Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Methods of Cultivation

 'Ganja ranks as one of the superior crops.' - Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1895

 

 

Questions on the subject by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1895.

9. Give any particulars you are able regarding the methods of such cultivation.

11. Are the plants cultivated for the production of ganja ever raised from the seed of the wild hemp?

My thoughts on the subject.

Cannabis cultivation, in India of the 19th century, appears to follow the same processes as most other crops. It appears to have been cultivated either as a rabbi crop or a kharif crop, with places like Bengal having cultivated it as a kharif crop, and places in central, west and south India having cultivated it as a rabbi crop. In the Punjab, it appears to have been cultivated as both a rabbi and kharif crop. The Hemp Commission's report of 1895 covers extensively the cultivation of cannabis in 19th century India through the various questions directed at the conditions suitable for growth, the extent of growth of both wild and cultivated cannabis, and the methods of cultivation.

The steps in cannabis cultivation appear to have been largely uniform across the country, consisting of the use of nurseries to create seedlings, preparation of the fields through ploughing and manuring, transplanting of seedlings when they are about 1-2 feet high to the ploughed fields, removal of the "male" plant, and weeding and mild watering till harvest time. It appears that watering of the plants was mostly taken care of by the monsoons, with manual watering being followed only 2-3 times in the drier months. Cannabis cultivation appears to have been practiced alongside other crops such as jowar, chillies, brinjal, wheat, cotton, millets and cereals, etc., often side by side with these crops or in rotation with them. The typical time frame from seed planting to harvest was about five months, though there are instances of time frames of 7 or more months, which I believe are due to local conditions, time of planting and varieties of cannabis. The adult plant, at the time of harvest, is said to stand anywhere between 3 feet to 8 feet, though instances of plants growing up to 13 feet can be found. The common refrain among witnesses appears to be that cannabis cultivation is no different from cultivation of any other crop, and I tend to agree with this viewpoint. I believe the mystification of cannabis cultivation has largely risen out of ignorance and the prohibition of the plant. Some points, however, appear to be peculiar to the methods of cannabis cultivation, and I wish to touch upon these in an otherwise straight forward process of agriculture.

The primary unique aspect of cannabis cultivation in India appears to be the process of the complete removal of one type of cannabis so as to let another type of cannabis flourish. One type tends to have small flowers of a pale green color and the other type consists of flowering spikes or tops. The two types of cannabis have been called male and female respectively, at the time of the Commission's report. It is commonly agreed that the first type of cannabis is less desirable as it possesses lesser narcotic qualities and, when present in a field of cannabis, tends to make all the cannabis plants in the field produce similar flowers, along with a large amount of seeds, rather than the desired flowering spikes or tops with few seeds. One agriculturist compares this to the presence of a ram among a herd of ewes. It is the second type of cannabis, with flowering spikes or tops and the accompanying resin that are respectively called ganja and charas, and it is primarily for this that cannabis has been cultivated in India for thousands of years. Besides these two broad types of cannabis, we find that there is also the confusion in nomenclature as to which is the male and which is the female plant. While most of the witnesses consulted by the Commission, and a larger number of farmers in the northern part of India, seemed to agree that the type of cannabis bearing the small pale green flowers was the male, it is interesting to note that in the southern parts of India it was the flowering spike/tops and resin bearing cannabis type that was considered the male. In addition to this seeming dual behaviour of the cannabis plant, some of the cannabis of the flowering spike type were known to become a sort of hybrid plant, with both spikes and small pale green flowers as they grew, that is the plant became a hermaphrodite. What was followed across the country, as a common practice, was that the type of cannabis bearing the small pale green flowers needed to be eliminated at the earliest stage so that the more desirable flowering spike variety could flourish. Experts were employed across the country to root out the undesirable type of cannabis from a cannabis field at an early stage in its growth, usually around a month or so after the seedlings had been transplanted to the main fields. This enabled the final harvest to consist mainly of flowering spikes with relatively less seeds.

Female (left) and male (right) cannabis plants.

Now this process of diligently eliminating one type of cannabis in favor of another, I believe, resulted in cannabis cultivation in India catering primarily to the needs of intoxication and medicine. The elimination of the other type, I also believe, resulted in the very limited use of cannabis for its fibre and seeds in the country. Today, we see the world over, that cannabis is broadly categorized as hemp or marijuana, which I believe is the equivalent of the male and female categorization in 19th century India. Hemp or bhang or using the nomenclature of Carl Linneaus - cannabis sativa L., is allegedly legal, according to the absurd global drug laws, due to its low THC content, and is used for its fibre in the production of a vast array of industrial goods, such as textiles, ropes, building and insulating material, with countries such as China, France and the US leading the way. Marijuana or ganja or cannabis sativa/indica, with its high THC levels is of course, banned across the world. Looking at the cannabis plant, it is clear that the elimination of one type of the plant, while favoring the other, is not a sustainable thing to do. Keeping the male or hemp plant or cannabis sativa l., so as to use it for its seeds and fibre for food and industry, while eliminating the female plant, as the modern drug laws dictate, means that we are depriving ourselves of cannabis' valuable safe intoxicating and medicinal qualities. On the other hand, favoring the female plant for its intoxicating and medicinal aspects, while eliminating the male or hemp type of cannabis, just as India of the 19th century did, deprives us of the industrial and nutritional qualities of the cannabis plant. 

India, in the first place, never followed the male/hemp/bhang/(cannabis sativa L.) path of the cannabis plant, the path that leads to the use of its fibre, seeds and leaves for food and industry, the path that the US, China and France have surreptiously followed and now dominate while discouraging all other nations. India also gave up the female/ganja/marijuana/(cannabis sativa-indica) path of the cannabis plant, the path that leads to the use of its flowering tops and resin - for intoxication, medicine and spirituality - under pressure first from the British and then from the US. Today, both these cannabis paths in India lie in ruins. Successive leaders in India, to this day, have only worked to enslave the people to the industries promoted by these countries - petrochemicals and their synthetic non-biodegradable products, synthetic pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco and opium - to replace the paths of cannabis. In today's world, when the planet suffers from unsustainable agricultural and industrial practices, besides food shortages and the overuse of non-biodegradable synthetic industrial materials, we need the male type of cannabis or hemp or cannabis sativa l. to counter these threats. In today's world, where humans and animals suffer from the use of dangerous synthetic pharmaceutical medicines and highly potent toxic intoxicants - like alcohol and tobacco, and the planet suffers from the manufacture of both these medicines and intoxicants, we need the female type or marijuana or ganja or cannabis sativa/indica for our sustainable and safe intoxication and medicine. To eliminate either the male or the female of the cannabis plant is as absurd and dangerous as the elimination of either the male or the female of the human or any other living species on the planet. Is there any other plant in the world that we look at through the lens of its sex, discriminating against one while favoring the other? Do plants have a sex at all unless viewed from a narrow perspective? The cannabis plant is both male and female just as god is androgynous. To favor half the plant and eliminate the other half is to see only half the truth. In terms of areas of research, I do believe that the plant's mysterious and fascinating behaviour, in terms of how it chooses to be a pale green flower and seed bearing type as opposed to a plant with resinous flowering tops/spikes, and its various manifestations across this spectrum, is a very compelling area for research.

As to the classes of society that were involved in cannabis cultivation in 19th century India, we find that it was not restricted to any particular class, i.e., all classes that practiced agriculture also cultivated cannabis. Cannabis farming was largely practiced by small farmers, who grew cannabis along with other crops, as is much of agriculture in India today. We do find evidence of class based discrimination, where we see that, according to some witnesses, brahmins sometimes avoided direct cultivation but employed other classes to do the job for them. Along with the increasing notion that cannabis cultivation was largely an occupation of the lower classes, we also see that increasing numbers of the Muslim community took up the practice. I believe that it is the gradually propagated myth by the ruling and upper classes that cannabis cultivation is done by the lower classes, Muslims, Sikhs and the indigenous communities, along with the eagerness of the British to replace cannabis with their preferred drugs of choice - opium, tobacco, western alcohol and pharmaceuticals, that largely enabled the gradual regulation and eventual prohibition of cannabis cultivation in India.  The prohibition of cannabis cultivation was a severe blow to India's small farmers, as it still is today, across the spectrum of classes, a fact that is scarcely talked about. Some communities were also considered experts at cannabis cultivation, such as the Malayalis of the Javadi Hills. Definitely, the ability to differentiate between the flowering spike type of cannabis from the pale green flower/extensive seed bearing type of cannabis was a much sought after skill, and persons with this ability were highly paid and much sought after. Quite often, possession of this ability, or the lack of it, meant the difference between a superior or inferior ganja crop.

With regard to seed management, it appears that most farmers procured their seeds from places that were renowned for superior qualities of ganja. Some farmers probably practiced seed collection and propagation of superior species (superior in terms of ganja and charas production and quality) from the harvest of their cultivation. With regard to question 11, I am certain that the earliest varieties of cultivated cannabis were derived from the wild cannabis that grew, and still grows, along the Himalayan belt. This must have happened thousands of years ago before the plant was domesticated. It is a matter of joy that in spite of the nationwide effort to procure seeds from selected places and the relentless effort to eliminate cannabis at such large scales, the country still boasts of large varieties of cannabis, many of which are endemic to specific places exhibiting the unique characteristics and features of these places. All this is under threat due to the sustained efforts of unscrupulous forces to completely exterminate this flagship species in India, a plant at the very heart of India's tradition, culture, health and spirituality. It is imperative that efforts on a large scale are undertaken to preserve and propagate the various varieties of cannabis that still survive, albeit precariously, across the length and breadth of this country. Individual farmers who cultivate cannabis must be encouraged to collect, preserve and propagate the seeds that they come in contact with. The wild cannabis growth in the Himalayan belt, the well spring of India's cannabis, from which most of its endemic cultivated varieties originated, must be protected with the same rigour and enthusiasm that is currently being undertaken to protect India's flagship animal, the tiger. Each of us individuals, be it a smoker or a bhang drinker, must take steps to save the seeds of the cannabis plant that we come across. The natural tendency, so far, has been to discard the seeds along with the leaves when we use only the flowering tops and resin. This must change and every individual connected to the cannabis plant, in whatever way - be it cultivation, trade or consumption, must ensure that the seeds are saved and propagated, viewed as priceless, more valuable than gold or precious gems, because that is in fact what it is. Even if one does not indulge in protest marches, like the salt production and indigo farming marches of yore, since there are too many protest marches of all kinds today, one must try and indulge in the home cultivation of cannabis, the current equivalent of spinning the charaka for cotton that symbolized self-sufficiency at one time. Spinning cotton, or khadi which is just cotton, itself is unsustainable today, because cotton cultivation on large scales takes up too much water, uses chemical fertilizers and renders the land barren at a time when all three are key factors in climate change.

In terms of bizarre practices in connection with cannabis cultivation, we find that there were a few then, just as there are now. There are always certain sections of society, the extremists and the insane for whom nothing is good enough, willing to go to unnatural lengths to feed their obsessions and insanity. As with the traders and consumers who mixed toxic substances - such as dathura, arsenic, nux vomica - to cannabis for consumption, so as to further increase its potency, we find in 19th century India that there were a number of extremist agriculturists who followed unnatural practices with the aim of increasing the intoxication levels of cultivated cannabis. Some of these practices included -inserting a stick of pure opium in a slit made in the stem of the growing cannabis plant; using snake venom and skin as fertilizers; planting cannabis seeds in the mouth of a dead dog, etc. - in the belief that this would render cannabis more potent. In today's world, we find their equivalents in those who cultivate cannabis indoors under 24 hour lights as well as those who continue to breed cannabis varieties of ever increasing THC levels at the cost of all its other medicinal and intoxicating compounds. If we look at how cannabis was cultivated in general in 19th century India, we find a beautiful relationship between agriculture and the land and the seasons. There is beauty in the way the land was prepared, manured, the crops planted and harvested, with almost complete reliance on nature to provide the nutrients, sunlight and the water to produce the cannabis harvest. All this has been completely lost today, due to the prohibition of the plant globally, resulting only in the unnatural, unsustainable and perverted ways of cannabis cultivation that survive today. These unnatural ways of cultivation today are a mirror to the state of the human mind, which views the divine spiritual natural herb cannabis as something unnatural, evil and perverted. The reality, however, is that it is the prohibition of cannabis globally that has perverted both the human mind and the ways in which cannabis is cultivated, and the insanity of today's human is evident in both.

On a personal level, in terms of my experiments with trying to grow the cannabis plant, I have tried to grow it in the past two years using seeds that I have collected in the past. Most of the seeds were probably not potent any more, being possibly more than 10 years old. I have experimented with planting through out the year in small grow bags with mixed results. Out of the hundreds of seeds that I have planted in soil mixed with compost from dried leaves, only a couple dozen actually germinated, and only about 4 plants actually went on to grow fully. Two of these plants appear to have been what the Hemp report calls the male plant, with pale green flowers and many seeds. Two were possibly the female plant, since they yielded something close to the flowering spikes spoken of by the Commission and had few seeds. I found that in Bengaluru, the plants seem to germinate best during May - June. Unfortunately, I was unable to sustain most of the two odd dozen plants that germinated, either due to neglect, too much watering or rainfall, or other factors such as transplanting too soon or incorrectly. It appears that if one uses a rich compost consisting of the wet waste that is produced from the kitchen, the chances of the plant germinating are better. In any case, the four plants that finally grew provided me with adequate smoking material for two years and I smoked the whole plant - leaves or bhang, flowers, twigs and even the roots. This type of cultivation is comparable to that practiced within the compounds and backyards of individual homes in much of India in the past, and not comparable to the farming that is described in the Hemp Commission's report which was in larger areas on farmers' lands, and there is much room for improvement.

In India, and globally, we find that the absence of cannabis in all its forms: low THC to high THC, has resulted in an unsustainable situation for humans and planet - the rampant cultivation of unsustainable rice, wheat and cotton which consume huge amounts of water, fertilizers and energy; the propagation of unsustainable crops for edible oils - palm, sunflower in tracts of precious forest areas; farmers, both small and large scale, facing dire poverty and crippling loans in the face of climate change and chemical fertilizers shoved down their throats by governments; the synthetic pharmaceutical industry that destroys both humans and planet through its production, consumption and disposal; the cultivation of tobacco which renders land barren; the use of synthetic fossil fuel based materials for textiles, building materials and non-biodegradable plastics. All these practices can be countered with the re-introduction of cannabis cultivation all over the world, not just its flowering spikes and resin for intoxication and medicine, but also its fibre, leaves and seeds for nutrition, food and industrial applications. As we see from the methods of cultivation, cannabis is as easy to grow as any other crop in the world. In fact, its versatility and adaptability makes it probably the easiest crop to grow anywhere in the world. Cannabis offers a solution to a whole range of problems caused by climate change, and human greed and recklessness - water scarcity, hunger, soil degradation, numerous diseases, addictions to synthetic drugs, alcohol and tobacco. It is for the people and governments of the world to unite and bring in large scale measures for the re-introduction and propagation of cannabis, in all its forms in every part of the world, otherwise the losses will be more rapid and more large scale than our wildest imagination.

It is my sincere hope that going through this material will encourage and inspire many to take up cannabis cultivation, and that the material will provide the necessary knowledge and information on the sustainable methods followed for cannabis cultivation in 19th century India. Through this, I hope to see cannabis regain its rightful place as one of the apex crops in Indian agriculture, and Indian agriculture return to a path of sustainability and harmony with nature and the eternal spirit. I wish this not just for India, but for every nation of this world.

Summary Findings of the Hemp Commission.

Following, in italics, are the summary findings by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission with regard to questions 9 and 11.

151. Before describing the cultivation of the hemp plant, it will be proper to mention the products which are got from it. It has been shown that the plant which yields the true hemp fibre is the same as that which produces the narcotics. The seed is the familiar hemp seed which is given to cage birds. It is also occasionally eaten by the natives of India, especially in the Himalayas, and an useful oil is expressed from it. The fibre and seeds only come incidentally within the scope of the present inquiry. The narcotic products of the plant are ganja, charas, and bhang. Dr. Prain has described very fully the physiological processes by which the narcotic principle is secreted in the various parts of the plant. For the purposes of the Commission it is sufficient to state plainly and briefly what the three articles are in the simple forms in which they first enter the market. The definitions with which the Commission's list of questions is introduced are as follows. They are borrowed from Dr. Prain:— "Ganja consists of the dried flowering tops of cultivated female hemp plants which have become coated with resin in consequence of having been unable to set seeds freely." "Charas is the name applied to the resinous matter which forms the active principle when collected separately." "Siddhi, bhang, subzi, or patti are different names applied to the dry leaves of the hemp plant, whether male or female, and whether cultivated or uncultivated." These definitions have been generally accepted by the witnesses, but the result of the inquiries is to show that they require some explanation. First, with regard to ganja.

Ganja may be got from the wild as well as the cultivated plant.
152. Over nearly the whole of India distinction is recognised between the ganja and the bhang plant. Though the natives may mistake the sexes, it is clear that the female plant is the one which is called ganja and the male plant bhang. The plants are distinguishable even in the wild state, the loose flowering panicle of the male from the comparatively stiff and apparently blossomless spike of the female. The hill ganja of Assam, and the wild ganja that seems to be occasionally found and used throughout Eastern Bengal and the Sub-Himalayan region, and even in Kashmir, must be the female flower spike which has often been quite innocent of any tending. In examining the evidence, therefore, the definition of ganja given above must often be read as with the word cultivated omitted.

The drug bhang often consists of ganja.
153. Then as regards bhang, the witnesses often use the word to include the female flower head as well as the leaves of the plant, and the green leaves as well as the dry. The male flower head must also enter into it in consequence of the rude method of preparing the drug, viz., by drying the plants and beating out the leaves. But the male flowers are not more narcotic than the leaves; the point to be noted is the inclusion of the female flower head in bhang. The confusion arises from the name of the product bhang being used also for the liquid form in which the hemp drugs are consumed. Ganja pounded up and made into drink becomes bhang. This is the way in which Garhjat ganja is used at Puri. In the west and south of India the distinction between the products bhang and ganja is frequently lost. Bhang is cultivated in Sind with similar precautions to prevent the fertilization of the female plant as in Bengal, and the product is called nothing but bhang, and is rarely used for anything but concocting drink and sweetmeats, the smoking ganja being imported. Bhang is the ancient name of the plant. It is also the name of the form of narcotic product which was earliest discovered, for it must have taken time to learn the art of isolating the female plant and so producing ganja. Bhang is also the name of the most simple style of consumption, viz., by pounding and drinking, which must have preceded smoking. Naturally, therefore, bhang is a more comprehensive term than ganja, and often includes it, especially where the production of ganja has not become a recognised industry. In the Madras Presidency ganja is the more general term, so much so that in some places the word bhang is hardly understood. This is probably due to the hemp plant being only known to the people as cultivated for the production of ganja.

Charas is not always the simple resin.
154. Charas may not always be the pure resinous matter. It generally contains leaf dust and other impurities picked up in the process of manufacture. But it is hardly ever confounded with ganja or bhang. Its appearance, that of dark green or brown paste, is distinct from that of both the other drugs. In Kashmir and the Punjab only is the name ganja sometimes applied to charas, probably because charas is prepared from the female or ganja plant (Governor of Kashmir). There is reason to think that in some parts of Rajputana the distinction between charas and ganja is not very strictly observed, and that the former name is occasionally given to the latter drug.

Bengal.
155. In Bengal the hemp plant is grown solely for the production of ganja in the area of regular and licensed cultivation. The illicit cultivation which is to be found in insignificant quantity all over the province, and the character of which has been described, yields for the most part bhang and not ganja fit for smoking. Ganja of inferior quality is produced in the Tributary States of Orissa in considerable quantity. In the Tributary States of the Chota Nagpur Division ganja of the same quality is produced, but in less quantity. The cultivated product of Hill Tippera appears to be still lower in the scale as regards quality, and very little in quantity. It is proposed now to describe the skilled cultivation of the Ganja Mahal, where the agricultural processes for the growth and preparation of ganja have undoubtedly been brought to greater perfection than in any other part of India, and, as far as information will allow, the more homely practices prevailing outside that tract. Babu Hem Chunder Kerr's report contains a detailed account of the Rajshahi cultivation; Dr. Prain has given a brief outline of the mode of culture; and Mr. Price, Collector of the district of Rajshahi, has submitted a sketch of the cultivators' business during each month of the year. Babu Hem Chunder Kerr's report is the basis of the information furnished by most witnesses. Endeavour will be made to compile a succinct account from these materials.

Regular cultivation of the Ganja Mahal: Preparation of the field.
156. Hemp is an exhausting crop, and requires a light, well-drained soil. It appears that there is but a limited quantity of thoroughly suitable ground in the Ganja Mahal, and that there is a tendency to abandon the outlying lands and concentrate the cultivation about Naogaon. The ganja plant is reared in a seed bed or nursery and planted out into the field. The field is selected between January and the middle of March, and must be one which has lain fallow, or has borne nothing but light crops, such as pulses or mustard, during the two previous years. It must not be overshadowed by trees. It is first ploughed to remove weeds and stubble as thoroughly as the cultivators' means will allow. In April and May the field is liberally dressed with fresh surface earth from surrounding lands, the quantity used depending on the quality of the field. The turf and weeds on the sides of the field are next dug up in clods and thrown on to the field, the holes thus made being filled up with earth from the ditches. The field is thus cleaned to its extreme boundaries, and the weeds utilised as dressing for the land. In this process a small bank about nine inches high is raised round the field. The fresh earth added to the field becomes desiccated in a week or so, and then cow-dung manure is added and the field well ploughed again. From this time till September ploughing, followed by harrowing with the bamboo ladder, is carried out from time to time, the belief being, as Babu Hem Chunder Kerr says, that the oftener the land is ploughed the better is the crop. A channel is made to keep the field well drained.

The nursery conditions requisite to the germination of seed and growth of seedlings.
157. The details given by Babu Hem Chunder Kerr regarding the selection of the seed bed have special interest in connection with the subject of the spontaneous growth. He writes: "A plot of land near the homestead of the cultivator is generally made available for a nursery, and the people in order to make themselves sure of its dryness always make a point of using those lands only in which a tuberous-rooted, grass-like vegetable called matha (Cyperus rotundus, L.) grows. The growth of matha is, in their opinion, a sure sign of the land being quite dry." In another place Babu Hem Chunder Kerr says: "The nursery or seed bed consists of a plot of high, light, sandy loam." The selection of this plot is made in May, and as soon as one or two showers have fallen it is ploughed. The ploughing is repeated three or four times each month till August. The object is complete pulverisation of the soil, and, if necessary, the bamboo ladder in addition to the plough is passed over the land for this purpose. Manure is not used, and the land must be quite free of shade of any kind. The seeds are sown broadcast on a fine day after a ploughing, and the sowing is followed by harrowing to cover the seed. The bed is carefully drained. The following remarks from Babu Hem Chunder Kerr's report are quoted to show certain idiosyncrasies of the plant for the same reason that the previous verbatim extracts were made: "Seeds are not sown on either a rainy or even a cloudy day when rain is apprehended, as the wet ground rots them. Even if it rains three or four days after the seeds have been sown, most of the seeds are destroyed, as the earth gets hardened into a cake after the rain, and the germs cannot force their way through it. In such a case fresh seed has to be sown in another nursery  again………… Nor is the grass weeded out at any time after the sowing of the seeds. They are also never irrigated. The cultivators are of opinion that the growth of grass in the seed beds is beneficial to the young plants, inasmuch as it protects the latter from the action of the wind.".

Transplanting.
158. Towards the end of August or beginning of September the field is again dressed with cow-dung, refuse, and house-sweepings. About a week or ten days after this comes the day for planting out. The field is ploughed and harrowed, and made into ridges "well smoothed and beaten down with the hand," and the seedlings are planted out. All this is done on the one day for fear that the soil which has been so thoroughly pulverised should get too dry.

The seedlings prefer high and dry soil.
159. It is necessary to again quote verbatim from Babu Hem Chunder Kerr for the same reason as before: "The number of ploughings is regulated by the nature of the soil, khear or clayey lands, in which hemp is occasionally, grown, requiring more frequent ploughing than fields of poli soil or light, sandy loam, which form the majority of the ganja beds. The seedlings at the time of transplantation are from four to five weeks old and from six to twelve inches high. The smaller ones are collected for higher and drier fields, in which they are enabled to throw out their roots much quicker and easier, and grow up much faster than in low fields, the soil of which is somewhat heavy owing to the existence in it of a greater amount of moisture, which retards the growth of very tender plants ................ If rain falls within three or four days after the transplantation, it proves injurious to the young plants, the roots of which, not having taken any hold upon the soil, rot and die away."

Treatment of crop between planting out and removal of the males.
160. The operations of the next few weeks are thus described by Dr. Prain: "A month or so after transplantation, about the middle of October, the fields are carefully weeded; a fortnight later, beginning of November, the ridges are hoed down as far as is possible without injuring the roots of the hemp, which are then well manured with oil-cake, or a mixture of cake and cow-dung, and the ridges rebuilt over the manure. About the middle of November the plants are trimmed by the removal of the lower branches; this helps to give the plant the pyramidal shape that ensures the flowering tops being as close together as possible, obviates the formation of ganja close to the ground, where it would certainly get covered with sand and mud, and finally admits of another course of ploughing and harrowing with a narrow ladder between the ridges; this course immediately follows the trimming, and is itself followed by a second course of manuring with powdered cow-dung and oil-cake, after which the ridges are again rebuilt."

The elimination of the males.
161. At about this stage the detection and removal of the male plants is begun. An expert is required for the work, either the professional poddar or parakhdar or the cultivator himself if he has acquired the necessary skill in distinguishing the male from the female plants. The exact differences by which the plants are distinguished by the experts cannot be described with confidence. The operation takes place before the flowers are developed; and Babu Hem Chunder Kerr says that the inspection is invariably made in the morning so as to have a good light, which shows how fine these differences must be. The poddar breaks over the plants which he decides to be male, the cultivator plucks them out, and fills the blank spaces with plants from the parts of the field where they are left in greater number. Then follows the first irrigation, which is regulated so as to moisten the ridges, but leave no water standing in the furrows. The poddar's visit may be repeated two or three times, and the field may be irrigated from three to six times in the following few weeks. The cultivator himself is always on the look-out to detect and remove male plants which may have been overlooked at the regular inspections. Between the first and second irrigations the ridges are hoed and the field manured a third time.

Maturing of the crop and detection of abnormal females.
162. Babu Hem Chunder Kerr states that the male plant begins to flower in November and the female plant in the beginning of January, and Dr. Prain adds that from the time the latter flowering begins "the cultivator is on the outlook for those abnormal male flowers on his female plants which the poddar could not possibly have foretold." The ganja begins to ripen about the middle of February, "the state of maturity being indicated by a brownish appearance and the falling off of all the larger leaves." The Commission visited Naogaon on the 16th February, when the harvest was in full swing.

The Bengal cultivator misnames the sexes. The khasia plant not discovered outside Bengal. The Bengal cultivator does not grow a seed-crop.
163. There are one or two matters in which the ways of the Bengal cultivator are different from those of the people of other provinces. They talk of the ganja-bearing plant as the male and the pollen-bearing plant as the female. In the Central Provinces and the west of India the cultivator seems to have learnt more of the principles of fructification in plants, and generally calls them by their true sexes. The existence of the khasia (emasculated) plant, which Babu Hem Chunder Kerr calls hermaphrodite, and Dr. Prain describes as "functionally defective," "useless but innocent," and "collated, as its name implies, with the sex to which it really belongs," has apparently no parallel at Khandwa in the Central Provinces. The plant is left standing at harvest, or rejected from the heap if it has been gathered by mistake. The Bengal cultivator does not grow a crop specially for seed as is done at Khandwa. He uses the grains that fall from his ganja in the processes of manufacture, which are very numerous, notwithstanding all the pains that have been taken to eradicate the male plants.

Cultivation not confined to any class.
164. The cultivation of hemp in the Ganja Mahal is a practice that is handed down from father to son in common with so many arts and industries in this country. Beyond this the industry cannot be said to be confined to a class. Musalmans very largely preponderate among the cultivators in about the proportion of 7 to 2 according to Mr. Price. There is no evidence that the occupation is held in contempt, a point which Dr. Prain has discussed at pages 47 and 48 of his report. Babu Hem Chunder Kerr entered fully into the details of cost of cultivation and the profits of the cultivator. He estimated the former at Rs. 50 to Rs. 60 and the latter at Rs. 25 to Rs. 50 per bigha. There is no equally good information of more recent date. Ganja ranks as one of the superior crops.

Rain damages the crop when it is maturing.
165. Babu Hem Chunder Kerr notices a fact which appears repeatedly in the evidence from all provinces that "when the plants begin to flower in clusters and the resinous matter is formed, rain spoils the ganja." The quantity and superiority of Central Asian charas is said to be due to the dryness of the climate in that region. This is a point of considerable interest as a possible explanation of the inferiority of the drug when cultivated in the rainy season. There is no evidence of cultivation in the Darjeeling district for fibre. From the evidence relating to other parts of the Himalayas, it is improbable that such cultivation does not exist.

Irregular cultivation. It may yield ganja, but probably does not often do so.
166. Though there is not any great amount of illicit cultivation, it will be interesting to note the information furnished by reports and evidence as to the methods employed in it. Mr. Basu, Assistant to the Director of Land Records and Agriculture, reports that he observed signs of the spontaneous growth where it was not plentiful being looked after with some degree of care. Talking of Bhagalpur and Purnea, he says: "As a rule the people of these districts could not distinguish between male and female plants, the leaves of both being used as a bhang; but one man pointed out to me a plant which was a female, and said that this class of plants produced the best drug. It is not uncommon to see a few selected plants, mostly females, left on the ground; these acquire a more bushy appearance not unlike that of the ganja-bearing plant. All this made me suspect that the people knew a great deal more about the bhang plant than they were willing to avow." This would lead to the belief that the secret cultivator not unfrequently succeeds in producing smokable ganja. An Excise Deputy Collector describes one method by which the plant is not only concealed from view, but which may result in effectually secluding the female plant. When the plant is a foot high, an inverted earthen pot is placed over it supported by pegs fixed in the ground. The confined growth takes the form of a cabbage-flower (sic), and would in all probability retain the resin in more than common quantity. A Burmese witness has described a similar method as being the regular practice in the Shan States. The Registrar of Calcutta (98), enquiring from fakirs and religious mendicants, learns that the wild plant is made to produce ganja for smoking by lightly rolling the flower spikes of the growing plants between the hands, thereby causing the component parts of the spike to stick together, and preventing the access of the pollen. "This treatment, repeated several times, converts the spikes into what is commonly called jata, which gives the matted appearance to the article." Witness (53) states that he has seen ganja plants cultivated illicitly from the twigs of which ganja as good in appearance as excise ganja can be prepared, but the flavour of it is alleged to be inferior. There is not in the evidence, however, any general confirmation of the supposition that the illicit cultivation produces the stronger form of the drug. The matter will be further examined in dealing with the preparation of the drugs. There are not, however, sufficient grounds for supposing that the homestead cultivation or the fostering of the wild plant is carried on on any extensive scale. It is not often that either practice produces anything superior to bhang, and where there is an unlimited quantity of good bhang growing wild, there can be little inducement to illicit cultivation with its attendant risks. No information has been given of occupants ever being paid for allowing the bhang growing on their lands to be collected, and that incentive to fostering the plant appears to be wanting. It will be seen also that where the wild plant does not prevail, the licit consumption of ganja is comparatively small, and the consumers are therefore few.

