Hemp

Many believe Cannabis Hemp can provide all the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, clothing and medicine. It has been said that "anything made from a hydrocarbon can be made from a carbohydrate." Hemp is the cousin of marijuana. They are from the same plant, Cannabis sativa. The term, "Hemp" refers to the industrial use of the stalk and seed. Cannabis or "marijuana" refers to the smoking or ingesting of the flowers and leaves.

The plant itself is easy to grow in temperate as well as tropical climates, and requires the usual amount of fertilizer and water, but no pesticides nor herbicides. A hemp crop is usually harvested in 100-120 days after reaching a height of 4-15 feet, depending on the variety. At that point one can make it into whatever suits their needs.

Many who use Hemp for spinning yarn or fabric complain that hemp’s popularity has created an inferiour hemp than those being made just 10 years ago. Today, hemp is being raised in abundance all over Europe, but the primary goal is seed production for food. The fiber of the stalk is a bi-product. That it is of poor quality because of being overmature is ignored, because today few consumers know the difference. Because of hemp's new-found faddish popularity, even the Chinese have lowered their standards, and are no longer producing fiber equaling this quality. So say the hippies who spin their own threads and weave their own hemp fabrics.

Presidents Washington and Jefferson are believed to have grown hemp.

The bark of the hemp stalk contains bast fibers which are among the Earth's longest natural soft fibers and are also rich in cellulose; the cellulose and hemi-cellulose in its inner woody core are called hurds. Hemp stalk is not psychoactive. Hemp fiber is longer, stronger, more absorbent and more insulative than cotton fiber.

There are many, many varieties of Hemp.

Sources:

http://www.aurorasilk.com/shop/hemp_fiber.shtml Source

http://www.thehia.org/faqs/faq7.htm Source 2