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Uses of Marijuana
Hemp is a very useful plant. The reason why it is illegal today seems an easy question to answer, right? Because of the effects that it causes on the brain and body. Right? Wrong! The reasons why hemp was made illegal were reasons that the public were never exposed to. Before 1883 about seventy-five to ninety percent of the world's paper was manufactured from hemp bast fiber. The United States Department of Agriculture first proposed making paper from hemp pulp in the early 1930's. Although production had to wait until someone invented a machine that would separate the hemp pulp from the fiber cheaply. Meanwhile, Dupont Chemicals, Hearst Paper and Timber, and several other companies had developed a new way to make whiter paper out of trees. Just when they got all their patents and business going in 1936, someone invented the hemp 'decorticating' machine. This threatened to put all the tree companies out of business, because of the fact that hemp paper is cheaper to make. A huge sum of capital was tied up in making tree pulp paper and shipping it for sale. Most of the tree-paper companies were very powerful and had many connections with the government. So in 1937, they launched a country-wide campaign to put a prohibitive tax on hemp. This was the first 'Reefer Madness Movement' and when we began to call cannabis-"Marijuana". At that time no one knew that marijuana was really cannabis hemp. The only knowledge about hemp that the public knew had been obtained from the many fabricated stories. All the public knew was that it was "the killer weed with roots in hell", because of the supposedly harmful effects that it had on the human body and mind, which by the way have all been reaserched again in depth and the previous conclusions of the effects of marijuana on the human body and mind, have all been disproven. Because of this most American's did not know where their clothes used to come from because synthetic fabrics had just becom popular. The first Levi's blue jeans were made from the hemp plant. I will including the following information in my paper; the many useful uses of hemp as a perspective product for the future, products such as; fiber, rope and twine, canvas, cloth and cotton, how it can replace our dependence on our forests for our paper products, and finally how easily it can be cultivated.
First of all, hemp has been used since pre-history for many purposes. Industrial hemp means those parts of the cannabis sativa plant which contains less than 1.00 percent tetrahydrocannabinols (THC). THC is the psychoactive chemical found in cannabis sativa. Do not confuse industrial hemp with marijuana. Marijuana comes from the flowers of the cannabis sativa plant and contains more than 1.00 percent THC. Industrial hemp has no psychoactive properties. Industrial hemp can be grown as a profitable, high-quality fiber crop without producing marijuana. Registered seed varieties that produce hemp containing less than 0.3 percent THC even in flowers are available throughout Europe. Farmers in the European Community have been growing hemp for over twenty years without any problems related to marijuana. In 1993, England began to produce hemp for fiber. In 1994, Canada harvested its first crop of industrial hemp after more than fifty years of prohibition. The decorticator began getting wide attention and it was to hemp what the cotton gin was to cotton. The invention prompted a 1937 Popular Mechanics magazine to call hemp the "New Billion Dollar Crop" and Mechanical Engineering magazine to call it "The Most Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown."
First of all, fiber is the most well known product. It can be used for rope of twine, which is made from the plant as well as the stalk. Hemp rope has been valued for its resistance to deteriation in salt or fresh water.
Secondly, cannabis is the most durable of the hemp plants. It produces the toughest cloth, called canvas, which has been used widely in the making of sails. It was the only cloth that was found to resist rotting when coming in contact with water. "Hemp was responsible for ninety percent of ship's sails before the nine-teenth century. Hemp canvas was also the art canvas of choice of many of the greatest painters, including Rembrant and Van Gogh. Notable other places hemp canvas could be found would be the covers on the covered wagons during the colonization of the Western U.S." (Diamond)
Thirdly, other textiles that can be made from the hemp plant are; tents, linens, rugs, drapes, quilts, bedsheets, towels, diapers, flags, etc. Hemp is softer than cotton, warmer than cotton, more water-absorbant than cotton, has three times the tensile strength of cotton, and it is much more durable than cotton. Hemp cloth does not stretch out. One half of the pesticides used in the entire U.S. are used on cotton. Cotton is a soil damaging crop and needs a lot of fertilizer.
Fourthly, the fiber or bast and the pulp or hurd of the hemp plant can be used to make paper. The hemp stalk is composed of eighty percent hurds. The hurds are the woody inner portion of the hemp stalk that are separated from the hemp fiber. The hurds are fifty to seventy-seven percent cellulose, which makes them ideal for the use in making paper. Pulp paper is softer than fiber paper. The pulp paper works like glue, holding small bits of fiber together. Sometimes fiber is added to pulp paper to add strength. One acre of cannabis hemp can replace four acres of forest, in the pulp production. In order to make paper out of tree pulp, we need to break down a substance called 'lignin'. In order to do this, we must soak the pulp in powerful acid, which contaminates the environment. Also the paper is often whitened with chemicals which are also dangerous to the environment. Hemp pulp does not contain lignin and whitens with much less difficulty. Today only four percent of America's "old-growth" forest remains standing. We are running out of our trees, so why not find an alternative? Paper made from hemp is known as the "archivist's perfect paper" because it lasts much longer than tree pulp paper and does not harden, crack, yellow, or crumble with age. Hemp fiber can be used to make every grade of paper.