Tributary Mahals. The female plants are twisted or mutilated.
167. The Tributary States of Orissa after the Ganja Mahal contain the most extensive and important cultivation in the Province of Bengal. This cultivation has never been made the subject of detailed enquiry and report, and the information now given in answer to the Commission's questions is but scanty. It appears to be of the homestead sort, and limited to a few plants in each plot. The only suggestion offered that it is sometimes conducted on a larger scale comes from the Sub-divisional Officer of Jajpur in Cuttack (52), who says: "If the lands be small, the seeds are sown broadcast; if the lands be large, the seeds are first sown in a nursery plot." Mr. Wylly, Government Agent at Keonjhar, states that the plant is grown in seed beds in April and May and transplanted, which may be regarded as some confirmation of the above witness. If this fact is accepted, the evidence shows that the plants are raised in three ways—either accidentally sown, sown broadcast, or transplanted. At the beginning of the rainy season—that is, in June-July— the plants will be about a foot high, and standing in greater or less number in a plot near the homestead. The plant takes some five or six months to mature from the time it has reached this stage. Mr. Taylor (36), an officer who has served in Orissa since 1866, says that the plants are hoed and weeded, and the roots loosened and dressed with vegetable mould or well-rotted cowdung. Rai Nand Kissore Das, District Officer of Angul, states that the plants are watered when necessary. There is no evidence that the male plants are extirpated. Witness (63) does not speak positively on the point, but it would appear from the evidence of Mr. Wylly that some distinction is made in the treatment of plants of different sex. "The male plant," he says, doubtless meaning the female, "is emasculated by having its stem punctured or cut, and pieces of broken tile inserted in these cuts." That this process is in vogue is confirmed by Babu Manmohan Chakravarti, who does not, however, make any distinction of sex with reference to it. The plant is subjected to still another operation, which is mentioned by Rai Nand Kissore and Babu Manmohan Chakravarti, without any distinction of the sex of the plant, except that the female plant is indicated by the language used. The former says "nothing more than the twisting of the stem for the production of ganja is done;" the latter, "to prevent over-branching of the flower heads, they are roughly twisted." There is no more information of the treatment of the plant till it ripens and is gathered in December-January. This appears to be the season of growth notwithstanding that Babu Kanti Bhushan Sen makes it synchronous with the Rajshahi season. It cannot be correct, as he states that the plant grows spontaneously from the previous year's seed towards the close of the rainy season, for this is contrary to the habits of the hemp plant in the plains of Northern India, and the fact that the natural conditions at the close of the south-west monsoon do not seem to be favourable to the spontaneous germination of any kind of seed.

Political States, Chota Nagpur. Information derived from an inquiry made in 1890. Mutilation of the female plant.
168. The summary of the results of the inquiry made by Mr. Grimley in 1890 in the States of the Chota Nagpur Division gives a few details of the method of cultivation in that region. Unfortunately no question was directed to ascertaining the season of growth, and the information on this point is not, therefore, decisive. Sirguja reports that seeds are sown or plants grow during the rainy season. This agrees with the account from the Garhjat States as was to be expected. The practice of transplanting is mentioned from Udaipur. In the answers to the question whether the male plants are destroyed, the sexes are confounded, but it is clear that the general external differences are recognised. Bonai reports that those plants on which flowers grow are destroyed, and those on which the leaves become intertwined are preserved. The latter description clearly indicates the clustered spike of the female plant. Gangpur reports that the male plants (really female) which produce flowers and fruit are not destroyed, which may well imply that the others are. It may be inferred generally that the practice is not well established or systematically carried out. It is probably in the empirical stage described by Dr. Prain (page 12), and directed to the removal of a plant which is useless rather than mischievous; for Bonai says: "No one can distinguish which is the male or female plant." The answers show also that the male plant is very generally preserved for use as bhang, while the one with intertwined leaves is kept for ganja. The ground is ploughed and dressed, but not apparently treated in any special manner. The splitting of the stem with insertion of a potsherd and the twisting of the plants are practised; but it would appear from the Udaipur answer that the twisting is merely the means of splitting the stem. It is reported from Gangpur that cross incisions are made in the stem with a knife, and "something like opium or other intoxicating thing is put into it, and the interstice is then closed up with earth to increase the power of intoxication." It may be concluded that the method of cultivation does not differ from that in vogue in the Garhjat States.
 
Hill Tippera.
169. No description is furnished of the cultivation in Hill Tippera, but a well informed witness classes it with that of the Garhjat States. It is not likely that it is more skilful or elaborate.

Kuch Behar.
170. There is no regular cultivation in Kuch Behar, and the homestead cultivation, if there is any, cannot be different from that of the surrounding British territory.

Assam.
171. There is no regular cultivation in Assam, and the evidence gives no information about the processes employed in the illicit and hill cultivation. Mr. Anderson states that the Miris of Lakhimpur hedge in the wild growth; Mr. Godfrey that the plant is weeded. The cultivators named are, besides the Miris of Lakhimpur, the Nagas of the Sibsagar frontier. Mr. Spicer mentions Kukis, Patnies, and a few coolies, and his evidence relates to the Cachar Valley. The hill tribes of the province and its frontiers may be included in the list, and the coolies generally. The drugs produced are bhang and very inferior ganja. The two things are practically the same.

North-Western Provinces.
172. There are three classes of cultivation in this province—that carried on in the Himalayas for fibre and seeds with charas as a bye-product, the recognised cultivation of bhang in Farakhabad and Hardoi, and the desultory homestead cultivation which prevails to a greater or less extent everywhere in the plain country.

Cultivation in the Himalayas.
173. The first is well described by witness (49) and in the "Field and Garden Crops of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh" by Duthie and Fuller. Mr. Dharma Nand Joshi is Settlement Deputy Collector, Garhwal, and his account is probably based on personal inquiry and observation, and may therefore be quoted. The fields near houses are generally selected for hemp because they are better manured, and the soil must be light. Early in June the field is cleaned of all rubbish which is burnt upon it. It is ploughed immediately after a good downfall of rain. In the beginning of July the seed is sown; and this must be done on a fine day, for the seed will not grow if sown in the wet. Chaff is then scattered over the field to protect the seed from the birds. In eight days the seed germinates, and fifteen days afterwards the crop is carefully hoed so that the plants are not injured. After another fortnight the field is weeded a second time. No other operation is described till September (Bhado), when the plants have grown up, and some have begun to bear seed. These are called "sujango." or "kalango" (according to Duthie "gul bhang"), and are the female plants. Some do not bear seed, and are called "phulango" (according to Duthie "phul bhang"), and they are the male plants. These latter are plucked up and laid in the sun for a few days to dry, and are then manufactured into fibre. The fibre from the male plant is superior. The female plants have meantime been growing up to a height of some ten feet, of which the upper third is full of leaf and seed. In (Kartik) November the female plants are cut down from the root, and spread in the sun for twenty-four hours to dry. The charas is then got from the plants by rubbing the heads between the hands. This description gives the female plant a life from germination to harvest of little more than four months. Duthie and Fuller put the sowing in May, and this gives a longer life, more nearly approaching the period of growth, about six or seven months, in the ganja tract of Bengal. The latter is probably the more correct.

Class of cultivators: Cultivation is not reputable.
174. Duthie and Fuller write that hemp growing is restricted to the lowest classes of cultivators, being considered beneath the dignity of the higher castes. So much is this the case that the phrase "May hemp be sown in thy house" is one of the commonest of abusive imprecations. Mr. Dharma Nand and other witnesses corroborate this account. The principal cultivators appear to be the Khasias or Tabhilas, a class of people above the Domes and below Rajputs in the social scale, who do not wear the sacred thread. If a Brahman or Rajput wishes to cultivate hemp, he engages a Khasia or Dome to work for him; but, after the crop is taken off, he has no prejudice against making charas or separating the fibres from the stalks. Dr. Prain (page 48) has traced the contempt in which the hemp cultivator is held to the original motive of the cultivation, viz., the production of fibre, and points out that the cultivators of other fibres, such as sann (Crotalaria), are similarly regarded. Mr. Cockburn (34) confirms this explanation, suggesting that the offensiveness of the operation of rotting the stalks is the origin of the dislike. Unfortunately Mr. Dharma Nand from direct knowledge contradicts this, which might have been a reasonable solution of the question; for he says that the higher classes have no objection to this operation. The origin of the prejudice is probably to be sought in very early social institutions. The seeds are, next after the fibre, the important part of the products of Himalayan cultivation. They are eaten, and yield oil. The seed of the uncultivated plant is very inferior in size, and is not therefore used for sowing.

The regular cultivation of bhang.
175. There is very little information about the methods employed in the regular cultivation of bhang in the districts of Farakhabad and Hardoi. The crop must be grown in fairly large plots or fields, for it is capable of being measured, and the Agricultural Department apparently keeps a record of the area. The seed would seem to be sown at the same season as wheat and barley, and mixed in patches with these crops. It is harvested in May after the other crops have been taken off the ground. There is no evidence of the male plant being eradicated.

Secret cultivation.
176. The homestead or desultory cultivation for the production of ganja seems to be carried on for the most part secretly. Mr. Bruce of Ghazipur, referring to his own district of course, states that the cultivation is not carried on openly, and it is therefore difficult to obtain any particulars about it; that the seed is sown broadcast in good soil, and the plants afterwards moved to some enclosed place, such as the courtyard of a house, and carefully tended; and that the female plants are used for ganja. Regarding the practice of eradicating the male plant, the evidence is not decisive, and what there is refers sometimes to the tending of wild growth, and sometimes to the more methodical cultivation. Thus Mr. Ferrard, Magistrate and Collector of Banda, referring to the spontaneous growth on the Gumti river, says that, in spite of close police supervision, "the people continue to keep some plants and leaves, and prepare drugs from them. In such cases the male and female plants are kept separate." He may be talking in this place of the drugs and not the growing plants, for he says further that he has been told that "the male plants are cut down when young and dried, and its leaves form bhang. Ganja is made from the female flower and petals when almost ripe. The plants can grow together until the period of fertilisation." Witness (48) has been told that the male plants are extirpated. On the other hand, the drug contractor of Moradabad (248) had never heard of the male plant being extirpated.

Cultivation for ganja in former days.
177. The information regarding bygone cultivation throws some light on the knowledge of the people and the practice in respect of the removal of the male plant. Witness (61) states that there was a good deal of cultivation formerly at Loohaisar, tahsil Fatehpur, in Barabanki, but it was forbidden. Witness (249), referring to the same cultivation, seems to say that it was grown in a tract called Mahadeva, and this must have yielded the ganja which other witnesses speak of as Mahadeva. Witness (61) gives some details of the methods then employed. The seed used to be sown with wheat and other crops, and when the plants had attained a little growth, the Kabariyas, and they only, were able to distinguish which were ganja and which bhang plants, i.e., female and male respectively. The ganja plants were then transplanted to some suitable spot. He mentions also the practice of twisting the leaves (sic) to make the plant produce ganja.

Principal features of irregular cultivation.
178. It is not worth while discussing the evidence of individual witnesses further. It may be inferred from the whole that the distinction between the male and female plants is pretty widely known; that where the spontaneous growth is in small and manageable quantity, and where plants have been sown in suitable places, or transplanted into such places, the female plants often receive special care and have the males removed from among them; and that for the more desultory sort of cultivation it is not very material whether the seed is taken from the cultivated or wild growth, from ganja or from bhang.

Tehri Garhwal and Rampur.
179. There is no information of any methods in vogue in the States of Tehri Garhwal and Rampur different from those of the province generally.

Punjab. Himalayan cultivation.
180. There is more or less evidence of cultivation of the hemp plant all over the Himalayan portion of the province, including the smaller Native States. The cultivation is in small patches. A report from Kulu in 1880 says: "Almost every house has a small patch near it, a long strip beside a hedge, or a small bed a few square yards long (sic) in area." The only other detail of cultivation furnished is that the season of growth is from April and May to October and November. It may be safely assumed that the method of cultivation does not materially differ from that practised in Kumaon, which has been fully described. Whether charas is produced to the same extent may be open to doubt, but the information on the point is defective.

Cultivation in the plains for bhang.
181. Though the extent of cultivation in the Punjab plains is not great, the details of the methods employed in it, which can be gathered from the evidence and papers, may be noted. A memorandum by Hari Chand, Assistant to the Commissioner of Excise, states that "people grow it in both harvests in the months of March and November. They cut plants for use in February and June." The latter named months appear to relate to the period within which the plant is gathered if it is sown with the late or rabbi crops. An account of the cultivation is furnished in the appendix of Mr. James Wilson's evidence as having been given him by his Excise Assistant, Mr. Kirthee Singh. The plant is reared for bhang only, never for ganja, and charas is not extracted except rarely for private consumption. The land is usually close to the village, and of the description called niain, the same as that described by Duthie and Fuller, when speaking of the Himalayan cultivation, which the daily offices of the villagers provide with a plentiful supply of manure. It is ploughed frequently in August and September, the seed is sown broadcast in the latter month, and the field is watered. The watering is repeated three or four times, and the crop is hoed now and then and kept clear of weeds. The crop is ready to cut in March and April. No distinction is made between male and female plants. The whole is cut and dried together, and the leaves, flowers, and small twigs are then shaken out and form bhang. The outturn is eight to ten maunds a bigha. A little charas is sometimes made by beating the flowering twigs over a piece of cloth laid on the ground. A greyish white powder falls on the cloth which is collected and dried.

A few details of the method of cultivation.
182. This account gives only one season of cultivation, but there are witnesses to corroborate the Assistant to the Commissioner of Excise as to the plants being grown with both the early and late crops, and other fragmentary information is furnished as to the processes employed. Witness (68) mentions the use of goat and sheep dung, and the advantage of sowing four or five seeds together when the plant is to be grown amongst tobacco or garden crops. This would be cold weather cultivation. He also mentions the broadcast sowing, and states that the product of the plants grown in sailaba lands is more intoxicating. Witness (26) states distinctly that there are two seasons for the cultivation, from Kartik to Chait (OctoberNovember to April-May), and Baisakh to Sawan (May to August); and he mentions two curious manures, the "excreta of a serpent" and "decayed swallowwort." The cultivation is carried on in small plots, and only by the keepers of takyas and dharamsalas, especially by Sikhs. Witness (74) states that transplanting is practised, and that the cultivators are the fakirs and keepers of dharamsalas and consumers generally. Witness (67) gives three seasons for cultivation, probably the times of sowing, October-November, February-March, and July-August, and states that the plant is sometimes manured after it has grown a foot or two high. Witness (19) gives the season of sowing as from October to January and the harvest time as March, and states that the crop is cultivated like other chahi-hatri crops on chahi, hatri, or sailaba lands. The crop is cut at night to prevent the loss of seed that would otherwise occur. But this witness has not seen the cultivation. Witness (36), Civil Surgeon of Jhang, a native gentleman, has made direct enquiries in his district. The male plant is, he says, extirpated in February and March, and the rest are gathered in April, the cultivators are of the ordinary class, but are in the employ of the fakir consumers, for whom they grow the drug. Witness (24), Excise Officer, states that the seed is sown in November at the same time as wheat. The field is well drained, cleaned, and manured. The bhang seed is soaked in cow's milk and water the night before sowing. It is sown broadcast. The crop is watered. In March-April the male plant called kera, which is smaller than the female and bears a flowery head, is eradicated. The female plants are cut with the wheat in May. The cultivators are for the most part fakirs, Hindus and Muhammadans, and the products are bhang and ganja. Mr. Dames (9), Deputy Commissioner of Dera Ghazi Khan, states that the land is well watered before sowing between the months of June and September. The seed is sown between October and January, and the crop gathered in March and the beginning of April. Frequent waterings are required, and the crop must be gathered in at night, or it looses much of its value. It may be concluded that the crop is generally grown in the rabbi season, though occasionally in the monsoon; that it requires high tilth, including a liberal supply of manure and irrigation; that transplantation and the extirpation of the male plant are sometimes practised; that the cultivation is for the most part carried on by consumers, of whom a very large proportion are fakirs and religious characters.

Punjab States.
183. The evidence from the Punjab States supplies nothing new regarding the cultivation. From Bahawalpur there is corroboration of Mr. Dames's statement that in the processes preceding the sowing of the seed the land is watered.

Central Provinces.
184. The cultivation of the Khandwa tahsil has been described by the Deputy Commissioner of Khandwa and the Excise Commissioner. These papers, with the Commission's notes, furnish materials for the following account.

The regular cultivation.
185. The average rainfall of the tract in which ganja is cultivated is 33 inches. The soils which are considered most suitable to the crop are— Pandhar, or white soil—land near the village site which is largely mixed with ashes and sweepings from the village; Mand—a light yellow alluvium pervious to moisture; Kali—black soil or regur. The first two are the best; the last is too stiff if the season happens to be very wet. The seed is specially cultivated in fields apart from the ganja, and in this the practice differs from that of Bengal, where the seeds which fall from the ganja in the process of preparation are kept for sowing. The seed of Dhakalgaon, a village in Indore territory, is considered the best, and fetches double the price of other seed. It gives a stouter and more branching plant than the local seed. The same fields are used year after year for hemp cultivation, and it is thought sufficient to manure heavily once in three years. Here again the practice differs essentially from that of Bengal, where the land will only grow hemp every three years, and heavy manuring is required each time it is sown. The manure used in Khandwa consists of household refuse, cow-dung, and ashes, and is given to the land at the rate of sixteen to twenty cartloads per acre. The crop is sown about fifteen days after the first good fall of the south-west monsoon, i.e., in June or July. If the field is not under any crop, it is ploughed in January or February, and in any circumstances it is thoroughly worked up in April or May. The latter is the season for manuring if it is the turn of the field to be manured, and two ploughings and two applications of the bakhar—an instrument which serves the purpose of a harrow—are considered necessary between this time and the sowing. The seed is sown on a sunny day by means of a bamboo drill (sarta), which is used in combination with the bakhar. The seed germinates within a week, and in twenty days the plants have reached the height of about nine inches. The spaces between the furrows are then cleaned with the bullock hoe (kolpa), and between the plants in each row with the gardening hand-implement called khurpi, the plants being thinned out at the same time, so that they shall stand six or nine inches apart. The weeding process goes on for a month, and during it the lower leaves of the plants are removed. There is no transplantation at any time.

The detection and removal of male plants.
186. About six weeks after sowing the examination (parakhai) for eradication of male plants begins. The first plant to be detected and uprooted is the pure male called naria or bhangra. The cultivators recognise a variety of the male plant which they call sheoria, and this is treated like the naria. The male plant, either bhangra or sheoria, occasionally bears some female flowers, and is then called adnaria, with the addition of bhangra or sheoria according as it is supposed to belong to either variety. Naria of course means male, and adnaria half-male. It is to be noted that no mistake is made about the true sexes of the plant by the cultivators of Khandwa. So clearly do they understand the distinction that when asked the reason for removing the male plants, a cultivator replied by asking what would happen if a ram were let loose amongst a flock of ewes. The cultivators themselves undertake this eradication, and no specialist is required. But it is not done very perfectly, for when the Commission visited a ganja field on the 9th September male plants in full blossom were discovered without much difficulty. In September or October the field begins to be irrigated. It will be noted that the south-west monsoon has now nearly ceased, and that rain is henceforward harmful, as it washes off or otherwise dissipates the resin which has begun to accumulate in the female flower spikes. The crop ripens about the middle of November, maturity being indicated by a brownish appearance in the flower spikes.

The female plant with abnormal male blossoms.
187. The Commission inspected some fields in this month, and found that those in which the crop was pure ganja contained a number of plants which the cultivators called by the name of moria. These had generally at the ends of the branchlets composing the spikes one or two male blossoms. They are said to be deficient, though not wanting in resin. They are therefore regarded as inferior, but the Khandwa cultivator does not appear to recognise the mischief that they do in the ganja crop. He, however, attributes to them a specially noxious character in that their seed invariably produces plants of the same kind (moria). They are therefore ruthlessly eliminated from the seed field, while they are sometimes allowed to remain, as was seen, in the ganja field, and are in that case harvested with the good ganja (mal). These appear to be the plants referred to by Dr. Prain as those which "the poddar could not possibly have foretold," and which the Bengal cultivator roots out for himself after the poddar's visits have ceased. They do not appear to be, as Mr. Drake-Brockman supposes, the khasia plant of Bengal, but it is possible that the latter is included in them. The khasia form of the plant is not recognised by the Khandwa cultivator.

The seed crop.
188. The processes in cultivating the seed plant seem to be the same as those above described as regards preference of soil, manuring, and tilth. It may be mentioned, however, that irrigation is not invariably practised for either ganja or seed crops. In the case of the seed crop, plants bearing flowers of both sexes are as far as possible eliminated. The process is rational. The blameless female is the more likely to reproduce her own kind. The evidence gives no information of peculiar methods followed in the homestead cultivation. There is no special class of cultivators.

Tributary States.
189. There is no information of the methods of cultivation, if any still exists, in the Tributary States.

Madras.
190. Mr. Benson's bulletin describes in detail the methods of cultivation in the two regions where alone ganja is supposed to be regularly cultivated in the Madras Presidency. The methods differ, and it is necessary to deal with them separately.
 
Regular cultivation in North Arcot.
191. In the Javadi Hills of the North Arcot district the cultivation is carried on by the Malayalis. These people "claim to alone possess the knowledge necessary for the manufacture of ganja, a practice which has been carried on, they state, in these hills from time immemorial." There being no considerable level areas, though the ground is to a certain extent terraced, the crop is sown in small plots. "The soil is free, friable, and open, derived directly from the rocks on which it rests, thoroughly well drained, and appears to be fairly fertile." It grows the ordinary dry food-grains of the country, and the hemp alternates with them. A heavy dressing of cattle dung is absolutely necessary, and this is given in May or June before the rains begin. When the ground has been sufficiently moistened to allow of ploughing, it is broken up, and the ploughing is repeated three or four times until July. The seed is then sown in furrows, opened with the plough three feet apart, and covered in with the feet. The seeds germinate in about a week, and are allowed to grow for three weeks, when they are thinned out. In the meantime the field is kept clean by ploughing between the rows and weeding. When about a foot high, the plants are earthed up by means of the plough. When the crop is four months old, the males—called female by these raiyats—are eradicated. This process goes on continuously as the males betray their presence, but is never quite successful, as a certain amount of seed always sets. The harvest begins in January and continues up to March, ripeness being indicated by leaves and flower heads turning yellow and the former beginning to drop. The crop is never cut on a damp or cloudy day.

Regular cultivation in the Kistna district.
192. The other tract of cultivation is in the Kistna district; the only village which has any considerable area is Daggupad, near the borders of Nellore, and about fifteen miles from the sea. It is a wide open plain, the soil being a stiff black loam with a considerable admixture of kankar. The lands devoted to hemp are sometimes near the village, sometimes at a distance, but always reasonably accessible. The crop is sometimes cultivated and handled by the raiyat himself, but more frequently he supplies only the cattle labour, and the rest is done by others, chiefly Muhammadans, of whom there are many in the village. The crop usually follows millets, dry rice, coriander, tobacco, indigo, or chillies, but sometimes hemp is grown in successive years. In the last case heavy manuring is necessary. This is supplied by folding sheep upon the field or carrying cattle manure to it. The land is ploughed about three times between July and October, and finally worked with a three-tined grubber (gorra, or seed drill used without its seed hopper and tubes). It is then marked off in two feet squares with a marker similar to the gantaka, or scuttle worked without its share. At the angles of the squares four or five plants are dibbled in with a stick, and watered to set them.

The nursery.
193. The seed-bed is usually made on the dam of a tank, and is about six feet wide by sixty feet long. It is dug up with a crowbar, reduced to a fine tilth, and levelled. In August the seed is scattered upon it and covered up by hand, and the bed is hand-watered as often as necessary for the next two months. When the plants are two feet high they are topped off, and in a few days they put out numerous side branches, and are then transplanted into the field. This takes place in October. A month after planting the fields are hand-weeded, and about a fortnight later a plough is run between the rows, and the plants are thereby slightly earthed up. Flowering begins two months after planting out, and the male plants are removed. Here, as in Bengal, the male plants are called female. These plants are cut down at the root and thrown away, and the process goes on as long as male plants are detected. The harvesting begins in February and goes on into March. Nothing is said of the employment of professional parakhdars in either tract. And in neither does irrigation appear to be practised beyond the extent abovementioned in the Kistna cultivation.

Irregular and homestead cultivation.
194. The evidence, as far as it relates to the regular cultivation of the tracts described above, does not add anything to this information. But details more or less interesting and some curious are furnished regarding the stray cultivation. Mr. Morgan, Deputy Conservator of Forests, says of the surreptitious cultivation in forests that the seed is scattered in old cattle kraals, and the plants thinned out to enable them to branch, the males being extirpated. A Cuddapah witness (121) states that the plants are moved from a seed-bed and planted out over the fields, after which they are carefully tended, the big leaves being removed, the trunks twisted, and the plants themselves manured. Another witness from the same district (57) mentions watering and the extirpation of the males. And yet another (134) alleges that the best sorts of ganja are produced by planting the seed or seedling—it is not clear which—in the mouth of a dead dog which has been buried in a suitable position, and by splitting the stem and binding up opium or arsenic in the cleft. The practices of splitting the stem and inserting a potsherd and of twisting the stems are mentioned by so many witnesses that there can be little doubt they are more or less in vogue. The statement that opium is inserted in the stem is also not uncommon; but the rare evidence that arsenic and assafœtida are so used must be classed with that relating to the dead dog, to the use as manure of fowls' and pigeons' dung, of serpents' heads, of debris of dead snakes, of Ptychotis fructus, and of water made dirty by washing fish, and the getting plants poisoned by cobras. These aids to cultivation are some of them not generally known and others not easily procurable, and do not deserve much attention. The point to be noted is that even in the desultory cultivation of the garden, the homestead, and the field, the practice of isolating the female plant is not uncommon, and results in the production of the stronger and more valuable form of the narcotic, viz., ganja. The evidence seems to show beyond doubt that the knowledge of this process is very widespread, extending over the whole Presidency from the hill tracts of Ganjam to the Wynaad. It may also be mentioned as affording facility for cultivation that in the climate of the Madras Presidency the plant requires but little artificial watering. When it has once taken root, the rainfall suffices for it ordinarily. The homestead cultivation is not carried on by any special class except in so far as religious devotees, Hindu and Muhammadan, very commonly engage in it, and it may be said that the cultivators are frequently consumers of the drugs.
 
Madras States.
195. There is no information about the mode of cultivation in the Madras States, except that from Travancore, regarding the stray (and clandestine) cultivation by the Kanikars or hillmen, mendicants and Musalmans. It is said that the seed either of the imported ganja or of locally grown plants is sown thickly in loose soil. The seedlings are in due time planted out six feet apart. "The chada ganja grows denser and shorter than the other variety," presumably the male. "It thrives best in rich loam or alluvial soil. It requires no special manure, but it is believed that the decomposed bodies of snakes, particularly of serpents, is the most efficacious manure. Some even go the length of thinking that there is a special advantage in dropping the seeds into the mouths of serpents killed and planting the thing whole. Excessive rain, it appears, is injurious to ganja. The plant flowers in about ten months from date of planting." The hillmen are those who engage in this cultivation most, but it does not seem to be common. The processes already described for the Presidency in the desultory cultivation are doubtless those employed for similar cultivation in the other States.

Bombay. Soil preferred, and season of sowing.
196. The cultivation, it has been seen, is almost wholly confined to the Central Division of the Bombay Presidency, and a few small Native States in the Deccan and Southern Maratha Country. The method of cultivation in this region has been described by many witnesses, and it proceeds on one system throughout. There is some discrepancy as to the nature of the soil which is most favourable to the crop. The preponderance of evidence is in favour of the lighter mixed soils, and not of the richest and heaviest black soil. Mr. Ebden, Collector of Ahmednagar, gives the following description of it: "When grown for ganja the plant requires a rich friable soil, and land near a village site is often selected on account of the manure with which native habits supply it. Irrigation being necessary in case of insufficient rain, bagait land is preferred. When the plant is grown for seed or for the manufacture of bhang only irrigation is not essential, and in ordinary seasons any good jirait land will do." It is principally in Satara that the richest lands are said to be preferred, but in the ganja-growing tract of that district they are probably not the adhesive clay which is the consistency of the best black soils in the Deccan. Rotation is necessary; good crops of hemp cannot be got off the same land in successive years. The field is thoroughly worked up for some month or two before the south-west monsoon, and is heavily manured, sometimes by folding sheep upon it. In Khandesh the seed is sown in the very commencement of the rainy season, i.e., early in June, the munga nakshatra. Further south it is put in later, viz., in the Punarvasa and Pushya nakshatras, which correspond with July-August. The seed generally preferred is that from Ahmednagar.

Sowing and treatment of the crop.
197. The agricultural processes are the same everywhere. The seed is sown with a single drill, the other pipes of the ordinary triple drill being closed if that implement is used. The lines are from one-and-a-half to two feet apart. The seed springs up within a week, and the plants are allowed to grow till they are about one foot high, the field being kept scrupulously clean meanwhile by the cattle hoe and hand weeding. The rows are now thinned out where they are too crowded, and the lower branches are removed to force up the growth of the tops of the plants. The weeding with the cattle hoe earths up the rows in some degree. In about six weeks from the sowing the plants have reached a height of two feet. The parakhai or parakadar is then called in. Witness (47), Superintendent, Office of Survey Commissioner, and Director of Land Record and Agriculture, says that the ganja cultivators of the Poona district are skilled in distinguishing the male plants. Everywhere else the parakhai, or examination for male plant, is done by an expert, who is paid at the rate of Rs. 8 to Rs. 10, or even more, a month. The plants are at the same time thinned out where necessary to allow of lateral growth. The witness just quoted also states that the female plants are bruised by giving them a half twist a few inches above the root to induce this lateral growth. This process is not described by any other witness. Mr. Ebden, however, furnishes the interesting information that it is part of the parakhai's business to search the country round if he finds symptoms of mischief caused by "pernicious plants." He also says that in the seed field the parakhai is not required. But this may be doubted, for Mr. Kennedy (54), Superintendent of Police, has learnt that the female (sic) plant is eliminated from the seed field, from which it would appear that some extermination of plants is practised here also. Probably attention is directed, as in the seed field of Khandwa, to the eradication of the bi-sexual plants of all kinds.

