La Canapa / The Hemp Stamp
1950 – 65 Lira Italian postage stamp titled ‘La Canapa’ or ‘the hemp’ with the region of Emilia-Romagna highlighted. Image depicts young lady during the Harvesting of Hemp.
quote from the 1914 USDA Report by Lyster Dewey
“The highest-priced hemp fiber in the markets of either America or Europe is produced in Italy,1 but it is obtained from plants similar to those in Kentucky. The higher price of the fiber is due not to superior plants, but to water retting and to increased care and labor in the preparation of the fiber.
Four varieties are cultivated in Italy:
(1) “Bologna,” or great hemp, called in France “chanvrede Piedmont,” is grown in northern Italy in the provinces of Bologna, Ferrara, Roviga,
(2) “Cannapa picola,” small hemp, attaining a height of 4 to 7 feet, with a rather slender reddish stalk, is cultivated in the valley of the Arno in the department of Tuscany.’
(3) “Neapolitan,” large seeded.
(4) “Neapolitan,” small seeded.
The two varieties of Neapolitan hemp are cultivated in the vicinity of Naples, and even so far up on the sides of Vesuvius that fields of hemp are occasionally destroyed by the eruptions of that volcano.”