed a DEA court order that prohibited his growing the crop, but the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court ruling in United States v. White Plume, (8th Cir. 2006), that the Lakota had to comply with DEA registration process and get a permit to cultivate Hemp. The former crop is currently growing wild in the area.
2007 A.D. The first Hemp licenses in over 50 years are granted to two North Dakota farmers.
The North Dakota legislature has authorized Hemp growing statewide and issued the nation's first two state licenses to grow Hemp. The licensed farmers may face DEA legal problems if they do not acquire DEA permits. As the DEA had not yet acted on their requests, in June 2007 the men filed a lawsuit seeking federal court permission to grow the crop without being subject to federal criminal charges.
2008 A.D. Criss Angel Believe is a theatrical production of Cirque du Soleil and magician Criss Angel at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas, scheduled for 4,600 performances in the 1,600-capacity theater.
Mérédith Caron, costume designer, drew much inspiration from the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Victorian era. The fabrics chosen reflected the themes of desire, seduction, and dreams. The many materials for the characters include linen, cotton netting, crushed velvet, jute, Hemp, and crinyl.
2009 A.D. Friar received permission from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries for a pilot program to study the potential commercialisation of Hemp. Friar cultivated 500 Cannabis plants and suggested potential applications in the "textile and construction industries".
2010 A.D. 1st Annual Hemp History Week produces 200 events in 32 states exposing 100,000 people to Hemp and the cause.
-Hemp Industries Association uncovers diaries and photographs of the USDA's Chief Botanist Lyster Dewey, who grew 5 varieties of Hemp on the current site of the Pentagon.
-Rep. Ron Paul makes Congressional statement in support of Hemp History Week.
2011 A.D. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) introduces H.R. 1831, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act, in the House of Representatives.
2012 A.D. February 25, 2012, True Hemp Clothing International is founded in Miami, Florida.
-The new permanent exhibition space at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, which opened in 2012, has been designed by three internationally renowned designers with different cultural backgrounds.
Each architect has worked on a theme; Gringo Cardia (from Brazil) has worked on the theme of “defending human dignity”, Shigeru Ban (from Japan) on “refusing fatality” and Diébédo Francis Kéré on “reconstructing the family link”.
The dark entrance passage, bounded by Hemp concrete walls, encourages the visitor to consider the frightened and suffocating emotions of family tragedy during conflict. Central to this part of the exhibition is a tower, also made of Hemp concrete, which is an architectural reference to a traditional hut for a nuclear family.
-Fast Fiber Plastics and Hemp make for a strong, light, fuel-efficient body.
The Kestrel, a three-door hatchback, is made of a "Hemp composite as strong as the fiberglass in boats, yet incredibly lightweight," says Nathan Armstrong, the president of Motive industries, Kestrel's manufacturer.
Whereas a comparably sized Ford Fusion weighs 3,720 pounds, the Kestrel will be just 2,500 pounds with the battery.
To make this resilient, lightweight compound, Hemp stalks are combed and rolled into a mat that is infused with a polymer resin. the hemp makes the biocomposite's flexibility similar to the carbon fiber used in racecars.
-Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduces S. 3501, the Senate companion bill to H.R. 1831.
-October 30th Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
The Lime Tree Theatre is a brand new, state-of-the-art 510 seat theatre, situated in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick city centre.
The venue hosts a wide range of performances, including theatre, music, comedy, traditional arts, schools’ performances and conferences. As a large scale theatre, it will be a significant addition to the national cultural infrastructure and, most especially to the cultural, social and economic life of Limerick and the mid-west.
All ropes in this theatre are made of Hemp and it is probably the most intricate Hemp rope system ever made in world history.
2013 A.D. April 21, True Hemp Clothing International proclaims 4/21 International Hemp day to coincide with 4/20 Marijuana day and 4/22 Earth day.
-September 23, America's first (known) Hemp harvest in more than fifty years began in southeastern Colorado.
Farmer Ryan Loflin planted 55 acres of Marijuana's sober sister, Hemp. Advocates from across the country came to watch as Loflin and others harvested the first plants by hand.
-December 10, Uruguay First Country to legalize Marijuana Industry.