Male and female plants and their different forms.
198. The educated witnesses who have supplied the information before the Commission understand clearly enough the broad distinction between the male and female plants and their functions, but the cultivators seem to be very hazy on the subject (Mr. Ebden). In spite of the fact that one or two of the names applied to the various undesirable plants which the parakhai casts out show a correct understanding of the reason why they are mischievous, these names without distinction are given by two witnesses as names of diseases, and it is probable that the plants indicated are popularly regarded as diseased plants. Yet it is difficult to believe that there should be so wide a gulf between this ignorance and the intelligence found in the Central Provinces among people of the same race and occupation, and not separated from the Bombay cultivators by any great distance as distances go in India. The forms of the plant, noxious from the point of view of the ganja grower, which have received special names, are given below, with the explanations of the witnesses regarding them in brief. These explanations are evidently gathered from informants, and are not based on the witnesses' own observations, except in the case of Mr. Ebden. Andya (36), Andia (30).—Indicated by the "pin-like white flowers" (36); by organic molecules formed in the top of the plants; affects plants in the beginning of their growth, and lasts about a month (30). Remark.—Apparently the simple male. Bhangira (48), Dhatura (5).—Plant examined by Mr. Ebden, who says: "Latter name identical with that of the common poisonous plant," and pronounced male. Remark.—The simple male. Shevarya (36), Sheora (30), Shewara (5).—One of the branches grows higher, and bends down with a flower like jawari grain at the end of it (36). White flowers grow on the flower top (30). Mr. Ebden has not seen specimen. Remark.—A form of the male plant known by the same name at Khandwa. Haldya (36), Haldia (30).—Recognised by a yellow shoot at one of the knots of the plant (36). Affects the plant by producing a yellow colour in the tops, and lasts till the full growth of the plant (30). Remark.—The yellow colour may be caused by deposit of pollen. Kapshia (36), Kapsha (30).—Recognised by a jawari like grain which gets transformed into a white or yellow flower (36). Whitens the plant (30). Remark.—Witness (36) describes a male blossom; witness (30) some sort of disease or the deposit of pollen. Bundia (36), Bunda (30).—Same description as that of Kapsha (36). The seed is formed in the flower head, which afterwards produces flower (30). Remark.—A bi-sexual form probably. Mora (36), (30), Morai (5).—Recognised by the yellow flower on the top branch, which makes its appearance sometimes fifteen days before reaping of the crop, and has the effect of destroying the better quality of the ganja (36). Appears late, and causes breach (sic) of the flower spike (30). Female partly gone to seed; is not exterminated; is regarded with regret, its meaning being that the male has somehow got access and partly spoiled the crop. Examined (5). Remark.-Probably the same as the moria of Khandwa, and the female with abnormal male blossom of Dr. Prain. Charkha (30).—Makes the flower yellow, and lasts to the end (30). Remark.-Much the same as Kapsha. Aradnar (30), Ardhanar (5).-From the stock to the top of the plants small buds are formed which give rise to white flowers (30). Not examined; but must be, as its name implies, the bi-sexual plant (5). Remark.—The same name, adnaria, is used in Khandwa for the ordinary male plant with some female blossoms. Tik (5).—Examined and pronounced bi-sexual; the ardhanar, which Mr. Ebden did not examine, was probably the same (5). Remark.—Sounds like a short name for the rather clumsy one which goes before. Ropda (5).—Mentioned, but not seen by Mr. Ebden. The fact that the plant in its sexual arrangements takes so many forms will probably be interesting to scientific readers, and the complete list is therefore given. And it is supplemented with such remarks as the information gathered in the course of the Commission's inquiry seems to justify. The Commission do not claim to have made any exact study of the subject, and have not even had an opportunity of personally examining the plant and its cultivation in the Bombay Presidency. As far as the cultivation is concerned, the enumeration of these forms of the plant is of interest as illustrating the fact that the extermination of the male requires considerable practical skill, and that the existence of the moria form, which develops its male blossoms with such delay and caution, is a special difficulty in the way of the complete seclusion of the female, and the production of the finest form of the drug. The crop matures in about five months, and is therefore gathered in November or December in different localities according to the date of sowing. In Bijapur the cultivation is carried on by the ganja farmer, and the parakhai seems to supervise it up to harvest; and it would appear that elsewhere his services are required for a longer period than they are in Bengal, and that he exercises a wider control over the cultivation generally. As a rule irrigation is only resorted to if the rainfall is insufficient or untimely; but the crop is nearly always raised under the protection of a well. After the flower spikes are formed on the ganja plants rain does damage. The crop does not ripen till a month or two after the south-west monsoon has ceased, and during this period irrigation must often be required. Witness (27) describes what must be the simple garden cultivation, which, if it exists at all at the present day, is quite unimportant in this Presidency. The evidence shows a striking unanimity on the point that the heavy rainfall of the belt lying immediately to the east of the crest of the Western Ghâts renders that part of the country unsuitable for the cultivation of hemp. There is a strong body of evidence that rich but light soil and only a moderate amount of rain are required. This has an important bearing on the subject of the spontaneous growth.

Cultivation in Gujarat.
199. About the cultivation in Gujarat the information is that loamy or sandy soils are suitable, and that black soil is not; that the crop takes six or seven months to mature; that it can be raised either as a monsoon crop or as a cold-weather crop; that the former yields the stronger narcotic; that the males are extirpated; and that irrigation is not required. There is no information about the employment of the parakhai, and it is probable that in this cultivation for bhang the moderate skill possessed by the cultivators themselves answers all purposes. Both in the Deccan and Gujarat the cultivators are of the ordinary class; the industry is not confined to any caste or grade among them. The cultivators in Ahmednagar are sometimes Brahmins.

Bombay States.
200. The description of the cultivation given above applies to the Southern Maratha Country Agency and all the States in the Southern and Central Divisions where they have any cultivation at all. The following agencies have not any regular cultivation: Kathiawar, Cutch, Palanpur, Mahi Kantha, and Rewa Kantha. Such cultivation as there is consists in the rearing of a few plants which have often sprung up by accident by water-courses in gardens and in fields, generally irrigated fields, such as those where sugarcane is grown. There is no information as to whether the male plants are eradicated, or of any peculiar methods employed in the cultivation. The cultivators are either consumers, often fakirs and bairagis, or, if not, ordinary husbandmen who nurse a few plants to provide themselves with an article that will be an acceptable present to such people. The drugs appear to be very rarely sold.

Aden.
201. There is no cultivation of any kind in Aden.

Sind.
202. There appear to be two methods of cultivation in Sind, as stated by witness (5)--one by well irrigation, and the other by artificial inundation or flooding. In the latter case it would seem that the preliminary flooding has to suffice for the whole growth of the crop. The best descriptions are given by witnesses (2) and (14).

The regular cultivation.
203. In cultivation by well the area is generally smaller than in the other process (2). This would be expected, for the former involves a greater amount of labour in the preparation of the land, systematic sowing in ridges, and periodical watering. Mr. Giles' account apparently describes the cultivation under wells, which he states to be the more general. High tilth and manuring are required, goats' dung being the manure preferred. The seed is sown even as late as the beginning of January. It is put in by pinches of five or six seeds at a time on ridges. The crop is gathered in April and May. The male plants are rooted up and thrown away as useless. When the crop is ripening, some of the flower-heads are cut off and preserved separately. These are called ghundyun, and are said to be more intoxicating than the rest of the plants. Small pieces of ghundyun, which fall off apparently in the drying of the rest of the crop, are called dodo or dodi, and are preserved with the ghundyun. Witness (14), in describing cultivation by periodical irrigation and not mere flooding, states that the seed is sown broadcast; that after a preliminary soaking the ground has to be worked up, the seed sown, and the ground again turned over and levelled in one day. Manuring, says this witness, is generally deferred till the plants have made some growth for fear of a noxious worm which attacks the young plants. When the seedlings have appeared two or three inches above ground, weeding begins, and the plants are thinned out. When the plants are a foot high, they are dressed with manure, and this may be done more than once during the period of growth. When the crop reaches the height of about five feet, the male plants, which are distinguishable by their small pale-green flowers, are weeded out. The reasons assigned for this practice are that the female may have more room to grow, and that the male plant is held to cause giddiness when used.

Male plant extirpated.
204. This witness says nothing about the separate collection of certain of the flower spikes, but witness (26) does: "The big ghundis are separated and kept apart to be used as ganja." It may be that this account refers to selection made at the time of manufacture, and not to such a selection from the still standing crop as Mr. Giles seems to indicate. Broadcast sowing appears to be the more common practice, except where a few plants are grown for private consumption. In that case the sides of water-courses appear to be a favourite situation for the plant. The evidence does not show that the people understand the effect of removing the males in increasing the secretion of resin in the female flower spikes. It would seem that the produce of the female plant is preferred for consumption, and that the male is removed because it interferes with the growth of the superior plant. It is in fact treated as a weed. It cannot, however, be doubted that the practice of eradicating it is general. Witness (10) mentions some curious practices intended to enhance the narcotic quality of the drugs, the like of which have been described elsewhere. Some people, says this witness, make an incision in the stem of the bhang plant and put opium into it, sometimes a dead snake is buried under the plant, or it is watered with dhatura-water or huka-water.

Hindus probably preponderate among the cultivators.
205. Hindus appear to be the chief growers of bhang, while the majority of ordinary cultivators are Muhammadans. Mr. Giles writes that "the actual sowing of the seed, the ploughing, weeding, and bird scaring, etc., is always carried out by Bania or Hindu cultivators, the Muhammadan cultivator supplying the bullocks which work the well and the zamindar giving the land. The Bania supplies the seed, but the manure is given in the same proportion as the produce is divided, i.e., one-fifth to the Bania and two-fifths each to the raiyat and the landholder. The landholder also gives takavi or advance in cash to the raiyat." This seems to describe a partnership of a kind which probably exists in the cultivation of other produce in the same country; but there is other evidence to show that the Hindus preponderate in growing this particular crop. The habit or custom is not, however, sufficiently well marked to be regarded as a special feature of the industry.

Khairpur.
206. The cultivation in Khairpur is not likely to differ from that of the rest of Sind. There is no detailed information about it.

Berar.
207. In Berar, as elsewhere, the pandhri or white land near villages is preferred; black soil is too stiff, and has to be made lighter with heavy manuring. The crop is grown in the south-west monsoon, sown in June, and gathered in November. It must be protected by a well in case of failure of timely rain. The official report says: "If the rains fall favourably, no irrigation is required till about October, when the plants are maturing, when apparently they always require to be watered." The cultivation of Berar does not differ materially from that of Khandwa, whence the seed seems to be imported. There is one curious practice which the Commission have not heard of elsewhere. The seed which is sown with the drill is a mixture of Cannabis and Hibiscus cannabinus. When the seedlings are a fortnight old, the Hibiscus plants are weeded out. One witness explains this practice as being due to the fact that hemp seed will not germinate by itself. The official explanation, which is probably correct, is that the hemp seed is by this means economised, the necessary space between the plants being secured at the expense of Hibiscus seed. The male plants (bhangra) are picked out after the crop has reached one-and-a-half feet in height. One witness (9) states that the malis who carry on the cultivation are able to distinguish the sexes, and one other (7) that the services of experts are required. The others are silent on the point. Witness (14) mentions the practice of opening the lower part of the stem, inserting opium, and binding the part up very tightly to increase the narcotic quality of the drug. The same witness moves on the date of sowing to the Punarvasu and Pusha nakshatras, July-August, which is the sowing time in the Bombay Deccan. Witness (11) states that under native rule the plant was cultivated by consumers in the yards of houses. It was watered, and when it had grown sufficiently to allow the sex to be discovered, the ganja smokers uprooted and threw away male plants. There is no particular class of cultivators, unless it be that the malis preponderate among them for the reason that their vocation is cultivation by means of well irrigation.
 
Ajmere.
208. In Ajmere there is but a small amount of desultory cultivation by the Brahmins of Pushkar, malis, and sadhus. The plant may be occasionally tended with some care when it is grown in the garden of a mali or near the hut of a sadhu; but there is some evidence that it is generally allowed to take care of itself. Mr. White King's report of 1886 says: "Even in Pushkar, however, it is grown only in small quantities on the edges of fields and along the banks of water-channels," and this seems to be the most considerable cultivation in the province. This report does not indicate any great care in the cultivation. The produce, according to the same report, is merely bhang. The evidence does not furnish any details whatever of the method of cultivation.

Coorg.
209. In Coorg the methods of desultory homestead cultivation may be employed by some low class coolies. A witness talks of the seeds being "sown broadcast in rich soil mixed with burnt clay, and afterwards transplanted in good rich soil;" but it is not clear that this method is in vogue in Coorg. Some Madras witnesses gave information of the same kind.

Baluchistan.

210. There is no information from Baluchistan.

Burma.
211. Mr. Bridges (3) and the ex-Sawbwa of Nyaungwe State (50) are the only witnesses who give any details of the cultivation in Burma. The Shans and the Danu people appear to rear the plant for the drug in their homestead land; the Kachins, Palaungs, and Lawas to cultivate for fibre in fields. Mr. Bridges is informed that in the former cultivation the male plant is exterminated. The ex-Sawbwa does not know of this practice. But he says that the stem of the plant is split when about the thickness of the finger and a month before maturity, and a piece of wood inserted. A light earthen chatty, or more often a basket, is placed over the flower-head, and allowed to rest upon it, to prevent the plant growing and make the head grow thick. In order to do this, the flower-bearing branches are gathered together and thrust into the vessel, which has a mouth of about a foot in diameter. This is the regular practice in cultivation for drugs. The chatty or basket is kept on the plant for about a month. These processes are not unknown in India. The splitting of the stem is frequently mentioned, but the use of the chatty in only two provinces. No account of the Kachin cultivation has been furnished.

Mysore.
212. A peculiar method of cultivation is described by the Special Assistant Excise Commissioner and the Excise Assistant Supervisor, Tumkur district: "The seeds are sown in a nursery at the beginning of the south-west monsoon. A month after sowing the seedlings are transplanted into pits, each one foot deep, and dug at intervals of three feet, and well manured. The young plants are watered daily for a month or so. The stem of the plant is twisted just above the ground, and the plant itself is bent horizontally to the level of the earth in order to induce the growth of side branches and prevent the vertical growth of the plants like a stick. Just after the appearance of blossoms on the female plants, male plants are destroyed, etc." Such is the latter officer's description. The last sentence is rather faulty, for the extermination of the male plant after the female was ready to receive its attentions would not be of much use. Mr. McDonnell describes a very similar, but even more remarkable, method, to judge by its results in the size of the plant: "When specially cultivated, a circular pit two or three feet in diameter and a foot or so deep is excavated, and well manured with cow-dung and ashes. The plants are made to form a circle round the edge of the pit, and the centre is heaped up with manure as required. The stems rise five to seven and often twelve feet high, each as thick as a man's wrist, and are supported by staves secured with ligatures from the aloe leaf. In other cases single plants are raised in each pit. The stem is then the thickness of a man's arm, five feet high, and as much in diameter. The stem is taken in both hands, and twisted at the root just above the surface of the ground to stunt the growth .................. The male plant is profitless, and is uprooted and thrown away." It is by no means clear to what extent these methods are actually practised, and, for the practical purpose of producing ganja, the important operation of early eliminating the male plant has hardly sufficient prominence in their description. There appears to be a spice of imagination about them––an element in which the subject of cultivation as well as much else connected with the hemp plant is by no means wanting.

Hyderabad.
213. A fairly full description of the method of cultivation is given by the Director of Agriculture and Commerce of the Hyderabad State. The greater portion of the cultivation appears to lie in the north-west corner of the State bordering on the Bombay districts of Sholapur, Ahmednagar, Nasik, and Khandesh. The description does not show any important departure from the methods of the British districts. It may be noted, however, that "fresh seed every year from some distant village is unavoidably necessary." The names of "male and unhealthy kind of plant" which must be weeded out are In Telugu country— In Aurungabad— Kotmir. Mathisar. Kokapoti (dog's tooth). Ardnar. Yongpota. Morga. Bougra. Bhagira. The last three Aurungabad names can probably be identified with the similar names used in Satara and Ahmednagar. It is stated that the extirpation of these plants is a heavy item in the labour bill. The Director mentions having seen ganja plants grown by a fakir in the compound of his hut in Warangal, which is in the eastern part of the territory, about seven to eight feet high, and each plant twelve to sixteen feet in circumference, the stem near the root eleven inches round. These were a few plants only. The cultivation is not confined to any particular class. The witnesses, however, lay stress on the fact that it requires special knowledge and skill, which are possessed by very few.

Rajputana.
214. If there is any regular field cultivation in Rajputana in areas set apart for the crop exclusively, it is not very important, and the papers furnish no information of the methods employed in it. Some details are supplied of the desultory garden cultivation. It is carried on by those who possess gardens, who are generally malis, but may be Kumbhars, Kachis, Ghanchis, Sivris, or of any other caste. Bhang is rarely, if ever, grown as the principal crop. It is sown in the beds with poppy, tobacco, onion, or other vegetables in the month of January or February. Sometimes it is sown round these beds, which may contain in place of the crops mentioned above coriander, mustard, or rijka grass. It is gathered in June. It does not appear to receive any special care. Its growth is to a great extent haphazard, and often springs from accidental sowings. The practice of removing the male plant is not found in any State. In some places the saline character of the soil and the scantiness of water forbid the cultivation. The Commission have been informed that experiments to grow the plant in Erinpura failed.

Central India.
215. Mr. Gunion's memorandum contains a description of the methods of cultivation for ganja and seed in the Indore and Dewas States. The same field is cultivated for bhang and seeds in Indore, but in the Dewas State the male plant is removed from the bhang field. They do not materially differ from that of the Nimar district in the Central Provinces, and it may be doubted if the elimination of males in the Dewas bhang cultivation is a correct description of the selection which is made. It may be noted, however, that the Indore cultivator, unlike the Khandwa cultivator, does not trust himself to buy the seed or exterminate the male plant. Experts are employed for these purposes. In Mr. Gunion's account mention is made of "inferior and unhealthy plants" to be exterminated apart from the removal of males, and it would appear from this that the cultivator, or it may be the Indore reporter, had not such clear ideas of the various sexual forms of the plant as the Nimar cultivator was found to possess. In the Indore cultivation gaps caused by faulty sowings or failure of seed to germinate are filled up with new seed. The soil on which the plant is grown in Dewas is described as "dry, stony, elevated loam." In these States the cultivation is not carried on by any particular class, but it would appear that in Rewah the Kachis alone undertake the industry. The Political Agent of Bhopawar gives the following description of the desultory kind of cultivation employed in that part of Central India: "Hemp seed is sown in poppy or maize fields. When the plant is above two-and-a-half feet high, the main stem is split near the root and a piece of tile thrust in. This prevents the plant from setting seed freely and makes the tops fit for ganja. When particularly strong ganja is required, each hemp plant is watered once with half a tola of opium dissolved in water. The cultivators believe that by transplanting the young plant into the mouth of a dead venomous snake (cobra preferred) the ganja becomes unusually strong." The Commission have heard of the extirpation of male plants in the cultivation of the Gwalior State, and the same information is furnished by Mr. Gopal Ram in the appendix to the North-Western Provinces memorandum. The latter authority also mentions that the crop is irrigated, and that "some cultivators sow wheat in the ganja fields in the months of October and November." The cultivation covers the season from July to December.

Baroda.
216. No details are furnished in the State report, but the cultivation is of very small extent, and it may be confidently assumed that its methods are the same as those of the Gujarat Division of Bombay, with which the greater part of the Baroda territory is intermingled.

Kashmir.
217. The State report would show that there is no cultivation in Kashmir. Dr. Royle's "Fibrous Plants of India" and the references to the hemp plant in "Punjab Products" have been consulted without finding any definite statement to contradict this information. In the latter work both the bhang and "fibre" sent from Kashmir and Ladakh to the Punjab Exhibition are mentioned, but they may very well have been the produce of the wild growth. Dr. Watt refers in his "Hemp or Cannabis sativa" to cultivation of the plant in Kashmir, but without mentioning his authority. Dr. Royle's abstract of information at page 327 states: "All along the Himalayas, that is, in Nepal, in Kumaon, in Garhwal, and up to the newly acquired hills of the Punjab, at elevations of from 3,000 and 4,000 to 7,000 feet hemp is cultivated by the hillmen." Beyond this point westward his information does not go. There is a curious statement by the Governor of Kashmir that "almost all wild hemp, whch is called talia in the Punjab, and is generally female plants in the above-mentioned tahsils, is used for the preparation of ganja locally known by name gard bhang (chura charas)." The meaning is not clear; but the preponderance of the female plants, if it is the fact, indicates either some peculiarity in the environment of the plant in these regions or tending by man.

Nepal. Mr. Hodgson—Page 323 of Dr. Royle's "Fibrous Plants of India."
218. The answers to the Commission's questions furnished by the Nepal Darbar would lead to the belief that cultivation is very uncommon, and only carried on in a desultory way by consumers of the narcotics. But in Dr. Royle's "Fibrous Plants of India" will be found at page 323 a description by Mr. Hodgson of the cultivation for fibre. He states that the cultivation is peculiar to the northern districts of Nepal. These districts, "popularly called Cachar, are nevertheless the prime seats of culture, and there alone is the plant manufactured into rope or cloth, though the edible extracts are sometimes prepared nearer to and around Katmandu." Regular cultivation for fibre is therefore confined to the northern districts. The season of sowing is from March to April. The season is earlier, but the course of cultivation is much the same as in Kumaon. Mr. Hodgson states that "damp soils, comprising black earth, are fittest for this crop." This description does not agree with other information on the subject. The plants flower and fruit in July, and are in their full growth at the beginning of August. While yet succulent and in flower they are cut, with the exception of some seed plants, which are not to be reaped till October. It is the bark of the young but full grown July plants which is soft that is used for making cloth. That of the old or October plants is hard and not suitable for manufacture. Mr. Hodgson says nothing in the extract made by Dr. Royle, if there is anything to be said, of the processes adopted for developing the narcotic in the growing plant. The fibre cultivator of Kumaon does not apparently do anything with this special object, and yet his female plant yields charas. It is probable that the early removal of the males may have the tendency in both places.

Information furnished by the Darbar.
219. The Darbar answers say nothing about the fibre cultivation, but they contain some information regarding the scattered cultivation for narcotics. The following morsels may be quoted: "When the plants put forth fine down, the tip of the plants is cut off, and the big leaves are plucked off, and the plant is shaken from time to time so that the down may fall off. This causes a large number of branches and fine leaves to be produced, and the latter, getting twisted and stuck together, are called in Nepalese lata." "The plant which produces much seed is no good; that which produces little seed is good." "Some persons in the hills plant a few trees which are to be had growing wild." "By slitting the stem of the plant and inserting a piece of opium or clove or bhiroza wood and tying up the part with a string the ganja becomes somewhat more intoxicating. This is done by those who know about it, and is not the work of any particular class." "The male plant of the ganja is solid; the female one is hollow. The male plant is more intoxicating than the female. When the plant has attained a height of two or two-and-a-half feet, it is slightly slit, and ascertained whether it is a male or female."
From these extracts it may be gathered that the wild seedlings are transported and planted in suitable places, and that every endeavour is then made to encourage the secretion of the resin in the female (called male) plants. Probably the cultivators know the effect of exterminating the male plant, and follow the practice, though this is not expressly stated.
 

MEMO.—GANJA CULTIVATION IN GWALIOR STATE.
1. Gwalior Bigha = 1/2 an acre.—Ganja is sown in tahsíls Antri, Sipri, and Kalaras, and is a kharif crop. Antri = 250 bighas cultivated last kharif. Kolaras = 253 bighas, Ditto ditto. Sipri.—Return not received, but I think about 300 bighas. The business is carried on chiefly by Kachis. Method of cultivation and of preparation of drug 1 will give after writing all other replies. Average outturn per bigha 7 maunds 20 seers. Ganja is sown in July. No control is exercised by the State. Custom duty, Rs. 5 per maund, is paid by the purchaser if he exports ganja to British or any other territory, and Rs. 2-8-0 if he exports to any other place in the Gwalior State. It is farmed to a cultivator who gets contract of all custom dues in the tahsíl. Usual price paid by the purchaser is Rs. 3 per maund. Ganja is a product of cultivation. It cannot be procured from the wild plants. The cultivation requires the careful extirpation of the male flowers, and the trees are very carefully seen by the cultivator every week. Even a few of the male flowers may destroy a whole field. First of all, fields are highly manured, and in the month of July, after ploughing the fields for at least three times, ganja is sown in them like other crops. In the months of August and September dub and other grass found in it is taken away. In November and December the fields are ploughed once more to soften the land, and the crop is irrigated four or five times at least. In these months great care is taken that no male flowers appear in the tree. If any male flower appears, the tree is at once cut down. When the ganja is ready, it is cut down and bound in small bundles, say of about a seer each. Some cultivators also sow wheat in ganja fields in the months of October and November. Rent paid to zemindars for ganja cultivation is usually Rs. 10 to Rs. 14 per bigha. Ujjain and Khandwa seed is always sown in Antri—Antri seed does not answer the purpose. Ganja, after being cut, is stored in a convenient place, and is daily crushed by the cultivators with their feet before it is made in small bundles. This is done when the ganja is green. A certain amount of charas is obtained in this (Gwalior) State by scraping off the resin which adheres to the hands in cutting the ganja plant. In tahsíl Antri cultivators do not care much about the charas. In tahsíl Kolaras, district Narwar, I hear charas is obtained in small quantities by the same process as in Kumaun and Garhwal.

Bombay Memorandum.
Extract paragraphs 2 to 14 from the letter No. 562, dated 30th August 1893, from the District Deputy Collector of Bijapur. "2. The hemp plant known as ganja is only grown in the town of Bijapur and nowhere else in the talukas under my charge. It is a domesticated plant, and does not grow wild here, and, as far as I know, nowhere in the Southern Maratha Country.
Mode of Cultivation. "3. It is grown generally as an irrigated crop, either in red or loamy soil well manured. The land is tilled once or twice, and then it is ploughed with a heavy hoe called ' ukkikunti' and levelled. It is afterwards sown through a seed drill, the process of sowing resembling in every respect the sowing of ordinary jowari, the space left between the rows of crops being wider. A leveller called 'dindu' is then driven over the sown area with a view to get the seeds covered over with earth. The seeds required are brought from Ahmednagar and Indore in Central India. It is said that the seeds from the latter are of a superior quality than those obtainable from the former place. As a rule the sowing takes place in July or August, and the crops are reaped within about four months from the date of sowing. If the rainfall is not sufficient, then the crop has to be watered once or twice a week. Handweeding is mostly resorted to in addition to the use of grubber or yedi-kunti. (small hoe) with a view to get rid of the grass or other weeds growing between the rows of crops. By the driving of the yedi-kunti loose surface earth also accumulates at the roots of plants. This process partly serves in keeping up moisture in the earth. When the plants grow to a height of about two feet, the operations of selecting and uprooting the male plants commence, the female plants only, as far as possible, being allowed to remain and grow to maturity. This selection can only be made by an expert called "Párakhi," and if after great care any male or staminate plants escape attention, and are allowed to grow, there is every fear of the entire crop being damaged. The female plants are said to be so sensitive that if, perchance, male ones are allowed to grow even altogether in a separate plot of ground situated in a windward position to the crops, almost all the female plants run into seeds, damaging the crops to a great extent. I am informed that separate plots of grounds were selected for growing the seeds. The experts always walk through the crops, up-rooting the male plants, and this continues up to the time the crop is harvested and gathered. The owner of the ganja farm here has secured the services of an expert from Lengri, a village in the Khanapur Taluka of the Satara district, where the drug is grown on a large scale. Here the plants grow to a height of about 6 to 8 feet. In the fourth month the side pods and the leaves are stripped off with hands, and the crown pods are cut with a knife or a scythe. The pods and the leaves thus collected are stacked in a place, and are trodden while in green state for three or four days, and when dried they are winnowed and the pods are thus separated from the leaves; this latter stuff is called bhang-powder. The experts say that it is impossible to select the seeds which produce male plants. The plant is grown in this part of the country as a narcotic drug and not as a fibre plant. "4. The farm at Bijapur produced about 60 bags of ganja, each containing four maunds (a maund is equal to 960 tolas), worth about Rs. 180 in 1891. In the following year (1892) the yield was about four hundred maunds, worth about Rs. 800 after deducting the necessary expenses incurred in raising the crop, &c. The area sown was about 13 acres.

Berar Memorandum.
As already stated, hemp is cultivated in only three districts—Akola, Buldana, and Amraoti. The Deputy Commissioner of Akola describes the manner of cultivation in the following words:— "For the ganja plant garden land is required; ordinary black soil is apparently too stiff, and an admixture of organic matter is necessary. The soil is twice deeply ploughed and is given as much manure as the cultivator can afford (one tehsildar says 10 cart loads per acre), is then harrowed two or three times before sowing. This is done at the beginning of the rains, at the same time as cotton is sown, and the seed is planted by means of a tiphan or plough drill. It seems to be the practice to mix ambadi (Hibiscus canabinus) seeds with the ganja seeds. The young hibiscus plants are pulled up a fortnight after they have come up, and the reason of the practice appears therefore to be to save seed and preserve a sufficient space between the ganja plants. When they are about a foot and a half high, the plants which are unisexual are examined and the male ones (called bhangia) are picked up. If the rains fall favourably, no irrigation is required till about October, when the plants are maturing, when apparently they always require to be watered. In November the plant, which is then 5 feet high, is cut. The small outer branches are stripped off and put in towards the centre of the plant, which is then pressed with the foot (to flatten the heads), made up into sheaves, and stacked in a shed under pressure, the heaps being opened and the sheaves moved now and then to prevent their getting too hot. The leaves fall off when the plants are tied into bundles. They are collected and called bhang. The bare stalks remain with the heads on them. "The wild plant is not indigenous in Berar. Plants come up near the huts where gosains and other regular consumers live, and if watered and tended, can be used for the preparation of ganja, but are weaker and not so good as the cultivated kind; if not tended, the heads are said to be only fit for smoking like tobacco."


