The assembling of the hurds may be effected with economy, since the area in which hemp is handled with the use of machine brakes is restricted.  Although it must be stated that the present annual supply would not be sufficient to justify the installation of a pulp mill nor would its transportation to existing mills appear feasible, it is expected that the available annual tonnage, especially in certain general sections, will increase, due to the increased use of the machine brake.  The present tonnage per annum is approximately as follows:  In the region of Ohio and Indiana, 2,500 tons; in the Wisconsin section, 1,000 tons; in the California region, 1,400 tons.

In years of adverse weather conditions there are often large areas of hemp which are not harvested on account of its poor quality; there are also large areas of cut hemp which become overretted, due to inclement weather.  It has been suggested by some of the hemp raisers that this large amount of material might be utilized as a paper stock.  In these cases the cost of the whole material would probably be somewhat higher than that of the hurds, because either all or part of the cost of harvesting and the total cost of breaking would have to be borne by the paper maker.  Moreover, the quality of this material would be so very irregular and the supply so uncertain that it probably would not appeal to the paper manufacturer.

Without doubt, hemp will continue to be one of the staple agricultural crops of the United States.  The wholesale destruction of the supply by fire, as frequently happens in the case of wood, is precluded by the very nature of the hemp-raising industry.  Since only one year’s growth can be harvested annually the supply is not endangered by the pernicious practice of overcropping, which has contributed so much to the present high and increasing cost of pulp wood.  The permanency of the supply of hemp hurds thus seems assured.

The favorable location geographically of the hemp regions in relation to the pulp and paper industry is a factor of considerable importance.  The Kentucky region is not at present in a position to supply hurds, as machine methods have not been adopted there to any appreciable degree.  The Ohio and Indiana region, which at present has the greatest annual tonnage, with the prospect of an increase, is situated south of the Wisconsin and Michigan wood-pulp producing region and at a distance from the eastern wood-pulp producing regions; therefore, it is in a favorable position to compete in the large Ohio and Indiana markets.  Since, as will be shown, the hurd pulp acts far more like soda poplar stock than sulphite stock, competition would be strongest from the eastern mills; in fact, the hurd stock might very possibly meet with favor as a book-stock furnish in the Michigan and Wisconsin paper mills, which are within the sulphite fiber-producing region.  Because of its very close proximity to paper mills, this latter possibility applies with far greater force to the Wisconsin hemp region, where a considerable extension of the hemp industry is anticipated.