86 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VI.
while, and covered up. Work is resumed at 10 A.M. The heap is unstacked and
the bundles are carefully handled to remove leaf. They are then laid out in rows
and trodden. During this process they are turned over, and at intervals the sun
is allowed to play upon them. They are then handled again and gently beaten,
and spread out more completely than before. Those that have retained an undue
quantity of leaf are stood up in the sun. The last process is to press the twigs
individually with the feet in the way already described. The manufacture is now
complete. The flower spikes have been pressed into flat masses, and the
leaf and seeds have been as far as possible removed. In the larger specimens the
branches stand out from the stem and one another, the whole being quite
flattened. The twigs are gathered into bundles of two standard sizes—a certain
quantity of large twigs in the one and of small twigs in the other. This is called
flat or chapta ganja.
Manufacture of round ganja.
222. The manufacture of round ganja is not completed till the fourth day after
the plants are cut. The plants are gathered some-
what later in the day and laid out under the open
sky for the night. The sorting is done the next morning, a great deal more of
the woody portion being rejected than in the case of flat ganja. The twigs are
laid out in the sun till noon, when the men return to the chator and rolling is
begun. A horizontal bar is lashed on to uprights about four feet from the ground,
and mats are placed on the ground on each side of it. Bundles of twigs, either
tied together by the stem ends or not, according to the skill of the treader, are
set out on the mats. The men range themselves on each side of the bar, and,
holding on to it for support, proceed to roll the bundles with their feet. One foot
is used to hold the bundle and the other to roll it, working down from the stems
to the flower heads. This process goes on for about ten minutes, and during it
the bundles are taken up and shaken from time to time to get rid of leaf. The
bundles are then broken up and the twigs exposed to the sun. A second but
shorter course of rolling by foot follows, and then the twigs are hand-pressed,
four or five together. After this the twigs are opened up and exposed to the
sun again. Towards evening the twigs are made into bundles of about one
hundred, and placed on mats and covered up for the night.
The next morning the bundles are untied and the twigs again exposed to
the sun. If they are sufficiently dry by midday, they only require a little hand-
ling and rolling to complete the manufacture. If they are not dry enough, the
first course of rolling has to be repeated, after which the useless leaves fall off
with a very little manipulation. The twigs are next sorted according to length
and tied into bundles of three descriptions—short, medium, and long. In this
process all useless twigs and sticks are eliminated. The bundles are placed in
rows under a mat which is kept down by a bamboo, and left for the night.
The
manufacture is completed the next day by exposing the bundles to the sun, heads
upwards, till the afternoon, and then searching them with hands and bits of stick
for any leaves that may have remained in them. These are shaken out, and with
them pieces of the compressed flower heads, which have been accidentally broken
off, fall on to the mats.
The Bengal manufacture spe-
cially elaborate.
223. Babu Hem Chunder Kerr writes that when the preparation of the round
ganja is carried out by the dealer who has bought the
standing crop, much more care is taken to reject stick
and inferior flower head than when the cultivator is the manufacturer. The round