EXTRACT FROM MEMORANDUM REGARDING GANJA AND ITS PREPARATIONS IN MYSORE BY MR. J. G. MCDONNELL, SPECIAL ASSISTANT EXCISE COMMISSIONER IN MYSORE.
III (a) Cultivation.—It is grown as an ordinary dry crop. The soil should be light and red and very deeply ploughed and well manured. There should be seasonable rain, and when crop is ripe heavy dews. The most efficacious, productive, and certain way is by raising the plant in pits. When specially cultivated a circular pit two to three feet in diameter and a foot or so deep is excavated and well manured with cow-dung and ashes. The plants are made to form a circle round the edge of the pit and the centre is heaped up with manure as required. The stems rise 5 to 7 and often 12 feet high, each as thick as a man's wrist and are supported by staves secured with ligatures from the aloe leaf. In other cases single plants are raised in each pit. The stem is then the thickness of a man's arm, five feet high and as much in diameter. The stem is taken in both hands and twisted at the root just above the surface of the ground to stunt the growth. It is said that this operation produces better and a more plentiful crop of spikes. There are two distinct varieties raised, one with a dark green and the other with light green coloured-stem. The dark-stemmed variety is more potential in its effects than the other. A maund or two of good first class "kulli or mulki" ganja can be obtained from each pit treated either way. The male plant is profitless and is uprooted and thrown away.


MEMORANDUM BY MR. R. H. GUNION ON HEMP DRUGS IN CENTRAL INDIA.
4. As regards the method of cultivating the hemp plant, the Minister of Indore writes:— A.—Ganja cultivation. "The kind of soil most favourable is rakhad, which is usually white or light brown and near villages. Black soil is not considered specially fit for the growth of the hemp plant, but the plant thrives fairly well in black soil. "Cowdung manure, with ashes where procurable, is mostly used. The average quantity per bigha is roughly ten cart-loads or 150 maunds. "The ground is prepared in the usual manner by two or three ploughings and harrowing. The field is not divided into rectangles as for poppy cultivation. "Three to five seers of seed per bigha is then sown by means of an instrument called 'sarta' in rows about twenty inches apart. The instrument is drawn by a pair of bullocks. The sowing is done some time after the rains set in, that is, in the months of July and August. The seed used for sowing is procured through experts. Every cultivator is not able to distinguish the quality and kind required. The hemp plants germinate about the fourth day, and about the sixth day green rows appear on the surface. If there is a gap in any row, fresh seed is sown. After about a month the spaces between the rows are scratched, with the object of providing sufficient earth round the roots of the plant, by means of an iron blade drawn by bullocks. The furrows are next cleared of weeds and the superfluous growth of the hemp plant is removed, so as to leave a space from six to ten inches between one plant and another. The greater the room the healthier is the growth of the plant. If the field is too weedy, the operation of weeding and cleaning has to be done a second time, and the scratching operation is performed four or five times to preserve the ridges. All male plants are then removed and female ones are only kept. The female plants do not bear flowers in the popular sense of the word, but put forth tops called ghugarees (flowering tops), which appear two months after sowing. Any plant which does not bear healthy tops is removed, because, if allowed to remain, it is said to spoil the health of the neighbouring plants. The ganja field requires about three waterings after the cessation of the rains. Without these the crop is scanty and unhealthy. It is ready for collection in the month of November. The plants are not uprooted when ripe, but only the tops are cut off and gathered. When they begin to get sticky and look bright in the sunshine, it is a sure sign of the plant arriving at maturity. "From the time of sowing to that of gathering weekly inspections are made of the field with the special object of removing inferior or unhealthy plants. It requires special knowledge to make this inspection and distinguish a superior from an inferior plant, and the work of inspection is entrusted to persons possessing practical experience of this matter, who are paid specially high remuneration—four annas a day and upwards.
B.-Bhang cultivation. "When it is desired to obtain a crop of bhang from the hemp plant, a few male plants are retained at intervals to allow of impregnation and formation of seeds for the production of both ganja and bhang for the next year. "I understand that in this State cultivators do not specially grow hemp for the sole purpose of obtaining a crop of bhang, which is got as an article subsidiary to the seed, to obtain which alone the cultivator seeks. "The bhang ripens about the same time as ganja, but it requires no watering after the rains. "While on this subject of methods of cultivation, I may remark that I am aware that Mr. E. T. Atkinson, speaking of the ganja of the North-West Provinces, says in his Himalayan Districts, page 761, 'the pattar is imported chiefly from Holkar's territories and is of quality inferior to the Bengal ganja. It is purchased at from Rs. 5 to Rs. 6 a maund in Indore in the rough state, and pays a duty of about 4 annas per maund on exportation to British territories.' "I am also aware of Dr. Watt's saying at page 116, volume II of his Dictionary on the Economic Products of India, that charas is obtained in Central India by causing men clad in leather aprons to run through the hemp fields, and that it is made in cakes and sold. Both these things are a matter of history; for my enquiries satisfy me that neither patter, nor charas is now produced, in this State at least. "The average export of ganja annually does not exceed 377 maunds." The method followed in Bhopawar is thus described by the Political Agent:— "Hemp seed is sown in poppy or maize fields. When the plant is about 2 1/2 feet high the main stem is split near the root and a piece of tile thrust in. This prevents the plant from setting seed freely, and makes the tops fit for ganja. When particularly strong ganja is required each hemp plant is watered once with half a tola of opium dissolved in water. The cultivators believe that by transplanting the young plant into the mouth of a dead venomous snake (cobra preferred) the ganja becomes unusually strong. "The best (strongest) ganja is obtained from plants growing in the shade and sparingly watered." As regards Dewas, the Superintendent of the Senior Branch writes:— "The seed of bhang is used for the growth of ganja. Two seers of seed are required for one bigha. The land in which the seed is to be sown is ploughed twice and then the seed is sown. Before sowing the seed, it is soaked in water for one night. The instrument with which the seed is sown is called 'sarota.' The plant springs up in four days. Within a fortnight it grows about two or three inches. The operation of weeding and thinning the plants then begins. This is done thrice. At this stage the operation called 'parkhai' (examination of the plant) is also conducted. The object of this 'parkhai' is to root out the bhang plant from amongst the ganja plants. If only one bhang plant is allowed to remain in the field, it has the effect of turning the whole field into bhang plants. The operation is continued until the ganja plant grows big enough. When the plant attains its full size, its flowers are cut with a sickle. At the time of cutting the flowers the juice that sticks to the instrument or the hand is collected and is called charas. The labourers who cut the flowers usually take away this charas for themselves. "The seed of bhang is used for the growth of bhang. About two seers of seed are required for one bigah. The land in which the seed is to be sown is ploughed twice and then harrowed. Then a handful of bhang seed is taken and spread in the field. The land in which the seed is sown is harrowed once more. After four or five days the plant springs up. After a month the weeding and thinning of the plant commence. In the field of bhang, if a bhang plant named 'bhangria' grows it spoils the whole bhang field. The cultivators, therefore, root out this 'bhangria' plant from amongst the bhang plants. Within three or four months the bhang plant attains its full size. It is then cut with a sickle and spread in the field." 5. The cultivators of the hemp plant do not appear to form a special class in Central India, except in Rewah, where the cultivation is confined to Kachhis. 6. Opinions differ as to the special conditions necessary for the successful cultivation of the hemp plant. It is believed in Dewas that no soil in the State is suitable for the plant except that of the two villages, in which alone, as already stated, it is cultivated. The soil of those villages is said by the Superintendent to be "dry, stony, elevated, loam." The Political Agent in Bhopawar has seen ganja-producing hemp growing from near sea-level to an elevation of 4,000 feet.


REPORTS BY MR. B. C. BASU, ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND RECORDS AND AGRICULTURE, BENGAL, ON THE SPONTANEOUS GROWTH OF THE WILD HEMP PLANT IN THE DISTRICTS OF BHAGALPUR AND PURNEA
10. The soil on which the bhang plant grows in Purnea and North Bhagalpur is invariably of a sandy character; in fact, as I have said before, there is little else but sandy soil in these districts in particular on the higher lands which form the village site. The hemp plant is known to require a loose sandy soil and a moist climate, both of which conditions are offered by the district of Purnea and the northern half of the Bhagalpur District. I cannot also help believing that the negligent character of the prevalent system of cultivation encourages the growth and spread of bhang. Thus I found that although tobacco is very largely grown in Purnea, very little care is bestowed on keeping the crop free from weeds. The young seedlings are transplanted early in Kartik, and after two or three weeks, that is, about the end of Kartik, the soil is lightly stirred up with a hoe, and bhang and all other. weeds are removed. Beyond this single cleaning, few cultivators would attempt to check the fresh growth of weeds. A fresh crop of bhang comes up in a short time and overspreads the field. It is in fact said that bhang comes up anew after each weeding during the cold weather, the roots throw up fresh shoots, and there are always some seeds in the soil ready for germination at any time during the cold weather as soon as circumstances permit. In North Bengal and in parts of Central Bengal, where tobacco forms a staple crop, the raiyat would never allow a single weed to appear in his tobacco field until the crop is actually reaped, and however favourable the conditions of soil and climate may be, it is certain that the bhang plant can never obtain a footing on land so carefully cultivated. 11. I have so far dealt with the circumstances under which the wild hemp plant grows spontaneously in Purnea and Bhagalpur. It is clear that the plant is never found on land that remains long under water, that it is as a rule found on homestead lands, such as are either cropped with mustard and tobacco, or are used as bathan for cattle. 12. There can be no doubt that Government is now foregoing what may prove to be an important source of excise revenue owing to the free use of bhang in those districts where the hemp plant grows in a state of nature, and, what is more serious is that no attempt is made to check the use of this noxious drug. The working man often stands in need of ganja, but bhang is the beverage of the comparatively well-to-do and lazy classes, and it is only reasonable that they should be called on to pay their share of taxation instead of altogether escaping from it, as is the case at present in many of the districts of North Behar. I have considered the possibility of exterminating the wild bhang plant, and if this can be done, as I believe it can, bhang may be grown under the same restrictions as ganja is at present cultivated in Rajshahi. I have said that the plant grows very seldom at a distance from the raiyats' houses, so that if the responsibility for eradicating the plant is thrown upon the immediate occupier of lands, I have little doubt that the weed can be exterminated in the course of a few years. If the plant grow like many other weeds in all circumstances of soil and situations, its extermination would be a work of great difficulty; but, confined as it is to lands immediately adjoining the raiyats' homesteads, its eradication need not entail undue hardship on the cultivators. The plant comes up in November and occupies the soil till May, and although each weeding causes fresh plants to come up, yet two or three weedings given in succession cannot fail to free the land for the year from this noxious weed. The point to be insisted upon is that the. plants should never be allowed to flower and seed. The seeds of the plant are easily carried from place to place; they are easily transported by wind and water, and cattle and goats, which occasionally browse on bhang, may drop seeds with their excrements in fields that may be previously free from the pest. The total extermination of the plant may therefore require several years of determined and continued effort. Efforts have been made from time to time to exterminate wild hemp in several police circles through the agency of village chowkidars, but they were of an extremely desultory character and consequently failed to produce the desired effect. In case it be decided to have the plant exterminated, I may suggest that an experiment may be made in a small isolated tract of country for two or three years in order to see if the plant can be wholly destroyed by a continued course of eradication.



NOTE BY MR. B. ROBERTSON, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, NIMAR, ON CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION OF GANJA IN NIMAR.
Locality and climate. Ganja is grown in 60 or 70 villages in Nimar. The cultivation is confined to the western half of the Khandwa Tahsil. The rainfall at Khandwa may be taken as an average for this tract. During the last 25 years this average has been 32.76.

Soil.
2. The soils in which ganja is grown are known locally as— " Pandhar "—land near the village abadi, which is largely mixed with ashes and sweepings from the village (see Nimar Settlement Report, paragraph 307). " Mand "—a light yellow alluvium previous to moisture (see for description, Nimar Settlement Report, paragraphs 13 and 306). " Kali"—black soil. The first two are the best. In very wet seasons, the third kind retains too much moisture near the surface.

Seed.
3. Seed is raised in the villages of Karki, Punjhria, and Chhirbel in this district. But the best seed comes from Dhakalgaon in Holkar's territory. The latter gives a stouter and more branching plant than the local seed. Both seeds are used all over the ganja-growing tract, but Dhakalgaon ganja is more specially produced towards Dhangaon in the north. The price of ordinary seed is 8 annas a ser and of Dhakalgaon Re. 1. The production of the latter is limited, and it is much sought after and is therefore high-priced.

Ploughing and manuring.
4. The land is plentifully manured about every third year. There is no rotation of crops, ganja being grown in the same fields year after year. The manuring takes place in April or May. The manure is spread on the surface, and mixed with the soil by " bakharing." There are in all two ploughings and two " bakharings " before the soil is ready for the seed.

Sowing.
5. Sowing takes place about 15 days after the rains have broken. The seed is sown by means of a hollow bamboo used along with a " bakhar." There is no transplantation in Nimar. The seed germinates in three or four days after sowing.

Weeding.
6. Weeding is commenced about 20 days after sowing. A hoe (kolpa) drawn by a pair of bullocks is passed along the furrows to clean the space between the rows of plants. Ordinarily this bullock " hoeing " takes place twice. The spaces between the plants are cleaned by means of a " khurpi," or small hand-hoe. About the same time, the lower leaves of the plants are broken off, leaving the lower part of the stem bare. The whole of this weeding and cleaning process goes on for about a month.

Eradication of male and useless plants.
7. Next takes place the eradication of the male and certain other useless plants. The word used is "parakh," meaning examination. The first plant eradicated is the male, known as " naria" or "bhangra." Then comes another plant called "adnaria," a hermaphrodite showing signs of both sexes. Other plants are known as "seoria" and "moria," both of which are generally uprooted. The " moria" is, until 15 days or so before cutting, undistinguishable from the female plant. The flower of the female plant never opens, while the "moria" flower at this time assumes a yellowish or reddish tinge and opens out. A certain amount of ganja can be obtained from the "moria" plant, and it is sometimes allowed to stay on in a crop of "mal" or good ganja. It possesses the faculty of fertilising itself, for it produces a seed, the result of sowing which is a crop of nothing but " moria " plants. It is needless to state that it is ruthlessly weeded out of ganja which is being grown for seed. The "párakh" process begins about a month after sowing. About this time both the male and female plants begin to flower. All the cultivators possess the faculty of recognising the noxious and useless plants, and no special class is employed for the purpose. The male and " adnaria" plants first manifest themselves. " Moria " plants, as has been noted, are not distinguishable until shortly before the crop is ripe.

Watering.
8. In September, three months after sowing, the crop is irrigated. Three waterings are given at intervals of 10 to 14 days.  

Harvesting.
9. About the first or second week of November the crop ripens, the flowering heads assuming a brownish appearance. Dhakalgaon ganja ripens 15 days later than local ganja. The twigs which bear the flowering heads are broken off, collected in baskets, and carried to a threshing-floor. There they are spread out, and a heavy roller is passed over them. This is done only the first day as a rule; after that, as the twigs begin to dry, they are pressed under foot for three or four days. By this process the twigs are almost entirely cleaned of their leaves, and only the flowering tops remain, the latter being flattened out. The produce is then known as " kalli." The "kalli" is afterwards taken to the cultivators' houses and there stacked in heaps, which are kept pressed down by a heavy weight. It remains like this for a week, after which it is packed in gunny bags, each containing from 2 to 3 maunds, and taken to the Khandwa storehouse.  


MEMORANDUM BY MR. H. V. DRAKE BROCKMAN, OFFICIATING COMMISSIONER OF EXCISE, CENTRAL PROVINCES, ON THE CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF GANJA IN THE KHANDWA TAHSIL OF THE NIMAR DISTRICT.
Ganja is sown yearly in about 100 villages, and about 600 or 700 licenses are issued each year. Seed is locally raised in the villages of Lohari, Karki, Panjhria, and Chhirbel; this seed produces a comparatively thin plant which does not branch off so freely as that raised from the seed obtained from Dhakalgaon in Indore. Dhakalgaon seed is sold at a minimum price of Re. 1 per ser; it has, on several occasions, gone as high as Rs. 2 per ser. The ordinary price of local seed is Re. 0-12-0 per ser. Seven or eight villages in the Dhargaon station-house circle use Dhakalgaon seed, and the ganja raised in them commands the best price at the Government storehouse.

2. " Pandhar " (chalky), "mand" (black with an understratum of yellow clay), and "kali" (rich black) are the soils most suitable for ganja rearing. The first two are the best; the last is also good, but in seasons of more than average rainfall retains too much water close to the surface.

3. Irrigation and plentiful manuring being indispensable, the same fields are used year after year. A single manuring produces an effect which endures for two or three years, so that there is no inducement to practise rotation of crops.

4. The land selected is well manured every third year in Baisakh (April to May), 16 to 20 full cart-loads being allowed per acre; the ordinary household refuse, cowdung, and ashes are used, and if the home supply is inadequate, more is purchased at the rate of Re. 1 per cart.

5. If gram or masur is not grown in the field, it is ploughed over once in January or February. In any case the ground is in Baisakh (April to May) turned over with the " hal" (" nagar" or earth-turning plough) to expose it to the sun, and then well " bakhared" to make it smooth and to break up all large clods. If it is the turn of the field to be manured, the manure is spread after the ground has been turned over, and is then worked in with the "bakhar." When the ground has been well soaked, i.e., about 15 days after the setting in of the rains, it is again turned over with the " hal " and levelled with the " bakhar." Seed is sown on a sunny day in the latter half of Asarh (June to July), i.e., 20 to 25 days after the setting in of the rains, an instrument called " sarta," which is worked along with a " bakhar," being used for the purpose.

6. For six days after sowing, a strict watch is kept, otherwise birds would do great damage when the seed germinates, which it does four days after sowing. Twenty days after sowing, i.e., when the plants are about 9 inches high, weeding of grass and thinning of plants begin; an implement called " kolpa" is used for the former purpose. A space of 6 to 9 inches is cleared between each plant and the next, the intervening plants being uprooted and thrown away. About six weeks after sowing, the first examination (párakh) takes place. All the male plants (" naria " or " bhangern ") which can at that stage be recognised as such are picked out and thrown away. The cultivators appear to be able to distinguish the pollenbearing sacs (" ghungri ") of male flowers even at this early stage. This examination is repeated daily for about two months. Then comes a second examination with a view to eliminate those plants which combine the signs of both sexes ("adnaria"). These " adnaria " plants seem to be identical with the "abnormal female plants with some male flowers on them," of which mention is made in Chapters II and VI, Part I of Dr. Prain's Report.

7. There is yet another class of plant which is eliminated; this is called "moria," and is said to be identified from its bearing a cluster of flowers on the top. The " moria " plants are not injurious to others, but are eliminated because they are useless for the purpose of ganja manufacture, their flowering heads being devoid of resin, and consequently of intoxicating power. Sometimes they are allowed to remain in the field; if removal is determined upon the necessary action is taken a fortnight or so before cutting begins. These plants probably correspond with those termed " khasia " in Bengal-see Chapters I (page 2) and II (page 5) of Dr. Prain's Report.

8. During the fourth month, i.e., in October, the plants are irrigated; rainfall will from this time onward injure them by washing away the resinous juice they contain; whereas irrigation increases the amount of this juice. Three waterings are given, an interval of seven days being allowed between each. It will be understood that irrigation is only beneficial if effected after the rains have entirely ceased.

9. About four and a half months after sowing, i.e., generally about the 20th November, the flowering heads assume a brownish appearance, which is a sure sign of maturity. Cutting then begins. Only the "bhuttas," i.e., twigs about 12 inches in length which bear the flowering heads, are picked; they are collected in baskets and emptied into a "khala" (threshing-floor). At night the whole of the day's cutting is spread out in a layer, 9 to 12 inches thick, and left exposed to the dew till the following morning. The next step is to press the pickings flat; this is done by men treading them under foot. Several heaps are formed, which are worked upon in turn, each being turned over and left to dry in the sun while another is being pressed. This process goes on for four or five days, and the ganja is then taken to covered sheds where it is stacked to a height of 5 or 6 feet, and kept down by heavy weights. After remaining in this state for about a week, it is packed tightly in gunny-bags, and taken to the Government storehouse at Khandwa.

12. The method employed for the cultivation of the plant for seed is precisely the same as for the production of the ordinary ganja ("mal") as regards preparation of the soil. Male plants ("naria") are of course essential in this case; most, however, are eliminated. " Adnaria" plants are all eliminated, as in a field of "mal" ganja. When the seeds have set the plants are cut down, tied in bundles and dried in the sun. The seed is then threshed out by hand. Irrigation is not required, and comparatively little attention is paid to the crop.


BULLETIN ON THE CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF GANJA IN MADRAS, BY MR. C. BENSON, M.R.A.C., DEPUTY DIRECTOR, AGRICULTURAL BRANCH, MADRAS.
The true hemp plant (Cannabis saliva), though grown here and there in most parts of the presidency in backyards, is found as a regularly-cultivatedf ieldc rop in only two localities, viz., in the Malayali villages on the Javadi hills in North Arcot, and in one or two villages in the Bapatla taluk of Kistna District. It is also raised to a certain extent in the hilly parts of Vizagapatam and Ganjam, but there seldom more than a few plants are grown by each person. The Javadis are a low hill range covered with jungle, amongst which the Malayali villages lie scattered, few of them consisting of more than three or four huts. Each village has a small patch of land cleared for cultivation near by, and there, in almost all cases, a plot or two of hemp will be found growing. The Malayalis claim to be Vellalas, but except for purposes of trade and barter have little or no connection with the people of the plains. They also claim to alone possess the knowledge necessary for the manufacture of ganja—a practice which has been carried on, they state, in these hills from time immemorial. They attribute the fact that the growth of the crop is confined to the hills merely to the ignorance of the people of the plains, and state that if the latter knew how to deal with the crop, they would easily grow it outside the hills. On the hills cultivation is carried on in small plots, the natural fall of the ground preventing any considerable tolerably level area being found in one place, although to a certain extent the plots are terraced. In these plots the Malayalis raise the ordinary dry food-grains of the country for their own consumption, and with them the hemp plant alternates, hemp not being ordinarily taken on the same land in two successive years. The soil is free, friable, and open, derived directly from the rocks on which it rests; thoroughly well-drained, and appears to be fairly fertile. For hemp it receives a heavy dressing of cattle dung, without which it is said to be hopeless to raise the crop. This manure is spread on the surface in May, or June, before the first rains allow of ploughing being begun. As soon as the land is sufficiently moistened, it is ploughed and the operation is repeated three or four times at convenient intervals until some time in July, when the seed is sown. Sowing is done by dropping the seed, at the rate of five or six sers per acre, in a furrow opened with a plough, the seed being covered with soil drawn over it by the feet of the sower. The seed is sown in rows about three feet apart, and during the growth of the crop the spaces between the rows are worked and kept clean by ploughing and weeding. The young plants appear in about a week after sowing, and when about three weeks old they are partially thinned out, and when they reach to a foot high they are earthed up by means of a plough, which is run along on either side of the rows. This latter process, aided by hand-weeding at intervals of about a fortnight, thrice repeated, keeps the whole land clean. When the crop is about four months old, the anxieties of the cultivator commence and the crop has to be examined carefully and frequently, so that any male plants—called female by the ryots—may be detected and removed. Detection of the male plants is only possible when the flowers appear. Their entire removal is absolutely essential to securing a crop of ganja, as otherwise the whole crop runs to seed. The removal of the male plants is a continuous process, going on as the plants are detected. Notwithstanding this care a certain amount of seed actually sets. Some time early in January the harvest begins. It continues up to March. Plants are ready for cutting as soon as the leaf turns yellow and begins to drop. At the same time the spikes of female flowers also turn yellow. The crop is never cut on a damp or cloudy day. In harvesting, the ripe plants are cut bodily, tied into small bundles, and carried to the threshing-floor of the village. There the spikes are stripped off the stems, with a few of the leaves, and the stems are thrown away. The material thus collected is spread out on the floor in the sun during the middle of the day for three, four, or five hours, and then loosely rolled in the hand to work out such seed as may have been formed and to break up the leaf that remains. This working also causes the spikes to stick to one another to some extent. The broken leaf is then winnowed out, collected, and powdered.

In the Kistna District the soil, the conditions under which the crop is grown, and the method of manufacture all differ entirely from those described above, as much as they do from the practice in Bengal, according to Dr. Prain's description. It is only in one village, Daggupad, in the Bapatla taluk, not far from the borders of Nellore, and about 15 miles from the sea coast, that any considerable area of the crop is to be found, although a little is also grown in one or two of the neighbouring villages. The country is a wide open plain of black cotton-soil, and from its appearance badly or poorly drained. The soil is not particularly stiff for the description concerned, being in fact a good stiff loam, and contains a considerable amount of kankar. On the land on which hemp is grown, the common crops with which it usually alternates are noted on the margin. The crop is grown in open fields, some near to, and some at a distance from the village, but all reasonably accessible. In some cases it is cultivated, and handled by the ryot who owns the land; but more frequently the cultivation of the land, and all the cattle labour required is supplied by the ryot, and the planting and handling of the crop is undertaken by others— chiefly Muhammadans, of whom there is a considerable settlement in this village. Here, as in Bengal, the plants are raised in seed-beds and planted out, but except at the time of planting, no irrigation is resorted to after the crop is put out into the field. The seed-beds are usually made on the bund of a tank, and are 6 feet wide by 60 feet long. The soil of these beds is dug up with a crowbar and reduced to af inet ilth and levelled. Seed is thus sown at the rate of 4 or 5 sers (of 85 tolahs) to a bed; two such beds supplying plants sufficient for an acre of land. The seed is covered with earth strewn over it by hand. The bed is then watered by hand and the watering is repeated daily for about two months as required. The sowing takes place in August. When the plants are 2 feet high they are lopped off, and in a few days numerous side branches are put out. The plants are then transplanted into the field. Land intended for hemp may have carried a crop of hemp in the previous year—19 out of 118 acres planted in Daggupad* this year (1893-94) being said to have carried hemp in 189293—but more usually the crop is alternated with one of those mentioned above. If it follows hemp, heavy manuring is necessary. Cultivation of the land for the crop usually begins with ploughing in July, and between then and October it is ploughed about three times and finally worked with the three-lined grubber (gorru, or seed drill used without its seed hopper and tubes). It is then marked off in 2 feet squares with a marker, similar to the guntaka, or scuffla worked without its share. At the angles of each square four or five plants are dibbled into a hole made with a stick, and then they are watered to set the plants. The crop is planted out in October. The land intended for this crop is manured either with cattle manure or by sheep-folding, the application of manure being considerable when the land carries hemp successively year after year.

A month after planting the fields are hand-weeded, and about a fortnight later a plough is run between the rows, and the plants are earthed up slightly. Two months after planting out flowering begins, and then the removal of the male (here as elsewhere termed female) plants begins. They are cut off near the roots and thrown away. This work goes on continuously as long as male plants are found. About February the plant begins to ripen and the harvest commences. It goes on till the end of March. The plants are cut bodily with the sickle, and are laid out in the field, where they grow for three days to dry in the sun. On the fourth day they are tied into small bundles of about ten plants each, and then piled, head and tail, in the field. The heaps are opened, and the bundles re-piled next day, the process being repeated over several days. When the quantity to be dealt with is small and space allows, the bundles are carried to the grower's house and there piled; but in all cases the crop is finally carried to the house, and a month later the spikes are removed. Each spike is plucked off by hand and then they are spread out on a hardf loori n the open for one night in the dew to soften and become pliable. In the morning the spikes are collected and stored in large gunny-bags, being packed closely therein by a man treading them down into the bag. The produce is then ready for sale, and may be kept for as much as two years. In both localities it is stated that of late years the area planted with hemp has been reduced, the price offered for ganja having fallen with the restriction of the demand owing to the introduction of the system of licensing retail vendors. A few years ago, the crop was also grown to some extent in one village in the Palivendla taluk, Cuddapah District, but its growth there has now been abandoned. It was then grown as a garden crop, in rotation with garden korra( Setariai talica) or garden ragi (Eleusine coracana), the plants being raised in seed-beds and then planted out. The method of manufacture adopted there appears to have resembled that still followed in Kistna.

Individual witness responses.

Following are the individual witness responses (not exhaustive) to the questions 9 and 11 posed by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission in 1895.

9. I can say nothing that is not to be found in Babu Hem Chander Ker and Dr. Prain's reports. 11. Never; so far as I know. - Evidence of the HON'BLE MR. D. R. LYALL, C.S.I., Member, Board of Revenue, Calcutta.

 
9. See Watt's Dictionary. I can add nothing to it. Prain may have got more information. 11. I believe not. Ask at Naogaon. - Evidence of MR. E. V. WESTMACOTT, Commissioner, Presidency Division; late Commissioner of Excise, Bengal


9. I have no personal experience of ganja cultivation, nor have I seen cultivated ganja anywhere in Bengal. Wherever the plant is found it is alleged to be wild, and, I believe, generally is so. No experience in the Tributary States. 11. I can't say.  - Evidence of MR. H. G. COOKE, Officiating Commissioner, Orissa Division


9. The "Gardener's Chronicle,"* already submitted, gives full details of both cultivation and manufacture. 11. No; never. - Evidence of MR. J. C. PRICE, Magistrate and Collector, Rajshahi


9. The ground requires to be ploughed up very carefully. The great object of this ploughing is to free the soil of all herbage and stubble. The next process is to throw sods on the field and surround it with a ridge. The third operation is to manure the fields with cowdung. When fields are fully prepared by this course of dressing, the seedlings are transplanted. About a lapse of three or four weeks, dressing and manuring take place. Manure consists in some cases of cowdung, and in others of oil-cake and cowdung. After this the plants are trimmed. The next process is to destroy the male plants. After this a second process of transplantation takes place. After this the female plants begin to flower, which is known as ganja. 11. No. - Evidence of MR. A. C. TUTE, Magistrate and Collector of Dinajpur.


