Flax is grown for its fibre, when it is grown for oil, varieties of linseed are used, same plant but different breeding and purpose. Both will produce oil and fibre but it is the amount and quality of the two products which vary.
If the sails were white they must have been bleached as hemp fibre is normally a grey/brown colour due to the method of fibre extraction where the stems are allowed to rot (ret) in a controlled manner (either bacterial when retted in tanks or rivers or fungal when dew retted in fields)to weaken the plant glues and release the fibres. Norris -----Original Message----- From: bratt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 18 March 2003 04:12 To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: Hemp is not the myth that others would tend to propagate. Hemp and flax are quite different plants, although they both can be used for oil and for fibre. Hemp is a fairly close relative of the common nettle, and will cross with it in the wild. I have seen hemp-nettle grow to 6 feet. Flax can be selectively bred to produce long stalks for fibre, but most is grown of short varieties for oil seed. Flax fibres produce a fine cloth, whereas hemp has a traditional use in making hemp rope, and sailcloth. The banning of hemp production (supposedly as a drug source) was largely a marketing campaign by Dupont and other companies to implement use of polypropelene rope. The white sails once used on sailing ships were hemp cloth. I have an antique tent from WW2 that is made of hemp cloth. Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: murdoch To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 9:33 PM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: Hemp is not the myth that others would tend to propagate. On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:44:09 -0000, you wrote: >Murdoch, >is this hemp the stuff we know as flax? I don't know. Maybe Todd can answer. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> New Yahoo! Mail Plus. More flexibility. More control. More power. Get POP access, more storage, more filters, and more. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Hcb0iA/P.iFAA/46VHAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
