40 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. IV.
the country of the Khamptis and Singphos. In fact, there is information
of the plant being cultivated with some care for fibre and the drugs in the
adjoining Kachin Hills. But the evidence regarding the hill tracts within
the province and on the southern frontiers points to cultivation of a very in-
ferior sort, if indeed the plant is tended at all. It is said that the Nagas regard
the plant as a jungle product, and that the ganja smuggled from the hills is
hardly distinguishable from the produce of the wild hemp.
North-Western Provinces.
Extent of cultivation in the Hima-
layan Division.
103. In describing the wild growth of the North-Western Provinces, reference
was made to cultivation for the production of bhang
in the districts of Farakhabad and Hardoi. The
true hemp plant is also very widely cultivated in the Himalayan Division
principally for its fibre, but yielding charas, bhang, and seeds as secondary
products. The Himalayan cultivation is irregular and scattered, but it has
been estimated to amount to 250 acres in the Almora district, and, more
accurately measured, at 580 acres in Garhwal. Compared with the spontaneous
growth of the mountains themselves and of the region lying below them, this
extent of growth is not very important, for the plant cultivated for fibre seems
to be little superior in narcotic properties to the spontaneous growth.
Extent of regular cultivation in the plains.
Acres.
Acres.
1879-80
195
1886-87
107
1880-81
165
1887-88
178
1881-82
164
1888-89
90
1882-83
160
1889-90
160
1883-84
81
1890-91
72
1884-85
89
1891-92
281
1885-86
112
1892-93
336
104. Turning to the plain country, the official returns give the marginally
noted areas of cultivation in the district of
Farakhabad, or Fatehgarh as it is called
in Mr. Stoker's memorandum, for the last
fourteen years. The Joint Magistrate and
Excise Officer (No. 29) of the district, who
presumably has access to the local records,
quotes very different figures, showing a decrease of the area from 691 bighas in
1891-92 to 561 bighas in 1892-93. There is no apparent reason why the official
return should not be accepted, and it shows a decided tendency for the cultiva-
tion to increase. The reason may probably be correctly traced in the sentence
of Mr. Stoker's memorandum: "All this plant is converted into bhang, which
is of a superior quality, technically known as tatia (from a village in Fatehgarh
district), and commanding a much higher price than the wild bhang of the sub-
montane tracts." Regarding the cultivation in the Hardoi district, the official
return only gives one acre in the year 1891-92. This seems hardly consistent with
paragraph 9 of Mr. Stoker's memorandum, which indicates a considerable export
from Hardoi; but it is possible that the explanation may be found in the fact that
the cultivation is not pure, but often mixed with other crops, and that it is
therefore impossible to measure it. The practice of the less systematic sort
of cultivation may be very prevalent in Hardoi notwithstanding that it is
not recorded. Several witnesses, however, state positively that it is decreasing.
Patsan is not hemp (Cannabis).
105. The evidence generally corroborates the official account, but many
witnesses have been misled by the word patsan
having been used to signify the hemp plant in
the translation of the Commission's questions issued by the North-Western
Provinces Government. Patsan is the local name for the Hibiscus
cannabinus
("Field and Garden Crops of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh"—Duthie
and Fuller).
It has not, however, been difficult to detect the answers which
have been vitiated by this mistake.