Chapter IV: A Rich Field For Work In The Textile Plants. P. 108 [Hemp exerts ]

"Flax in America [2 1/4 million acres], is usually grown for the seed only, as the high cost of labor makes competition with the foreign product difficult.

Contrariwise the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa), a plant belonging to the mulberry family and distantly related to the hop, which resembles the flax only in the fact that it produces a tough and resistant fiber that may be used for textile purposes, is cultivated in this country exclusively for the fiber, its seed being almost altogether neglected. Yet the seed of this plant is prized in other countries for its oil, and its neglect here illustrates the same principle of wasteful use of our agricultural resources.

Hemp, however, is not very extensively grown, being chiefly confined to regions of the bluegrass country centering about Kentucky and Tennessee. Its fiber is coarse, and is used chiefly for making cordage and warp for carpets. At best the cultivation of hemp does not constitute an important industry in the general scale of American agriculture."

P.117: Color plate: Hemp Plants. Picture text: Hemp is grown in America chiefly for its coarse fiber, used in making ropes, cordage, and warp for carpet. Its seed is little utilized, although it makes a valuable oil.

P. 7: Crop Acreage Circa 1914 in the U.S.: Corn-106,884,000 acres, Tobacco-1,144,500 acres, Wheat-18,633,000 acres, Potatoes-3,655,000 acres, Flax-2,250,000 acres, Hemp-no figure given.

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CANNABIS: (kan -ah-bis). A genus of annual Asiatic herbs cultivated for centuries and in all parts of the world for their fibre, hemp. In the Far East they are also cultivated as a source of the narcotic drug, hashish; and in this country small patches are sometimes grown, surreptitiously and illegally, for the same purpose, under the name "mariahuana" or "mariahuana-weed." The single species (C. Sativa) has numerous forms that have been given different names. Some of these are occasionally grown in gardens as ornamental screen or background plants. Requiring no special care or soil conditions , beyond a good supply of humus and moisture, they are raised from seed sown in spring outdoors or, earlier, in flats. The most common type, known as C. gigantea, may attain 10 ft. or more.

HEMP: An annual herb belonging to the Mulberry Family, native to central Asia and the N. W. Himalayas, and naturalized in E. N. America. Grown commercially in Wis., Ill., and Ky., for the fibre contained in its inner bark, it is also sometimes cultivated in gardens as an ornamental. There is but one species, Cannabis sativa, but several variations have received specific names -as C. gigantea, the tall strain usually grown in gardens, reaching a height of 10 feet; and C. indica, which grown in torrid climates yields the narcotic drug cannabis (probably the same as the Mexican "marihuana").

Hemp requires a soil rich in humus and well supplied with moisture. The seeds are sown about 2 in. deep where the plants are to stand in April.

Other plants yielding fibre to which the name hemp has been given are: Bowstring-hemp, which is Sanseveria; Manila-hemp or Abaca, which is Musa textilis, a species of banana; Sisal-hemp, which is Agave sisalana; and Indian-hemp, which is Apocynum cannabinum.

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Hemp references from: THE BOOK OF FINE LINEN, By Françoise de Bonneville, 1994. Flammarion , Paris, France.

Page 70: "For in trying to recount the origins of linen and fabrics, the storyteller confronts the irreparable damage of time. Textiles are the most perishable of materials, and so from the Neolithic Age (when archaeologists think mankind first began to weave flax and hemp) to the end of the Middle Ages, the history of fabrics is recorded on just a few shreds of cloth whose exact features are difficult to determine."

Page 70: "...from the thirteenth century onwards...documents known as death inventories... provide an incomplete picture, yet it permits an assessment of the quantity and type of items found in the linen chests of medieval kings and nobility, and later of the rich bourgeoisie. For it should be obvious that only the linen of the rich was preserved. That belonging to the poor-scant, dirty, worn, and generally made of hemp- did not last long enough to be bequeathed."

Page 70: "From the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century, the most commonly used fiber was flax, followed by a significant amount of the less costly hemp."

Page 74: "The seam down the middle of this hemp-and-linen bottom sheet (right {picture}) is an admirable piece of workmanship. Here we see the back of the seam, the front being nearly invisible. Such sheets only disappeared, along with traditional trousseaux, in the late 1930's."

Page 74: "Starting around 1322...The finest sheets were of linen, most were of hemp, and the poorest woven from tow, scrap hemp, or flax combings."

Page 76: "...up to the end of the seventeenth century, sheets were generally made from linen or hemp. Historians, citing the fact that the founding of the hemp-weavers guild long predated that of the linen-weavers, believe that hemp was far more common than linen until the late fourteenth century."

