Re: Hemp monocultures

• To: dsouth@forestry.auburn.edu, forest@nic.funet.fi
• Subject: Re: Hemp monocultures
• From: bks@s27w007.pswfs.gov (Bradley K. Sherman)
• Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 21:38:55 +0200
• Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT

>ARE TREE MONOCULTURES MORE EFFICIENT IN PRODUCING PAPER FIBER
>THAN HEMP MONOCULTURES?

I thought that I would gather all the pertinent figures
in the essay by dsouth@Forestry.Auburn.edu into one table:

Year  Country        Genus             cubic meters/ha/yr
1994  Brazil         Eucalyptus            35
1994  New Zealand    Pinus                 25
1994  South Africa   Eucalyptus            21
1994  Chile          Pinus                 21
1994  Congo          Eucalyptus            20
1994  South Africa   Pinus                 15
1994  United Kingdom Picea                 14
1994  USA (Western)  Pseudotsuga           14
1916  USA?           Hemp                   9.2  (inferred from 4:1 ratio)
1994  USA (Southern) Pinus                  9
1916  USA?           Various                2.3

Seems to me like we need to know the 1994 figures for 
hemp production in intensive monoculture before we
can refute the statement: "hemp produces more paper per land
area than trees".

Considering, say, wheat or maize production/ha/yr 1916->1994,
a ten-fold increase in Hemp production/ha/yr wouldn't be
impossible.

I have not seen the advertisements that Dr. South refers to,
but if they are advocating research into using hemp as a
fiber source, I would say that these data would seem to justify
the position.

    --bks

p.s. Shouldn't Populus be on the chart somewhere?

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