Cannabis Trade Council
Library
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
Hemp, The New Billion-Dollar Crop
Popular Mechanics, 1938
1915 USDA Farmers’ Bulletin:
Cannabis Cultivation
DRUG PLANTS UNDER CULTIVATION
1915 USDA Farmers’ Bulletin:
Cannabis Cultivation
Colorado hemp historian, Julian Alexander III, re-discovered
this long-lost bulletin on how to grow cannabis, prepared by the
USDA in 1915. The USDA estimates a farmer can expect to yield "400
to 500 pounds of dried tops per acre".
An excerpt of the text is re-produced below.
United States Department of Agriculture
Farmers’ Bulletin #663
Revised Edition
Washington, D.C.
June 5, 1915
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wm. A. Taylor,
Chief
DRUG PLANTS UNDER CULTIVATION
By W. W. Stockberger,
Physiologist in Charge of Drug-Plant and Poisonous-Plant Investications
Excerpt from section titled, "The cultivation and handling
of drug plants: Cannabis", p. 19.
The drug cannabis or Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa), consists of
the dried flowering tops of the female plants. It grows well over
a considerable portion of the United States, but the production
of the active principle of this plant is believed to be favored
by a warm climate. For drug purposes, therefore, this crop appears
to be adapted to the Southern rather than to the Northern States.
Cannabis is propagated from seeds, which should be planted in the
spring as soon as conditions are suitable, in well-prepared sandy
or clayey loam at a depth of about an inch in rows 5 or 6 feet apart.
The seeds may be dropped every 2 or 3 inches in the row or planted
in hills about a foot apart in the row, 6 to 10 seeds being dropped
into each hill. Two or three pounds of seed per acre should give
a good stand. About half the seeds will produce male plants, which
must be removed before their flowers mature; otherwise, the female
plants will set seed, thereby diminishing their value as a drug.
The male plants can be recognized with certainty only by the presence
of stamens in their flowers.
Ordinary stable or barnyard manue plowed in deeply is better for
use as a fertilizer than commercial preparations and may be safely
applied at the rate of 20 tons per acre. However, good results may
be obtained with commercial fertilizers, such as are used for truck
crops and potatoes, when cultivated in between the rows at the rate
of 500 or 600 pounds per acre.
When the female plants reach maturity, a sticky resin forms on
the heavy compact flower clusters, and harvesting may then be begun.
The tops of the plants comprising the flower clusters are cut and
carefully dried in the shade to preserve the green color as far
as possible. Drying can best be done, especially in damp weather,
by the use of artificial heat, not to exceed 140 deg F.
Returns from experimental areas indicate that yields of 400 to
500 pounds of dried tops per acre may be expected under good conditions.
Although some American-grown cannabis is found in the crude-drug
trade, a definite market for this product is not yet established.
Those who contemplate the commercial production of this crop should
therefore carefully investigate market possibilities before making
any extensive plantings.
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