( 29 )
powder in the case of 1893 gánjá is green; 1892, brownish-green ; 1891, greenish
-brown ; 1890, brown (snuff-coloured). The difference in quantity obtained does,
however, not depend in this case on the formation of a greater amount of the
powder,—which may be held to correspond in some degree to the g árdá or
Panjab charas described in a previous chapter, or to the charas as collected in
trans-Himalayan countries. The increase in amount of powder in successively
older samples is due entirely to the physical changes that occur in these.
The greater friability of the older gánjá renders the separation of the resin
-bearing particles from the fragments of bracts and leaves more complete, and
the disappearance of stickiness from these particles admits of their more ready
passage through the fine-meshed sieve.
In the table which follows is shown in a compact form the percentages
of chúr, coarse powder, and fine powder, respectively, yielded by the various
samples of gánjá examined:—
TABLE VII .—Yield of chúr from Gánjá, and of powder from chúr in Gánjá of
different seasons of growth.
SEASON
Kind of Gánjá. Percentage of
chúr in gánjá.
Percentage of
coarse powder
in chúr.
Yield of fine
powder from
coarse.
R e m a r k s .
1892-93
Round . . .
87.5
95.3
18.75
From Naogaon.
Flat twig . . .
83.3
95.0
18.75
Ditto.
1 8 9 1 - 9 2 Round . . .
7 8 6
97.0
21.0
From Calcutta golahs.
Flat tw ig
...
75.1
95.5
21.6
„ Naogaon.
1890-91
Round . . .
81.0
8 6 . 0
24.0
„ Calcutta golahs.
Flat twig
76.2
96.0
30.0
Ditto.
1889-90
Round
84 . 0
96.3
35.7
Ditto.
Flat twig
80.2
97 0
36.0
Ditto.
From this table it will be observed that after the first season all the samples
yield a smaller percentage of chúr than do fresh samples. This will give
some idea of the extent to which the strength of the gánjá as indicated by its
odour passes off during the first year of its storage. But the table also shows
that there is a considerable difference between the physical conditions of crops of
different years; both the 1890-91 and the 1891-92 crops would appear to
have been less luxuriant than that of 1889-90, if the quantity of chúr yielded
be any criterion, and as all the active principle is contained in the chúr it may
be taken as such. It will be easily understood how it is possible in equal
weights of gánjá taken to find so great a difference between fresh and old
samples ; the weight of the wood is, bulk for bulk, practically the same in
fresh as in old; it is only in the gánjá that subsequent loss of weight occurs.
One particular sample (round) 1890-91, was
of such decidedly poor
quality that we must suspect that samples from different fields or made
by different manufacturers vary considerably in the same year ; this was
more visible in the outturn of coarse powder than in that of chúr, and the
sample seemed to have been from a particularly poor crop. With the excep-
- t i o n o f t h i s i t w i l l b e n o t i c e d t h a t t h e o u t t u r n o f c o a r s e p o w d e r f r o mc
h ú r
i s
remarkably uniform in both kinds of gánjá. The great variation in amount of
fine powder obtained has already been explained as due to the physical
condition of the coarse powder ; from the fact that the coarse powder is so
uniform throughout, it follows that the fine powder obtained from each sample
should, weight for weight, contain the same amount of resin. This is even the
case in the sample that gave a small yield of coarse powder, as microscopical
and ultimately chemical examination proved.
In addition to the samples of gánjá referred to in the table, two samples of
Gurjat gánjá were received together from Orissa. They were evidently subdivi-
- s i o n s o f o n e l a r g e r s a m p l e ; t h e s e a s o n o f g r o w t h c o u l d n o t b e s t a t e d d e f i n i t e l y ,
but it was supposed, probably correctly, considering the degree of freshness of
the sample, that they belonged to the crop of 1891-92 ; they evidently were not
samples of gánjá harvested in 1893. There is very little doubt that the plant
had been cultivated ; the
gá nj áh a d b e e n m a d e w i t h a g o o d d e a l o f c a r e ; i t
was, however, full of seeds and full of small leaves, and clearly represented the
tops of plants that had branched but slightly, and that had thin stems, much like
the ordinary plant as it occurs in a ' wild' state. The heads were prepared so