62
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. V.
for planting out. The field is ploughed and harrowed, and made into ridges
"well smoothed and beaten down with the hand," and the seedlings are planted
out. All this is done on the one day for fear that the soil which has been so
thoroughly pulverised should get too dry.
The seedlings prefer high and
dry soil.
159. It is necessary to again quote verbatim from Babu Hem Chunder Kerr for
the same reason as before: "The number of plough-
ings is regulated by the nature of the soil, khear or
clayey lands, in which hemp is occasionally, grown, requiring more frequent
ploughing than fields of poli soil or light, sandy loam, which form the majority
of the ganja beds. The seedlings at the time of transplantation are from four
to five weeks old and from six to twelve inches high. The smaller ones are
collected for higher and drier fields, in which they are enabled to throw out their
roots much quicker and easier, and grow up much faster than in low fields, the
soil of which is somewhat heavy owing to the existence in it of a greater
amount of moisture, which retards the growth of very tender plants ................
If rain falls within three or four days after the transplantation, it proves injurious
to the young plants, the roots of which, not having taken any hold upon the soil,
rot and die away."
Treatment of crop between plant-
ing out and removal of the males.
160. The operations of the next few weeks are thus described by Dr.
Prain: "A month or so after transplantation,
about the middle of October, the fields are
carefully weeded; a fortnight later, beginning of November, the ridges are
hoed down as far as is possible without injuring the roots of the hemp, which are
then well manured with oil-cake, or a mixture of cake and cow-dung, and the
ridges rebuilt over the manure. About the middle of November the plants are
trimmed by the removal of the lower branches; this helps to give the plant the
pyramidal shape that ensures the flowering tops being as close together as possi-
ble, obviates the formation of ganja close to the ground, where it would
certainly get covered with sand and mud, and finally admits of another course of
ploughing and harrowing with a narrow ladder between the ridges; this course
immediately follows the trimming, and is itself followed by a second course of
manuring with powdered cow-dung and oil-cake, after which the ridges are again
rebuilt."
The elimination of the males.
161. At about this stage the detection and removal of the male plants is
begun. An expert is required for the work, either
the professional poddar or parakhdar or the cultivator
himself if he has acquired the necessary skill in distinguishing the male from the
female plants. The exact differences by which the plants are distinguished by
the experts cannot be described with confidence. The operation takes place before
the flowers are developed; and Babu Hem Chunder Kerr says that the inspection is
invariably made in the morning so as to have a good light, which shows how fine
these differences must be. The poddar breaks over the plants which he decides
to be male, the cultivator plucks them out, and fills the blank spaces with plants
from the parts of the field where they are left in greater number. Then follows
the first irrigation, which is regulated so as to moisten the ridges, but leave no
water standing in the furrows. The poddar's visit may be repeated two or three
times, and the field may be irrigated from three to six times in the following few