-The historic Freede Little Theatre offers seating for 286 and is the ideal venue for smaller-scale shows, recitals, movies and seminars. One of the last remaining Hemp houses in the United States.
-In recent years farmers have been producing alternative crops which are economically viable, and amongst these are organic farm crops. Hemp and wool from sheep are the main areas of fibre production of Canada.
-Dehradun is located in the Doon Valley on the foothills of the Himalayas nestled between two of India's mightiest rivers - the Ganges on the east and the Yamuna on the west.
Hemp is grown in great quantities in this region, so its yarn is frequently used as lining.
-Iran: Wheat, the most important crop, is grown mainly in the west and northwest. Rice is the major crop in the Caspian region. Other crops include barley, corn, cotton, sugar beets, tea, Hemp, tobacco, fruits, potatoes, legumes (beans and lentils), vegetables, fodder plants (alfalfa and clover), almonds, walnuts and spices including cumin and sumac.
-MALANA, HIMACHAL PRADESH, India: Cannabis is their only crop.
-Hmong people originate from the high steppes of Mongolia and Tibet. They migrated from China to Laos between 1810 and 1900.
Hmong women are renowned for their embroidery and weaving. Traditionally clothes are made from Hemp and cotton.
-Nepal's exports of mainly carpets, clothing, Hemp natural fiber, leather goods, jute goods and grain total $822 million.
2014 A.D. January 1st, Colorado:
The first legal, recreational sale of Marijuana in the history of the United States. No Cannabis related deaths, arrests or violence are reported. Colorado makes over one million dollars on the first day of legal sales.
Countries Growing Industrial Hemp Today
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not recognize the value of industrial Hemp and permit its production. Below is a list of other countries that are more rational when it comes to Hemp policy.
AUSTRALIA began research trials in Tasmania in 1995. Victoria commercial production since 1998. New South Wales has research. In 2002, Queensland began production. Western Australia licensed crops in 2004.
AUSTRIA has a Hemp industry including production of Hemp seed oil, medicinals and Hanf magazine.
CANADA started to license research crops in 1994. In addition to crops for fiber, one seed crop was licensed in 1995. Many acres were planted in 1997. Licenses for commercial agriculture saw thousands of acres planted in 1998. 30,000 acres were planted in 1999. In 2000, due to speculative investing, 12,250 acres were sown. In 2001, 92 farmers grew 3,250 acres. A number of Canadian farmers are now growing organically-certified hemp crops (6,000 acres in 2003 and 8,500 acres in 2004, yielding almost four million pounds of seed).
CHILE has grown Hemp in the recent past for seed oil production.
CHINA is the largest exporter of Hemp textiles. The fabrics are of excellent quality. Medium density fiber board is also now available. The Chinese word for Hemp is "ma."
DENMARK planted its first modern Hemp trial crops in 1997. The country is committed to utilizing organic methods.
FINLAND had a resurgence of hemp in 1995 with several small test plots. A seed variety for northern climates was developed called Finola, previously known by the breeder code "FIN-314." In 2003, Finola was accepted to the EU list of subsidized Hemp cultivars. Hemp has never been prohibited in Finland. The Finnish word for Hemp is "hamppu."
FRANCE has never prohibited hemp and harvested 10,000 tons of fiber in 1994. France is a source of low-THC-producing Hemp seed for other countries. France exports high quality hemp oil to the U.S. The French word for Hemp is "chanvre."
GERMANY banned Hemp in 1982, but research began again in 1992, and many technologies and products are now being developed, as the ban was lifted on growing Hemp in November, 1995. Food, clothes and paper are also being made from imported raw materials. Mercedes and BMW use hemp fiber for composites in door panels, dashboards, etc. The German word for Hemp is "hanf."
GREAT BRITAIN lifted Hemp prohibition in 1993. Animal bedding, paper and textiles markets have been developed. A government grant was given to develop new markets for natural fibers. 4,000 acres were grown in 1994. Subsidies of 230 British pounds per acre are given by the government to farmers for growing Hemp.
HUNGARY is rebuilding their Hemp industry, and is one of the biggest exporters of Hemp cordage, rugs and fabric to the U.S. They also export Hemp seed, paper and fiberboard. The Hungarian word for Hemp is "kender."
