THE SAN-HEMP PLANT 



Area. 



Pure 

 Cultivation. 



Seasons. 



Kharif Crop. 



Bombay. 



RaH Crop. 



Upper 

 India and 

 Bengal. 



CROTALARIA 



JUNCBA 



Cultivation 



and the other the modern esparto grass (stijm tenndnsintn), the juncus of 

 dry soils alluded to by Pliny. Etymologically the word spartan denotes some- 

 thing twisted, and since both the Spanish broom and the esparto have from very 

 ancient times been twisted into string and rope, both might easily enough have 

 been called spartan. It is curious that the spartan of the Greeks should have 

 denoted (in one of its meanings) a plant so closely akin to the sana of classic India. 

 [Cf. Hanausek, Micro. Tech. Prod. (Winton and Barber, transl.), 1907, 84-5.] 



CULTIVATION. Seasons. It is not possible to obtain returns of the 

 area under this crop, nor of the extent of the traffic in the fibre, since it is 

 placed under the heading " other fibres " or under " hemp." It is usually 

 grown by itself in small plots or in long strips through fields, but is never 

 apparently produced as a mixed crop proper. Throughout India as a 

 whole it is a kharif crop that is to say, it is sown about the commencement 

 of the rains and cut at the end of September or beginning of October. It 

 is thus ofl the ground in time to allow of its being followed by a rabi crop 

 in the same year. But in some parts of India it would seem there is another 

 crop of san. Thus in the Thana and Kolaba districts of Bombay it is 

 sown in November on moist fields near the sea-coast, following early rice. 

 The stalks are pulled up by the roots in March. Hove speaks of the 

 crotalaria of Surat as sown in November. In Khandesh it is sown in 

 June and reaped in October ; in Kolhapur the seasons are August and 

 December ; in Poona, July and October. 



In the Central Provinces and the United Provinces it is a kharif crop, 

 being sown with the advent of the rains, and in Bengal a little earlier, 

 namely from April 15. Eoxburgh speaks of it as sown in May and June 

 and as flowering in August. He tells us that Coromandel and Bengal 

 seed were sown in the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, at the same time in June, 

 but that the former did not commence to flower till October, the latter 

 having been in ripe fruit in September. He accordingly called the Coro- 

 mandel " Winter Sunn." In the Ain-i-Akbari, sanna is mentioned as 

 bearing its yellow flowers in spring. Koyle (Fibrous PL, 274), speaking 

 of Commercolly, says there are two kinds one sown in June and cut in 

 August, the other sown in April ; but this latter kind, he adds, is in Dacca 

 sown in October. In Madras the sowings would appear to be even still 

 earlier, namely February 15. 



Thus while the mean period of sowing is about the beginning of the 

 rains (or in June), saw-hemp may be sown in almost any month, and 

 occupies the ground from four to five months. This is an important 

 feature, and doubtless accounts for the varying colour and quality of the 

 fibre in market. It seems, in fact, of vital importance to bear this in mind, 

 in view of future efforts at extended production. It is difficult to believe 

 that, as with rice, so with san, a wide range of sowings could be possible 

 unless the plants are accepted as representing different races and hence very 

 possibly different qualities of fibre produced after centuries of adaptation 

 to various environments. In fact it would seem fairly certain that these 

 climatic conditions, though they cannot be identified by the botanist as 

 separable varieties or even races, are nevertheless industrially quite 

 distinct. To grow a rabi crop during the kharif season or vice versa may 

 be to destroy entirely its distinctive merit. This subject has not as yet 

 received the degree of attention that it deserves. We have been content 

 to read of special qualities of fibre without any attempt having been made 

 to ascertain whether these are due to superiority in stock, to climate, to 

 seasons of cultivation or to method of preparing the fibre. It would 



Two Kinds.' 



Sowings.'' 



Special 

 Qualities. 



Experimental 

 Cultivation. 



432 



