We hunger for stronger adjectives than "insane."

It was Wednesday afternoon. I was traveling north on 183, a few miles north of Taylor NE, when I was stopped at a construction wait. I got out and shot a pretty poo.


Then I looked out 20 feet.


I walked over and shot this.


And this.


I am always struck by the sensuality in the hemp bud at harvest time.

Then I saw this.


And this.


Then I was driving north again. For the next 120 miles, all the way to Colome SD, I was never out of sight of "marijuana," the gummint's vulgar characterization of hemp plants, for more than a few minutes. North of the site pictured above, the next 20 miles was pretty much the same, hemp from roadside to fence, minus two swaths of the roadside mower, which had obviously destroyed more of the same.

Following is one of the best patches I saw right in the borrow ditch. Notice last year's dried plants standing behind the 2011 crop.



I saw huge (8-10 acres) patches of hemp in shelterbelts and near corrals, with 12-foot plants. I have no doubt that there are whole sections (a square mile, 640 acres) of nothing but hemp in this area of Nebraska, as I have been told.

These plants are descendants of the "Hemp for Victory" hempfields that blanketed the dryland farm country from 1942-1945. One might surmise that this marvelous plant wants to grow in this country.

I am having trouble, at the moment, comprehending the stupidity of those legislators who maintain that this plant is a threat.

Does anyone need to know any more about "government" than that government prohibits me from walking into the borrow ditch--or even onto private land, with permission-- and picking one of these plants? And if you do, what is it you need to know?