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Plants taken from the field at the stage at which they are reaped by the
cultivators were treated as the cultivators treat their plants, and exposed to the
sun and afterwards to the dew for an afternoon and night. Next day, when in
ordinary manufacture the plant would have received the first treading and
stacking, it was treated by having all its flowering-tops plucked off and divested
of those leaves which it is the object of the cultivators in their method of manu-
facture to get rid off. During this plucking also nearly all the seeds fell
aside. The separated flower-heads were then packed into moulds or else placed
in the screw-press, and pressure applied ; in the first case by means of weights,
in the second by the screw. Much of the resin was lost through becoming attach-
ed to one's fingers. Cakes of various thicknesses from one-eighth of an inch to one
inch were made. The cakes were kept under pressure during the time corre-
sponding to that when the gánjá made in the ordinary way was being trodden and
was in stack, and were exposed to the sun during the time corresponding to that
when ordinary gánjá was so exposed; this alternate pressure and drying was kept
up for three days. The results were interesting and instructive ; thin cakes corre-
sponding more or less to the thickness of a head of 'flat ' gánjá developed the
genuine gánjá smell, and had all the appearance of a somewhat too leafy sample
of gánjá ; thicker cakes had. a darker appearance, were not quite dry at the end of
three days, and did not, even when dry, develop the true gánjá colour and odour;
the thickest cakes were quite unsatisfactory ; they developed a distinctly disagree-
able smell, which never entirely left them ; before drying they underwent a dis-
tinct fermentation, and remained dark coloured even when dry.
As it proved to be more tedious to manufacture gánjá in this way with thin
cakes than it is to make gánjá in the ordinary way, and as plants taken at this stage
cannot be made into thick cakes without being of inferior quality, it was evident
that a mechanical method cannot be made to replace the ordinary method at the
first stage.
Plants taken at the second stage were now used, as well as plants cut along
with those taken first and left lying without any treading till the time that they
should have been subjected to the second stage was reached. The plants that had
been trodden and stacked were not found very satisfactory. It is during this
first treading that the wastage in manufacture owing to the loss of resin chiefly
takes place, and this loss was found. materially to interfere with the adhesiveness
of the flower-heads when these were being caked. Plants exposed during the
same time but not trodden were found to be much more satisfactory ; their leaves
were more readily removed when the flower-tips were being plucked; the resin
did not come so readily on to the hands ; the flower-heads adhered to each other
quite as well; and cakes half an inch thick dried with the true gánjá smell and
colour.
Plants that had been trodden were therefore not farther experimented with,
but cakes were next made from plants that had been cut for three days. The
results were even better than with those taken on the second day after cutting.
This led, therefore, to experiments with plants not cut until they were riper than
those reaped by the cultivators usually are. At first when the reaping begins
only a few plants are ready for manufacture and the cultivator is easily able to
cope with his crop. But after a week or ten days many plants ripen together,
and when this happens it is usual to find that now and again a plant or two has
been passed over which should have been taken and which when he next reaps—
after an interval of three days—the cultivator finds are over-ripe and must be left
altogether. In such an over-ripe plant the small leaves have become withered
and are very easily removed ; this ought, one would think, to be of great advantage
in manufacture, and doubtless it would be so but for the fact that the small
flower-spikes, on which the resinous bracts are, have also become dried up, and
when the cultivator begins treading he finds that not only leaves but also the
resin-bearing spikes fall off. The resinous exudation, which is sufficient to keep
all the parts united while they are still soft and green and capable of being
crushed together without breaking, will not cause the parts to adhere when they
have become so old as to be stiff and brittle.
Experiments made with such plants as these were most satisfactory. The
leaves were very easily removed, and though the small flower-heads also fell
to pieces during the removal of the leaves, this was of no consequence from our
point of view. Introduced into the press these flower-tops became converted