nt of the weight of the hurds
consists of hemp fiber, in strands from 3 inches to 8 feet in length.
Some fragments of the bark, made up of short cubical cells, usually dark
in color, cling to the strands of fiber.

=CHARACTER OF HURDS AFFECTED BY RETTING.=

Nearly all of the hemp in the United States is dew retted. The stalks
are spread on the ground in swaths as grain is laid by the cradle. The
action of the weather, dew, and rain, aided by bacteria, dissolves and
washes out the green coloring matter (chlorophyll) and most of the gums,
leaving only the fibrous bark and the wood. The plants in this process
lose about 60 per cent of their green weight, or about 40 per cent of
their air-dry weight.

The stalks are sometimes set up in shocks to cure before retting, and
after retting they are set up in shocks to dry. Each time the stalks are
handled they are chucked down on the ground to keep the butts even. In
these operations sand and clay are often driven up into the hollow at
the base of the stalks, and this dirt, which often clings tenaciously,
may constitute all objectionable feature in the use of hemp hurds for
paper stock.

In Italy and in most localities in Russia and Austria-Hungary where hemp
is extensively cultivated, it is retted in water, but water retting has
never been practiced in the United States except to a limited extent
before the middle of the last century. Hurds from water-retted hemp are
cleaner and softer than those from dew-retted hemp.

The fiber is sometimes broken from dry hemp stalks without retting. The
hurds thus produced contain a small percentage of soluble gums, chiefly
of the pectose series. Comparatively little hemp is prepared in this
manner in America.

Process retting by means of weak solutions of chemicals or oils in hot
water is practiced to a limited extent. The hurds from these processes
may contain traces of the chemicals or oils and also soluble gums in
greater degree than those of the dew-retted or water-retted hemp.

=PROPORTION OF HURDS TO FIBER AND YIELD PER ACRE.=

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Hemp-breaking machine. The stalks are fed
sidewise in a continuous layer 2 to 3 inches thick, turning out about
4,000 pounds of clean fiber per day and five times as much hurds.]

The yield of hemp fiber varies from 400 to 2,500 pounds per acre,
averaging 1,000 pounds under favorable conditions. The weight of hurds
is about five times that of the fiber, or somewhat greater f