INDIA has stands of naturalized Cannabis and uses it for cordage, textiles and seed.
ITALY has invested in the resurgence of Hemp, especially for textile production. 1,000 acres were planted for fiber in 2002. Giorgio Armani grows its own Hemp for specialized textiles.
JAPAN has a rich religious tradition involving Hemp, and custom requires that the Emperor and Shinto priests wear Hemp garments in certain ceremonies, so there are small plots maintained for these purposes. Traditional spice mixes also include Hemp seed. Japan supports a thriving retail market for a variety of Hemp products. The Japanese word for Hemp is "asa."
NETHERLANDS is conducting a four-year study to evaluate and test hemp for paper, and is developing specialized processing equipment. Seed breeders are developing new strains of low-THC varieties. The Dutch word for Hemp is "hennep."
NEW ZEALAND started Hemp trials in 2001. Various cultivars are being planted in the north and south islands.
POLAND currently grows Hemp for fabric and cordage and manufactures Hemp particle board. They have demonstrated the benefits of using Hemp to cleanse soils contaminated by heavy metals. The Polish word for Hemp is "konopij."
ROMANIA is the largest commercial producer of Hemp in Europe. 1993 acreage was 40,000 acres. Some of it is exported to Hungary for processing. They also export Hemp to Western Europe and the U.S. The Romanian word for Hemp is "cinepa."
RUSSIA maintains the largest Hemp germplasm collection in the world at the N.I. Vavilov Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in St. Petersburg. They are in need of funding to maintain and support the collection. The Russian word for Hemp is "konoplya."
SLOVENIA grows Hemp and manufactures currency paper.
SPAIN has never prohibited Hemp, produces rope and textiles, and exports hemp pulp for paper. The Spanish word for Hemp is "cañamo."
SWITZERLAND is a producer of Hemp and hosts one of the largest Hemp trade events, Cannatrade.
TURKEY has grown Hemp for 2,800 years for rope, caulking, birdseed, paper and fuel. The Turkish word for Hemp is "kendir."
UKRAINE, EGYPT, KOREA, PORTUGAL, and THAILAND also produce Hemp.
The UNITED STATES granted the first Hemp permit in over 40 years to Hawaii for an experimental quarter-acre plot in 1999. The license was renewed, but the project has since been closed due to DEA stalling tactics and related funding problems. Importers and manufacturers have thrived using imported raw materials. 22 states have introduced legislation, including VT, HI, ND, MT, MN, IL, VA, NM, CA, AR, KY, MD, WV and ME. Addressing support, research or cultivation with bills or resolutions. The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) has endorsed industrial Hemp for years.
AUSTRALIA began research trials in Tasmania in 1995. Victoria commercial production since 1998. New South Wales has research. In 2002, Queensland began production. Western Australia licensed crops in 2004.
AUSTRIA has a Hemp industry including production of Hemp seed oil, medicinals and Hanf magazine.
CANADA started to license research crops in 1994. In addition to crops for fiber, one seed crop was licensed in 1995. Many acres were planted in 1997. Licenses for commercial agriculture saw thousands of acres planted in 1998. 30,000 acres were planted in 1999. In 2000, due to speculative investing, 12,250 acres were sown. In 2001, 92 farmers grew 3,250 acres. A number of Canadian farmers are now growing organically-certified hemp crops (6,000 acres in 2003 and 8,500 acres in 2004, yielding almost four million pounds of seed).
CHILE has grown Hemp in the recent past for seed oil production.
CHINA is the largest exporter of Hemp textiles. The fabrics are of excellent quality. Medium density fiber board is also now available. The Chinese word for Hemp is "ma."
DENMARK planted its first modern Hemp trial crops in 1997. The country is committed to utilizing organic methods.
FINLAND had a resurgence of hemp in 1995 with several small test plots. A seed variety for northern climates was developed called Finola, previously known by the breeder code "FIN-314." In 2003, Finola was accepted to the EU list of subsidized Hemp cultivars. Hemp has never been prohibited in Finland. The Finnish word for Hemp is "hamppu."
FRANCE has never prohibited hemp and harvested 10,000 tons of fiber in 1994. France is a source of low-THC-producing Hemp seed for other countries. France exports high quality hemp oil to the U.S. The French word for Hemp is "chanvre."
