(15
)
A good deal of chúr results, as has already been explained, in the manufac-
ture of round gánjá at the time that the ends of the bundles are cut and trim-
med:this is more or less unavoidable. A good deal also results from the
shaking the bundles get at their final examination for leaves.As has been said,
c h
ù r
.
i s a p e r q u i s i t e o f t h e d e a l e r w h e n t h e c u l t i v a t o r m a k e s t h e r o u n d g á n j á
,s
o
that it is to the cultivator's advantage to keep clown the amount. When the
gánjá, is made, as is often the case with round gánjá , by the purchaser, he may be
expected to look after his own interest in the matter. As will be shown further
on, his interest never can suffer by the making of chùr. Mr.Kerr mentions1
the fact that when the golàdàr, not the cultivator, makes the article, only the
good plants are taken for manufacture; when the cultivator, not the golàdàr, is
the manufacturer,the only rejections are the worst twigs;he also adds that the
rejections are always greatest in the case of round' gànjà. This, again, is
because in making round'gànjà , the twigs are so much more in. the hand of the
maker, and are therefore so much more easily seen than the flat.'But Mr. Kerr
speaks of this rejection wastage 'in the preparation of the drug ; if by
wastage 'he means waste, then I do not agree with him—it may be on ed that
this is almost the only point he has discussed on which we differ. I think with
the goládàrs that the gànjà is improved by these rejections.
The principles that underlie the details given above are very simple. It is
the object of the manufacturer to retain the active narcotic substance, and to get
rid, as far as possible, of inert matters. To effect this the plant is subjected to
a process of drying and of kneading. The two things go on simultaneously or,
at any rate, are intercalary;it will,however,simplify matters if they be con-
sidered separately.
The drying process effects two purposes :—
(a) It removes the watery juices of the plant, and thus not only reduces
its weight as an exciseable article, but removes to a considerable
extent the risk of mould.
(b) It causes the comparatively inert small leaves to shrivel, and so
makes their removal more easy.
The drying is done by the sun. Occasionally, when rain and cloud have
appeared after the cutting of the plants, these are dried by fire. 2 During my
visits to Naogaon this year, there was a good deal of rain, and I saw some of
this fire drying. The gànjà produced by such artificial drying is rather darker
in colour than the natural sun-dried article, and does not command so ready a
sale. The difference in colour in itself probably means little0;it, is, however,
used by the purchaser as an index to the quality of the drug. The difference
that no doubt exists is probably clue in the case of sun-dried plants to the
further natural passage of resin from the small leaves which have to be removed,
and in which so long as they are green the substance is diffused, to the flower-
ing-tops that are kept as gànjà; in the case of fire-dried ones, whatever resinous
substance the leaves still contain probably remains in them as they dry, and is lost
-when they fall off. The action of heat in the two cases must be identical,
and will drive away the watery vapour as well in one case as in the other;
it is the absence of light,—for the plants are never wind-dried, but are
always spread out flat under a powerful sun, — and the consequent absence of
the chemical action which light induces, that renders fire-drying an inadequate
substitute for the natural method. The difference in colour is merely an
accidental feature of the fire-drying, which is used by the purchaser as an index
of quality.
The kneading process—the plant undergoes what is practically a course of
masságe—also effects two purposes :—
(a) It removes more or less completely the comparatively inert leaves,
still further reducing the weight. The article produced, being
for its bulk more active in proportion to the absence of leaves,
the more thoroughly they are removed, the better a sale does
it command.
1 H. C. Kerr, Report, p. 26.
2 H. C. Kerr, Report, p.25.