9. Vide H. C. Ker's report. 11. No.  - Evidence of MR. K. G. GUPTA, Commissioner of Excise, Bengal


9. When wild bhang plants are reared, cow-dung, oil cakes, ashes, and burnt earth are put on the soil as manure. Milk is poured upon the plant in the belief that it causes flowering. 11. It is believed that the plants cultivated for the production of ganja are never raised from the seed of the wild hemp.  - Evidence of MR. T. L. JENKINS, Magistrate and Collector of Dacca


9. The plants are grown from seeds towards the end of the rains. They take about six months to come to maturity. They are then cut down and left to wither. When dry, the tops of the female plants containing thef lowersa re cut off and tied together. This constitutes ganja. The leaves are also collected for patti. 11. Yes. - Evidence of MR. E. H. C. WALSH,* Officiating Magistrate and Collector of Cuttack


9. The process of cultivation is described in the report of Babu Hem Chander Ker. I can add nothing of importance to his description. 11. This is never done in this part of the country. I cannot say whether it is ever done elsewhere. Only the seed of the cultivated ganja plant is used.  - Evidence of MR. A. E. HARWARD, Offg. Magistrate and Collector, Bogra


9. I believe generally in the same manner as tobacco is cultivated, but I am unable to give any reliable information. 11. No, not as far as I can ascertain.  - Evidence of Mr. C. A. S. BEDFORD,* Deputy Commissioner of Manbhum


9. The plant grows of itself if there are seeds of the previous year in the ground; otherwise a few seeds are sown, and nothing more than the twisting of the stem for the production of ganja is done; they are watered when necessary. 11. There is no such thing as wild hemp here; it is only where ganja has once been cultivated that the plant germinates of itself and often produces ganja - Evidence of RAI NANDAKISORE DAS, BAHADUR,* District Officer of Angul, Cuttack


9. The hemp plant is usually cultivated in small plots of light rich soil, on the plants getting well up, they are hoed and weeded, roots loosened, and vegetable mould or well rotted cowdung applied as manure. 11. I do not kno - Evidence of MR. W.C .T AYLOR, Special Deputy Collector, Land Acquisition, East Coast Railway, and Pensioned Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, Khurda, Orissa


9. The cultivation of Naogaon ganja has been fully described in Babu Hem Chandra Kerr's report, paragraphs 38 to 52. Therefore any description that I would give would be recapitulating Hem Babu's description. No change has since taken place in the mode of cultivation. 11. No, so far as I am aware of.  - Evidence of BABU GANENDRA NATH PAL, Kayasth, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, Naogaon.


9. Hemp is cultivated mostly on the principle of paddy cultivation, the small plants originally raised from seeds, but afterwards transplanted in rows similar to potato-rows. Free-watering is necessary to keep moisture which, communicated through the roots, promotes growth. 11. No; not in Bengal. It is sometimes the case in Orissa where a sort of hemp is cultivated for narcotic purposes called Gurjat ganja.  - Evidence of BABU JOGENDRO NATH BANDYOPADHYA, Brahmin, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, Jalpaiguri


9. The plants (Gurjat ganja and patti) grow spontaneously from the preceding year's seeds, and are also cultivated within the enclosed premises of the people of the Gurjats. The plants grow towards the close of the rainy season, and take about six months before the flowers are sufficiently matured. The plants are then felled, and left to dry for three to five days, after which the twigs containing the flowers are collected and tied into bundles. This is Gurjat ganja. The leaves of these plants (female) as well as those of the male plants are also collected and used as patti. 11. Yes, in the Gurjats. - Evidence of BABU KANTI BHUSHAN SEN, Baidya, Special Excise Deputy Collector of Cuttack


9. The plant is grown on the same high land as that which is required in the same district (Rajshahi) for the mulberry cultivation. Seeds preserved from the previous crop are sown to¬ wards the end of August in a carefully prepared plot of light, dry, sandy loam, which had been ploughed about once every week from the middle of May. When the hemp plant grows, earth, ashes, and cowdung are thrown at their root as manure with the view of promoting their growth for the production of ganja. The methods of cultivation are the same as those given in Babu Hem Chandra Ker's report. The ganja crop is a highly exhausting one; consequently, the ganja plots have to lie for two years after carrying a hemp crop either fallow or under a rotation of pulses, mustard, and such like lighter crops. Roughly, therefore, of the high lands on which ganja grows, only about a third throughout the ganja mahal can be under hemp in any given year. There is a tendency on the part of the cultivators to grow other crops in place of ganja. The cultivation of sugarcane and mul¬ berry is suited for these high lands, which the cultivators find nearly as remunerative and much less troublesome both in itself and from the absence of the fiscal restrictions that necessarily accompany ganja-growing. 11. With the seed of the wild hemp ganja is not cultivated. I have made no experiment whether the plants cultivated for the production of ganja can ever be raised from the seeds of the wild hemp. In almost all the districts in which cases of illicit cultivation have been detected the plants had been grown from the seeds of the Raj. shahi ganja. Seeds of the Rajshahi ganja are used for the illicit cultivation of the ganja plant in the mufassal.  - Evidence of BABU ABHILAS CHANDRA MUKERJEE, Brahmin, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, on deputation as 2nd Inspector of Excise, Bengal.


9. I have nothing to add to the particulars given on this point in Watt's Dictionary of Economic Products. Babu Hem Chandra Ker's report deals with the subject at length. 10. I understand from my enquiries that there are no special classes who cultivate the ganja plant at Rajshahi, but the Muhammadan cultivators preponderate over the Hindus. 11. This is not known to be ever done in Bengal. - Evidence of BABU GOBIND CHANDRA DAS, Baidya, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, Malda.


9. I have heard that the ganja lands are ploughed and levelled by the months of Chait and Baisakh; that seedlings are raised during the rainy season, after which transplantation follows. By about Pous and Magh the plants flower, and in Phalgun the flowers are cut and manufactured. 11 and 12. No. 13 - Evidence of BABU SURESH CHUNDRA BAL, Baidya, Special Excise Deputy Collector, Howrah.


9. While employed as a Special Divisional Excise Inspector in Behar, I detected a number of instances of unlicensed cultivation of bhang and ganja in some of the south Gangetic districts in which, I know by experience, the plants do not grow wild. In Gundi, in the Shahabad District, I found bhang cultivated in poppy fields. This was in the month of January 1882. The plants were seen scattered but growing promiscuously with poppy on the ridges and in the beds prepared for the latter. They looked very healthy, because they were regularly watered along with poppy plants, which would not otherwise thrive from the nature of the soil of that district. The drug produced in Gundi was, I was informed, reputed for its strong narcotic effect, and it was so because the hemp plants were nurtured and allowed to grow with poppy plants. In the following month I discovered a number of cases of similar cultivation both of bhang and of ganja in mauza Bilap in the district of Patna. There they were found growing in poppy fields and also in small beds prepared for them in a garden, and on both sides of a raised aqueduct made for conducting water from a well to adjacent fields. These plants also seemed to have been regularly watered to help their growth. The reason why the hemp plants in this part of the country, whether growing wild or illicitly cultivated, as also those in the Nepal territory, do not produce ganja such as that imported from Rajshahi, is, I apprehend, that the people here do not know the secret that the formation of seeds in female plants is prevented by the destruction of all the male plants,* nor are there "Parkhias" or ganja doctors in these places, who can distinguish the male plants and destroy them in favour of the ganjaproducing plant. A single plant growing wild or cultivated has sometimes been found producing ganja; and this must be, I think, owing to an absence of male plant from the locality. An illicit cultivator of one or two plants of ganja adopts (though very rarely, and never detected) a method illustrated below, which not only cloaks his illicit proceedings, but also makes the plant yield, it is said, ganja of a superior quality. Illustration.—When a ganja plant grows about a foot high, it is concealed with an earthen pot placed over it with its mouth downward, and raised about 8 or 9 inches high above the ground, being supported on pegs fixed in the ground, to which it is strongly fastened with some string. Thus some space is left between the pot and the ground for admission of air and light necessary for the growth of the plant. The ground round the plant is softened, weeded, manured, and watered. Thus reared with care, the plant, of which the growth is confined within the space of the pot placed over it, with its flowers, and branches spread around, takes a round shape like that of a cabbage flower, and when mature, is cut, dried and preserved for use. The cultivation of ganja plant is confined to a certain tract of land in Rajshahi designated Balúchur, and is carried on under excise surveillance. Fields for it are renovated every year by the addition of fresh earth, kept chaumas, i.e., tilled occasionally during the four months of the rainy season, weeded and manured with cow-dung, oil-cakes, ashes and house refuse. Ganja is transplanted. For this sake, in the month of August, seeds are sown broadcast in the nursery in which they sprout in a week, and after the seedlings thus reared have gained strength which takes not less than a week or two, they are transplanted in the field prepared for them as described above. If the rains are heavy in August, the transplantation takes place in the month of September. In order to prevent the formation of seeds in the female plants, it is necessary to destroy the male plants. There are experts in Rajshahi called "Parkhias" or ganja doctors who can distinguish one from the other even in their early age. These men are employed to uproot the latter and this is done twice or thrice till all such plants have been weeded and destroyed. The ground is again manured with cow-dung and oil-cakes and the stems of the plants cleared. Noxious plants are constantly uprooted until the ganja plants mature. In December when the plants attain the height of four or five feet, the ground is irrigated, and ridges are opened and manured again with oil-cakes, ashes and house refuse. In January or February the crop is ready and the harvest commences. 11. Ganja is not cultivated in Behar, nor are plants raised from the seed of the wild hemp. - Evidence of BABU ROY BRAHMA DUTT, * Kayasth, Excise Deputy Collector, Darbhanga.


9. See paragraphs 38 to 60 of my report, for a detailed answer to this question. 11. No.  - Evidence of BABU HEM CHUNDER KERR, Kayasth, Retired Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, Sub-Registrar of Sealdah.


9. The particulars regarding the method of the cultivajion of ganja are minutely described in Babu Hem Chunder Kerr's report. I am not able to give a more minute description of it. No change in the mode of cultivation has taken place since the publication of the report. The cultivation extends over twelve months, from February to February, taking the selection of the field in February as an initial process, to the reaping of the crop in February as the final process. In paragraphs 38 to 53 of Hem Babu's report the description of the cultivation is given. I submit herewith a brief chronicle of ganja cultivation. The cultivation of ganja extends over twelve months from February to February. February.—The land for the next crop is selected. It is dressed with fresh earth taken out from the surrounding ditches or from some nearest low lands. March.—The land is ploughed up some four to six times at an interval of four or five days, to free it of all herbage and stubble. April.—The same. May.—The same. Sods from the sides of the field are cut along with the grass and weeds and thrown on it. The edges of it are then bound anew with fresh earth taken from the side ditches. June.—The land is ploughed thoroughly and harrowed with ladder. Shallow channels for free discharge of rain water are made with the ploughshare. July.—The land is manured with cow-dung and house-sweepings preserved throughout the year. It is repeatedly ploughed and harrowed. Shallow channels are excavated for free drainage of rain water. The seed bed is ploughed and harrowed. August.—The same. Seeds are sown broadcast. September.—The ridges are formed to transplant seedlings on. The seedlings are gathered and transplanted. October.—The field is weeded out of grass. November.—The ridges are cut down. The roots of the plants opened, and powdered oilcake and cow-dung strewn round the roots of the plants. The openings at the roots closed up with fresh earth mixed with manure, and the ridges built again, beaten hard with a piece of bamboo to make the surface firm. The plants are trimmed of their lowest twigs and branches. They are examined and the males destroyed. The land is irrigated. December.—The trenches between the ridges are ploughed and harrowed. The ridges are rebuilt with cowdung and oilcake powder mixed with fresh earth. The land is irrigated. The male plants are destroyed. January.—The land is irrigated. The male plants are destroyed. February.—The plants are cut and manufactured. 11. I am not aware of any instance of ganja plants ever raised from seeds of wild hemp.  - Evidence of BABU SIR CHUNDER SOOR, Satgope, 1st Assistant Supervisor of Ganja Cultivation, Naogaon, Rajshahi.


9. The land used for ganja must be repeatedly ploughed between Falgun and Bhadra months; it must be sandy; it is only used once in four years for ganja, sursa being the only advantageous alternate crop; and it is manured with cow-dung and the refuge "sursa" plant in Choitra and in Bhadra. The above refers to the land on which the plants are raised from seed. Sowing takes place in Bhadra, and in Assin. When the plant is about six weeks old, it is transplanted into land that has been well ploughed, but not manured. Manure is scattered over this ground after the transplanting is effected. Flowers appear about the month of Paus, and, in* Magh, the "poddars" visit the lands to pick out "bhang from ganja," 11. The villagers say that they collect the seeds which fall in the process of manufacture, for the next year's sowing. - Evidence of MR. W. C. FASSON, District Superintendent of Police, Bogra.


9. In August and September seedlings are prepared like winter paddy crops, and then transplanted into well-manured and ploughed fields, which from time to time are irrigated. 11. I should say not.  - Evidence of MR. R. L. WARD, District Superintendent of Police, Rajshahi.


9. Grown in seed-beds in April and May; transplanted in June or July; reaped in December; flowers in October and November, The male plant is emasculated by having its stem punctured or cut and pieces of broken tile inserted in these cuts. 11. Yes. - Evidence of MR. H. P. WYLLY,* Government Agent at Keonjhar, Orissa.


11. Wild hemp as a rule won't produce ganja; when it does, the quality is very inferior - Evidence of Mr. W. R. RICKETTS,* Manager, Nilgiri State, Tributary Mahals, Orissa.


9. First a plot of land is made ready for sowing seeds, and when the plants grow one foot long, they are transplanted to another piece of land most carefully cultivated, free from weeds and manured with cow-dung and oil-cakes. They are planted about a yard's distance. 11. No. - Evidence of PYARI SANKAR DASS GUPTA, Baidya, Medical Practitioner, Secretary, Bogra Medical Society, Bogra


9. February and March is the time when the cultivators prepare their soil. The land is then ploughed for several times and all weeds are carefully taken out; it is then manured, the best manure being human excreta and the cow-dung. After the rains have fairly set in, the land is again ploughed. Ridges are now made over the land and the seed is sown in July and August; the seedlings are planted on the ridges. When the plants flower, experts go round the field and remove the staminate plants. Ganja will now form and will be ready in January and beginning of February. 11 and 12. No.  - Evidence of KAILAS CHUNDRA BOSE, Kayasth, Medical Practitioner, Calcutta.


9. The land is cleared of jungle; the seeds are put down about the end of May or beginning of June. As soon as the seedlings have fairly sprung up, the ground is carefully cleared of weeds and the plants thinned, so as to leave an open space of 3 or 4 inches between. The plants are not cut before October or November. 11. Yes, sometimes.  - Evidence of PRASAD DAS MALLIK, Subarnabanik, Medical Practitioner, Hughli.


ven earlier, the land is ploughed from four to ten times for the purpose of freeing it from all weeds, it being a belief that land for hemp cannot too often undergo the process. In May, after the first shower of rain, a nursery for the rearing of seedlings is formed on high land of a light sandy loam. The plot is repeatedly ploughed, and, if need be, harrowed, until by August the soil has been completely pulverised. On a sunny day the seed, some four or five seers to the bigha, is sown broadcast; and by the latter end of September the seedlings are from 6 to 12 inches high, when they are simply pulled up by the roots, and put down 6 to 8 inches apart on the ridges the same day. Towards the end of October the ridges are opened out, manured with oil-cake and cow-dung, and then reformed, freshly manured soil being thrown up round the roots of the plants. In November the lower branches of the plants are lopped off to promote the upward growth of the shoot; the ridges are redressed and manured, the furrows ploughed, and weeds removed. The crop of the hemp plant is harvested in February and March. - Evidence of BABU RUGHU NANDAN PRASADHA, Zamindar, Patna


9. The preparation of ganja field takes a longer time and requires greater care than that of other crops. The cultivators select fields for raising ganja in the months of Magh and Falgun. Open fields which are not under the shade of any large trees are taken up for this purpose. The first act for the preparation of such field is to plough up the land with a view to weed the soil of its herbage. This ploughing is not commenced before the latter part of Falgun, and it takes place at intervals of three or four days. After the land is sufficiently ploughed for the first time to destroy the noxious plants, the process of bharakata is taken up. This means giving fresh earth, from the surrounding ditches and sometimes from land close by, on the field; a basketful of about 12 seers being considered sufficient over an area of about one square cubit, care being taken to take this earth just from the surface. Then comes the process of chalikata, which consists in throwing up of the sods, from the sides of the field under cultivation along with the grass and other weeds which grow in abundance on the field. The cultivators then commence to manure the land in the month of Baisakh and Jaista with cowdung, house sweeping, etc. Thus, after manuring and by repeated ploughing, when the land is sufficiently pulverised and becomes fit for receiving the seedlings, ridges are made all over the field at equal distances of one cubit each. The seeds are first sown in the month of Bhadra in a separate field, which I think may be called the nursery. When the seedlings grow to the height of about a foot, transplantation begins. They are planted upon the ridges described above at a distance of about six inches. Transplantation is never delayed beyond the month of September. Here it would be worthy of note that the ridge-making and the transplantation of the seedlings should be completed in the course of one and the same day, otherwise the soil so well pulverised would scarcely retain any moisture to receive the young plants. The seed beds or nurseries mentioned above are never manured and the ground is never covered, as is generally done with the plantation of cabbages, nor is the field irrigated. Rains are very injurious for both the seeds in the nursery and the seedlings shortly after transplantation into the field. The seeds take about a week's time to sprout forth. If heavy downpours set in after sowing the seeds in the nursery, or the transplantation of seedlings into the field, a second sowing or plantation, as the case may be, becomes necessary. When the roots of the seedlings have taken hold on the soil a second manuring is done. But this time the cultivators generally use cowdung and oil-cake who can afford it. When the young plants grow to the height of about two feet they are trimmed. The attention is directed only to the removal of the lowest branches, with perhaps the intention of ensuring the upward growth of the plants. In the first week of Agrahyan or earlier, according to the growth of the crop, the cultivators employ ganja doctors, who are locally known as poddars or parakdars to inspect the ganja field, and this they continue to do till the middle of Pous, in order to destroy the male plants before inflorescence, because they make the female plants, which yield ganja, run into seed. The operation of trimming is renewed in the middle of December. When the fields wear a dry look, cultivators begin to water them. The cultivators evince great care to keep the soil moist, which is generally sandy loam. In January, when the plants attain sufficient maturity, the cultivators cut and remove the crop from the field to the place of manufacture. It is done generally in the morning. The stalks are then spread out in the sun and suffered to lie there till it is quite midday, when they are properly covered. When the evening comes on, the coverings are removed and they are left exposed to the dew. So the stalks remain till the noon of the following day. Now comes the threshing of the flowering tops. A mat is spread on a very plain ground, on which the stalks are all marshalled in a circular form called chakal, the tops all pointing to the centre. A mat is then spread over the file, and four or five persons ascend and begin to trample upon them. Pressing in this way goes on for about five minutes, when the men get down and, holding in each hand a stalk, begin to beat them against each other. It is done to remove the seeds from the tops. This process of marshalling and trampling is repeated twice more; but on the second occasion each twig is taken and pressed under foot separately. The cultivators then dry the stalks after covering the top for a short while, when the ganja becomes ready for market. This is the process of making flat ganja. The process of making the round ganja is nearly the same in the main. The difference, however, lies in this, that, instead of trampling with foot, the twigs are rolled. I must here note that for the first and second time the twigs are rolled with foot, and when they take a roundish shape they are for the third time rolled with hands to make them perfectly round. In the case of both round and flat ganja the process of trampling or rolling is repeated thrice. But in the interval of each of these the twigs are alternately dried in the sun and exposed to the dew. The flower tops of ganja detached from the twigs, whether of flat or of round, and whether the detachment is accidental or deliberate, are called chur. 11. Never. - Evidence of BABU SASI BHUSAN ROY, Manager, Dubalhati Raj Estate, Rajshahi District.


9. In the plains, the seeds are sown in August or September. In the Himalayan tracts, the seeds are sown towards the end of May or the beginning of June. The plants are cut in October or November. A space of three to four inches is kept between the plants. Manure helps the abundant growth of the plant. The male plants are cut one month earlier than the female plants. 10. No, they do not form a special class. They are of the same classes as other agricultural cultivators. 11. Partly by the one method and partly by the other. The plants grow well at a height from 4,000 feet to 7,000 feet above the sea-level and in the Himalayan tracts. I believe that it would not grow well in places near the sea, where the earth is mostly composed of sand.  - Evidence of BABU JADUNATH KANJILAL, Brahmin, Pleader, Judge's Court, Hughli.


11. Not ordinarily. All plants do not produce seeds which germinate. They reserve some plants for seeds. The flowers are not broken for use as ganja.  - Evidence of BABU BEPRODAS BANERJEE,* Brahman, Pleader, Newspaper Editor, and Chairman, Baraset Municipality.


9. If ganja be cultivated one year, for next three years the lands wherein it was cultivated would remain uncultivated. Manure and mustard cakes are to be poured upon the lands in large quantities, in order to increase the productive power of the land. The female plants are to be uprooted, otherwise the other male plants would be full of seeds and useless. 11. As far as I know, ganja is now cultivated from seeds of the cultivated ganja. - Evidence of BABU NOBO GOPAL BOSE RAI CHOWDHOORY, Kayasth, Talukdar and Judge's Court Pleader (late Munsiff of Nator), Memari, Burdwan District.


9. All that I know of the method of such cultivation is that the ground is carefully prepared before the commencement of the winter season. The seeds are in the meantime sown in another place where they are allowed to grow. The seedlings are then transplanted to the ground already prepared, somewhat in the same way as boro paddy plants are grown. When the plants grow to a certain height, the male plants are destroyed. 11. I am not aware that this is done.  - Evidence of BABU AMVIKA CHARAN MAZUMDAR,* Vaidya, Pleader and Zamindar, Faridpur.


9. While siddhi is obtained indifferently from hemp, whether cultivated or wild, and whether male or female, ganja is obtained solely from the cultivated female plants. The land on which ganja is grown in Rajshahi is locally called the ganja mahal. The entire tract, so far as I have seen near about its head-quarters at Naogaon, is exposed to the direct rays of the sun, not in anyway shaded by any trees. The land for this purpose has to be ploughed with more than ordinary care. The ploughing begins in Bysak and goes on all through the rains from time to time, and cowdung, leaf manure and earth taken from the beds of ditches are added from time to time till the field becomes ready for plantation. As soon as the weather clears up in September the seedlings, about half a cubit high, are transplanted at short intervals. When they grow to a certain height, the tops of male plants are broken down by experts, showing what plants have to be destroyed. The females alone are thus left to flower, and these yield the ganja, which consists of the dried flowering tops. 11. I have no information on this point. The seeds of the ganja sold in the shops germinate freely. Whether the seeds of wild hemp which produces bhang may be utilised for this purpose has yet to be ascertained. The people here do not know that bhang and ganja are the different products of the same plant.  - Evidence of BABU AKSHAY KUMAR MAITRA,* Secretary, Rajshahi Association, Pleader, Judge's Court, Member, Rajshahi District Board, Commissioner, Rampur Boalia Municipality.


9. Ganja-planting is commenced in Kartik corresponding to November, and the crop is gathered in Mag and Falgun, i.e., in January and February. It is cultivated on selected soil of raised level. The land is thoroughly ploughed and earth beaten down to dust. 11. Never. - Evidence of BABU NOBIN CAHNDRA SARKAR, Kayasth, Wholesale and retail vendor of ganja and bhang, Barisal.


9. I think the plant springs up of itself, sometimes perhaps from the seed of the cultivated Rajshahi ganja, which is consumed in the province. It is then tended by being kept weeded; beyond that there is no care, I think, taken of the plant.  - Evidence of MR. G. GODFREY, Commissioner, Assam Valley Districts


9. See memorandum on the cultivation of the hemp plant in Nimar. 11. No. - Evidence of MR. B. ROBERTSON, Deputy Commissioner, Nimar.


9. I have described the method of cultivation in a separate memorandum,* copy of which has been furnished to the Secretary, Hemp Drugs Commission. The memorandum was drawn up under the Chief Commissioner's orders in accordance with the Commission's letter No. 33, dated the 11th August last. 11. No. In Nimar the best ganja is raised from seed obtained at Dhakalgaon in Indore, and the rest from seed furnished by a few villages within the districts which cultivate ganja specially for this purpose. - Evidence of MR. H. V. DRAKE-BROCKMAN, Officiating  Commissioner of Excise, Central Provinces.


9. The land generally selected is near Abadi. Rich black soil is not suited when the rains are heavy; a little hard soil is preferred. The land requires good manuring. Dung manure is preferred. The land before sowing is ploughed up three or four times to prevent any weeds getting root; sowing is made at the end of June. When seed begins to germinate, great care is taken to watch the field, otherwise birds destroy the seed when germinating. Weeding is done like ordinary cotton-fields. When plants are about six inches high, thinning goes on; where the plants are many they are uprooted; one span is left between each plant. When the plants are about two feet high, leaves are removed from plants one foot high from the ground. This is done to encourage the growth of the plants. Separation of male plants is the principal care; this is done to prevent the plants producing seed. The male plants are rooted out three times or even four times; this process goes on at an interval of 8 or 10 days—in the month of October generally. If there be no rain the plants are watered. This is done two or three times, and then the crop is ready for cutting , which commences in the beginning of November. 11. No  - Evidence of BHARGOW LAXMON GADGIT, Brahmin, Extra Assistant Commissioner, Nagpur.


9. Ganja is cultivated in villages known to me, mostly in yards of houses of cultivators or in sugarcane fields. Its seed is thickly sown in richly manured plot like that of chilli or bhata, or tobacco, in the beginning of the rainy season. After the plants are grown about five or six inches high they are removed and planted in rows at a distance of a cubit from each other. The ground is made soft and well manured with cowdung: sweepings of cattle or sheep shed are also mixed. Excessive moisture being injurious to the plants, high ground is selected so that water may not remain accumulated at the roots. They thrive better in house yards than in the sugarcane fields. At the end of the rainy season, when the plants are in flower, the male plants are removed: the distinguishing sign of the latter is the yellowish colour of their flowers, stems and leaves, while the colour of female plants is green. Leaves of the male plants are, however, separately dried and mixed with those of female plants, from which they are not then easily distinguished. The female plants are allowed to stand till they become ripe, when they are cut and dried. Then the dried leaves are removed and the flower tops are kept for a night in dew. The flower tops are then wrapped in leaves such as of Bengal plantain, etc., and tied with string or some fibre. Question 9. [oral evidence] —I have not seen Nimar cultivation. In Boad the custom is to transplant or plant out the plants. So also in Athmalik. It used also to be done in Sonepur until the cultivation was stopped. - Evidence of TRIMBAK RAO SATHE, Extra Assistant Commissioner, and Diwan of the Sonepur State.


9. Formerly the people did not prepare fields, but scattered a few seeds in their compounds or raised a little crop by transplanting the seedlings. They consider the plant fit for preparing ganja, when its leaves become yellowish and its heads resinous. When the plants had grown one foot or one-and-a-half feet, they cut the top of the plant and clear up the big leaves in order to enable it to give out more branches and getting kalis. 11. Here we have no wild hemp. Ganja has hitherto been produced from cultivated hemp. - Evidence of ALAM CHAND, Superintendent, Bastar State.


9. Please see separate memorandum sent by the Commissioner of Excise, Central Provinces. 11. No. Not from wild hemp seed.  - Evidence of VINAYAK BALKRISHNA. KHARE, Brahmin, Excise Daroga, Nagpur


9. The correct answer for this will be had from Khandwa. 11. As the wild hemp is not cultivated in these provinces so its seed is not used.  - Evidence of ANANDI PERSHAD, Excise Daroga, Hoshangabad.


9. I have been informed that ganja is sown broadcast in the ground previously prepared for the purpose, and the growth is thinned by removal of male plants, as well as those not likely to form a good flowering top.  - Evidence of MUNSHI MAHOMED GHOUSE, Extra Assistant Conservator of Forests, Raipur.


9. While I was at Khandwa I had occasion to see cultivation of ganja; the cultivators at first prepare soil which is of a friable nature and well manured, and exposed to sun. In May or June the ganja seed is sown ; after the plant attains sufficient height, i.e., after three or four months, it is trimmed of its scattered lower twigs so that it may flourish. About this stage the parakdar recognizes the female and male plants and destroys the latter, reserving a sufficient stock for seed for the next crop; the flowering tops of the female plant are now trimmed and being pressed with hands are brought into round shape. It matures about January, and by the month of February it is capable of being gathered. The cultivators then reap it and dry it in shade and sell or consume. The seed of bhang varies from that of ganja, but the resemblance of each other is so alike that they are hardly distinguished from each other, but their plants are distinguished when they attain a height of one foot or more. Two kinds of ganja are cultivated and used in these provinces: (1) pattar, (2) billuchur. 11. I cannot say, but it is probable that the seed of wild hemp can be cultivated for production of ganja. - Evidence of MUHAMMAD HABIBULLA, 1st grade Hospital Assistant, Seoni.


9.The seeds are put down about the end of May or beginning of June, and as soon as the seedlings have fairly sprung up, the ground is carefully cleared of weeds and the plants thinned so as to leave an open space of three or four inches between. The process of bakharing is by means of a bourdened bakhar, so as to allow a man to walk between the rows of seedlings planted. The plants are cut in October—November. It is the female plant which bears the fruit, and the other  - Evidence of GANGADHARRAO MADHO CHITNAVIS , Honorary Magistrate, Nagpur.


9. Ganja plant grows everywhere except hilly places. There is a nursery of ganja plants, and when ready they are transplanted.  - Evidence of MODAN MOHAN SETH, Honorary Magistrate, Jubbulpore.


9. It was cultivated here in black soil. It was generally sown broadcast. A few cultivators used to sow in seed beds and transplant. The transplanted kind was the best. It was sown early in the rains. It was well manured. Some people used to sow it in October mixed with wheat. - Evidence of RAGHOBA MAHADIK, Malguzar and Honorary Magistrate, Rajim


9. There is no cultivation of this in our district and I am therefore unable to give any particulars. 10. No, all classes of persons can cultivate hemp. 11. These plants have a different kind of seed. They are not raised from the seed of the wild hemp.  - Evidence of HARI HAR SINGH, Zamindar and Honorary Magistrate, Sambalpur District.


9. At the end of June the seeds are thickly sown over a small space. When the plants are about nine inches high, they are transplanted on to ploughed and manured land at a distance of two or three feet from each other. They are weeded twice or thrice and manured. When the plants are grown, the tops are cut and the branches are twisted to prevent flowering. When the buds are formed, the trees are cut down and well pressed. The buds are then collected. The ordinary leaves are used for bhang. Charas is collected before the plants reach the stage at which they are ready to produce ganja. It is collected by men who walk through the fields clothed in leathern coats. The charas exudes from the plants, and is collected in the clothes.  - Evidence of LALL UMED SINGH, Zamindar, Bilaspur District.


