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into homogeneous cakes of any thickness up to an inch, that were already almost
dry when removed from the mould. The extreme pressure of the machine was
able to do what the cultivator had failed to attain, viz., to bring into due contact
the resinous parts of the flower-heads and to keep them long enough in contact for
the various parts thoroughly to adhere. In the press it was impossible for them
to fall away from each other as on the chátor. These cakes have quite the
gánjá colour and the gánjá smell, and neither physically nor chemically do they
differ from the 'flat' gánjá ; they have decidedly more 'leaf' than round,'
but only a little more than 'flat.' The advantage of making gánjá into such
cakes as these would be that the drug from the beginning would be in the
condition most suited for storage and export ; would occupy the smallest possible
space; and would contain the smallest possible amount of wood. Examples of
these cakes also have been already submitted for inspection to the Member in
charge.
CHAPTER XII.—THE PHYSICAL CHANGES THAT OCCUR 1N GÁNJÁ.
In order to estimate the nature and extent of the changes that occur when
gánjá is kept, enquiry was made at Naogaon whether any samples of the crop
of previous years could. be obtained, It was found that there still was a little of
the gánjá manufactured in 1892 to be had, but that none made in the preceding
seasons could be obtained.
In the golahs at Calcutta it was found that there was in store undestroyed
gánjá not only of the season 1891-92, but of the seasons 1890-91 and 1889-90.
In this way I was able to obtain for purposes of examination both round g á n j á
and flat gánjá of 1889-90 and of 1890-91 ; round gánjá of 1891-92 could be ob-
tained, but flat of that year, though the most recent of all, was not obtainable.
This was not remarkable, for Calcutta is one of the places where flat gánjá is not
much used, or is only asked for by a few residents who, being natives of flat
gánjá-using districts, are conservative enough to insist on getting it still;
the crop of 1891-92 was an unusually poor one, and therefore the dealers had
less incentive to import what is really an exotic in their market. The fact was
somewhat unfortunate because, though the missing sample was obtained from
Naogaon, it had been stored there under very different conditions from those
under which the Calcutta samples had been stored. As stored by the cultivators,
gánjá, being only protected by mat or at best thin mud-plastered walls, is much
more exposed to the atmospheric vicissitudes of heat and humidity that
characterise the climate of Bengal, than it is as stored at Calcutta in masonry
buildings with close-fitting doors.
Along with flat gánjá of 1891-92, samples of round and of flat freshly har-
vested gánjá of 1892-93 were brought from Naogaon, and the eight samples
thus collected were compared.
As to colour ; in the two samples of 1893 this is darker with a more distinct
green tint than in any of the others; 1892, paler green ; 1891, greenish-brown ;
1890, brown, hardly any green left.
As to odour ; 1893, the distinctive gánjá smell, a warm, aromatic, camphor-
aceous or peppermint-like smell accompanying it ; 1892, the distinctive g á n j á
smell, still aromatic, but with no peppermint-like smell from the round gánjá ;
from the flat gánjá brought from Naogaon, a dusty smell with no aromatic
odour.; 1891, smell of gánjá still, but very faint; 1890, the distinctive smell of
gánjá quite lost, the smell remaining being, however, very characteristic ; it is
like that of the more permanent portion of the distillate obtained when the
fresh plant is distilled with water.
To the touch the gánjá of 1893 was sticky ; this stickiness was absent from
the 1892 samples which were, however, quite coherent ; the 1891 samples were
friable but not dusty ; the 1890 samples friable and powdery.
The quantity of chúr yielded by samples of gánjá of different years does
not differ very greatly, and it would appear that the variation is less due to
keeping than to differences in the crop of different seasons When converted
into powder, and the woody cores of the flowering-tops sifted out, the proportion
naturally remains much the same. When, however, this powdered gánjá is
further sifted through a fine wire sieve (36 meshes to the inch), a striking dis-
proportion is manifested in the quantity of fine powder obtained. This fine