# Washington, Jefferson & hemp **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 11, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-jefferson-hemp/520887 "2009-12-11T18:17:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 19
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-jefferson-hemp/520887/19 "2009-12-13T19:33:26Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > Yes but Cecil’s explanation was made with a rudimentary knowledge of the subject and he probably doesn’t know too much about the specifics of Sinsemilla production… Cecil has more knowledge than you might think. > [@](#): > > I am only looking at the one line quote… but the term too late certainly indicates that he intended to delay pollination… It would be interesting to look at the entire diary to determine at what point of the growth stage the entry occurred… but judging by the date Aug. 7th… it is after the Solstice and during the time that the dark/light cycles are coming to equilibrium, which is when flowering begins… so ya Aug. 7th might have been a little too late for George to get those females out of there, lest their innocence be violated… Except that two days later Washington writes "Abt. 6 o’clock put some Hemp in the Rvr. to Rot - ", which at the time was referring to water-rotting, which is a technique of soaking the hemp in water to dissolve and putrefy the gum, to separate the fibers from the interior and the outer bark. Further, in September, he writes that he “Began to pull the Seed Hemp…” the implication being that he had some hemp for fiber use, some for the next year’s seed. Hemp in Virginia at the time was said to be best for use for fiber about July, if sown in April (as typically done), as it had a growing period of 13 to 15 weeks from sowing. It could however be harvested until October. > [@](#): > > Well the vast majority of Cannabis using cultures at this point were not yet literate… so you wouldn’t expect to see much literature on the subject…absolutely only the heppest cats around like Washington and Jefferson are gonna be wise to it… And yet in the thousands of pages of diaries and notes about gardening, agriculture (including tobacco production and use), etc. there is not one reference of either Washington nor Jefferson talking about, referring to, or implying that they were smoking the hemp. > [@](#): > > The Washington and Jefferson crowd, who according to the language of the article was a mix of Libertarians and Socialists (like the beats would be a few centuries later), was at the cutting edge of integrating with the “colored” peoples… If true (which I do not admit), then their silence on the smoking or other use of hemp for recreation is baffling, if not damning, to the argument that they smoked the hemp. > [@](#): > > And one final strong point that really cant be argued… Washington liked a good strong Buzz… I don’t think he would have had much of a moral dilemma about smoking a plant that grew on his farm if he could get ripped off it… Should I ask for a cite about Washington “like(ing) a good Buzz”, or should I just give up at this point? Here’s another source of interest, from which I take the references for contemporary hemp production: Herndon, G. Melvin. “Hemp in Colonial Virginia” _Agricultural History_ 37.2 (1963): 86-93. See also my prior reference in this thread. You might also read Betts, Edwin Morris (ed.) _Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book_ Redmond, Washington: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Inc. 1999. These are all referenced in Cecil’s column at the end, FTR. As a general sidebar, in helping to research this column I found it almost a point of ironic despair that most all of the same websites, blogs, and whatever dedicated to showing how useful hemp could be for everything _except_ smoking (you can like, make clothes, and paper, and, um, hovercrafts out of it) go out of their way to claim without strong evidence that two of the early backers of hemp as a non-drug _must_ have been smoking it to get high. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washington-jefferson-hemp/520887)._