CANNABIS 



SATIVA 



Fibre 



THE HEMP PLANT 



Two Forms 

 in Kashmir. 



Wild in Burma. 



European and 

 American Races 

 of Hemp. 



Complete 

 Acclimatisation. 



Boxburgh 

 regarded it as 

 Indigenous. 



His 



Expectations. 



field from the standpoint of the cultivator. Roxburgh was not aware, 

 for example, that in Asia " the fibres of the bark have ever been 

 employed for any purpose," so that he certainly had not studied all the 

 racial forms that may have existed in India even in his time. 



In the Report issued by the H.D. Commission (i., 32), reference is 

 made to there being two forms of the plant in Kashmir : " The bhang, 

 which grows on both banks of the Jhelum below the city of Srinagar, 

 is known as Jcathiya bhang, is weak in narcotic and is used only for its 

 fibre and for burning. The wild growth is very abundant. It supplies 

 all the wants of the people, and there is consequently no cultivation." 

 So again (I.e. i., 30), doubt is thrown on the existence of the plant in 

 Burma. It is probably not so plentiful in that country as in India. 

 Pottinger and Prain, however (Note on the Botany of the Kachin Hills, etc., 

 in Rec. Sot. Surv. Ind., i., 219), found it near the Kyeng-mo Kha, in the 

 forests, and they add that the people appeared to have no knowledge of 

 ganja and no idea that the plant possessed narcotic properties. But while 

 Indian authorities thus throw doubt on the existence of cultivated forms 

 of the plant, in Europe and America those engaged in the hemp industry 

 have no hesitation in recognising many well-established races. Dodge, 

 for example, says several varieties are recognised, such as that cultivated 

 in Kentucky, having a hollow stem, the most common. Then there are 

 the following forms : China, Smyrna, Common European, Bologne or 

 Great hemp, the canqpa piccola or small Italian, and lastly the Arabian. 

 [Cf. Boyce, Treat, on Cult, of Hemp., etc., New York, 1900.] 



Early Experiments. On more than one occasion public interest has 

 been aroused as to the possibility of India becoming a source of hemp 

 fibre. That the plant was completely acclimatised over the greater part 

 of the plains and fairly extensively cultivated on account of its narcotic, 

 are circumstances that have been cited in support of the contention that 

 apathy and indifference had to account for India's backwardness in hemp 

 production. During the closing decade of the 18th century the East India 

 Company made various experiments on an extended scale. Roxburgh, 

 in a letter dated Calcutta, 24th December, 1799, expresses somewhat 

 piquantly his astonishment on finding a Mr. Sinclair sent from England 

 to " establish the cultivation of hemp, a thing I had begun some time 

 before." Sinclair seems to have died shortly after his arrival in India, 

 but the experiments were continued for a few years. Speaking of saw- 

 hemp (Crot(tlariajtincea), Roxburgh wrote in his Plants of the Coast of 

 Coromandel (1798, ii., 50, t. 193), " This useful plant yields the Hindoos their 

 best hemp, for they have no idea of the superior quality of the bark of the 

 common hemp-plant (Cannabis), which is indigenous in all parts of India ; 

 but of that plant they only use the leaves as an intoxicating drug. I 

 have taken some trouble to teach the natives the use of a plant which 

 hitherto they have only abused, by making some of their farmers witnesses 

 to every part of the culture and preparation of the hemp, and which, on 

 being compared with their tschanamoo hemp, they were perfectly con- 

 vinced was infinitely better ; at the same time the culture being equally 

 easy, and the produce equally large, I have reason to think a few 

 years will bring it into general use in these parts, and by degrees 

 over India." 



In the early experiments European seed and European cultivators were 

 alike imported, and every effort made to ensure success. Cultivation 



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