90 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



ing hemp. Pursuant to these views instructions 

 were transmitted to every residency for promoting 

 the more extensive cultivation and better manage- 

 ment of the plant. 



In complying with the directions, the several resi- 

 dents had as usual much difficulty in contending 

 with the preconceived notions of the Ryots, who, 

 attached to their own mode of cultivation and prepa- 

 ration, could not be convinced of the superior advan- 

 tage of the new method, however strenuously re- 

 commended : everywhere objections were raised, and 

 even in those places where the natives had consented 

 to' adopt the method prescribed, this was so partially 

 and so inadequately pursued, as not to be considered 

 a fair trial. In some places they most peremptorily 

 declined going out of the beaten track of their fore- 

 fathers ; and at Dtimroy especially, the report of the 

 resident records that the natives manifested a most 

 inflexible obstinacy. Although a European was 

 employed to instruct them in the new method, they 

 turned a deaf ear to his lessons, exclaiming, " You 

 may imprison our persons, you may strike our necks, 

 but never will we make sunn according to the 

 advertisement." 



In this case perhaps the Hindoo abhorrence of 

 change was not quite so unreasonable as it too often 

 proves. The result showed that it was not very 

 judicious to require persons blindly to adopt a pro- 

 cess which a different plant underwent in a different 

 clime and country. It was found that the sunn was 

 a much more delicate plant than hemp, and could 

 not bear the rough treatment to which the other was 

 subjected. The drying previously to steeping was 

 found decidedly injurious to the plants, while immer- 

 sion in water for even a few hours only beyond the 

 time absolutely required for separating the bark, had 

 a pernicious effect on Ihe fibres, and these being of a 



