hemp - Uses - Fiber
The fiber is one of the most valuable parts of the hemp plant. It is commonly called "bast", meaning it grows as a stalk from the ground. Hemp fibers can be 3 to 15 feet long, running the length of the plant. Depending on the processing used to remove the fiber from the stem, the hemp naturally may be creamy white, brown, gray, black or green. The use of hemp for fiber production has declined sharply over the last two centuries, but before the industrial revolution, hemp was a popular fiber because it is strong and grows quickly. Hemp has been used to make paper. [http://www.historybuff.com/library/ref1690.html It was used to make canvas, and the word canvas itself derives from cannabis .http://www.crrh.org/cannabis/
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=canvas Hemp was very popular as it had many uses. However, as other coarse-fibre plants were more widely grown, hemp fibre was replaced in most roles. Manila yielded better rope. Burlap, made from jute, took over the sacking market. The paper industry began using wood pulp. The carpet industry switched over to wool, sisal, and jute, then nylon. Netting and webbing applications were taken over by cotton and synthetics. Since hemp grows quickly, it produces 250% more fiber than cotton and 600% more fiber than flax when grown on the same land.
In 1916, US Department of Agriculture chief scientists Lyster H. Dewe, and Jason L. Merrill created paper made from hemp pulp, which they concluded was "favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood." Dewey and Merrill Jack Herer, in the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" summarized the findings of Bulletin No. 404:
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In 1916, USDA Bulletin No. 404, reported that one acre of cannabis hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres of trees being cut down over the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/4 to 1/7 as much polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like lignin that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda ash. The problem of dioxin contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process, which does not need to use chlorine bleach (as the wood pulp paper making process requires) but instead safely substitutes hydrogen peroxide in the bleaching process. ... If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper process were legal today, it would soon replace about 70% of all wood pulp paper, including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes and paper bags.
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The decision of the United States Congress to pass the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was based in part on testimony derived from articles in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who had significant financial interests in the timber industry, which manufactured his newsprint. The background material also included that from 1880 to 1933 the hemp grown in the United States had declined from 15,000 to 1,200 acres, and that the price of line hemp had dropped from $12.50 per pound in 1914 to $9.00 per pound in 1933. [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/nugent1.htm "News" Hemp rope used in the age of sailing-ships was protected by tarring, a labor-intensive process and also the reason for the Jack Tar nickname for sailors. Hemp rope was phased out when Manila, which does not require tarring, became available.
There is a niche market for hemp paper, but the cost of hemp pulp is approximately six times that of wood pulp, 1 mostly due to the small size and outdated equipment of the few hemp processing plants in the Western world. Hemp pulp is processed with hydrogen peroxide, avoiding the sulphuric acid waste problem associated with wood pulping. Kenaf is another fast-growing plant which can be used as a replacement for wood pulp. Kenaf paper has been produced in commercial quantities. http://www.visionpaper.com
A modest hemp industry exists. Recent developments in processing have made it possible to soften up coarse fibres to a wearable level. [http://www.thehia.org/