CH. V.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
75
out. There is some discrepancy as to the nature of the soil which is most favour-
able 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. Irri-
gation 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 dis-
tinction between the male and female plants and their