100 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



the petals are removed when fully matured, and kept to form 

 the packing round the opium. The seed-capsule is ready for 

 treatment in about another ten days, and is lanced with a 

 series of parallel knives about 1/30 of an inch apart. The 

 opium which runs out the milk of the plant is collected 

 next day with a kind of scoop, and made up in factories into 

 cakes of about 21 Ibs., wrapped in a thick coating of the petals. 



Hemp. It is best to consider this plant along with opium, 

 for in the tropics it only yields the drug, whereas in temperate 

 climates it gives a very excellent fibre, but no drug. The plant 

 (Cannabis sativa) is a native of the northern tropics and the 

 subtropics of Asia, and is largely cultivated in India for the 

 drug, and in southern Europe, China, etc. for the fibre. It is 

 especially cultivated in Bengal, and the area devoted to it is 

 very large. 



In Bengal nurseries are prepared in May, the plants are 

 sown in August, and planted out in September, six or eight 

 inches apart. They mature from January onwards. The male 

 flowers are removed in November, for, if the female flowers are 

 fertilised, there is no formation of the drug. 



The drug is a resinous exudation found upon almost all 

 parts of the plant, and is marketed in three forms, ganja, 

 charas, and bhang, the resins of the flowers, the young shoots, 

 and the mature leaves respectively. Ganja is prepared from 

 the flowering shoots (female) by packing them together and 

 tramping them down. Charas is prepared in climates further 

 north than ganja, and the flowering twigs are beaten over a 

 cloth, when the resin drops otf as a fine powder. Bhang con- 

 sists of the actual mature leaves, mainly gathered from the wild 

 plants, and is used in the preparation of the intoxicating drink 

 hashish, or in the making of sweetmeats. The handling of 

 bhang is therefore very difficult to regulate, whereas that of 

 ganja or charas, which are made from the cultivated plant, is 

 subject to strict laws, and no one is allowed to sell without a 

 license. The action of the drug is not unlike that of opium. 



