92 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VI.
left by the evidence which the Commission have collected. No witness has given
a detailed description of the method of preparation. Mr. Stoker received a report
of the process in vogue in Ghazipur, which he says "closely resembles that employ-
ed in Bengal." This is only corroborated by two or three witnesses to the extent
that the ganja is put under pressure. Specimens of ganja from Ghazipur and
Sultanpur were forwarded to the Commission, and Mr. Stoker's opinion is that the
Ghazipur specimen was superior to the ordinary pathar ganja, and not much
inferior to Bengal baluchar (flat). The other was much the same as pathar.
Preparation of ganja from wild
growth.
236. Regarding the preparation of ganja from the wild growth, Mr. Stoker has
ascertained that the produce of the female plant is
smoked in the Kheri and Bara Banki districts, and
he says that there are indications of similar use in other districts. The evidence
on this point is rather strong, and leads to the belief that wherever the plant is
common as a wild growth, the poorer classes of consumers make use of it for
smoking. The distinction between the male and female plants is well known,
as Mr. Stoker states; and some of the witnesses say that the plants are
operated upon by twisting the stems to prevent flowering. The plants so
treated must be the ganja or females, though that is not expressly stated in
all cases. But witness (155) may be referred to, who states that bhang is
the natural plant; when it is twisted it is called ganja. A Deputy Collector (46)
states that ganja can be prepared from wild female hemp plants if all the males
are uprooted from their neighbourhood, and he is a witness who does not appear
to be drawing on information he may have picked up regarding other provinces.
It has been seen in connection with the cultivation that the advantage of
isolating the females is known to some persons, the knowledge having been
handed down from a time when ganja was openly cultivated, and it is difficult
to believe that it should be confined to a very small number. The fakirs all over
the country, who are mentioned as the principal secret cultivators, are certainly
not ignorant on this point, and would disseminate the knowledge. The report of
the Deputy Commissioner of Kheri, quoted by Mr. Stoker, that this art is not
known, appears therefore to be open to doubt, or, if true, to be true only of the
locality reported upon. The subject is probably one on which people are
inclined to be reticent for the same reasons as actuated those of whom the
Assistant to the Director of Land Records and Agriculture in Bengal made
his enquiries. The rearing and tending of the hemp plant in the North-Western
Provinces may not be illegal; but there is plently of evidence that the people think
it to be so, and that would be sufficient to make them cautious in giving informa-
tion. There is no evidence that the ganja gathered from the wild plant is
prepared by any other process than mere drying. Witness (202), a raiyat of the
Kheri district, and (48), a Deputy Collector of Lucknow, state that the ganja
plants are gathered in November and December. This would seem to refer to
the higher lands. The season of growth on the low lands appears to be from
December to June. It may be noted that Mr. Wall, a late Commissioner of
Excise, does not believe that ganja is produced by the wild plant, and that many
other witnesses take the same view. The local production of ganja does not
appear to have ever been so considerable, at least in recent years, as to attract
the attention of Government in the Excise Department, and there is no reason to
suppose that it has increased since it was suppressed in Oudh. The subject
therefore is only of secondary importance.