CH. V.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
81
and Lawas to cultivate for fibre in fields. Mr. Bridges is informed that in the former
cultivation the male plant is exterminated. The ex-Sawbwa does not know
of this practice. But he says that the stem of the plant is split when about the
thickness of the finger and a month before maturity, and a piece of wood inserted.
A light earthen chatty, or more often a basket, is placed over the flower-head,
and allowed to rest upon it, to prevent the plant growing and make the head grow
thick. In order to do this, the flower-bearing branches are gathered together and
thrust into the vessel, which has a mouth of about a foot in diameter. This is
the regular practice in cultivation for drugs. The chatty or basket is kept on the
plant for about a month. These processes are not unknown in India. The
splitting of the stem is frequently mentioned, but the use of the chatty in only
two provinces. No account of the Kachin cultivation has been furnished.
Mysore.
212. A peculiar method of cultivation is described by the Special Assistant
Excise Commissioner and the Excise Assistant
Supervisor, Tumkur district: "The seeds are sown
in a nursery at the beginning of the south-west monsoon. A month after sowing
the seedlings are transplanted into pits, each one foot deep, and dug at intervals of
three feet, and well manured. The young plants are watered daily for a month or
so. The stem of the plant is twisted just above the ground, and the plant itself
is bent horizontally to the level of the earth in order to induce the growth of side
branches and prevent the vertical growth of the plants like a stick. Just after
the appearance of blossoms on the female plants, male plants are destroyed,
etc." Such is the latter officer's description. The last sentence is rather faulty,
for the extermination of the male plant after the female was ready to receive its
attentions would not be of much use. Mr. McDonnell describes a very similar,
but even more remarkable, method, to judge by its results in the size of the plant:
"When specially cultivated, a circular pit two or three feet in diameter and a foot
or so deep is excavated, and well manured with cow-dung and ashes. The plants
are made to form a circle round the edge of the pit, and the centre is heaped up
with manure as required. The stems rise five to seven and often twelve feet high,
each as thick as a man's wrist, and are supported by staves secured with
ligatures from the aloe leaf. In other cases single plants are raised in each pit.
The stem is then the thickness of a man's arm, five feet high, and as much in
diameter. The stem is taken in both hands, and twisted at the root just above
the surface of the ground to stunt the growth
..................
The male plant
is profitless, and is uprooted and thrown away." It is by no means clear to what
extent these methods are actually practised, and, for the practical purpose of pro-
ducing ganja, the important operation of early eliminating the male plant has
hardly sufficient prominence in their description. There appears to be a spice
of imagination about them––an element in which the subject of cultivation as
well as much else connected with the hemp plant is by no means wanting.
Hyderabad.
213. A fairly full description of the method of cultivation is given by the
Director of Agriculture and Commerce of the
Hyderabad State. The greater portion of the
cultivation appears to lie in the north-west corner of the State bordering on the
Bombay districts of Sholapur, Ahmednagar, Nasik, and Khandesh. The de-
scription does not show any important departure from the methods of the British
districts. It may be noted, however, that "fresh seed every year from some
21