Page 76: "In the hierarchy of textiles, linen and hemp cloth were followed by fabrics made from tow (hemp) and canvas (hemp), theoretically aimed at modest folk. The finest linen fabrics were always identified by their place of origin. In the fifteenth century, the accounts of Rene of Anjou, the celebrated poet-king, mention the purchase of ‘LXXXII (82) rods of linen from Hainault to make sheets to cover the beds’ and for ‘the garden house-hold, thirty-one sheets of hemp, each of two breadths’."

Page 84: "During the nineteenth century, the linen in homes piled ever higher. A rich town-dweller’s trousseau at the turn of the century might include 96 sheets for family use and 60 sheets for the servants. But the growing stack of linen were not only found in the cities, they were also accumulated in country cupboards. Some historians see this oversupply as a way of absorbing local production of flax and hemp, for want of broader markets."

Page 124: "The two heirloom dish towels (preceding page {pictured}) are examples of home-woven linen formerly produced in rural France. They bear the traditional decoration of red bands and cross-stitched initials. The one marked HV is of pure hemp, while the one marked VR is a hemp-and-linen blend."

Page 124: "Hemp, or Cannabis sativa, (left {pictured}) has long been appreciated not only for its narcotic properties, but also for the oil from its seed and the textile fibers from its stalk. As raw material for textiles, hemp is grown in Europe from the northern Baltic region to southern Italy."

Page 124: "French philosopher Michel Serres wrote in Les Cinq Sens (The Five Senses: ‘Prior to form, prior to color or hue, the material must be touched. Skin, pillowcase, smooth or rough...prior to the gaze, the grain’."

"Fabrics appeal to the sense of touch. Hemp is reputed to be coarse, linen cool yet alive, cotton is soft and warm, silk smooth and velvety. The universal language of fabrics has been spoken at all times, in all places, among every group of people, regardless of the raw material available to them. Fabrics are present every moment of the day and night; they witness life’s most intimate scenes, thereby weaving a very special relationship with each individual.

Fabrics cover and warm. Touching and feeling them is reassuring, as children demonstrate when they choose bits of soft, often ragged material to clutch and stroke as they fall asleep.

The invention of fabrics dates from the dawn of civilization, probably as a result of braiding plant fibers to make nets, ropes, baskets, and wicker objects. The actual weaving of fabrics appeared nearly everywhere in the world during, or just prior to, the third millennium B.C. But of the approximately seven hundred fibrous plants that could have been spun into thread, only half a dozen were commonly employed: cotton, flax, hemp, jute, sisal, and ramie...

The current vogue for ecology has led to attempts to revive the use of hemp and ramie in the production of fabrics with new textures, especially for the making of tablecloths...

For centuries, however, the standard plants used for household linen were hemp and flax, until cotton (pure or blended with synthetic fibers) finally took the lead."

Page 124: "HEMP AND FLAX"

While recent fashion has tried to re-establish hemp’s pedigree, the plant is no longer grown in Europe for textile purposes, although hemp fibers are still used for manufacturing paper pulp and hemp seed serves as livestock fodder. Coarse dish towels, bath linen, and bed sheets, which were rough on the skin, disappeared from the bridal trousseaux long ago. That explains why even specialist boutiques offer very little antique household linen made from hemp.

The first use of hemp probably dates all the way back to the third millennium B.C., somewhere in central Asia. Despite its notorious reputation for coarseness, Herodotus noted that skillful Scythians and Thracians in the fifth century B.C. were able to weave fine cloth from hemp: ‘Someone without great experience would not recognize whether they were of hemp or linen, and whoever has not yet seen hemp cloth would think the garments were of linen.’

In medieval Europe, hemp was used to make underclothing and household linen, as well as rope (rope-making was the only trade that lepers in Brittany were allowed to practice).

Brownish-gray in color, thicker and coarser than linen when new, hemp cloth was often preferred by religious communities and, due to its much lower cost, by the poor. An anecdote asserts that Marie de Medici kept two hemp blouses among her magnificently rich trousseau-perhaps for doing penance. However, anyone lucky enough to touch a length of aged, well-used hemp cloth is amazed by the extreme softness and substantial drape of the fabric, which is similar to that of heavy flannel.

Throughout history hemp was used more widely in the countryside than in towns, since every farm had its field of hemp (and perhaps another of flax) designed to meet the daily household fabric requirements and to supply part of the daughters’ bridal trousseaux."

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