272 CULTURE OF SUNN PLANT. 
It is an annual plant, very generally cultivated in the 
southern parts of Asia, and everywhere in India, on account of 
the fibres of its bark, so well known as Sunn and Sunn Hemp, 
often erroneously called Hemp, though the true plant is also 
most common in India, but valued in the plains only for its 
intoxicating properties. The Sunn is exported from different 
parts of India, as from Calcutta, by the name of Sunn; that 
from Madras is known here as Madras Hemp; that from 
Bombay as Brown Hemp, being known there as Taag or 
Conkanee Hemp. It being a common practice to name it 
from the province where it has been grown. The late Dr. 
Stocks informed the Author that it was cultivated in Sindh, 
and that the species named Crotalaria Burhia, which grows 
wild in the most arid places, is also employed in Sindh as a 
cordage plant. The Author may mention that he has seen it 
thickly sown and carefully cultivated in the most northern 
provinces of India. The time of flowering and ripening its 
seed, as stated by Dr. Roxburgh, depend on the season it is 
sown ; though in most parts it is raised during the rainy season, 
in others it is not sown until their cessation. 
Culture.—The general time of cultivation is during the 
rains; and in Bengal a rather elevated rich soil is required, 
which ought to be well ploughed, or otherwise dressed to free 
it of weeds, and bring it into good tilth. In Wisset’s treatise, 
pp. 38 and 39, it is stated that clayey soils are injurious, and 
that in a rich soil the fibre produced is of a coarser quality 
than that from high, dry situations. The quantity of seed, 
Dr. Roxburgh states, should be from eighty to a hundred 
pounds weight to the acre. In some districts less, in others a 
larger quantity is sown. (v. Wisset.) The natives say, the 
thicker the Sunn grows the better, and so thick as to prevent 
the air from passing through it. (l.c., p. 73.) At Com- 
mercolly it is stated that there are two kinds of Sunn; one 
being sown in June, the other in October, though they are 
nearly similar in quality. That sown in June is generally cut 
about August or September, and the other about April; but 
it is also sown in October in parts of the Dacca district. 
(v. Wisset, pp. 59 and 82.) The cause of the difference in the 
time of cultivation, is supposed by some to be that during the 
periodical rains the face of the country is under water. 
