CH. IV.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 45
that they must accept that view. The Inspector-General of Police and Prisons
is the only witness who believes that it is common. Mr. Naylor, District Super-
intendent of Police, states that "about six or eight cases are annually reported of
the ganja or hemp plant being grown in baris;" but he adds: "I think the illicit
cultivation has now almost ceased." Some few witnesses state that hemp is some-
times raised from the seed of the wild plant, and in saying this they must have
the irregular cultivation in view; but the same witnesses do not clearly depose
to the existence of such cultivation in the Central Provinces.
Feudatory States.
119. The Feudatory States, most of which lie in the extreme east of the
province, have agreed not to allow cultivation and to
import their ganja from the Government godowns at
Khandwa. It is possible that the yard cultivation which was formerly common
has not been entirely suppressed in these States, for it is unlikely that the super-
vision in such remote and wild tracts can be very strict. But the responsible
officers of some of them—Khairagarh, Sonpur, and Bastar—give assurance that
the cultivation has been stopped.
Madras.
Distribution of cultivation as
given by the Deputy Director,
Land Records and Agriculture.
120. The Deputy Director, Agricultural Branch in the Department of Land
Records and Agriculture, has, at the instance of the
Commission, made personal inquiries into the culti-
vation and manufacture of ganja in the Presidency,
and recorded the results in bulletin No. 29. The
opening paragraph of the bulletin gives a general view of the distribution of the
true hemp plant (Cannabis sativa) throughout the province: "Though grown
here and there in most parts of the Presidency in backyards, it is found as a regu-
larly cultivated field crop in only two localities, viz., in the Malayali villages on
the Javadi Hills in North Arcot, and in one or two villages in the Bapatla taluk
of Kistna district. It is also raised to a certain extent in the hilly parts of Vizaga-
patam and Ganjam, but there seldom more than a few plants are grown by each
person." The localities where field cultivation is carried on are no doubt correctly
indicated in this passage, and they are the principal ones; but the statistics which
have been furnished to the Commission by the Government of Madras as well as
the evidence lead to the belief that regular cultivation to a greater or less extent
is to be found in other districts. And there is reason to think also that the
bulletin does not give a correct idea of the general prevalence of the practice of
home cultivation in yards and gardens. This may have been outside the scope
of Mr. Benson's inquiry. At the close of the pamphlet Mr. Benson writes that
"in both localities it is stated that of late years the area planted with hemp has
been reduced, the price offered for ganja having fallen with the restriction of the
demand owing to the introduction of the system of licensing retail vendors. A
few years ago the crop was also grown to some extent in the Pulivendla taluk,
Cuddapah district, but its growth there has now been abandoned."
Extent of regular cultivation:
Figures of doubtful accuracy.
121. The official statistics of cultivation are admittedly inexact, and the
imperfection appears to be due to two causes. The
Acting Secretary to the Board of Revenue in the
Department of Separate Revenue reports in his letter No. 1839-Mis., dated 1st
May 1894, that "accurate figures are nowhere available, as no accounts are
maintained respecting the cultivation of the plant." And further on in the same
report he refers to the second cause of error in the following words: "It is very
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