MYSORE MEMORANDUM.
147
effects, chiefly in not contracting the pupil, and in not causing loss of appetite, dry tongue,
or constipation." In uterine hæmorrhage it often arrests the flooding and it relieves the
pain in dysmenorrhœa.
III (a) Cultivation.—It is grown as an ordinary dry crop. The soil should be light
and red and very deeply ploughed and well manured. There should be seasonable rain,
and when crop is ripe heavy dews. The most efficacious, productive, and certain way is by
raising the plant in pits. When specially cultivated a circul r pit two to three Feet in diame-
ter 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 5 to 7 and often 12 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. It is said that this
operation produces better and a more plentiful crop of spikes. There are two distinct varieties
raised, one with a dark green and the other with light green coloured-stem. The dark-stemmed
variety is more potential in its effects than the other. A maund or two of good first class
"kulli or mulki" ganja can be obtained from each pit treated either way. The male plant
is profitless and is uprooted and thrown away.
(b) Costs, profits, Government duty, hints to trader.—A maund of kulli ganja is sold for
Rs. 75 or 89, while the drug imported and offered by the Government contractor sells at 331/2
per maund (25 lbs). The former is all profit as the labour is but casual tending, while in the
other Rs. 31/2 to 4 a maund go to cover the original cost, including carriage (Re 1 per maund)
to Bangalore when purchased from the Government cultivator in Her Majesty's terri-
tory. If purchased from the monopoly farmer it is double that price and more. The former
price, plus Government duty, Rs. 15—Rs. 181/2 to 191/2 per maund, or, say, roughly, Rs. 20 per
maund of 25 lbs. The Mysore Government contractor's profits are thus Rs. 121/2 per
maund. But this will all depend on how he sets about making his purchases, whether
from the cultivator or Government monopoly farmer and in season.
He should make
his arrangements ere the crop is picked if he wants to purchase from the producer, while
if from the monopolist he should time it, so as to secure his stock just as the new supply
comes into market. If he delays, prices rise rapidly, and stocks are exported and he has
naturally to pay more therefor than if secured in season. He thus loses a large slice of his
profits per maund.
(c) Clandestine cultivation—cause of.—Clandestine
cultivation pays well. There is no
doubt that it is cultivated in backyards of many dwelling houses, hitlus (gardens attached
to backyards), and in other gardens also. This is particularly the case in large towns and
villages, where such privacy affords great facilities to do so. The heavy dus imposed by
Government, Rs. 15 per maund of 25 lbs., and the abnormally low price across the frontier
offer strong inducements to commit this fraud on the Mysore revenue.
(d) Spontaneous growth—not wild—Government patta.—It has been and is still often
found in all the eight districts of this province growing spontaneously but not wild anywhere
in Mysore, as in some parts of India. This spontaneous growth is most marked in towns and
large villages. It is found in backyards and in dry fields and gardens. This is due mainly
to the seed when thrown away on dust heaps finding its way with the manure utilized in the
fields and gardens, and germinating there after the first rains set in. It is not more abundant
in one district than another now. The cultivation is not restricted to any locality. It can
be raised anywhere under the conditions imposed in the Government patta. The fibre can be
utilized by the cultivator.
The drug must be disposed of to the Government contractor
less two seers, if so required, for the private consumption of the producer, but not for sale,
provided one acre has been cultivated. The drug should be weighed by the village officers
and disposed of in one month or it will be confiscated.
(e) Mysore suited for growth—Results in two taluks noted.—The climate and soil of
the Mysore Province are well adapted for the production of the ganja plant. It has been
found growing even in the Malnad after the heavy S.W. rains are over. Some first class
ganja was raised 15 years ago and later in Chickballapur taluk of the Kolar district of this
province. This was evidently due to the cultivator knowing when to put down the seed
and how to deal with the picking and curing of the spikes properly after being harvested.
A trial at Dodballapur in the Bangalore district on the other hand failed as it was harvested
prematurely and the immature stuff, about 14 maunds, was destroyed. The cultivator was
ignorant of the value of the plant as a fibre producer and failed to utilize even this part of
the produce.
(f) Results of Ganja Rules as indicated by statistics of consumption.—The enforcement
of the gania rules has removed the open cultivation of the drug and to some extent also
to its growing spontaneously. The keeping of accounts has been rendered compulsory and