9. It is sown in July and requires  somewhat sandy soil, such as would be suitable for kharif crops. 11. No. - Evidence of CHANDI PERSHAD, Brahmin, Malguzar, and President, Municipal Committee, Chanda


9. The methods of cultivation are more or less similar to those which are in vogue in Eastern Bengal. This is what I have heard. 11. I have never heard of the seed of wild hemp being used for the cultivation of ganja.  - Evidence of the REV. I. JACOB, Church of England Missionary, Chairman, District Council, etc., Chanda


9. As far as I know, no particular care was taken for its cultivation, and there were about 10 or 15 plants in the gardens where I saw it grown, seemingly only for the use of the owner.  - Evidence of the REV. O. LOHR,* Medical Missionary, Bisrampur, Raipur District


9. The plot of ground assigned for the cultiva -tion of the plant must be moist, having a rich friable loam. It must be ploughed from 6 to 12 times and all the weeds on it thoroughly eradicated. It should be covered with fresh earth mixed with cowdung for 5 or 6 days and then ploughed again. After this, the rains setting in, the field is well flooded and after being ploughed and harrowed, ridges from 9 inches to 12 inches in height are thrown up, the space between any two ridges being 1 foot in breadth. On these ridges the seed is sown 6 inches apart, or the seedlings from a nursery transplanted. In October the ridges are opened out and manured with Khali (oil-cake) and cowdung. About November the process is repeated and the lower branches cut off. Now all the female plants, as they are called, but really the male plants, are cut down, as the presence of a few of these destroys the narcotic growth in the female plants. 11. I cannot say.  - Evidence of ADHAR SINGH GOUR, Kshattri, Barrister-at-law, Hoshangabad.


9. Ganja is cultivated by throwing seeds on the prepared ground, like jowar in the month of June or July, when the rains fairly begin. After the seeds are thus thrown, the ground is ploughed up again in order that the seeds may get themselves mixed up with the earth. After a few days the plants grow about a foot high, and then other plants which are likely to obstruct their growth are weeded out. If the hemp plants grow too near each other, they are taken out and sown again at some distance from each other. The unhealthy plants are also uprooted and destroyed. 11. No.  - Evidence of BABU KALIDAS CHOWDHRY, Brahmin, Pleader, Hoshangabad.


9. It is generally cultivated after the method of rabi crops. -  Evidence of RAI BAHADUR KUSTOORCHAND DAGA, Bania, Banker, Kamptee, Nagpur District.


9. The soil is well ploughed and manured, and then seeds are sown. 11. The seed of the wild hemp is very seldom used for the production of ganja - Evidence of LALA NIINDKESFIORE, * Agartcal, Merchant, Banker, Contractor, Malgoozar, Honorary Magistrate, Secretary, Municipal Committee, and Member, District Council, Saugor.


9. I have no personal knowledge of cultivation of these plants, but very interesting account is given in the Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, pages 103 to 126, Volume II.  11. Yes.  - Evidence of COWASJEE MEHERWANJEE HATTY-DAROO, Parsi, Merchant and Abkari Contractor, Seoni-Chapara.


9. No particular method is adopted in the cultivation of the cultivated ganja plants, which grow in the midst of other plants, which require watering like garden products.11. No. - Evidence of MR. J. STURROCK, Collector, Coimbatore.


9. Land ploughed when moist and seeds sown along with brinjals and chillies generally. 11.  No. - Evidence of MR. E. TURNER, Collector of Madura


9. Some of the replies to the Commission's questions would lead one to suppose that the plant is transplanted in selected sites, etc. I do not believe this myself. I think a seed or two is sown, and the rest left to nature. 11. I do not think that the wild hemp is known here. - Evidence of MR. W. A. WILLOCK, Collector, Vizagapatam.


9. Ganja seeds are first sown and sprout forth in 20 days. The young plants, after some time, are transplanted at a distance of 3 yards from one another. Weeding and turning over earth takes place once a month, and the plant is manured with fowls' dung and watered once a week ; and after six months the flowers and the ears of the plant are reaped, when they are sufficiently matured. They are then placed under heavy weights and cured, as is done for tobacco leaves, and then used. 11. Wild hemp is not known in this district. - Evidence of MR. G. STOKES, Collector of Salem.


9. Only a plant or two is grown in back-yards or in the corners of fields. 11. No.  - Evidence of MR. S. H. WYNNE, Collector, Godavari District.


9. On this I can merely say that the cultivation is much the same as that of an ordinary garden crop, such as cholam. The ground must be well ploughed and manured. The seeds are sown close together, transplanted when four or five inches high, and attain full growth in about six months. Watering is necessary throughout the cultivation. 11. No. - Evidence of MR. C. H. MOUNSEY, Acting Collector of Cuddapah.


9. Seeds are sown in April and May. After June small plants are cut out. The female plants mature in January, when they are cut and dried. In cattle kraals seeds are sown broadcast. Plants are thinned to 5 or 6 feet apart, so that they may spread branches. When male plants mature and get sticky with resin, the flowering tops are collected. 11. Yes; in parts of the district. - Evidence of MR. F. D'A. O. WOLFE-MURRAY, Acting Collector of the Nilgiris.

 
9. Ganja is cultivated on a poorish red loam soil, which is dug up and mixed with red sand and ashes. The seeds are sown in small holes two inches deep. When the plants have grown 1 1/2 feet high, they are manured with pigeon's dung. The plants are watered every day. They require but little water. They take six months to mature. Pulichei seeds are sown in some cases singly on dry lands and in some mixed with ragi (Eleusina coracana) on wet and garden lands. It takes six months to mature 11. Not here. - Evidence of MR. L. C. MILLER, .Acting Collector of Trichinopoly.


9. It is grown in many respects under conditions similar to garden crops, and thrives in the same manner. With a view to increase its narcotic properties, it is said that the plant when sufficiently hardy is given a twist. 11. Very rarely in this district. - Evidence of MR. K. C. MANAVEDAN RAJA, Collector, Anantapur.


9. The system is fully described in several of the replies I am forwarding with this. I have nothing to add. 11. and 12. I do not know - Evidence of MR. C. J. WEIR,* Acting Collector, District Magistrate, and Agent to Govr., Ganjam


9. A well-manured plot of ground is selected for sowing seeds, which is generally done in June. When the plants grow to a cubit's height, the male ones are singled out and extirpated, and the female plants are transplanted, generally in the months of July and August. When the plants are full grown, they are reaped generally in January and February. Manure and water are necessary. 11. No, as far as am I aware of. - Evidence  of  MR. J. G. D. PARTRIDGE,  Assistant collector, Ganjam.


9. It is said that the hemp plant is cultivated like the chilly seed. Beds are first formed and the seedlings transplanted after they attain a certain height. 11. The practice of growing the plants from the seed of the wild hemp does not seem to obtain here.  - Evidence of MR. H. CAMPBELL, Acting Sub-Collector, Guntoor.


9. Pilichai seed is sown with ragi crops, etc., and in garden lands, and shanal is raised on wet lands.  -  Evidence of MR. E. L. VAUGHAN, Acting Sub-Collector, Dindigul.


9. No special methods were adopted in its cultivation. It is grown on the same soil and under the same conditions as brinjal, kodaikal or any other vanpayir crop. 11. No. - Evidence of MR. W. FRANCIS, Acting Head Assistant Collector, Ramnad.


9. No particular trouble, such as ploughing, manuring, transplanting, etc., is taken about the cultivation of the plant. The seeds are sown in April and May, and the plants come up with the rains in June. The male plants are cut out when distinguishable. The female plants are left alone until they reach maturity in the next January and February, when they are cut and dried. 11. I do not think so.  -  Evidence of Mr. H. F. W. GILLMAN, Acting Head Assistant Collector, Nilgiris.


9. When ganja plants are seven or eight inch-es high, the upper part of the stem, about ½ inch, is cut off. After a week, when the plant sprouts on all sides, it is transplanted. Three months after transplantation the plants are four or five feet high. When the stems are gummy the plants are cut off about three inches from the ground and allowed to remain for full three days. On the fourth night, and under the sun, they are col-lected and stacked and kept in this state for ten days, and then, after removing stalks, they are trodden down in bags and tied up. An acre of land gives about 750 lbs. weight of ganja, including stem and stalk. Half this quantity is useless.  - Evidence of MR. J. H. MERRIMAN, Deputy Commissioner of Salt and Abkari, Central Division.


9. Transplanting about July is adopted. The soil requires to be highly manured. Sheep and fowls said to be utilized for the purpose. Pruning and propping of the plant is essential - Evidence of MR. F. LEVY, Acting Deputy Commissioner, Salt and Abkari, Southern Division.


9. Seeds are sown in small beds in back-yards. When they grow a foot high, they are transplanted like chilly plants at a cubit's distance from each other. 11. The wild hemp is known here as male plant, and is not used for ganja. Its seeds are sometimes mixed with the seeds of the female plant, and are therefore indiscriminately sown. When the plants come up only the female ones are used for ganja. The female ones are those that bear flowers.  - Evidence of P. PUNDARIKAKSHUDU, Brahmin, Deputy Collector, Venukunda, Kistna District.


9. Seeds are sown here and there in gardens and watered once or twice a week, but by some fanatics very rarely. The tree, when it is ripe, is somewhat twisted round, and at the bottom the stem splits, in which a little opium is inserted perhaps with the object of making ganja or bhang more narcotic. 11. No.  - Evidence of  D. JAGANNADHARAO PANTALU, Brahmin,Deputy Collector, Anantapur.


9. In the month of July seed beds are first grown, and after 15 days or so when the plant grows four inches high, it is transplanted at two in each bed. As soon as the hemp plant grows big, its large leaves are removed. Ass dung and red-earth are put in the beds of plants. The ends of the plant are also removed. During its growth, its trunk will be split three or four inches above its bed and a piece of tile invariably and some opium also sometimes will be stuffed into it. This portion of the trunk will be bandaged. It will also be twisted before the kali or the flower top begins to ripen. 11. No - Evidence of W . VENKATAPPIAH PAN TULU GARU, Brahmin, Deputy Collector, Chatrapur, Ganjam.


9. The soil is well ploughed and manured. The seeds are sown in rows. The sprouts shoot up in a week, and when the plants grow to a height of one foot, the ground between the rows of plants is again ploughed, and the loose earth filled against the stems to stimulate the growth. This process is repeated three or four times at intervals of eight or ten days. When the plant becomes four months old, the female plants (so the Malayalies assert) are extirpated. The female plants are distinguished by the smallness of their blossoms. All Malayalies cultivate it. 11. No.  - Evidence of DEWAN BAHADUR K. V. LAKSHAMANA Row GARU, Brahmin, Deputy Collector, North Arcot.


9. Dry lands are ploughed four or five times and manured, and then the seeds are sown broadcast. The plants entirely depend on dew. The cultivation is generally carried on in the month of October or November, and harvested in January or February. No second crop is cultivated. No cultivation is carried on in wet land, nor are the plants transplanted. 11. Not done in this division. - Evidence of M. AZIZUDDEEN, SAHIB BAHADUR, Deputy Collector, North Arcot


9. Ganja seeds are first sown in a small bed about June, and when the seedlings grow about eight inches high, they are transplanted three or four cubits apart from one another. As the plant grows, the tops of the tender branches are severed, so that it may put forth many branches and produce many kalis. The ground about the roots is loosened, and goat's dung is applied as the best manure. They do not require much watering. When the tree is about to put forth kalis, they cut open the stem to the length of one inch or so at a height of about four inches from the ground, and introduce a piece of broken potsherd into the opening thus made. The heads of serpents are occasionally buried at the root by some whenever possible, while others fond of intoxication introduce into the stem pieces of opium instead of pieces of broken potsherd. As the growth of the tree progresses, and before kalis make their appearance, the branches are carefully twisted three or four times. This process tends to increase the number of twigs and with them kalis. Male plants are removed and destroyed. Female plants yield kalis to which small leaves are adhered. The trees are allowed to grow until the seeds in the kali become black and leaves red brown, and then they are cut about February or the beginning of March. The twigs with kalis are separated and exposed to the sun and dew for a day or two, and. then placed under a good weight by which the kalis are flattened. They are again exposed to the sun and dew, and this process is continued until the ganja is fit for use. These kalis are separated from the twigs as necessity arises. Until then they are bundled up in straw. - Evidence of B. NARAYANAMURTY, Brahmin, Deputy Collector, Ganjam.


9. The hemp plant is cultivated just like ragi. The seeds are first sown, and then covered with a layer of earth and watered. After a week or so the seeds begin to sprout, and they are subsequently transplanted. The plant requires watering now and then till the leaves ripen, after which the watering is generally stopped. - Evidence of K. NARAYANA IYER, Brahmin, Deputy Collector, Gooty.


9. Beds are prepared in nurseries, the earth is properly turned up and made loose. A quantity of manure composed of dry powdered cow dung and ashes is then mixed up with the earth. The seeds are then scattered over the beds, and a thin layer of earth laid over. A month or six weeks after germination, the seedlings are fit to be transplanted.  11. No ; at least not in this taluk. - Evidence of MR. J. H. GWYNNE , Deputy Collector, Wynaad, Malabar District.


9. The fields will be ploughed up, and the seed sown broadcast. In compounds, people dig up earth and sow the seed. The seedlings spring up in a week, and will be thinned after 15 or 20 days. The plants grow well in black-cotton soil and yield good crop. The sowing season is generally early part of October, and transplantation takes place about the early part of November, while the following February is the time for harvest. 11. Wild hemp is not known in these parts. It is only by raising ganja plants, ganja is produced.  - Evidence of M. R. RY. P. VEERASWAMI NAIDU, Deputy Collector, Masulipatam


9. There is not any particular method pursued in the cultivation of the plant. It is grown in the usual way that is adopted for raising ordinary garden cultivation. It is raised from seeds, but when it has attained a certain height, the top shoot is nipped in order to enable the plant to throw out additional branches and to become thick and bushy.  - Evidence of M R. W. E. GANAPATHY, Retired Deputy Collector, Palamcottah, Tinnevelly


9. Seed beds are first prepared, and seedlings grown and daily watered till they grow up to a span's height. The top leaves of the plants are then nipped off, and the plants are allowed to grow in the same place till they put forth new leaves. Thence they are transplanted in large fields prepared for the purpose. Generally four or five plants are put in together. The transplantation is made in regular rows, with an interval of three spans between every two rows. A little quantity of water is poured at the root of every plant at the time of transplantation. The time for this is generally October. After transplantation the crop is not watered, but is left to itself. Rain is not much needed ; one or two showers within the first month after transplantation will be quite sufficient, and the crop will thereafter grow with the cool and dewy winds of the cold season. The fields are ploughed twice over between the rows of trees just to turn up the soil and facilitate their growth. The fields become ripe for cutting in February. This time is determined by the growth of kalle and the seed in it, and the change of colour of the whole tree into yellow. The trees are cut with the ordinary sickles before they get dry. This cultivation is analogous to that of chillies in these parts. The fields range in size between 1 and 6 acres ; rubbish gatherings in the cattle stalls and sheep manure are very essential, and where these are not applied to the field before the transplantation, the growth of the crop is very poor. 11. Wild seeds are not brought into these parts, nor are they ever used for growing the crop. - Evidence of A. KRISHNAMACHARULU, Tahsildar, Bapatla, Kistna District.


9. The plant is periodically watered. As soon as the leaves ripen the watering is stopped. 11. Yes ; but not in this taluk.  - Evidence of S. VASUDEVA. RAO, Tahsildar, Tadpatri.


9. Where the seeds are thickly sown in a hotbed, the seedlings are transplanted. - Evidence of ADAKI JAGANNADHA RAO, Brahmin, Acting Tahsildar, Hindupur, Anantapur District.


9. Seeds are first sown and then covered with a layer of earth and watered. The seeds sprout in a week and are transplanted. 11. Yes.  - Evidence of G. JAGANNAYAKULU, Acting Tahsildar, Gooty


9. The ground is very well manured and ploughed at the fall of the first shower, and after the fall of the next shower it is sown by means of seed-drills. For every two months it is weeded. Between the 4th and 6th months, male plants appear. These are removed as they are discovered. The crop is occasionally watered whenever sufficient moisture is wanting. On the 8th mouth it is cut.  - Evidence of A. KATCHAPESWARA IYER, Brahmin, Stationary Sub-Magistrate, Cuddapah Taluk


9. No special knowledge is required for the cultivation of hemp plant. It is cultivated in drills or in beds. - Evidence of M. SESHACHALA NAIDU, Baliya, Pensioned Tahsildar, Vellore.


9.  It is raised in chilly gardens to a limited extent, as stated above. - Evidence of R. C. RAMA IYENGOR, Brahmin, Village Magistrate, Berangy, Mudanapulee Taluk, Cuddapah District.


9. In this district no special methods of cultiva-tion seem to have been adopted. It is cultivated like other dry crops of superior quality, such as tobacco or chillies. A rich black cotton soil or permanently improved soil is generally selected for the cultivation of this plant, which is occasionally raised as a garden crop in case of cessation of rain. 11. Not in this district. - Evidence of K. NARAINASWAMY NAIDU, Velama, Huzoor Sheristadar, Masulipatam.


9. The method of cultivating Lemp is to scatter the seed broadcast in old cattle kraals. When the plants grow they are thinned out to 5 or 6 feet apart aid allowed to branch. All male plants are pulled up and the flowering tops collected when they become sticky and covered with resin. All large leaves that grow in the inflorescence are removed. 11. Yes.
 - Evidence of MR. R. W. MORGAN, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Ootacamund, Nilgiris.


9. It is raised by seed in the nursery, and transplanted when they are about three or four inches high, six feet apart in well-manured pits. 10. There is no special class that takes to the cultivation of ganja. I have seen all nationalities cultivating it more or less. 11. Yes. -  Evidence of Mr. G. HADFIELD, Deputy Conservator of Forests, South Malabar.


11 and 12. Seed is sometimes collected from the spontaneously grown hemp, which again is from the seed of the cultivated plant. In any case the male plant is cut down. - Evidence of MR. C. E. HARDIE, District Forest Officer, Manantoddy, North Malabar.


9. There is nothing special; a few plants are grown near the houses of those who desire to indulge in the luxury of the drug. - Evidence of SURGEON-MAJOR G. L. WALKER, Civil Surgeon, Ootacamund.


9. The seeds will be sown and the plants will be removed to a well cultivated land, manured and replanted there. The cultivators will inundate it with well or river water. As the plant is growing it will be twisted. By doing so, the plant will be in a flourishing condition with too many branches. Then the cultivators cut the trunk of the plant lengthwise for about 3 or 4 inches, and place a stone or a piece of a tile within until the plant bears ganja. This method of operation produces best ganja without seeds or other. This will be done only to the female hemp plant. Male plant only produces bhang (the leaf of the male plant). 11 and 12. Not known.  - Evidence of SURGEON-CAPTAIN C. F. FEARNSIDE, Acting District Surgeon, Ganjam.


11. Yes - Evidence of Apothecary G. A. W. VELLONES, Chetambaram, South Arcot.


9. Dr. Prain's remarks on this respect hold good in this part. 11 and 12. Not known.  - Evidence of Apothecary MUHAMMAD ASADULLA, Ellore, Godavary District.


9. Method of cultivation:—A piece of ground is selected. It is well tilled and manured. Then the seeds are sown; and the ground is kept being watered till the seeds vegetate. When the plants are of a cubit's height, the male ones are singled out and extirpated, and the female saplings are transplanted in twos or threes. A few days after their transplantation, the tender tops are carefully detached. When the branches are well developed, the plant is subjected to occasional shaking and twisting. Special care is taken to protect the plant against ants and spiders. When the plant is of a yard's height, an opening is made in the trunk and a bit of opium is infused. Thereupon a palmyra leaf is tied round the open part and is covered over with cow-dung. In order to prevent the plant from flowering, a piece of tile is sometimes thrust into the trunk. When the flower-tops are well formed, and the seeds almost ripe, the earth at the root of the plant is loosened; and sheep-dung, mixed with ashes, is strewn round the plant. Some fifteen days after this operation, the bottom of the plant is pared off with a knife, so that in course of a few days it gets withered. When it assumes a yellowish colour, it is uprooted and taken home. 11. No trial has been made yet in this taluka - Evidence of K. JAGANNADHAM NAIDU,* Medical Officer, Parlakimedi, Ganjam District.


9. The seeds are sown in a small piece of dry cultivated land previously prepared for it towards the end of the rainy weather, and when the plants are sufficiently grown they are transplanted in a separate ground after ploughing and manured. 11 and 12. No - Evidence of Hospital Assistant T. RANGANAYA KULU NAID00, Rajahmundry, Godavari District.


9. The ground is first tilled and the seeds are sown. When it grows to a height of a foot or so it is transplanted, After a period of six months, when it is fully grown, it is cut and dried in the sun and shade alternately for a period of seven days, and then it is closely packed and allowed to remain for another week more, and afterwards transferred into the bags. - Evidence of Hospital Assistant M. IYASWAMY PILLAY, Saint Thomas' Mount, Madras.


9. The plants are watered till they grow a foot long, and afterwards no water is given to them, except once or twice if the season is dry. When they grow older and older, manure with fowls' excretion is added to the soil. Certain consumers slit open the main stem, insert a small stick of pure opium in the centre of the pith, apply broken pieces of pot on either side of the tree, and tie it tightly with an old rag plastered with mud. The insertion of opium in this way is believed to increase the intoxicating power of the drug with production of much resinous matter on the flowering tops. Certain men daily twist the twigs and the tops with a view of producing good ganja. When the tree is grown old they remove the male trees.  - Evidence of Hospital Assistant CHINNY SREENIVASA RAU, Prapanna Komity, L. F. Hospital, Bobbili Vizagapatam District.


9. In the commencement of the rainy season seeds are sown in well–manured ground. After the plants grow nearly a foot in height, they are removed and transplanted at a distance of 2 1/2 to 3 yards to one another. Manures of cattle and fowls are then put at the roots of the plants for strengthening them; but the water made dirty by fishes having been washed with it is preferable to the above manures. After they reach a height of more than a yard, they are twisted occasionally and the small branches are smoothly rubbed with palms, by which means the big leaves will fall off. The seeds will not be too many, and the flower tops will, as a rule, the larger. Before these flowering tops are formed, some people, who desire more intoxication, split longitudinally the stems of the plants, insert opium, and then tie them well with a string, so that union will take place; and some get the plants poisoned by cobras. In the middle of the cold season, when the plants are well ripened, they are cut down and exposed to the sun during the day-time and to moist during nights for five or seven consecutive days : by this means some resinous matter will be formed in the flowering tops. Those that require still more intoxication sprinkle well the juice of the dhatura leaves and seeds before they are so exposed. By this exposure the pungent odour of these new green plants will evaporate. They are then lightly tied up into bundles in order to be well compressed, rolled in straw, and preserved. 11. I do not know anything about wild hemp. - Evidence of Hospital Assistant JAGANNATII PANDIT, Uriya, Russellkonda, Ganjam District.


9. The plants, if for private consumption, are well taken care of in all the processes of their cultivation calculated to infuse narcotic properties into them. Debris of dead snakes, ptycholis fructus and excreta of fowls, if used for manure, are each of of them considered very favourable for the growth of the plants. At about fifth month of the growth of the plant, it is twisted a little at its trunk, and at the breaks of the rind in result of this, opium and assafœtida are inserted to increase the intoxicating effects. 11. Yes, there is no difference in respect of seeds between the plant cultivated and the one of spon -taneous growth.  - Evidence of Hospital Assistant I. PARTHASARATHY CHETTY, Penukonda, Anantapur District.


9. The seeds are scattered first in a cultivated land in groups, and then transplant them. 11. Ganja is always obtained from cultivating the seeds of wild hemp.  - Evidence of MIRZA DAVOOD BEG, Pensioned Hospital Assistant, Trichinopoly.


9. In the Telugu month of Jashtem the seeds are sown in dry land ; after some days the small plants grown are taken off and planted all over the fields ; when the plants attain, say, a height of 3 feet or so, the big leaves are cut down from the trees. The trunks are then twisted a little and the trees. manured. After the lapse of some days, the bud and flowers ( reddish in colour) are harvested along with twigs or small boughs of the trees. 11. They are not raised from the wild hemp. The seeds of the cultivated hemp only are used to raise plants for the production of ganja.  - Evidence of H. S. A. M. MUNJUMIAH, Native Medical Practitioner, Cuddapah.


11. In this country wild ganja seeds are not sown as a practice, but if any person wishes to do so, he may. - Evidence of SAIYID MAHMUD alias HAKEEM NHANNAY MIAN, Medical Practitioner, Cuddapah.


9. No special method is adopted. The ground is ploughed up, as is done for other dry crop seeds. - Evidence of M. ETHERAGULU PILLAY, Land-owner, Bezwada, Kistna District.


9. 1st—Red mud and manure are mixed, and ground prepared, and in it seeds are sown or plants planted. 2nd—The bed is prepared by killing dogs, and making them stand in the pit with the mouth wide open, and in it the plant is planted. The ganja thus produced is the best kind, because even a bee that sits upon it is attached to it and cannot fly. 3rd—Method by putting cow-dung. 4th—After the plant is grown a little, the twigs are split, and opium is put into it and tied together. The ganja thus grown is also one of the best. Similarly arsenic is also put in. 11. No. - Evidence of AZIZ-UD-DIN ALI KHAN, SAHIB BAHADUR, Jagirdar, Cherlopalle, Gurramkanda, District Cuddapah.


9. The plant is raised on the banks of irrigation (field) channels, in garden. lands lying under wells, along with chilly, brinjal and tobacco.  - Evidence of M.R. RY. V. VENKATARO YER, Brahman, Managar, Ettayapuram Estate, Tinnevelly District.


9. The ground. is well tilled and manured, and then seed is sown, and a heap of straw is covered over the seeds, so that the moist may continue till the plant springs up. 11. Yes.  - Evidence of the REV. J, DESIGACHART, Missionary , Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Badvel, Cuddapah District


9. Hemp is grown in gardens watered by irrigation from channels or wells. It is a five months' crop. As the plants begin to flower a careful inspection is made and all the male flowers are destroyed. When the female plants are in full flower, the leaves are removed and the stems with the flowering tops are cut, tied in bundles and taken to market.  - Evidence of the REV. W. H. CAMPBELL, Missionary, London Missionary Society, Cuddapah.


9. I know nothing about this other than that fowl manure is sometimes used for plants grown privately, ox manure is also good. Plants are twisted three or four times during growth to prevent too much growth and to strengthen the resinous character of the plant. In two cases I was told that the plant has no special season—" neither day nor star" (nalumillai natchatthiramilai) —and needed about 10 months to ripen. Several assert, however, that the plant has its own seasons, that it ripens in January. It grows chiefly along the borders of land where there is chilly, tobacco, or brinjal : not in the middle of these things, or it would injure them.  - Evidence of the REV. S. J. LONG, Missionary, Coimbatore.


9. The plant grows for four or five years and then dies. After five or six months the leaves will be used, that is, five or six months after sowing the seed. The plant requires little or no care in cultivation. 11. We do not know.  - Evidence of the REV. W. V. HIGGINS,* Missionary, Parlakimedi, Ganjam District.


9. Usually it is raised from seed in private gardens. 11. Not to a great extent on the plains ; perhaps not at all.  - Evidence of the REV. JOHN S. CHANDLER, Missionay Madura.


9. One of my preachers, who lived many years in Samalkota, tells me that an old man there cultivated the plant for sale, He cut out all the males, allowed the females to ripen in flower, cut them, and stacked them under a weight much as tobacco is pressed. When sufficiently cured, did them up in bundles and sold or used them. The leaves, it seems, were shaken off, and only the flower adhered to the stalk.  - Evidence of the REV. H. F. LAFLAMME, Canadian Baptist Mission, Yellamanchili, Vizagapatam.


9. Much the same as that for chillies. It is sown in seed beds and transplanted into fairly good soil and watered till it roots. 11. Wild hemp is nut available. The seeds of the cultivated is used.  - Evidence of the REV. J. F. BURDITT, Missionary, Narsaravupet, Kistna District.


9. Where there is large cultivation of the hemp plant, the raiyats in the first instance rake seedbeds and water them till the seedlings are grown nearly half a yard high. They then uproot the seedlings and transplant them in land thoroughly ploughed up and manured for the purpose. The transplantation will be by furrows nearly one yard apart. After transplantation no mechanical waterings are necessary for the growth of the crop, but one of two rains will suffice. The above process is not, however, strictly observed where scattered trees are grown. Generally the seed-beds of the plant are raised in the month of August and transplantation in the mouth of September, and the crop will be ready for cut by the end of January or so. 11. No. - Evidence of the REV. J. HEINRICHS, Missionary, Vinukunda, Kistna District.


9. The cultivation of the plant generally resembles raggi cultivation.  11. Not so far as my information goes. -  Evidence of K. VEMATASOOBIAH, Veishya, Trader and Pleader, District Munsiff's Court, Cuddapah.


9. Much water is not necessary. Generally rain water is sufficient. - Evidence of P. C. ANUNTHACHARLU, Brahmin, Chairman, Municipal Council, and Government Pleader, Bellary.


9. The land is tilled, manured, and seeds sown like dhall (grain). 11. I am not in a position to say so, but it is quite probable that they will gather seeds from the wild hemp. The Malyalees generally secure seeds during harvest time.   - Evidence of V. SIVA YOGI, Brahmin, 1st Grade Pleader and Municipal Chairman, Vellore.


9. The seeds taken out of flat ganja sown in a few back yards a few years ago. - Evidence of C. SRINIVAS RAO, Brahmin, Government Pleader, and Chairman, Municipal Council, Cuddalore.


9. It is watered till it becomes fit for use.  - Evidence of P. KESAVA PILLAI, Karnam, Pleater, and Honorary Secretary of the Gooty People's Association.


9. The seeds are sown on a plot of ground well tilled; the tender plants sprouting up in a group; this piece of land forms the nursery from which they are taken out and planted one by one in regular order, in the surrounding fields. It is also grown in some of the gardens, and to a limited extent in the backyards of houses. These plants do not require much water, and this saves much trouble in its cultivation. 11. No; they are not from the seed of the wild hemp.  - Evidence of the HON'BLE A. SABAPATHY MOODELLIAR, RAI BAHADUR,* Merchant, Bellary.


9. The soil is manured before the seeds are sown. These little plants, after they have grown to the height of six inches, are taken away and transplanted in a different manured soil, at a distance of three or four feet from each other, either singly or doubly. 11. No such restriction is necessary.  - Evidence of CHODISETTY VENKATARATNUM, Merchant, Coconada, Godavari District


9. First, beds are formed and seedlings raised and transplanted, leaving half or one-third yard space between the plants. The transplantation goes on generally in the month of October. After the tree commences to throw out resin, rain spoils the crop. Generally in February and March the ganja is cut. The male trees are removed. Only the female trees are retained. Generally the male is distinguished from the female, because the former bears flower. 11. The seed. taken from the ganja originally sold are sown.  - Evidence of ABDUL KHADER, Agent of the Ganja Shopkeeper, Rajahmundry


9. The seeds are sown at first and the small plants are then transplanted. Sheep dung and fowls' dung are its chief manure. Much depends on the prunings and proppings to produce good ganja. 11. Yes.   - Evidence of ANGAPPA GONUDEN, Blacksmith, Salem.


