CH. V.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
69
Punjab.
Himalayan cultivation.
180. There is more or less evidence of cultivation of the hemp plant all over
the Himalayan portion of the province, including the
smaller Native States. The cultivation is in small
patches. A report from Kulu in 1880 says: "Almost every house has a small
patch near it, a long strip beside a hedge, or a small bed a few square yards long
(sic) in area." The only other detail of cultivation furnished is that the season of
growth is from April and May to October and November. It may be safely
assumed that the method of cultivation does not materially differ from that prac-
tised in Kumaon, which has been fully described. Whether charas is produced
to the same extent may be open to doubt, but the information on the point is
defective.
Cultivation in the plains for
bhang.
181. Though the extent of cultivation in the Punjab plains is not great, the
details of the methods employed in it, which can be
gathered from the evidence and papers, may be
noted. A memorandum by Hari Chand, Assistant to the Commissioner of Excise,
states that "people grow it in both harvests in the months of March and
November.
They cut plants for use in February and June." The latter
named months appear to relate to the period within which the plant is
gathered if it is sown with the late or rabbi crops. An account of the
cultivation is furnished in the appendix of Mr. James Wilson's evidence as
having been given him by his Excise Assistant, Mr. Kirthee Singh. The plant
is reared for bhang only, never for ganja, and charas is not extracted except
rarely for private consumption. The land is usually close to the village, and of
the description called niain, the same as that described by Duthie and Fuller,
when speaking of the Himalayan cultivation, which the daily offices of the vil-
lagers provide with a plentiful supply of manure. It is ploughed frequently in
August and September, the seed is sown broadcast in the latter month, and the
field is watered. The watering is repeated three or four times, and the crop is
hoed now and then and kept clear of weeds. The crop is ready to cut in March
and April. No distinction is made between male and female plants. The whole
is cut and dried together, and the leaves, flowers, and small twigs are then shaken
out and form bhang. The outturn is eight to ten maunds a bigha. A little charas
is sometimes made by beating the flowering twigs over a piece of cloth laid on
the ground. A greyish white powder falls on the cloth which is collected and
dried.
A few details of the method of
cultivation.
182. This account gives only one season of cultivation, but there are witnesses
to corroborate the Assistant to the Commissioner of
Excise as to the plants being grown with both the
early and late crops, and other fragmentary information is furnished as to the pro-
cesses employed. Witness (68) mentions the use of goat and sheep dung, and
the advantage of sowing four or five seeds together when the plant is to be grown
amongst tobacco or garden crops. This would be cold weather cultivation. He
also mentions the broadcast sowing, and states that the product of the plants
grown in sailaba lands is more intoxicating. Witness (26) states distinctly
that there are two seasons for the cultivation, from Kartik to Chait (October-
November to April-May), and Baisakh to Sawan (May to August); and he men-
tions two curious manures, the "excreta of a serpent" and "decayed swallow-
wort." The cultivation is carried on in small plots, and only by the keepers of
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