

\fi- -if 



Production. 



Bengal 

 Cultiva 

 tion. 



CANNABIS 



GANJA SATIVA 



Cultivation 



and branches are also removed. The smaller leaves and bracts 

 of the inflorescence become agglutinated and the manufactured article is 

 i very largely by its freedom from leaf. The colour and smell 

 .itures of merit, but as a rule the ganja which has the least leaf is 

 I as the best. 



it cultivated in several localities such as in North Bengal, on the Malabar 

 A'ostera India, and in the Tributary Mahals of Orissa (the (Jurjat ganja}. 

 may be regarded as the chief centres, but it is also produced in the Central 

 (Xiinar), in Indore, Gwalior, Kishengarh, Mysore, Hyderabad, and 

 me districts of the Bombay Presidency. It may suffice to give a few prac- 

 regarding the Bengal cultivation and manufacture. It is grown in 

 TV compact tract of country with a radius of about sixteen miles, and which 

 in three districts, viz. Dinajpur, Rajshahi and Bogra. It is for administra- 

 Mirposos placed under the Collector of Rajshahi, the sub-divisional officer of 

 m >ii being in immediate charge of this, the so-called Ganja Mahal. Seed- 

 are formed on high land above inundation, and consist of a light sandy 



The beds are richly manured and ploughed once a week from the middle Season*, 

 ay forward, and are sown in August. Meantime the land on which the 

 is to be ultimately raised is being also richly manured and top-drossed 

 the ditches and ploughed and harrowed once a month. By the middle 

 iptember the seedlings are transplanted to the ridgea formed in the field, 

 onth later a careful weeding is given, and in November the ridges 

 hoed down and the plants trimmed by the removal of the lower 

 I .ranches. This admits of a further ploughing between the furrows and of a 

 dressing with powdered cow-dung and oilcake, after which the ridges are 



built up. 



At this stage the first visit of the " ganja doctor " the poddar is made, 

 in his paper (Morphol., Teratol., etc., I.e.), explains that the pod- 

 a guide is the early appearance " of the often abortive, solitary female 

 >wers that so frequently, in the Indian male hemp plant, take the place 

 that theoretically should be occupied by the lowest pairs of paniculate male 

 lorescences." These abnormally placed female flowers, it would seem, are 

 ,ble long before the inflorescence of male flowers could for certain be recog- 

 The poddar in consequence breaks the stems of the plants that manifest 

 peculiarity and the cultivator following behind uproots them, and fills 

 the vacant places by fresh transplantations from the purposely reserved 

 surplus in the seed-beds. A second or a third visit of the poddar suffices for the 

 complete extirpation of the male plants. But abnormal male flowers are not 

 unusual on the female plants, and these the cultivator keeps a sharp outlook 

 for and removes. By January the flowers begin to appear, harvest is general in 

 February, and by the middle of March is completed. 

 There are three forms of ganja produced : 



(a) Fiat aanja The stems are cut with a sickle about 6 inches above 

 iund, tied together by their ends, placed across a bamboo and carried 

 the selected place of manufacture. The inflorescences are then 

 16 by one placed on the ground, and trodden underfoot so as to 

 cause the agglutinated flower-tops and smaller leaves to become com- 

 pacted into flat masses (chdpta ganja). These heads are then baled as 

 " large flat " or " twig flat," according to the size of heads and length 

 of stalks. 



(6) Round aanja. Instead of being trodden, the heads are rolled under- Round, 

 t so that they are less firmly compacted, and are in the form of rounded 

 sausage-shaped masses. Round ganja is never baled, but is tied up 

 into bundles (goli ganja). 



(C) Chur (Powder) Oanja or Rora. Broken fragments Or flower-tops Powder. 



detached from the twigs, whether of flat or round ganja, constitute chur, 

 These are very largely produced through trimming, especially that of 

 the round form. 



Bengal Ganja is in other provinces of India usually designated as 



261 



Abortive 



Female 



Flowers. 



Poddar't Guide. 



Harvest. 



Flat 



