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suitable weight);the work of the gànjà office would be thereby greatly
diminished and simplified. Finally, the gànjà instead of being in any way
damaged would be reduced to a condition in which there is every reason to be-
lieve the causes that now operate so as to deteriorate it would be prevented
from acting on it. This point, however, will be dealt with in a subsequent
chapter.
In the event of the method of pressure being initiated, it would be necessary
to have one or more large machines in which it would be possible to compress
considerable quantities, say a maund or more, of chùà) . at one time. With the
machine used in making these experimental cakes, it was possible to press four
cakes, one above the other, simultaneously. With a machine that would exert
twice the pressure that it was possible to apply by this one, eight cakes could be
simultaneously pressed. The space occupied. by the uncompressed chùr relatively
to the cakes that result would probably make it inconvenient to press more than
eight cakes in one column at one time. The present machine, consisting of but
one cylindrical well, admitted of the pressure of only one column of cakes at a
time. Machines could, however, be made that would admit of sixteen or more
columns being simultaneously pressed. The present machine being cylindrical
produced. round cakes, against which, as has been said, there is the objection that
in their storage space must be wasted. The new machine could be made so that
the cakes produced would be square. An extremely convenient size would be
4 inches square, as each cake of 20 tolas made of that size would be as nearly as
possible an inch thick, and four cakes, making a seer, would fill a cuhe of four
inches side. Each cubic foot of golah accommodation would thus contain
nine seers, and the estimate of weight, and consequently of duty leviable in any
case, would thus, after the initial formation of the cakes to a weight of 20
tolas each, become merely a matter of measurement. Finally, as a practical
point in connection with the possibility of storing the gànJà in sealed tins,—a
proposal that, as will be seen subsequently, promises to prevent the deterioration
to which gànjá is subject when kept as it is at present, and one that certainly
will prevent its destruction by vermin ,--this particular size is perhaps
the best possible. For if Government should find it necessary to insist on
storing all the gànjà crop in its own godowns, it would also find it necessary
to guarantee the cultivators against loss of gànjà , by rats and mice. As it is
at present stored, these creatures do great damage ; they do not attack the g à n j à
as gànjà, but for the sake of the seeds that remain, even after manufacture is over,
embedded in the flowering tops and in hunting for these seeds they break the
gànjà to pieces. To protect itself Government in turn would have to insist that
the cultivator must put the gànjà into tins. This might become a source of great
expense if any other size of cake were selected;if, however, the size mentioned
is chosen, it will be possible for the cultivator to employ old kerosine tins, which
are easily obtained, and which would be very suitable as boxes to hold their gànjà.
The size of the end of a kerosine tin is a square of 8 ½ inches, so that four cakes
of the size of 4 inches square will form a single layer inside such a tin, and just
leave sufficient room at the side for easy extraction.
As in the case of the small machine used this year, the pressure may be
applied in the larger machine by means of screw and lever;it would, however,
be more satisfactory and produce better and more rapid results were hydraulic
pressure employed as it is in baling jute. With such a machine the pressure
could also be greatly increased as compared with that employed in the experi-
ments of this year. And if a year hence it is found that pressure has not harmed
the gànjà subjected to it, there is no reason why it should not be increased and
the bulk occupied by the gànjà still further reduced. It ought at least to be
easy to compress the chùr, so that one maund should occupy only 2 cubic feet.
CHAPTER X.—ESTIMATION OF DUTY LEVIABLE ON GÁNJÁ.
The relationship of the various kinds of gànjà to each other as regards manu-
facture and as regards storage having now been considered, their relative posi-
tion as regards duty leviable has to be looked at. As it is in the flower-tops
that the whole of the active principle resides, the amount of these present in the