A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky.  By James F. Hopkins.  Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1951.

James Hopkins aims to tell the complete story of the hemp industry in Kentucky, where the major portion of American hemp grew, from the beginning of the nineteenth century until World War I.  Although his focus remains on the industry in Kentucky he makes an effort to relate the industry to production and manufacturing of hemp in other states.  Hopkins does so through the explanation of “the methods of cultivating the crop, of obtaining the fiber from the plants, and of transforming that fiber into a finished product.” (p. vii)  He also follows the highs and lows of the industry and the factors that contributed to the fluctuations in price and production.

Although southerners formed the majority of original settlers in Kentucky, the state never truly became southern.  It became home to antislavery men such as Cassius Clay, never held a one crop economy, and blacks only made up a small portion of the state’s population.  The state became rather a border state with certain characteristics of each section of the country and differences that established her individuality.  Hemp, a crop that is no longer of any major consequence economically in the state, proved very influential to the state’s history.  Without hemp slavery may not have flourished in the state.  Yet because the crop does not require the attention that many other crops do, the number of slaves on a Kentucky farm proved considerably lower than that of a cotton plantation of equal size.  During the early nineteenth century and leading right up to the Civil War, many factories processed large amounts of hemp fiber that gave an industrial aspect to rural Kentucky. 

The successful cultivation of hemp for commercial purposes depends on favorable climate as well as fertile soil.  For decades Kentucky led the nation in its production without having an ideal climate for the crop.  The average crop produced around eight hundred pounds per acre.  Hemp requires very fertile soil and still crops are grown year after year on the same fields with little or no fertilization.  This is due to the restoration of the soil through the rotting process of the crop. 

In its earliest times in Kentucky pioneers produced the crop to answer domestic needs such as clothing, linen and rope.  It could also be used as a medium of exchange.  Yet as capitalism and industrialism on a small scale won a place along self sufficiency on the frontier economy in the closing of the eighteenth century, new markets opened up in Kentucky.  The crop reached its greatest height in the state around 1850.  Still the importance of hemp reached beyond the state of Kentucky to the country as a whole as it helped cotton get to market. 

This book gives a clear picture of the hemp industry in Kentucky as well as its connections to other industries in the United States.  It follows the path of its rise and fall in the state, all the while captivating the reader’s attention on a subject that could easily become monotonous.  Hopkins gives a thorough explanation of the industry as well as an explanation of the states individuality.

Leah D. Parker