Lyster Dewey Hemp Fields Pentagon

Part of the land where the Pentagon sits today used to be a hemp farm run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Beginning in 1900, the USDA operated the Arlington Experimental Farm there, and botanist Lyster Dewey grew and bred hemp varieties on those plots from about 1903 until he retired in 1935. In 1940 the government closed the farm and moved its crop research elsewhere to clear the site for wartime construction.

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