226
51. The term "bad character" seems rather am-
biguous. A. moderate consumer of hemp in any
form becomes irritable and raises quarrel at the
slightest cause. Quarrelsomeness may lead to
causing injury to others. Besides this I am not
aware of any other crime which a moderate con-
sumer of hemp is prone to commit.
52. The above character is more marked if the
consumer does not become insane.
53. A Lengayet trader of this place, who was
much addicted to smoking ganja, killed his own
brother in sleep at night. He denied the charge
in his trial, but was ultimately hanged. Some
other persons using ganja, who pass for respect-
able men, are suspected of the same crime for the
sake of money and other causes.
54 to 56. I have no knowledge of the matter.
57. I have not known ganja used for drinking.
As to its being used for eating, see answers to
questions 15, 45, etc., where its effects are also
stated.
117. Evidence of GURAPPA RACHAPPA, Lengayet, Office of Shetti (Revenue and
Police), Dharwar.
1. As I have been serving as Shetti (Revenue
and Police) of the town of Dharwar for a long
time, I have had ample opportunities to deal with
matters in connection with the hemp drugs. The
information which I attempt to submit is conse-
quently based on my long experience of the mode
of living of the people addicted to the use of the
drugs, and also on hearing the cultivators of the
plant, contractors of farms, and traders dealing
in them.
2. The definitions, as given in No. 2 of the
questions, being equivocal, may be accepted for
our province.
3. The hemp plant grows spontaneously in the
districts of Dharwar, Belgaum, Bijapur, Satara,
and Ahmednagar. The plants grow wherever the
seeds happen to fall down on the ground in back
yards or in other open places; but they do not
yield ganja and die away as useless vegetables.
4. Ganja is also known by the following names :
(1) Green tobacco, which is called in Kanarese
" hasara lambak ;" (2) Ascetic leaf, which is
called in Kanarese " shiddha patri "; and these
terms refer exactly to ganja.
The consumers of ganja are looked down by
the public in general, as they are generally called
in Kanarese "bhangi mukka, ganji mukka."
They cannot claim respect in society. They have
preferred calling it by different names from that
of ganja, which is odious and detestable.
5. the wild hemp grows wherever the seeds get
into the ground, but does not yield any crop ;
therefore no special conditions of climate, soil,
rainfall, etc., can be prescribed to be necessary.
6. The growth of the wild hemp is ordinarily
scattered like tobacco plants.
7. The hemp is cultivated in our province for
the production of the ganja alone and and not for
charas, which is the natural yield of the plants,
and also not for bhang, which is obtained in
course of the process of the preparation of the
ganja and while packing it up for export. It is
not cultivated for fibre or seeds.
It is cultivated in (1) Lengre and Devikhindi,
and in their surrounding villages in the Vithe
taluka of the Satara district ; (2) in Savalgi of the
Jamkhandi State ; (3) in Surdi in the Barsi taluka
of the Sholapur district ; and (4) in some villages
of the Ahmednagar district. It is cultivated in
fields of which the soil is best fitted for the pur-
pose. The produce in these places suffices for the
requirements of the district comprised in the
Central and Southern Divisions.
8. From the information obtainable, it is
ascertained that the cultivation covers a larger
area than before. The increase in the area has
been gradual, because the number of consumers
is gradually increasing and the price of the hemp
drugs is rising.
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 deterior-
ated in quality. The leaves of the female young
plants are nipped off to invigorate their growth.
It is harvested in December.
10. The persons who cultivate hemp are not
necessarily of any special class. They are of the
classes from which fields are cultivated for agri-
cultural produce.
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.
12. The wild hemp is not generally cultivated
for the production of ganja anywhere. The male
plant should in either case be extirpated.
13. The cultivation of the hemp plant for ganja
is restricted in our province. It is restricted to
the districts of Satara, Ahmednagar, Sholapur,
and to the State of Jamkhindi, because ganja
grows only in these districts. The hemp plant
is not grown in the other districts, therefore they
are not restricted there. It is cultivated in the
above Ghat districts only. The soil for its culti-
vation should be whitish-black (halyeri) or red
soil (masari) with no stones in it. The rainfall
required should be a little more than that required
for the growth of wheat and a little less than that
required for jowari. The climate should be cold.
Its cultivation is impossible in Mallad tracts,
where the rainfall is generally heavy and the soil
is red and stony, and also in rich black soil, where
the rainfall is untimely and generally insufficient.
There are some places where the soil will be fit
to cultivate the hemp plant; but the people there
; being quite ignorant to cultivate it, it is not