| OCR Text |
Show With reference to this as a hemp country, we have the evidence that it is indigenous, of a superior quality, and at this present moment there are thousands of acres of last year's growth now standing, which simply requires to be gathered and broken and placed on the market. It compares very favorably with the Kentucky hemp, is equally as strong, and nearly as fine a fibre; it makes an excellent article of rope, matting, bagging, and paper specimens of which can be seen in San Francisco in its broken, dressed, and natural states. Although this hemp is generally sown in ordinary good land, growing to a height of 7 feet, and twice as thick as a wheat straw, here it grows to the height of 20 feet, and 3 inches in diameter. There can be seen thousands of acres in a body that attains the height of 15 feet, and three-fourths of an inch in diameter. These plants are annuals. Besides the fiber which the hemp produces, it yields a heavy crop of seed, on which animals greedily feed. As a fattening food there is nothing superior; besides large quantities of excellent oil could be made and produced therefrom. There are other fibers in small quantities of a finer growth. Annual grasses of nutritious character grow here, which mature in less than two months after the waters recede. The timber is cottonwood, willow and mesquite. The latter tree yields a fine nutritious honey bean, which fattens all kinds of stock very rapidly. The soil is from 10 to 40 feet in depth, strongly impregnated with lime and phosphorus owing to the immense deposits of shell fish and other matters. Potable water can be obtained at a depth of say from 10 to 40 feet. The soil and climate of this section of the country are susceptible of producing cotton, tobacco, hemp, which is |
