493
These seeds, once thickly scattered over the soil,
give rise to a dense growth of the plant in the
next year.
7. There is an extensive cultivation of the
female hemp plant for the production of ganja
in a special tract of land about 16 square miles
in area comprising parts of thanna Naogaon in
Rajshahi, of Adamdighi and Nawabgunge in
Bogra, and of Mahadebpore in Dinajpur.
So far as I know, there is no cultivation of the
plant for the production of charas or bhang in
Lower Bengal. Charas is, however, obtained in
a very small quantity from the manufacture of
ganja in Rajshahi.
The plant, so far as I know, is nowhere culti-
vated in Bengal for its fibre or seeds. But the
seeds obtained from the ganja cultivation are
utilised by the people. A variety of hemp, locally
called sone-pát, is cultivated to some extent for
fibre; but this variety is not known to contain
cannabine or any active narcotic principle.
8. There has been some slight increase in the
area under ganja cultivation. But the area under
actual cultivation varies from year to year, partly
on account of the fact that ganja cannot be suc-
cessfully grown in the same field year after
year, and partly on account of the fact that the
cultivators take to the ganja cultivation according
to their experience of the next preceding year.
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 plan-
tation. 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.
10. The cultivators of ganja do not form a
special class. Hindus and Muhammadans of the
ordinary cultivating classes cultivate ganja with
the assistance of special experts, who again do not
belong to any special class.
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 pro-
ducts of the same plant.
12. No.
13. The cultivation of the hemp plant for ganja
is restricted in Bengal to parts of the Rajshahi,
Bogra, and Dinajpur districts, the whole tract
being locally known as the ganja mahal. I am
not in a position to say why these tracts were
specially selected. I believe ganja, like the mul-
berry plants, requires a raised ground with fine
sandy soil, rich with leaf manure and unshaded
by trees, and it is perhaps this character of the
present tract which first drew the attention of the
pioneers of ganja cultivation in Rajsbahi.
14. Ganja is prepared in the ganja mahals of
Rajshahi at Naogaon, where a small quantity of
charas is also obtained by collecting the scrapings
from the feet of the labourers who tread down the
ganja during its manufacture. I am told that
seven to eight thousand maunds of ganja are pre-
pared annually in Rajshahi. Bhang is not pre-
pared in Lower Bengal. It grows wild, and the
people collect some leaves, dry them and preserve
them for use. Some people, after collecting these
green leaves, boil them in milk and then dry and
preserve them, which is said to confer greater
medicinal properties to the drug.
15. Bhang is generally prepared, or rather col-
lected, by the people from the wild plants. Some
people regularly collect these leaves on the last
day of the Bengali year, the Choitra Sankranti
day, when they are supposed to contain the
greatest beneficial properties. It can be prepared
from the wild hemp plant wherever grown; but
the people generally prefer to use the bhang grown
in Bhagalpur, Patna, and Benares. Ganja cannot,
in my opinion, be prepared from the wild hemp.
In all plants of the Indian hemp the narcotic
principle is said to reside in the plants. If the
males are carefully destroyed and the females
alone are allowed to run to flower, this narcotic
substance collects itself in and around the flower-
ing tops which produce ganja. As no steps are
taken to arrest free fertilisation in the wild hemp,
its narcotic substance does not reside in the flower-
ing tops, but is distributed over the leaves.
Hence no ganja can be prepared from the wild
hemp.
16. Ganja is seen to be cultivated by all classes
of the agricultural people, and bhang is collected
and preserved by any one who has any need of it.
17. I don't know anything about charas, but
ganja and bhang are said to lose their intoxicating
properties by keeping them exposed. Smokers of
ganja would not touch ganja over a year old; but
old bhang has some demand, and is said to possess
more medicinal properties than the fresh leaves.
I have no special means of answering the rest of
this question; but it seems probable that the action
of air, heat and moisture induces a slow chemical
change, which in course of time deteriorates ganja
till it completely loses its effects as an intoxicating
substance.
18. No means to answer.
19. Ganja is used mostly, if not wholly, for
smoking. It is sometimes, though on very rare
occasions, mixed with the preparation of bhang.
For purposes of producing a strong intoxication
a very small quantity of ganja is mixed with
bhang. This peculiar use of ganja is so rare that
it does not call for any special notice and is not
confined to any special locality.
Ganja is used as a medicine by some of the
village physicians, but in all such cases the drug
is used for external application only.
Charas is used wholly for smoking. Any other
use of this drug is unknown to this part of the
country.
20. Ganja and charas are disreputable drugs
and are seldom used by the higher classes of
society. The bearers and boatmen of Behar and
North-West
Provinces, the chamars, domes,
muchis, mehters, dosads, bagdis, sanyasis and