THE HISTORY OF CANNABIS IN CANADA
Page 11: New machinery, prizes for cannabis farmers.

During the mid-1800s, Canadian agricultural journals documented the struggle to grow more hemp, and discussed new cultivation techniques. A popular topic was improvements in machinery to process the raw stalks with less manual labour.

"Dear Sir, I send you drawings of a Hemp-Gin, invented by my brother, who is a civil engineer. This simple little machine will break and scutch at the rate of about 1,000 lbs of clean hemp per day, doing the work of 12 or 14 men. Nothing can be more simple in its construction."
- The British American Cultivator, Toronto, Nov 1847

"From the interest the subject of hemp has lately excited in Quebec and Montreal, it cannot be doubted that some active step will ere be taken to develop this dormant fuel of commercial opulence. The systems hitherto adopted to introduce hemp to the attention of the Canadian farmer were insufficient and defective."
- The Canadian Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, Sept 1858

"We still think that the growth of Hemp might be prosecuted to advantage on many of our rich soils. American Hemp was formerly considered of inferior quality, but new and improved processes have been introduced. It will now stand in comparison with Russian."
- The Farmer's Journal of Lower Canada, March 1860

"The Board of Agriculture has imported from the South a hundred bushels of Hemp Seed, which will be furnished at a low rate. Where a sufficient number of farmers undertake the culture of Hemp, the Board will insure the erection of a Break Mill in their locality. It is likewise intended to offer one prize of $50 for the Greatest Acreage placed under Hemp, and another prize of $50 for the best Sample of Hemp Fibre in quantity."
- Nova Scotia Journal of Agriculture, Feb. 1870

"Hemp is well suited to the northern climate of Lower Canada, and is a crop which no insect will attack, nor is there any danger of a failure of a crop, if the land is properly prepared and timely sowed with good seed."
- The Canadian Farmer and Mechanic, Sept 1841

FOOTNOTES

• British American Cultivator
Article: Improvement in Hemp-Brakes, The British American Cultivator, Vol. 3, no. 10, October 1847
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_04019_70/16?r=0&s=1

• The Canadian merchants' magazine and commercial review
Article: Statistics in Agriculture, Hemp in Canada, The Canadian merchants' magazine and commercial review, Vol. 3, no. 5, Sept. 1858
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06193_17/46?r=0&s=1

• The Farmer's Journal of Lower Canada
Article: Hemp and Flax Culture, The farmer's journal and transactions of the Lower Canada Board of Agriculture, March 1860
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06434_79/5?r=0&s=1

• Nova Scotia Journal of Agriculture
Article: Hemp Culture, The Nova Scotian journal of agriculture, Vol. 1, no. 54, February 1870
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_04715_43/3?r=0&s=1

• Canadian Farmer and Mechanic
Article: Hemp, The Canadian farmer and mechanic, Vol. 1, no. 2, September 15, 1841
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_04109_2/7?r=0&s=2

• Manitoba and the North-West of the Dominion, 1876
Article: Flax and Hemp, by Thomas Spence, Manitoba and the north-west of the Dominion, p.32, 1876.
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.24137/42?r=0&s=1