CH. III.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
27
Feudatory States.
52. There is no evidence that the plant grows spontaneously in the Feuda-
tory States. The spontaneous growth, however,
probably exists just as it does in the Province proper.
Madras.
No official knowledge of wild
growth.
53. It seems clear that the spontaneous growth does not prevail in any part of
the Madras Presidency to such an extent as to have
led to the idea that the plant is wild. The Government
memorandum states that nothing is known about
the extent of the wild growth; and Mr. Benson, Deputy Director of Agriculture,
has only seen some references to its existence in the northern district. The
Commissioner of Salt, Abkari, and Separate Revenue, replying to the direct
enquiry of the Commissioner of the Orissa Division on this subject in his letter
No. 529-Mis., dated 11th May 1887, was unable to say whether the hemp
plant grew wild. This is remarkable because the plant has always been
cultivated as a regular field crop in various parts of the Presidency; the desultory
cultivation in yards is common in certain localities; there are highlands in all
parts of the Presidency which would apparently be suitable to its growth without
cultivation; and the use of the drugs among the jungle people and the coolies of
coffee and tea gardens is by no means unfrequent. The want of official know-
ledge of it is a fairly strong indication that the wild growth does not exist, or
exists only in inconsiderable quantity.
Evidence regarding the wild
growth.
54. It is only in the hill regions, such as the zamindaris of Ganjam and
Vizagapatam, the Javadi Hills, the Shevaroys and
other ranges in the Salem district, the Nilgiris and
Wynaad, and the Palni Hills, that there is any reason to suspect spontaneous
growth on at all an extensive scale. And the suspicion is not strong, for it has
only been possible to elicit from one witness a description of the growth which
agrees in any degree with what has been learnt about it in Northern India.
This witness is Mr. William Robinson, Missionary, and his evidence must be
discounted by the admission that "I am singularly deficient in the power of
differentiating plants, but the smell of the hemp plant is well known to me."
On the whole it is probable that the growth which this witness saw in the She-
varoy Hills was really hemp, but that he has frequently been deceived by other
weeds, of which there are several, which bear a certain general resemblance to it.
As to the abundance of the growth in the Shevaroys, he is to some extent corrobo-
rated by witness (189), who appears to be a practical man, and to speak from
personal observation. But his observation is not recent and his statement is
not in a convincing form. Other witnesses talk of the spontaneous growth as
abundant in the Ganjam Hill Tracts and the South-East Wynaad, and even in
the Ceded Districts; but there are equally good witnesses on the other
side.
The District Forest Officer of North Malabar, who appears to be
of a careful and observant habit, says he has seen the spontaneous
growth in the Travancore and Tinnevelly Ghâts and in the Wynaad, but it was
always in the neighbourhood of cultivated plants. He says distinctly: "I have
never seen the plant wild where there was no cultivated plant near." He de-
scribes the situation which appears to be suitable to the wild growth, and the
growth itself as scattered. This is probably the best witness in Madras on
this subject. Mr. Long (149) says that he has sometimes seen a few plants
growing together which people told him had sprung up spontaneously; but