9. When grown for ganja the plant requires a rich friable soil, and land near a village site is often selected on account of the manure with which native habits supply it. Irrigation being necessary in case of insufficient rain bagait land is preferred. When the plant is grown for seed or for the manu-facture of bhang only irrigation is not essential, and in ordinary seasons any good jirait land will do. The soil is carefully prepared and well manured. Some persons assert that the effect on the soil is beneficial owing to the leaf manure obtained, but the general opinion is that the crop is a hungry one. The seed is sown about the end of July in straight rows at intervals of a foot or more between seeds, About one seer of seed per acre is said to be required. It germinates in a week, and in a month attains the height of 18 inches. Weeding is carefully attended to, and if rain falls, irrigation is required every ten days or so if ganja is wanted. The lower branches are removed in order to force a good top. About six weeks after planting an expert is put on, who seems to be rather an expensive item in the cost of cultivation, getting Rs. 8 or Rs. 9 per month and looking after two or three acres. His business is to exterminate pernicious plants, about the nature of which the ordinary agriculturist appears to have rather hazy notions, and if he finds symptoms of mischief and can trace no local cause, he has to search the country round about for it. So far as I, with small botanical knowledge, can judge from the examination of specimens, the plant is both monosexual and bisexual, and the plants that have to be exterminated are the male and the bisexuals, since ganja is alone formed by the non-fecundated flower-top of the female plant. There are several local names for the plant in all its kinds and stages, and when suffering from peculiar diseases that are said to attack it. I can only vouch for the following, which have come under my observation :— Male plant - Bhangira or dhatura (the latter name being identical with that of the common poisonous plant), Bisexual - Tik, Female plant when kept from seeding - Ganja, Ditto when partly gone to seed - Morai. There are other names, such as shewara, ropda, ardhanar, of which I have not seen specimens. I imagine that the last must, as the word implies, be the bisexual plant or tik. The morai is not exterminated, but is simply regarded with regret, its meaning being that the male has somehow got access and partly spoiled the crop. The result of the expert's work on the average is that half the crop is thinned out, for he does not pretend to be able to diagnose the seed before planting, which some seem to think he ought to do. When the crop is grown for bhang, and of course when grown for seed, the services of the expert are not required. Nor is irrigation required when the plant is well established. The crop matures in between three or four months, maturity of the ganja crop being judged by the stickiness of the tops. Rain spoils it at this period. The outturn of ganja is estimated to he from 4½ to 7½ maunds per acre, according to soil and season. The stems are used for fuel and the refuse for manure or for cattle. 11 and 12. No. - Evidence of MR. E. J. EBDEN, Collector, Ahmednagar.


9. Tag is sown as a whole field crop. Ambadi is sown as a row crop in fields of bajri and tur and some others. - Evidence of MR. F. L. CHARLES, Collector, Belgaum.


9. I can add nothing on this point to the description given by Rao Bahadur R. C. Artal in paragraph 3 of his letter printed as an appendix to the note of the Commissioner of Customs, Salt, Opium and Akbari, forwarded to Government with his letter No 4752, dated 11th September 1893. Rao Bahadur R. C. Artal serves in Bijapur. 11. Not here - Evidence of MR. J. MONTEATH, Collector and District Magistrate, Bijapur.


9. The method followed in cultivating the hemp plant may be described briefly as under. There is no difficulty felt in the selection of land. Any soil is suited, except "muram" and hard soil. Black soil is however the best; although in many cases the whitish-grey as well as red soil is used. All bagait lands are well suited for the cultivation of the hemp plant. The sites selected are generally moist, not shaded. The land is ploughed well three or four times. The first, ploughing takes place in the months of April and May, when ordinarily agricultural lands are prepared. The soil is thus well prepared by two to three courses of ploughing. The rains are awaited. In June when the land is once or twice flooded, it is again ploughed and harrowed. It is then manured with cow-dung and rubbish, also with ashes in some cases. After another fall of rain, the land is once more harrowed and the soil is then quite ready to receive the seed. About the close of June the seed is sown, which appears well within a week. The plants are then thinned if they come up too closely and are kept carefully weeded. If the rains are seasonable, no watering is required, otherwise one or two waterings are given. When the plant grows a little over a foot high, the lower twigs are cut off so as to favour a more healthy growth of the tops and flowers. Experts called "parkhi" are then employed to distinguish between the male and female plants in order to eradicate the former, as their presence in the field fecundates the female plants and causes them to run into seed, producing little or no ganja. This process over, weeding if necessary is repeated. The female plants mature towards the close of November when harvesting commences, the process of which is described under question 15. 11. No. Ganja plants are not raised from the seed of the wild hemp. Wild hemp is not known in this district. Seed for ganja cultivation is
obtained from Ahmednagar, where seed is purchased.  - Evidence  of  MR. A. H. PLUNKETT, City Magistrate, Poona


9. Alluvial land is preferable. Method of cultivation same as that practised in respect to cereals. 11. As far as I know, ganja plants are not raised from the seed of wild hemp.  - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR BHIMBHAI KIRPA RAM, Brahmin, Huzur Deputy Collector of Surat.


9. Irrigated and well-manured black soil is required for its cultivation. It is sown exactly like jowari. Hoeing and weeding are required to be done every fortnight. The season for sowing ganja is about the end of July. One month after the seed begins to geminate, a man is required to examine daily the plants and destroy the male ones, lest they should cause the neighbouring female plants to fail. The hemp plant takes three months to produce flowering tops. 11. No  - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR VYANKATESH BAPUJI WADEKAR, Deputy Collector, Ahmednagar.


9. The methods of cultivation of hemp plant for bhang and ganja were almost similar to those described in letter No. 562, dated 30th August 1893, from the District Deputy Collector of Bijapur, attached to letter No. 4752, dated 11th September 1893, from the Commissioner of Customs, Salt, Opium and Abkari, to the Chief Secretary to Government, Revenue Department.  - Evidence of KHAN BAHADUR DADABHAI DEENSHAH, Parsi, Huzur Deputy Collector and Magistrate, 1st Class, Kaira.


9. The land is first prepared and manured at the rate of about two cart-loads per acre. The seeds are cast and beds are prepared as for garden crops with a view to water the crop. The male plants are subsequently removed. For the first month the crop is watered every week and a little later afterwards. 11. No.  - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR BHASKAR RAO RAMCHANDRA HEBLIKAR, Brahmin, Deputy Collector, Sholapur.


9. The land selected for the cultivation of this plant is generally black or dusky white. This is richly manured every year and the cost of the manure is roughly estimated at Rs. 15 per acre. In the month of May or earlier, the ground is well ploughed, and at the commence -ment of the season, which period the culti -vators call "mrigá nakshatra" (commence -ment of June), the seed is sown in harrows. The estimated quantity of seed required per acre is 2 1/2 lb . From the date the seed is put in the ground the shoots germinate after eight days, and in about a month the plant reaches the height of about one foot. When this height is arrived at the side leaves or shoots are all removed so as to give the fullest strength to the stem to thrive in height, which is not the case if side shoots or branches are not removed. The removing of side shoots is continued till the plant comes to the height of three or four feet. The cultivation of seed is generally two inches apart. After the plant is a month old, an experienced man, who is able to distinguish male from female plants, goes to the field and roots out all the male plants. This pahani or inspection work is done every week, and at each time the male plant and "ardh-nari" (half male and half female) plants are extirpated. Removal of such plants makes the cultivation scattered. The plant stands for about fifteen days without rain ; but after that time, if there is no rainfall, the field is watered every ten or fifteen days, and to allow this being done, bagait land, with means of irrigation either by a well or pat, is selected for cultivation of this plant. The plant generally flowers in November ; and in December the flowering tops are cut and collected. (A photograph of ganja field is appended.) 11. No - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR SITARAM DAMODAR, H uzur Deputy Collector, Khandesh


9. The soil for cultivating ganja is prepared by putting proper manure therein till the Ashád (about July). The preparation of soil is similar to that for the cultivation of sugarcane. The ganja seed is obtained at the rate of half to one seer (local measure) per rupee, and it is generally brought from Nagar in the Ahmednagar District. It also can be had in the ganja-producing villages of this district. The seed is of blue colour, and in form resembles the Argad seed, but is little flattened. At the time of sowing the seed, the soil, which has already been tilled, is first made level, and the next day the seed is sown into it in a row by means of a bamboo pipe fixed to the plough. The rows are about a cubit and a half (three feet) apart from each other. The seed is sown in the rainy season at the time when the Punarwasu Nakshatra sets in. About one and a half to two seers of the seed is required for the cultivation of one acre of the soil. Fifteen days after the sowing of the seed the field is weeded with the implement called kolpe, and then after 8 days the field is weeded with the hand. The same process (weeding with the hand) is repeated every fortnight. By these processes the spontaneous growth of weeds is prevented between the rows of the crop. The intervening space between the rows of the crop is made soft and crumbly by repeated-ly turning it over with a kolpe at intervals of 15 days at a time. This conduces to the growth of crop and consequent budding. It is necessary for the cultivator to engage a servant at a cost of about Rs. 8 a month, a fortnight after the sow-ing of the seed. The duty of the servant is to go through the crop daily, and to remove all male plants and plants affected with the following vegetable diseases. The plants are generally affected by them at the top :— (1) Andia róg.—Very small organic molecules are formed on the top of the plants. This disease generally affects the plants in the beginning of their growth, and lasts for about a month. (2) Haldia róg affects the plant by producing yellow colour on the tops, and lasts till the full growth of the crop. (3) Charka róg is at the top.—Makes the flower yellow, and lasts to the end. (4) Sheora róg.—White flowers grow on the " boot " (flower top portion). (5) Punda.—The seed is formed in the "boot" and which afterwards produces flower. (6) Aradnár.— From the stock to the top of the plant small buds are formed, which give rise to white flowers. (7) Kapsha róg.— It whitens the plant. The process of removing the affected plants is continued for about three months. On the whole, when the agglutinated flower tops are formed, the ganja is produced, but when seed is formed, the crop becomes useless. When the plants become three months old, they give rise to "bónd" or " kali," and after this they are subject to another disease called móra, which causes the breach of the bónd, wherein seed is formed. When the bónd is formed, the plant is taken out of the soil and ganja is prepared. The leaves of the plant are broadened in proportion to the growth. The plant rises to about 2 1/2 to 4 cubits. When the plants with bónds (flower tips) on them are removed from the field, their bónds are nipped and trodden down under foot for four days on clean ground, and then they are collected and packed up. When ganja is thus prepared, it is fit for sale. One man can prepare a maund weight of ganja within four days by the above process. Six showers of rain are sufficient for a good crop of ganja ; if there is want of rain, the crop is to be watered artificially at intervals of 15 days. No rain is required at the time of nipping the bónd. If there is rain at the time, the bónd will not retain the resinous matter, and the ganja becomes of inferior quality. The plants themselves serve the purpose of fuel, they being of no other use. At the time of sowing ganja, the seed is thickly sown, as 75 per cent. of the plants, being male plants and affected with diseases, are required to be removed, and only the remaining 25 per cent. produce ganja. At the beginning of Márgashirsha the ganja crop is fit to be removed from the soil, which can then be utilized for sowing wheat, gram, etc. The same soil can be appropriated every year for the crop of ganja if manure is used every year. 10. Hemp cultivators are of the class of agri-cultural cultivators. 11. No.  - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR BAPUJI MAHIPAT KHARKAR, Kayasth, Huzur Deputy Collector and Magistrate, 1st Class, Satara.


 9. Mode of cultivation .—The land in which ganja is to be grown is first ploughed with a heavy hoe called ukki kunti and levelled. Ganja seed is then drilled in it in July or August, the process of sowing resembling in every respect that of sowing ordinary jowari, but the space between the rows being wider. If rainfall be not sufficient, the crop is watered once or twice a week Generally hand-weeding is resorted to in addition to the use of a yedi kunti or grubber. When the plants grow to a height of about two feet, the operation of selecting and uprooting the male plants by experts commences with a view to protect the female plants from running into seed and thus damaging the entire crop. When the plants grow to maturity, which requires a period of about foul months, the flowering tops and leaves are cut off. The height of a ganja plant ranges from 6 to 8 feet. 11. No. -  Evidence of RAO BAHADUR RANGO RAMCHANDRA BHARDI, Deputy Collector and Native Assistant to the Commissioner, Poona, Central Division.


9. As regards the method of cultivation, I beg to refer to paragraph 3 of my report, No. 562, dated the 30th August last, printed at page 7 of the note submitted to Government by the Com missioner of Customs, Salt, Opium and Abkari, with his letter No. 4752, dated 11th September 1893. 11. The plants are never cultivated in this district for the production of ganja from the seed of wild hemp. - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR RUDRAGOWDA CHANVIRGOWDA ARTAL, Lengayet, Deputy Collector, Bijapur.


9. The land called Marul (mixture of red earth with white) is generally selected for ganja cultivation. The site thus selected is well ploughed and manured with cowdung and then it is harrowed several times. The seed is not preserved here, but is brought from the Khanapur taluka of the Satara district. I am informed that the ganja seed from Ahmednagar is considered the best ; and the Khanapur cultivators bring it from that district. The sowing operation commences as soon as the rain periods called Punarwasu and Pushia set in—that is, in the month of July. It is popularly believed that the July (Punarwasu and Pushia) rains are favourable for the raising of ganja crop. Ganja cultivators are, therefore, on the alert not to lose this favourable opportunity. The seed is sown by means of tiffan or drill plough. On the plants attaining the height of nearly six or nine inches, weeding operation begins. In the event of the plants growing too closely, they are thinned and carefully weeded out. The method of transplantation of ganja is not known in this State. If the rainfall is scarce and inopportune, the plants are watered by well irrigation twice a week. To favour the upward growth, the lower branches are lopped off. Trimming of the plants commences by November. The ganja plot is again harrowed and all weeds are removed. At this stage the plants begin to flower, when the    services of an expert are called into requisition. At this juncture all the stami nate or male plants must be cut down and re moved. This work can only be done by an expert, who is paid at least Rs. 10 a month during the time his services are employed. He is called Parakhdar, because he examines all the plants and carefully takes away all the male plants till they disappear altogether. 11. Never in this part of the country.  - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR RAMCHANDRA RAJARAM MULÉ, Deshastha Brahmin, Administrator of Jath, in Southern Mahratta Country.


9. Hemp plant grows luxuriantly in irrigated lands of all kinds, whether they be black, reddish, or whitish. It grows in dry crop land also, provided the fall of rain be seasonable and plentiful. I have seen the hemp plant growing luxuriantly in an irrigated field of whitish gaonthan land belonging to a Brahmin gentleman surnamed Tadpatri in the Rahuri taluka of the Ahmednagar Collectorate, twenty years ago, while Assistant Commissioner. I have also seen it growing in black and reddish sails in the Satara Collectorate and in the Aundh State. The lands selected for the hemp cultivation are ploughed and harrowed in the months of February and March and manured in the month of May. Twenty-five cart-loads of manure are required for each acre. The seed used is from the Nagar Collectorate generally, because it is supposed to produce a smaller number of male plants or to give rise to a smaller number of the plagues hereinafter mentioned. The hemp seed is like múg seed, and can be had at one seer of 80 tolas per rupee. It is sown in the month of July generally, and the crop is reaped in the month of November or December. It commences to grow within a week. If the plants grow thicker they are thinned, and only those at a distance of one inch apart are allowed to stand. In order that the crop may not be thick, two of the three holes of the sowing machine intended for the passage of the seed are blocked up at the time of sowing. From one and a quarter to two seers of seed are required for an acre. The plants are one foot high within a month, when they are weeded and the task of rooting out the male plant or plants affected with plague follows. It is a difficult task to find out male plants ; but it can generally be recognized by the small pin-like white flower growing in any one of the bunches of the plant when it is ripe and in the shoots when young. This is also called the andya plague. The Mamlatdar of Khanapur informs me that there are other five kinds of plagues for the hemp plant called (1) shevarya, (2) haldya, (3) kapshia, (4) pundia, (5) mora, the plants affected by which are required to be carefully rooted out in due time. The shevarya plague is recognized by one of the branches growing higher and bending down with a jowari-like grain flower at the end of it. The haldya plague is recognized by a yellow shoot at one of the knots of the plant. The kapshia and pundia plagues can be recognized by a jowari-like grain on the top of the plant. It transforms afterwards into a white or yellow flower. The mora plague, recognized by the yellow flower in the top bunch, makes its appearance sometimes fifteen days prior to the reaping of the crop, and has the effect of destroying the better quality of the ganja. No one is able to recognize the male plant and the plagues with slight observation, and therefore experts are employed. At the time of reaping the crop two men are employed, one to cut the flower top bunches with a scythe, and another man to pull out the knot shoot bunches. About 520lb of ganja are said to be produced in an acre when the crop is superior. Exclusive of the labour of the cultivator, the expense of producing one acre of hemp crop is about R60, and including the cultivator's labour R100. It is worthy of note that this crop is not eaten by cattle, but by sheep only, and as sheep are not to be found straying any where, hemp plants do not require hedging generally. 11. There is no wild hemp plant in the Satara Collectorate. - Evidence of NARAYAN RAO BHIKHAJ1 JOGALEKAR, Brahmin, Pensioned Deputy Collector ; now Karbhari of the Aundh Stale.


9. Before the setting in of the rainy season, the ground which is to be sown with the hemp plant is prepared, as for an ordinary crop, by once ploughing and harrowing two or three times. About the beginning of July the seed is sown in rows about two feet apart; when the crop is about a foot high it is cleared of grass, etc., by hand-weeding or with the help of a small hoe. If the rainfall is sufficient and seasonable, the crop grows without any artificial irrigation. If the rainfall is scanty, it requires to be watered once a week or so. When the plants attain sufficient maturity to enable the expert to distinguish between the male and the female plants, the extirpation of the male plants — which is the most important process in the cultivation of the ganja crops—commences. The male plants are carefully searched for and pulled up, as, if allowed to remain, they spoil the whole ganja crop by making the female plants set seed freely and thus destroy the resinous matter, which is the real active principle in ganja. Transplantation system is never used. Ordinary cattle-yard manure is generally used, which, as in the case of other crops, increases the quantity and improves the quality of the outturn. The same plot of ground is not generally sown with ganja successively for two or more years. The plots are changed by rotation just as in the case of other crops. It is no doubt somewhat difficult to distinguish male from female plants while they are young, and it is only by long practice that the experts themselves are able to do so. I remember it to have been stated to me that the earlier appearance of buds upon a plant is one of the signs of its being a male plant. The crop is ready for harvesting about the end of November. 11. No, never to my knowledge.  - Evidence of RAO SAHEB GANESH PANDURANG THAKAR, Deshastha Brahmin, Mamlatdar, Pandharpur, Sholapur District, at present auditing the jamabandi accounts of the Poona  District, Poona.


9. After the opening of the monsoon, ganja is sown at the end of June or beginning of July in plough land in the same manner as jawari. The plant needs no irrigation (artificial) during the monsoon, after which it is watered by means of " mote" (water bucket). From the month of September male plants begin to come up among crops, and they are at once removed, for their presence causes the female plants to seed and injures the crops. Grass or dirt among the ganja crops is weeded out from time to time. 11. The plants cultivated for the production of ganja are not raised from the seed of wild hemp.  - Evidence of RAO SAHEB SHESHO KRISNA MUDKAVI, Mamlatdar of Taluka Bijapur, Bijapur.


9. The following is the mode of cultivating hemp in the Sangli State:— The ground is, in the first instance, well ploughed and harrowed. The manure is then carefully and evenly spread. The season of sowing the hemp seed in this part of the country is towards the end of June. The seed is obtained from Ahmednagar by cultivators at the rate of about 2 lb per rupee. It is sown with a tipan (drill plough) which has three poles for dropping grain. The two extreme holes in the tipan (drill plough) are closed, and the seed is dropped into the furrow through the remaining third hole in the middle. The quantity of seed required is about 14 lb per acre. In four or five days after sowing they shoot up. During the early growth of the plants, the ground is kept clean from all weeds. When they grow to the height of about 4 inches, they are required to be thinned, so as to be four or five inches apart from one another. The effect of this is that they are exposed more freely to light, heat and air, which promote a fuller development and vigour of the plant. When the plants attain the height of about one cubit, the male plants, which bear only seed, are extirpated, leaving only female plants to grow. It is not done by every cultivator, as it requires a great deal of insight to distinguish between the male and female plants. The well-initiated alone do this work. This process continues weekly till all the male plants disappeared from the ground. Until the crop has attained a good height, the ground is required to be kept free from all rank vegetation. During the season of the rapid growth of the plants they necessarily require moisture, and therefore, when the rainfall is scanty in any year, they are watered. When full grown, the plants attain the height of from 6 to 8 feet. 10. Those who cultivate hemp for its narcotic properties are of the same class as other agricul tural cultivators. They do not form a special class. 11. NO; never. - Evidence of BALKRISHNA NARAYAN VAIDYA, Parbhu, State Karbhari of Sangli


9. Bagayet and black soil well manured is required for the cultivation of the hemp plant. It is required to be ploughed twice or thrice in order to make the soil loose and soft. Then the manure, which chiefly consists of straw, and all sorts of refuse, is spread over the plot of ground so prepared. When the monsoon sets in, the seed of ganja is sown in the beginning of June. It is sown exactly like jowari. The seed is sown in rows, leaving a distance of a foot and a half between them. It takes a period of five months for its full growth, during which time the grass is required to be weeded out twice or thrice, as is found necessary, for the nourishment of the hemp plant. When the plants begin to blossom, experts are employed to eradicate the seed-producing plants which, if allowed to remain, will convert the whole crop to useless seed-producing plants called " bhangora," i.e., male plants. At the beginning of November, the dried heads of the hemp plants are cut and collected on a threshing floor ; they undergo the operation of being trodden and are then dried in the sun. The process is repeated successively for three or four days. Thereupon the whole stuff is winnowed, and is called ganja, and the powder-like substance that remains at the bottom is called bhang or chur, but it is not the genuine bhang. 11. The plants cultivated for the production of ganja are never raised from the seed of the wild hemp ; but the seeds required for the cultivation of ganja are quite different.  - Evidence of DADABHAI BURJORJEE GUZDER, Parsi, District Abkari Inspector, Ahmednagar.


9. After the soil is manured and ploughed, the seed is sown with the usual three-drilled imple ment, one drill of which is, however, used. The seed used is the Ahmednagar seed, as the cultiva tors prefer this to the Satara seed, the crops raised from the latter seed being more subject to blight than those raised from the Ahmednagar seed. The seed is sown in the month of Ashad (July August), and it is required at the rate of 1 1/2 to 2 seers (capacity measure) per acre of land. About a week after the date of sowing young plants b gin to show, and in the second week the cultivator removes sickly plants and those which are very close, one inch of space being allowed between any two plants. By the end of three weeks the plants stand about a foot high, when the cultivator re moves the weeds and clears the space between the rows. About a month after the sowing the plants are about 18 inches high. The plants are then examined by an expert, who readily detects and removes such plants as are likely to be affected by blight. Each plant is examined once a week. If the rainfall has been timely and sufficient, two more waterings are necessary before the crop is ready for harvesting. Otherwise the crop is wa tered three times, and so arranged that the last watering takes place about 14 days before harvest ing. The crop is then harvested in the month of Kartick (November). 10. Hemp cultivators, for its narcotic properties, do not form a special class. They belong to the original agricultural class. 11. No.  - Evidence of KHAN SAHIB NASARVANJI EDALJI SETHNA, Parsi, Abkari Inspector, Satara.


9. The hemp plant requires good soil and careful tillage. It does best in medium black soil with a mixture of red soil. The land is prepared as for bajri (Pennisetum typhoideum), and the seed is sown in June-July with a three-coulter seed drill, the distance between any two rows being about a foot and a half. The crop is bullock-hoed with a view to loosen the surface soil, to earth up the plants, and to remove the weeds. It is also frequently hand-weeded to keep the land scrupulously clean. When it is about two feet high, the male plants are uprooted and the crop otherwise thinned, to afford sufficient room for lateral growth, which is induced by bruising the stem. This is done by giving it a half twist a few inches above the root. Cultivators are very careful in removing male plants, as a few of them are said to be quite sufficient to fertilize the whole crop of female plants and thus damage the crop. Male plants are therefore searched after until the crop begins to flower. Hemp is liberally manured with farm-yard manure, but rarely irrigated. If the rainfall is deficient, it is supplemented by two or three waterings. The crop becomes ready for harvest in November-December. It is harvested by cutting the flower-heads with about ore foot of stalk. These are left to be exposed to the influence of dew on a piece of ground well cleaned and beaten firm specially for the purpose for one night. Next day the cut stalks are heaped in small heaps, with the flower heads towards the centre, and the heaps are trampled and trodden down by men. This process lasts from three to four days, and during it the flowering heads are pressed flat. The ganja is now fit for storage. The heaps are winnowed, and the flowering heads picked by hand are stored in gunny bags. The chaff, consisting mostly of broken leaves and broken flowering tops, are gathered and separately stored as bhang. During the curing of ganja sometimes a little charas is gathered in the manner described in reply 7. Thus at one and the same time all the three drugs are manufactured. Lengre in the Khanapur taluka of Satara, and Javulke in the Khed, and Jategaon, Mukhai, and Shikrapur in the Sirur talukas of Poona are famous for their ganja. - Evidence of YASHVANT NILKANTH, Patana Prabhu, Superintendent, Office of Survey Commissioner, and Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Bombay.


9. The land is ploughed in the usual manner, and the seed sown broadcast. When the plants are ready (full grown and flowering), they are plucked up and stacked for a few days. (This information is by hearsay only.) 11. No - Evidence of MR. G. P. MILLET, Divisional Forest Officer, West Thana, Thana.


9. Garden land and black soil are best for its cultivation. A plentiful supply of water and careful manuring required ; also ploughing and harrowing. One man required to watch every three bigas of land cultivated, for weeding. The male plant has to be carefully eliminated when cultivat -ing for production of ganja. One male plant will sterilise a whole field of ganja. In cultivating for seed purposes the female plant is eliminated. 11. Not  known, but probably not as far as this district is concerned, as wild hemp is not known. The result would probably be spurious ganja.  -  Evidence of MR. H. KENNEDY, District Superintendent of Police, Ahmednagar.


9. Black rich soil is required for the cultivation of the plant, which is deeply ploughed and manured in May. Seed is obtained from Nagar district and sown in July in lines, distant apart 1 1/2 feet. After fifteen days the crop is thinned, and a month later weeded. If there is lack of rain the crop is watered every fifteen days, and is reaped about November. It is then trodden under foot, and made up in bundles. 11. Not in this district. - Evidence of MR. J. E. DOWN, Districts Superintendent of Police, Satara.


9. The soil required for hemp cultivation ought to be best yellow or sandy. It cannot grow in black soil. The ground requires to be well ploughed, and ought to be frequently weeded. Two crops can be obtained during one year, but not in the same land. Kharif crop is said to possess more narcotic properties than the rabi. - Evidence of KHAN BAH ADUR NANABHOY COWASJI, Parsi, City Police Inspector, Surat.


9. The seeds are sown in the months of Shrawan and Bhaderwa. They are sown like jowari. The plant is ready in six or seven months after the sowing of the seed. The plants are not irrigated.  - Evidence of UTTAMRAM JEEWANRAM, ITCHAPOORIA, Audesh, Brahmin, Native Doctor (Vaidya), Bombay and Surat.


9. In May and June the land is ploughed, and at the beginning of the monsoon the seeds are sown, like jowari. After ten or twelve days after sowing, the plant comes out. After about one month the male plants begin to flower, when they are distinguished and pulled out ; searching for the male plant lasts about three months. The plant is ready in six or seven months after the sowing of the seed. Then the plants are cut and dashed. The droppings then are cleaned and collected, which is then called bhang. 11. The seed of the wild hemp is not used for cultivating the plant for the production of ganja.  - Evidence of KESHOWRAM HARIDAT, Chcepooria, Audesh Brahmin, Native Doctor (Vaidya), Render, Surat and Bombay.


9. The bhang plant is grown together with other grains. The seeds are sown broadcast. It is also grown in gardens and irrigated ; this generally for personal use.  - Evidence of MR. PURBHURAM JEEWANRAM, Nagar Brahmin, Native Doctor (Vaidya), Bombay.


9. Kind of soil.—Ganja is grown in well irrigated garden land and does not thrive in dry crop land. The most suitable soil is the medium reddish black description. Such soil is generally assessed at from Rs. 3 to Rs. 7 per acre including water rate. Rotation.—The crop to be successful cannot be grown in successive years. It should follow a previous year's crop of ground-nut, sugarcane, turmeric, chillies or garlic. It is found to suffer in quality when grown on land which in the previous year bears bajari, jowari, gram, wheat, or sweet potatoes. Preparation of soil.—The land selected for the crop in this district is ploughed in the months of February and March, a 12-ox plough being generally employed. The clods are then broken up by a light plough. In the month of May the field is manured at the rate of 24 carts per acre of ordinary manure, the cost being about Rs. 12 per acre. The system of penning sheep in the field is also resorted to. The land is then again lightly ploughed in order that the manure may be well mixed with the laud and any clods that remain are at the same time broken up. The land is then ready to receive the crop by the beginning of monsoon. Seed.—The cultivators of this district like to get the seed from Ahmadnagar, as they say that crops grown from that seed are less liable to blight than crops grown from Satara seed. It is also said that the local seed produces an unusually large proportion of male plants called bhangera. The presence of male plants is distinctly injurious, and large detection and immediate removal of such plants form an important element in raising a successful crop. Price of seed.—The average price of Ahmadnagar seed is one seer (capacity) per rupee, though it is sometimes twice as dear. The seed is spherical and about the size of mug seed. It is brought from Ahmadnagar traders. Method of sowing.—The seed is sown with the usual three-drilled implement, only one drill of which, however, is used Time of sowing.—Sowing is performed in the months of July and August. In light soil, the sowing is performed somewhat earlier than in rich black soil. Watering the crops.—When the rainfall has been timely and sufficient, only two waterings of the crop are required. In other cases the crop is watered three times at intervals of ten or twelve days, so arranged that the last watering takes place about fourteen days before harvesting. 11. Yes; formerly it used to be from the seeds of wild hemp plant; but of late the cultivators bring the seed from Ahmadnagar.   -  Evidence of RAMCHANDRA KRISHNA KOTIIAVALE, Brahmin, Inamdur, Taluka Wai, in Satara District.