GERMANY banned Hemp in 1982, but research began again in 1992, and many technologies and products are now being developed, as the ban was lifted on growing Hemp in November, 1995. Food, clothes and paper are also being made from imported raw materials. Mercedes and BMW use hemp fiber for composites in door panels, dashboards, etc. The German word for Hemp is "hanf."
GREAT BRITAIN lifted Hemp prohibition in 1993. Animal bedding, paper and textiles markets have been developed. A government grant was given to develop new markets for natural fibers. 4,000 acres were grown in 1994. Subsidies of 230 British pounds per acre are given by the government to farmers for growing Hemp.
HUNGARY is rebuilding their Hemp industry, and is one of the biggest exporters of Hemp cordage, rugs and fabric to the U.S. They also export Hemp seed, paper and fiberboard. The Hungarian word for Hemp is "kender."
INDIA has stands of naturalized Cannabis and uses it for cordage, textiles and seed.
ITALY has invested in the resurgence of Hemp, especially for textile production. 1,000 acres were planted for fiber in 2002. Giorgio Armani grows its own Hemp for specialized textiles.
JAPAN has a rich religious tradition involving Hemp, and custom requires that the Emperor and Shinto priests wear Hemp garments in certain ceremonies, so there are small plots maintained for these purposes. Traditional spice mixes also include Hemp seed. Japan supports a thriving retail market for a variety of Hemp products. The Japanese word for Hemp is "asa."
NETHERLANDS is conducting a four-year study to evaluate and test hemp for paper, and is developing specialized processing equipment. Seed breeders are developing new strains of low-THC varieties. The Dutch word for Hemp is "hennep."
NEW ZEALAND started Hemp trials in 2001. Various cultivars are being planted in the north and south islands.
POLAND currently grows Hemp for fabric and cordage and manufactures Hemp particle board. They have demonstrated the benefits of using Hemp to cleanse soils contaminated by heavy metals. The Polish word for Hemp is "konopij."
ROMANIA is the largest commercial producer of Hemp in Europe. 1993 acreage was 40,000 acres. Some of it is exported to Hungary for processing. They also export Hemp to Western Europe and the U.S. The Romanian word for Hemp is "cinepa."
RUSSIA maintains the largest Hemp germplasm collection in the world at the N.I. Vavilov Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in St. Petersburg. They are in need of funding to maintain and support the collection. The Russian word for Hemp is "konoplya."
SLOVENIA grows Hemp and manufactures currency paper.
SPAIN has never prohibited Hemp, produces rope and textiles, and exports hemp pulp for paper. The Spanish word for Hemp is "cañamo."
SWITZERLAND is a producer of Hemp and hosts one of the largest Hemp trade events, Cannatrade.
TURKEY has grown Hemp for 2,800 years for rope, caulking, birdseed, paper and fuel. The Turkish word for Hemp is "kendir."
UKRAINE, EGYPT, KOREA, PORTUGAL, and THAILAND also produce Hemp.
The UNITED STATES granted the first Hemp permit in over 40 years to Hawaii for an experimental quarter-acre plot in 1999. The license was renewed, but the project has since been closed due to DEA stalling tactics and related funding problems. Importers and manufacturers have thrived using imported raw materials. 22 states have introduced legislation, including VT, HI, ND, MT, MN, IL, VA, NM, CA, AR, KY, MD, WV and ME. Addressing support, research or cultivation with bills or resolutions. The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) has endorsed industrial Hemp for years.
Bibliography
LIFE
Google
Youtube
Wikipedia
Ed Rosenthal "Hemp Today"
Jach Herer http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/
Chris Conrad "Hemp: Lifeline to the Future"
Jack Frazier "The Great American Hemp Industry"
Hemptech "Industrial Hemp" and "Hemp Horizons"
http://www.hemp-sisters.com/Information/history.htm
Youtube
Wikipedia
Ed Rosenthal "Hemp Today"
Jach Herer http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/
Chris Conrad "Hemp: Lifeline to the Future"
Jack Frazier "The Great American Hemp Industry"
Hemptech "Industrial Hemp" and "Hemp Horizons"
http://www.hemp-sisters.com/Information/history.htm