Finally, how easy hemp is to cultivate. First of all the stalk is harvested for the fiber and hurds. The center of the stalk is hollow except at the nodes (where the leaves are attached) and in the best fiber producing types the hollow space occupies at least one-half the diameter. The innermost layer or pith is surronded by thick, short woody cells which support the plant during its growth. The woody core is referred to as the hurds. There are three types of fibre: primary bast fibres which are long and low in lignin, secondary bast fibres which are intermediate length and high in lignin content, and libriform fibers which are short and high in lignin. Fibre length and the contents of cellulose and lignin are important qualities when producing products in the cordage, textile, paper, and fibreboard industries. Hemp grows best in a humid environment, when the temperature ranges between fourteen and twenty-seven celcius, but it can endure greater temperature variations. Hemp grows best when there is plenty of rainfall, especially during the first six weeks. Although it hastens maturity, when rooted it can endure dry conditions. Although when under going dry circumstances the plant has dwarf growth and reduces yields. Hemp is usually planted between early March and late May in the northern latitudes when the temperature is around ten degrees celcius. Seedlings can survive a short frost of negative eight to negative ten degrees celcius. Older plants can tolerate frosts of negative five to negative six degrees celcius. Earlier plantings produce better crops.
The optimum seeding depth is two to four centimeters(cm). The rows are usually six to fifteen cm. The proportion of stem biomass and the content of the more valuable bast fibres in the stem increases with plant density, therefore dense crops are usually more desired. The seedings rates for fibre hemp varys between fourty and one-hundred and fifty kilograms per hectare (kg/ha). If the hemp is grown as a seed source then the seeding density ranges from one to twenty-four kg/ha, which is five to one-hundred and twenty plants per square meter. Unless the plant densities are very low, which is ten to thirty plants per square meter, the hemp crop wil smother and kill weeds, therefore herbicides are not required.
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Hemp is a very useful plant. The reason why it is illegal today seems an easy question to answer, right? Because of the effects that it causes on the brain and body. Right? Wrong! The reasons why hemp was made illegal were reasons that the public were never exposed to. Before 1883 about seventy-five to ninety percent of the world's paper was manufactured from hemp bast fiber. The United States Department of Agriculture first proposed making paper from hemp pulp in the early 1930's. Although production had to wait until someone invented a machine that would separate the hemp pulp from the fiber cheaply. Meanwhile, Dupont Chemicals, Hearst Paper and Timber, and several other companies had developed a new way to make whiter paper out of trees. Just when they got all their patents and business going in 1936, someone invented the hemp 'decorticating' machine. This threatened to put all the tree companies out of business, because of the fact that hemp paper is cheaper to make. A huge sum of capital was tied up in making tree pulp paper and shipping it for sale. Most of the tree-paper companies were very powerful and had many connections with the government. So in 1937, they launched a country-wide campaign to put a prohibitive tax on hemp. This was the first 'Reefer Madness Movement' and when we began to call cannabis-"Marijuana". At that time no one knew that marijuana was really cannabis hemp. The only knowledge about hemp that the public knew had been obtained from the many fabricated stories. All the public knew was that it was "the killer weed with roots in hell", because of the supposedly harmful effects that it had on the human body and mind, which by the way have all been reaserched again in depth and the previous conclusions of the effects of marijuana on the human body and mind, have all been disproven. Because of this most American's did not know where their clothes used to come from because synthetic fabrics had just becom popular. The first Levi's blue jeans were made from the hemp plant. I will including the following information in my paper; the many useful uses of hemp as a perspective product for the future, products such as; fiber, rope and twine, canvas, cloth and cotton, how it can replace our dependence on our forests for our paper products, and finally how easily it can be cultivated.