9. In summer days the land is prepared for cultivation by ploughing and harrowing it. After the setting in of the monsoons and after two or three rainfalls the ganja seed is sown into the soil thus prepared by an implement of husbandry called wokhar, driven by two bullocks, to one end of which is attached a wooden pot through which the seed is dropped and thus sown in a regular line. These lines are made at the distance of two or two-and-half feet from each other by means of another wokhar driven by its side. Six days afterwards the ganja plants grow up. A month thenceforth the plants become so dense that it becomes necessary to remove some of them with a view to preserve the distance of three inches between each plaint. A week afterwards the leaves of all plants are removed, reserving only the topmost part, with leaves about six inches in length Then the examiner of ganja plant examines them and removes males if there be any. The examination is continued from week to week until the ganja crop is reaped, Generally this cultivation is made in rainy season, and in case of drought water from wells is used once in every week. Nearly six months after the date of sowing the harvest of the ganja crop commences. 11. There is wild hemp in this district, and so the plants cultivated for the production of ganja are not raised from its seed.  - Evidence of NARO DHAKADEO, Brahmin, Pleader, Jalgaon, District Khandesh.


9. The method of cultivation followed is not marked with any peculiarity. The only difficulty lies in weeding out the male plants and thus preventing the female kind from seeding. The scanty cultivation which exists at Bijapur appears to have increased from 33 gunthas in 1888-89 to 13 acres in 1892-93. This slight increase seems to have been fully sustained by lecal demand. The district of Bijapur does not import much from outside, and what it imports is chiefly, if not solely, from the neighbouring State of Jata; it has no less than 33 retail shops licensed for the sale of ganja. I personally visited the farm at Bijapur, in order to see with my own eyes the cultivation of hemp and also the process of the manufacture of ganja. The method of cultivation does not much differ from that, of jowari. The soil is well ploughed some four times and levelled by means of harrow. It is at the time when the process of levelling is going on that manure is thrown over the soil. The preliminary process, I mean the pressing of the soil, is commenced generally in Phagun or Chait, March or April, and is completed about the end of Jesht, June. When the land is thus well prepared, the ganja seed is sown in the field by means of drill (kurgi), a sowing implement, the same that is used when sowing jowari, with the only difference that the two of the three holes of the drill are closed, and the third alone is kept open. This is done to allow more space between the rows of the crop. The sowing operation commences about the end of July or beginning of August. The seed, after it is sown, is covered under earth by means of Balgunti. After a week the off-shoots are found to appear over the surface of the ground. When the crops grow about one foot high, the grass is weeded out by hand, and later on, as it grows taller, the grass between the rows is removed by a grubber (yadikunti) about twice a month, until the crop is ready for harvesting. If the rains hold off and there is a long break, it sometimes becomes necessary to water the crop. It takes about four or five months for the crop to be ready for reaping, and the harvesting period is about the beginning of January. When the crop is fully grown up, the tallest plant may be found to measure about 6 or 7 feet. - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR VISHWANATH KESHAWA JOGLEKAR, Brahmin, Sowkar, Karajgi in Dharwar District.


9. The land is first prepared as for other agricultural purposes and the seeds are sown at the distance of 2 1/2 feet in rows. When the seeds come above ground, all male plants are from time to time detected and destroyed. This goes on from four to five months, when the female flower stalks are removed and dried. This forms ganja, while bracts and some other leaves form bhang.  - Evidence of KISAN DULICHAND, Licensed Vendor of Ganja, Nasik.


9. The cultivation of hemp is generally commenced from the middle of the rainy season till the cold season or till December in Gujarat and in July or August in Sind. The soil necessary for hemp cultivation is loamy or sandy. The ground is first levelled and cleared of shrubs, etc. It is then flooded and ploughed up, the seed is then put in by means of phatke (tubular vertical instrument). Too much water is injurious to the growth of the hemp. If there is no sufficient moisture the field is watered once or twice. The low, sandy, clayish banks of rivers are overrun once or twice with water, like the Indus or the Tapti, known as katcho in Sind and bhata in Gujarat, is best suited for the growth of hemp. 11. In Sind, in the territories of His Highness Mir Ali Murad Khan, ganja is raised from the same seed as bhang. The plant intended for ganja becomes generally stunted on account of harder and rocky nature of soil underneath it. The leaves get shrivelled. This is the distinguishing feature of the plant which is left for ganja, which is a female plant. The flowers and tops of the branches assume the same form. The flowery tops of the wild hemp plant known in Sind as Kohi or Kohistani possesses even without their being made into flat or round ganja, the properties of ganja and much searched after by fakirs and sadhus visiting those regions. 12. No. I have no reason to suppose  - Evidence of NANNU MIAN B.SHAIKH, Municipal Secretary, Surat.


9. The land in the first place is turned up, clods broken, and the soil prepared by putting manurial matters for cultivation. The seeds, consisting of male and female and mixed up, are sown from Ponarvasu to Pushya, Nakshatras in the Hindu month of Shravana (corresponding English month August) in coulter drills. When the plants grow to the height of a foot or so and are dense, the male plants, which do not yield ganja are rooted out, to leave the female ones sufficient space between. If all the plants in a line are female, some of them also are rooted out to allow the rest sufficient space between. The space between the two plants should ordinarily be not less than a foot. If the plants are dense they do not thrive, and the yield is poor and deteriorated in quality. The leaves of the female young plants are nipped off to invigorate their growth. It is harvested in December. 11. The plants cultivated for the production of ganja are never raised from the seed of the wild hemp, but from those grown by cultivation. The seeds of the preceding year are preserved for sowing for the ensuing year. - Evidence of GURAPPA RACHAPPA, Lengayet, Office of Shetti (Revenue and Police), Dharwar.


9. Being dissatisfied with my subordinates' reports on the methods of cultivation, I sent for two landholders who regularly cultivate, small areas with hemp. Their accounts varied very slightly, and were as follows: — Hemp is usually cultivated with well irrigation ; but sometimes the land is irrigated beforehand with canal water, and the crop is then grown on its inherent moisture. This class of irrigation in Sind is known as " bosi," or to use the technical survey term, "artificial inundation." Seed is sown either along the side of raised earthen ridges in " chungyun," i.e., pinches, what the top of the thumb or two first fingers will hold, viz., five or six seeds, or it is sown broadcast. The latter method is, however, confined entirely to the land artificially inundated. In well cultivation the ridges are always used. The land is highly manured, goats' dung being the best kind. It is ploughed four or generally five times, and then rolled with a heavy log of wood called a " sahar" until the earth is quite soft, a quality which is indispensable for the crop. The seed is sown in the late autumn, and even as late as the beginning of January, and the crop is reaped in April or May. The extent of cultivation on a well ranges from seven to ten jaribs, but the area, when the land has been artificially inundated, may be more. All the male plants are rooted up and thrown away as useless. When the crop is ripening the upper portions of the stalks to the length of 1 to 1 1/2 feet are cut off, and these are kept separately, and are the tit-bits of it. They are dried with the seed and stalk in them, and these pieces are called ghundyun, and are said to be more intoxicating than the rest of the plant, which, after being cut, is dried in the sun for several days, and is then threshed with sticks until the broken leaves and seed are separated and form the common bhang, as it is sold to the farmer, who, however, cleans it carefully by sifting, and sometimes separates the seeds before retailing it to his customers. Small portions of the ghundyun which break off occasionally are also preserved separately, and are called dodo or dodi. I am sending a box containing specimens of the ghundyun, dodo, and the seed. The actual sowing of the seed, the ploughing, weeding, and bird-scaring, etc., is always carried out by banias or Hindu cultivators, the Muhammadan cultivator supplying the bullocks which work the well and the zamindar giving the land. The bania supplies the seed, but the manure is given in the same proportion as the produce is divided, i.e., one-fifth to the bania and two-fifths each to the raiyat and the landholder. The zamindar also gives takavi or an advance in cash to the raiyat. The amount of seed sown varies according as the cultivation is on well or artificially inundated land, the quantity used in the former being naturally less. One cultivator said that he used on his well three seers a jarib or about six per acre, whereas the second said that one seer was enough when the seed was sown in ridges, and from two to three if sown broadcast. The produce is estimated at from 10 to 20 maunds per jarib.  - Evidence of MR. R. GILES, Collector, Shikarpur


9. Grown both as a kharif and rabi crop. Further particulars not known. - Evidence of Mr. C. E. S. STAFFORD STEELE, Officiating Deputy Commissioner, Thar and Parkar District.


9. I have served in Sehwan taluka, zillah K arachi, for about seven years, where in one of its villages, called Bubak, hemp is grown considerably and brought to perfection. In order to raise a good crop of hemp, it is necessary that the land should be well ploughed and manured and copiously watered. The seed is sown about October or November and the crop is. reaped about April. The crop is then allowed to dry in the sun and then removed to warehouses or godowns. 11. I do not know anything about this.  - Evidence of KHAN BAHADUR KADIRDAD KHAN GUL KHAN, C.I.E., Deputy Collector, Naushahro Sub-division.


9. There are two methods for the cultivation of hemp. In the lands subject to the natural flow of river water, land is first flooded, seed is put down broadcast and is then ploughed. The other method is more elaborate and produces good and substantial crop. The land is first ploughed once or twice, roller is passed over it, and ridges are prepared in which seed is put down like tobacco or other vegetable crop. When the plants and seed become ripe, they are cut down just above the roots and are allowed to dry intact.  - Evidence of S. SADIK ALI SHERALI, Deputy Collector and First Class Magistrate, Frontier District of Upper Sind.


9. Bhang is cultivated like wheat in cold weather. 11. Ganja is never made in Sind.  - Evidence of WADHUMAL CHANDIRAM, Pensioner, late Huzur Deputy Collector, Karachi


9. This cultivation requires more water and more care. The soil should be rich (sweet). It should be ploughed deep. Some gay people prepare it in the following ways:-- By making an incision in the stem of the bhang plant and putting opium into it, and by burying a dead snake under the plant, by watering it with dhatura water, and sometimes with huka water. All these means are employed to make the produce more intoxicating. But this is done in the case of a few selected trees. 11. The wild plant grows here. - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR LAKSHMANSING, MATTHRAJI , Police Inspector, Hyderabad, Sind.


9. The ground intended to be sown with bhang is first watered and made soft. It is then furrowed twice over and the seed thrown broadcast. The earth is then turned over once more with a plough and levelled with a roller. All the furrowing, ploughing, and sowing must be done and completed in one and the same day. When the seed shoots up to the height of about two inches the ground is watered for the first time and the weeding commences. It is usual to separate the shoots also from one another to the distance of a span at least, and hence all intervening shoots from the seeds thrown broad-cast are rooted out. When the plant grows to the height of a foot and a half, or even earlier, and as soon as its leaves spread out and overshade the ground, the weeding is discontinued, and this is generally after the third watering. The watering operations continue until the white seeds change colour and turn blackish or brown. After the plant grows to the height of over a foot the ground is well manured and then watered over. Before ploughing and sowing no manure is, as a rule, put in the ground for fear of a white kind of worm which is generated in the ground and eats up the sap of the plant, which consequently dries up. At Bubak it is not usual to manure the ground more than twice before the plant reaches the height of a foot and over. In the majority of cases, however, One good manuring at one foot height is held to be sufficient for all ordinary purposes, unless greater height in the plant and heavier weight in the final produce be sought for. When the plant reaches the height of about five feet the male plant, which is distinguished by its blossom or its small-sized pale green flower, is rooted out to provide more growing space for the female plant. The male plant is held to cause giddiness when used, and this is another reason for its extermination as a precaution against the mixture of its leaves with those of the female plant. When ripe, as judged from the changed colour of the seed and absence of moisture when pressed, the plant is reaped, dried in the field itself, and thrashed when dry. The stalks are then separated from the rest of the produce, which is carried away. A part, and a very small part, is winnowed in order to separate the blackish seed useful for sowing. The whiter seeds and the blackish not wanted for future sowing are left mixed with the leaves and the thinner twigs. Hemp fibres, or fibres like the hemp fibres, are grown from "sihato," which is a kind of hemp plant also, but locally known as "sihato" against "sireen," which is the local name for the hemp plant proper. Similar fibres are produced from the leaved "Ak" plant or "milk bush," not the thorny "Ak." The "Ak" and the "sihato" stalks are soaked in water for two or three days, and when sufficiently soft they are thrashed, when the outer coating, or the uppermost thicker skin, is separated from the fibres. Such outer covering of the "sihato" stalks was, and I believe is still, used in the preparation of country matches, being so ignitible. Hemp fibres are also prepared from the thicker part of the stalks of the bhang hemp plant. But the bhang plant stalks are usually buried in soft wet mud for a few days instead of being soaked in water, as in the case of the "sihato," the regular hemp, or the "Ak."  - Evidence of RAO BAHADUR ALUMAL TRIKAMDAS BHOJWANI, Deputy Educational Inspector, Karachi


9. The land is first irrigated, then ploughed, then seeds are scattered over it; when the crop grows to some height, it is cleared of weeds and manured. This procedure continues till it grows knee-high; afterwards, before it grows to its complete height, the male plants are cut off. After arriving at its proper height it produces seeds. The stalks are then reaped and spread out to dry. The stalks are beaten, and then they are separated from the leaves by winnowing. The seeds are reserved for planting again and the bhang is sold to farmers. 11. This is not applicable to this province.  - Evidence of MAKHDUM DOST MOHAMMED MAKHDUM FAZUL MOHAMMED, Zamindar, Bubak, Karachi.


9. At first the land is ploughed, cleared of weeds, and then manured. If it is new land it is manured. Seed is then scattered over it and it is watered. The plants attain full growth in four months, after which they are reaped and spread out to dry in places set apart for the purpose. Then the plants are beaten, and the leaves and seeds are separated and the stalks are thrown away. The smaller ghundis are mixed with bhang, and the big ghundis are separated and kept apart to be used as ganja. The stalks are steeped in water for about 15 days, after which they are taken out, and then they begin to yield fibres. A certain quantity of seed is kept for use for sowing for next crop. The rest is kept for sale, etc. Those who plant these plants for their own consumption do so on the edges of watercourses and use the bhang among themselves. They sometimes draw out fibres from the stalks, out of which they prepare cords and ropes for their cattle. 11. They are not raised from the seed of the wild hemp. It is not customary to cultivate plants for the production of ganja.  - Evidence of SETH VISHINDAS NIHALCHAND, Zamindar, Merchant, and Contractor, Manjoo, Karachi.


9. The methods of hemp cultivation are generally the same as are used in cultivating other products,i. e., the land is first cleared of weeds, irrigated, ploughed, and then seeds are scattered over it. The hemp cultivation requires more water and more care than other cultivations. 11. No plants are cultivated for the production of ganja in this province; but raw ganja is made from the cultivated plant and not from the wild plant.  - Evidence of MAHOMED LAIK, Mukhtarkar of Hyderabad


9. The ground is at first cleared of jungle ; then manured, watered, and ploughed. Hemp seeds are then sown broadcast, and when they germinate and the plant reaches maturity, it is reaped, and then dried in the sun. After it is dried, it is thrashed and used as bhang. 11. Ganja is not produced in Sind.  -  Evidence of PRIBHDAS SHEWAKRAM ADVANI Secretary, Band of Hope, Hyderabad, Sind.


9. It is cultivated like other cultivation. The land is first irrigated, ploughed, and scattered with seeds, but the hemp cultivation requires more water and more care. 11. The ganja plants are not cultivated in this province, nor does the wild bhang grow here, therefore I cannot say anything about them.  - Evidence of DAYARAM KISHUNCHAND, Bhang, Charas and Ganja, and Opium Farmer, Hyderabad.


9. The process of cultivation is as under: The land is cleared of jungle, irrigated, ploughed, after which seeds are scattered over it. 11. Ganja plants are not produced from the seeds of the wild plant. It is a different kind of the hemp plant which produces ganja - Evidence of DIN MAHOMED, Contractor, Shikarpur.


9. It is sown like jawari and cheena by means of plough with ganja seeds. 11. Without cultivation ganja is not grown.
In this taluk no ganja is either cultivated or grown. - Evidence of C. SHAM RAO, Attachè to the Resident at Hyderabad, now at Pusad, Basim District.


9. The land in which the hemp seed is to be sown is first prepared by means of a plough before the commencement of monsoons. The seed is sown just at the time the jawari sowings are made, by an implement called tifan. But the hemp seed is put into the ground at a distance of about a cubic foot to allow the plant to grow in good foliage when the seed shoots out and grows into a plant of about a foot in height. The male plants, called bhangara, are picked out and thrown away as useless, they being very injurious to the produce of ganja from the female plants. Experts are required to recognize the male plants. The hemp drug crop is an autumnal one, and watered by means of rain. But during droughts the crop is required to be watered from wells. When the plant grows to the height of about 5 feet, it becomes flowered and budded, and is then in a fit state of being harvested. 11. There being no seed available of the wild hemp in the district, the  plants cultivated for the production of ganja are not raised therefrom.  - Evidence of KRISHNARA0 HARI, Officiatiny Extra Assistant Commissioner, Buldana.


9.Ganja seeds do not germinate if sown by themselves. They are, as a rule, mixed up with the seeds of ambadi (Hibiscus cannabinus) and then sown. This ensures a good crop. The soil should be well manured and the seeds sown about the time of sowing cotton (June or July). 11. I don't know. The seeds are imported from Khandesh, and I can't say if these are of wild hemp or not.  - Evidence of A BARAO JAUROO, Maratha, Karbhari Patel and Special Magistrate, Khamgaon, Akola District.


9. Sown in the month of June like vegetable seeds ; grounds are manured before sowing. Male plants are cut in November, and the female plants' buds are picked in December. - Evidence of MR. J. C. WATCHA, Excise Inspector, Ellichpur.


9. As there is no custom of ganja cultivation in this taluk, nobody can mention the method by which it is cultivated. In Moglai time it was the practice of planting ganja at the back of the house. While asking these men personally, they state that after ganja has been purchased from bazar, the seeds being collected therefrom are planted in the gaddaat the back of the house and are watered till their growth. If the plants get flowering tops, they are called male ganja. Male ganja is not used for smoking purposes. It is only used for thinking, which is called bhang. The smokers of ganja destroy these plants. If the plants do not get flowering tops they are called female ganja. These plants are only preserved, and when they receive buds the same are cut and kept in the hole in the ground in the shape of a juddi. This substance is used for smoking purposes. If care is taken of these plants they last for two or three years and grow very high. After they are ripened the branches of them are cut and kept in the shape of juddi till it is completely dried. 11. As there is no growth of the jungli ganja in this taluk, nobody knows whether the seeds of the same are used for the cultivation of ganja.  - Evidence of WAMAN GANESH, Tahsildar, Wun


9. The cultivators are to procure seeds of the hemp plant outside of the province. The soil is to be ploughed down. It requires sufficient manure, particularly that of cowdung. The process of the kharif crop is generally followed in the hemp cultivation. The seeds are sown rather late, that is, in the months of July and August (in the Nakshatras of Punarwasu and. Pusha). The hemp crop requires, besides the rain, well water, from the Hasta Nakshatra, three times a day. The crop is ready for being reaped in the months of November and December (in the month of Margashirsha). To have the crop more stimulative in its quality the cultivators open the lower part of the hemp plant, put in the part open needful quantity of opium, and then biend it over very tight. 11. The plants cultivated for the production of ganja  are never raised from the seed of the wild hemp. - Evidence of LAXMAN GOPAL DESHPANDE, Brahmin, Naib Tahsildar, Mangrul Taluk, District Basim.


9. Is sown at Mirag or sometime about the 5th of June, along with jawari. Each plant is put at a considerable distance from the other. Male plant is carefully eliminated. 11. Never, so far as can be ascertained.  - Evidence of G. S. KHAPERDE, Brahmin, Pleader, Amraoli.


9. The method does not differ from that followed in the cultivation of the staple products of Berar (cotton and jowar). When the plants attain a freight of a foot the male plants, called bhangra or bhagar, are weeded out in order to prevent the formation of seed in the female plant. It is sown in the month of July in well -manured ground. The plant grows from 3 to 7 feet high. In Berar the leaves and broken pieces of ganja of the plant are collected and sold as bhang, and these are macerated in water to prepare the beverage that is drunk as such. - Evidence of YESHWANT VAMAN DIGHE, Pleader, Basim.


9. The method of cultivation is similar to that of cotton. 11. Not that I know of. The seeds are procured from Khandwa. - Evidence of NIAMAT KHAN BILAN KHAN, Merchant, Balapur, Akola District.


9. It is sown dense in the month of Ashad. When the plants grow bigger, a plant called bhangra, which grows in the crop, is weeded out, because it spoils the main crop. 10. There is no special class of persons who cultivate hemp. They are of the same classes as other agricultural cultivators. 11. The ganja grown this side is from the seed of cultivated hemp.  - Evidence of KHAJA ABDUL BAKI, Money-lender, Mehkar, Buldana District.


9. The seed of the hemp plants is sown in beds about six feet square, on land adjacent to a well or stream, where it can have a good supply of water.  - Evidence of MR. G. BENNETT, Abkari Inspector, Ajmere.


9. The soil is not carefully prepared, and after sowing, the plant is left to itself. 11. I believe not. - Evidence of MR. G. W. GAYER, District Superintendent of Police, Ajmere.


9. Seeds of the hemp plants are sown in culturable land - Evidence of SURGEON-MAJOR D. FF. MULLEN, Civil Surgeon, Ajmere.


11.They are raised from the seed of the wild hemp. -  Evidence of MR. A. BOPPANNA, Planter, Bepunaad, Green Hills, Coorg


9. I know very little. The seeds are sown broadcast in rich soil mixed with burnt clay and afterwards transplanted in good rich soil.  - Evidence of MUKKATI IYAPPA, Cultivator, Davanagiri, Coorg


The hemp plant, bhen bin, is used but little for the drug, and principally for its fibre in the State. The Shan people only grow a few plants here and. there, but the Palaungs, Kachins and Lawas culti
vate it in fields to a very small extent. The occasional plants grown by the Shans are used for the drug. The more extensive cultivation by the other classes is for the fibre. Each patch of this cultivation would be less than the area of this hall (60 by 35 feet), and nearly every house would have a plot. The drug is not made from this cultivation, and the plant thus grown for fibre is called " gom bin." The fibre is used in the house of the grower and it is not sold. The " bhen bin" and " gom bin " are precisely the same plant. I do not know if the male plant is removed when the plant is grown as a narcotic by the Shans; but the stem of the plant is split and a piece of wood is inserted, and. a chatty or other vessel is suspended over the flower head to prevent the plant growing and make the head grow thick. All the plants grown for the drug are treated in this way. The chatty remains suspended over the plant for about a month. The stem is split when it has grown about as thick as the finger, and the plant is cut down a month after. I have never seen the seeds of the plant ; but I have seen the plant growing. The plant grows to a height of about 7 or 8 feet, and is propagated by seed. I have never heard of the seeds being consumed. When the head and its leaves become dried, the " séjouk " is fit for use. There is no process of preparing the flower head for storage; it is stored as it is gathered. No part of the plant below the incision is turned to use, not even for fibre, because the stem is crooked and the fibre is spoilt by the splitting of the stem. I don't think the head contains any seeds. About six or seven bunches or heads are taken from each plant. The branches of the plant are pressed together and thrust into the neck of the chatty, which latter is about a foot in diameter. The chatty is made of mud and is light, but baskets are generally used. The chatty or basket is supported by the plant itself. The bunch on the leading shoot is regarded as the best in quality. This cultivation would not be found in every Shan village. - Evidence of SAW MAUNG, ex-Sawbwa of Nyaungywe State.

Related articles.

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Medical uses for humans and other animals
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/07/cannabis-usage-in-19th-century-india.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Police play doctor as ruling classes lay foundation for global reefer madness
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/05/cannabis-usage-in-19th-century-india.html
 
Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Methods of cultivation
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/09/cannabis-usage-in-19th-century-india.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Areas of cannabis cultivation and wild growth
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/01/areas-of-cannabis-cultivation-and-wild.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: The manner and forms in which cannabis was consumed
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/08/cannabis-usage-in-19th-century-india.html
 
Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Conditions suitable for cannabis cultivation
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/02/conditions-suitable-for-cannabis.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Post harvest processing, packaging and storage
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/09/cannabis-usage-in-19th-century-india_28.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: The classes of people who consumed and cultivated ganja
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/02/19th-century-indian-cannabis-user.html

Cannabis usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the immediate effects of cannabis consumption
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-immediate-effects-of-cannabis.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Myths of harmful physical and moral effects
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/04/creating-myths-of-harmful-physical-and.html

The 108 names of cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-108-names-of-cannabis.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Trade and movement
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/03/trade-and-movement-of-cannabis-in-19th.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Notes on chemical, physiological and biological analyses of Indian cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/02/notes-on-chemical-physiological-and.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Exploring the myth that cannabis causes crime
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/03/exploring-myth-that-cannabis-causes.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Consumption rates and associated costs
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/02/26.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: The public opinion farce amid near total opposition to ganja prohibition
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/02/near-total-opposition-to-cannabis.html

Cannabis usage in 19th century India: Unheeded warnings regarding the harms of alcohol
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/01/alcohol-and-cannabis-comparison-in.html

Draft Cannabis Policy for India 2022
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2022/01/draft-cannabis-policy-for-india-2022.html

Cannabis and the Environment
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-environment.html

Cannabis as an Agricultural Crop
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-as-agricultural-crop.html
 

Government Resolution appointing the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1893
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/government-resolution-appointing-indian.html

Cannabis and India

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannabis-and-india.html

 

With no scientific basis global drug laws are invalid
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-scientific-basis-global-drug.html

A Look At The NDPS Act 1985 From A Cannabis Perspective
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-look-at-ndps-act-1985-from-cannabis.html  

Cannabis usage in 19th century treatment of infectious diseases
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/cannabis-usage-in-19th-century.html

19th Century usage of cannabis as medicine by Indian physicians
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/19th-century-usage-of-cannabis-as.html

Cannabis and Insanity
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-insanity.html

References to medicinal cannabis in ancient texts
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/references-to-medicinal-cannabis-in.html

Cannabis and Equity
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-equity.html

Cannabis and the Media
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-media.html

Cannabis and the UN
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannabis-and-un.html

Cannabis Opposition
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannabis-opposition.html

Cannabis and Crime
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-crime.html

Cannabis Advocacy
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-advocacy.html

Cannabis convictions and imprisonment
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-convictions-and-imprisonment.html

Cannabis and the Black Market
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-black-market.html

Cannabis and Law Enforcement
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-law-enforcement.html

Cannabis and Pharma Companies
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-pharma-companies.html

Cannabis and Youth
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/03/cannabis-and-youth.html

Cannabis as Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-as-medicine.html

Cannabis for Recreational Purposes
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-for-recreational-purposes.html

Cannabis and Research
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-research.html

The Business of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-business-of-cannabis.html

The Economics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-economics-of-cannabis.html

The Legality of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-legality-of-cannabis.html

The Politics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-politics-of-cannabis.html

The Social Usage of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-social-usage-of-cannabis.html

Cannabis Patients
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-patients.html

Cannabis and the Elderly
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-elderly.html

Cannabis and the Armed Forces
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-armed-forces.html

Cannabis and Methamphetamine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-methamphetamine.html

Cannabis and Opioids
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-opioids.html

Cannabis and Harm Reduction
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-harm-reduction.html

Cannabis and Synthetic Cannabinoids
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-synthetic-cannabinoids.html

The Recreational Cannabis Consumer
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-recreational-cannabis-consumer.html

The History of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-history-of-cannabis.html

Cannabis and the US Federal Government
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannabis-and-us-federal-government.html

Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

 

Cannabis and Cocaine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-cocaine.html

Cannabis and Benzodiazepines
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-benzodiazepines.html

 

Cannabis and the Brain
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-brain.html

Cannabis meets the requirements of  Universal Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-as-universal-medicine.html

Cannabis and Anxiety
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-anxiety.html

Cannabis and Autism
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-autism.html

Cannabis and Cancer
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-cancer.html

Cannabis and Dementia
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-dementia.html

Cannabis and Epilepsy
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-epilepsy.html

Cannabis and Pain
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-pain.html

Cannabis and PTSD
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-ptsd.html

Cannabis and Sleep
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-sleep.html

Cannabis for Animals
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-for-animals.html
 

Cannabis and Wellness -https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-wellness.html

Cannabis Laws
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-laws.html

No medicinal value?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-medicinal-value.html

Cannabis and Harm Reduction
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-harm-reduction.html

Cannabis and Politicians
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-politicians.html

Cannabis in the Workplace
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-in-workplace.html

No medicinal value?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-medicinal-value.html

Cannabis and the Digestive System
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/cannabis-and-digestive-system.html

Cannabis and the Heart
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-heart.html

Cannabis and the Liver
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-liver.html

Cannabis and the Lungs
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-lungs.html

Cannabis and Dermatology
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-dermatology.html

Cannabis and Orthopaedics
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-orthopaedics.html

Cannabis and Renal disease
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-renal-disease.html

Cannabis meets the requirements of  Universal Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-as-universal-medicine.html

Cannabis and Arthritis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-arthritis.html

Cannabis and Glaucoma
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-glaucoma.html

Multiple Sclerosis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-multiple-sclerosis.html

Cannabis and Obesity
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-obesity.html

Cannabis and Sex
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-sex.html

Cannabis as an Antibiotic
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-as-antibiotic.html

Cannabis and Cancer Patients
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-cancer-patients.html

Cannabis and Alcohol
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-alcohol.html

Cannabis and Tobacco
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-tobacco.html

Cannabis and Parkinson's Disease
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/06/cannabis-and-parkinsons-disease.html

Cannabis and HIV
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannabis-and-hiv.html

Recreation is Medicine with cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/12/recreation-is-medicine.html

Women and Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/women-in-cannabis-industry.html

The Medical Cannabis Industry
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-medical-cannabis-industry.html

Recreational and medical cannabis interplay
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/recreational-and-medical-cannabis.html

Cannabis and Wellness
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-wellness.html

Cannabis and the Media
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-media.html

Cannabis Biology
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-biology.html

Cannabis Research in Universities
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-research-in-universities.html

Government Research on Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/government-research-on-cannabis.html

Cannabis and Scientists
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-scientists.html

Cannabis and Cooking
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-cooking.html

Cannabis Events
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-public-events.html

Cannabis in the Workplace
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-in-workplace.html

Cannabis and Musicians
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-musicians.html

Cannabis and Sports Persons
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/cannabis-and-sportspersons.html

The Recreational Cannabis Consumer
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-recreational-cannabis-consumer.html

The History of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-history-of-cannabis.html