The following is an open letter to Lamartine Hood, dean of the University's College of Agriculture.

Recently, myself and a number of other students (representing a variety of academic disciplines) noticed an interesting mural on the back wall of the Old Main building. It depicts Abraham Lincoln stressing the importance of agriculture to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and to a land-grant university such as Penn State. Standing next to President Lincoln is a Pennsylvania farmer, presenting the President with a long stalk-like plant, the obvious result of his agricultural endeavors.

What I and other concerned students would like to know is this: Is the plant being handed to Abraham Lincoln a cannabis hemp (marijuana) plant? And if not could you help us identify it?

If it is indeed a cannabis hemp plant, then this information should be disseminated to the remainder of the students a Penn State. The hemp plant played a unique role as a cash crop in Pennsylvania. The crop yields an excellent fiber that can be used for ropes, cloths, and papers of all types.

In fact, the famous Conestoga wagons, so important to the Caucasian westward exploration of our country, were covered with Pennsylvania Dutch linen, which is not made from flax as is true linen, but instead is made from spun fibers of the hemp plant.

Presently, cannabis hemp is being grown commercially throughout the world as a source of cloth and pulp fiber, bio-mass and food, and I feel that, as in colonial times and World War II, cannabis hemp should be grown in the state to bolster our agricultural economy and our environmental well-being. I look forward to your reply to my question and welcome comments on the cannabis hemp plant's role in the future of Pennsylvania agriculture.