284 CULTURE OF TAAG OR BROWN HEMP IN WEST OF INDIA. 
More recently, Capt. Thompson, of the firm of Thompson 
and Co., rope-makers, of Calcutta, in sending three samples 
of fibre from the Malabar coast, writes: “ Allow me also 
to hand you three specimens of Hemp and rope made 
of them that I had brought from the west side of India, 
grown at the places named on the labels (Calicut, Ghote, 
and the Concan). These have been tested both at the Arsenal 
and Government Dockyards, and proved perfectly equal to any 
and all purposes that cordage made of Russian Hemp has 
hitherto been used for. From the encouraging reports upon 
this cordage from the heads of both the Naval and Military 
Departments, there seems no reason to doubt that this Hemp, 
and others that are being daily discovered, will completely 
supersede the importation of Europe-made cordage.” Capt. 
Thompson adds, in a note: “This Hemp is no new discovery. 
I saw it in England, which led me to try it here (2. e., Calentta). 
31st Dec., 1847.” 
Dr. Gibson, in a Report on the Agriculture and Horticulture 
of the districts near Bombay, states, that both the taag and 
umbaree, or Crotalaria juncea and Hibiscus cannabinus, are 
both reaped in the month of November, and both are stored to 
await the advent and leisure of the warm weather for stripping. 
The Tag is most usually pulled up, instead of being cut off; as 
in the latter way it leaves a strong and dangerous stubble. It 
is in the Deccan, he adds, reckoned a species of cultivation 
unworthy of a thorough-bred hushandman, and only to be 
grown by the Ghat people and the wilder tribes. The Wun- 
jaras not unfrequently hire land to grow it on, as it is essential 
for affording them twine and materials for their gunnies. The 
seeds are beaten out with a stick, a part is reserved for future 
sowing, and the overplus is used to feed buffaloes. Its cultiva- 
tion is more attended to inthe Concan and Ghat districts than 
in the Deccan, It appears to suit any soil, and clears the 
ground of weeds. Having cultivated the plant to some extent 
in 1841, he found that it gave a return quite equal, if not 
superior, to that of the common grains of the country. Its 
chief expense consists in stripping the fibre. He had tried to 
separate the fibre by beating, after a slight immersion, but 
found the interior pith too soft to admit the separation of the 
fibre by that means. It is first steeped in water for five days 