First of all, hemp has been used since pre-history for many purposes. Industrial hemp means those parts of the cannabis sativa plant which contains less than 1.00 percent tetrahydrocannabinols (THC). THC is the psychoactive chemical found in cannabis sativa. Do not confuse industrial hemp with marijuana. Marijuana comes from the flowers of the cannabis sativa plant and contains more than 1.00 percent THC. Industrial hemp has no psychoactive properties. Industrial hemp can be grown as a profitable, high-quality fiber crop without producing marijuana. Registered seed varieties that produce hemp containing less than 0.3 percent THC even in flowers are available throughout Europe. Farmers in the European Community have been growing hemp for over twenty years without any problems related to marijuana. In 1993, England began to produce hemp for fiber. In 1994, Canada harvested its first crop of industrial hemp after more than fifty years of prohibition. The decorticator began getting wide attention and it was to hemp what the cotton gin was to cotton. The invention prompted a 1937 Popular Mechanics magazine to call hemp the "New Billion Dollar Crop" and Mechanical Engineering magazine to call it "The Most Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown."
First of all, fiber is the most well known product. It can be used for rope of twine, which is made from the plant as well as the stalk. Hemp rope has been valued for its resistance to deteriation in salt or fresh water.
Secondly, cannabis is the most durable of the hemp plants. It produces the toughest cloth, called canvas, which has been used widely in the making of sails. It was the only cloth that was found to resist rotting when coming in contact with water. "Hemp was responsible for ninety percent of ship's sails before the nine-teenth century. Hemp canvas was also the art canvas of choice of many of the greatest painters, including Rembrant and Van Gogh. Notable other places hemp canvas could be found would be the covers on the covered wagons during the colonization of the Western U.S." (Diamond)
Thirdly, other textiles that can be made from the hemp plant are; tents, linens, rugs, drapes, quilts, bedsheets, towels, diapers, flags, etc. Hemp is softer than cotton, warmer than cotton, more water-absorbant than cotton, has three times the tensile strength of cotton, and it is much more durable than cotton. Hemp cloth does not stretch out. One half of the pesticides used in the entire U.S. are used on cotton. Cotton is a soil damaging crop and needs a lot of fertilizer.
Fourthly, the fiber or bast and the pulp or hurd of the hemp plant can be used to make paper. The hemp stalk is composed of eighty percent hurds. The hurds are the woody inner portion of the hemp stalk that are separated from the hemp fiber. The hurds are fifty to seventy-seven percent cellulose, which makes them ideal for the use in making paper. Pulp paper is softer than fiber paper. The pulp paper works like glue, holding small bits of fiber together. Sometimes fiber is added to pulp paper to add strength. One acre of cannabis hemp can replace four acres of forest, in the pulp production. In order to make paper out of tree pulp, we need to break down a substance called 'lignin'. In order to do this, we must soak the pulp in powerful acid, which contaminates the environment. Also the paper is often whitened with chemicals which are also dangerous to the environment. Hemp pulp does not contain lignin and whitens with much less difficulty. Today only four percent of America's "old-growth" forest remains standing. We are running out of our trees, so why not find an alternative? Paper made from hemp is known as the "archivist's perfect paper" because it lasts much longer than tree pulp paper and does not harden, crack, yellow, or crumble with age. Hemp fiber can be used to make every grade of paper.
Finally, how easy hemp is to cultivate. First of all the stalk is harvested for the fiber and hurds. The center of the stalk is hollow except at the nodes (where the leaves are attached) and in the best fiber producing types the hollow space occupies at least one-half the diameter. The innermost layer or pith is surronded by thick, short woody cells which support the plant during its growth. The woody core is referred to as the hurds. There are three types of fibre: primary bast fibres which are long and low in lignin, secondary bast fibres which are intermediate length and high in lignin content, and libriform fibers which are short and high in lignin. Fibre length and the contents of cellulose and lignin are important qualities when producing products in the cordage, textile, paper, and fibreboard industries. Hemp grows best in a humid environment, when the temperature ranges between fourteen and twenty-seven celcius, but it can endure greater temperature variations. Hemp grows best when there is plenty of rainfall, especially during the first six weeks. Although it hastens maturity, when rooted it can endure dry conditions. Although when under going dry circumstances the plant has dwarf growth and reduces yields. Hemp is usually planted between early March and late May in the northern latitudes when the temperature is around ten degrees celcius. Seedlings can survive a short frost of negative eight to negative ten degrees celcius. Older plants can tolerate frosts of negative five to negative six degrees celcius. Earlier plantings produce better crops.
The optimum seeding depth is two to four centimeters(cm). The rows are usually six to fifteen cm. The proportion of stem biomass and the content of the more valuable bast fibres in the stem increases with plant density, therefore dense crops are usually more desired. The seedings rates for fibre hemp varys between fourty and one-hundred and fifty kilograms per hectare (kg/ha). If the hemp is grown as a seed source then the seeding density ranges from one to twenty-four kg/ha, which is five to one-hundred and twenty plants per square meter. Unless the plant densities are very low, which is ten to thirty plants per square meter, the hemp crop wil smother and kill weeds, therefore herbicides are not required.
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