CULTURE OF HEMP IN NEPAUL. 323 
Rs. 6 (or twelve shillings); four raaunds (or 3201b.) of Hemp, value Rs. 8 
(sixteen shillings) ; and about thirty to thirty-five seers (60 to 70 1b.) of seed, 
yielding about five seers (10 Ib.) of oil, value R. 1 (two shillings). Giving a 
total of Rs. 15 per beesee. 
7. The seed sells generally at 20 pathas per rupee, or from twenty-seven 
to thirty seers (as this wooden measure varies in different places), and the 
seed: being light, I have found that the average weight of each patha is about 
one seer and five chittacks. The Hemp sells at 2 rupees a maund amongst 
themselves, and the Dooms (or lowest class of the agricultural community) 
are the chief cultivators of the plant. ; 
8. When Dr. Rutherford held a contract for the supply of Hemp to the 
Honorable Company, and also made extensive purchases of it with other 
staple articles of produce of the Hills on his own account, the cultivation of 
Hemp was very considerable indeed in this district; and in case of any 
demand being again created,.immense tracts would no doubt be sown with it, 
provided the same plan of advances to cultivators were adopted. 
9. The plan adopted by Dr. Rutherford appears to have been thus: ad- 
vances through his agents to the landed proprietors and individual cultivators 
were made during the early part of the year, stipulating for the Hemp being 
delivered at their own doors at 4 rupees a maund, and the carriage during 
the cold season to the marts of Kotedwarra in Gurhwal, and Chilkeea in 
Kumaon at the foot of the Hills (where Goomashtas or agents were ready 
to receive the Hemp), being defrayed extra—which did not, I imagine, on an 
average exceed a rupee a maund—so that the raw material was and is capable 
of being delivered at those marts for 5 rupees a maund; and as only a few 
miles further of land carriage would be required to ship the Hemp into boats 
on the Ganges or Ram Gunga for transit to Calcutta, this would not, [ should 
think, double the cost of it. 
Hemp Cultivation in Nepaul: by H. B. Hodgson, Esq. 
Mr. Hodgson states, that the cultivation is peculiar to the Northern 
districts of Nepaul, but only, as he suspects, because the tribes inhabiting 
them are less scrupulous than the people of the great valley, and other 
Central and Southern tracts; for, at least in the valley, the plant flourishes 
greatly, if properly tended, as Mr. Hodgson has proved in his own garden ; 
and the spring crops of the valley are almost choked with spontaneous growth 
of Hemp, which, however, being uncultivated, is stunted and virtueless. The 
Northern districts (popularly called Cachar) are nevertheless the prime seats 
of culture, and there alone is the plant manufactured into rope or cloth; 
though the edible extracts are sometimes prepared nearer to and around 
Katmandhoo. 
The season of sowing Bhang seed in Nepaul is from Chyett to Bysack 
(March to April). 
Dam) ‘soils, comprising black earth, are fittest for this crop. Before 
ploughing the field, sufficient manure is to be sprinkled over it, then com- 
pleting the work of the plough, the seeds are to be sprinkled, and having 
broken the clods into dust, the field is to be made even. 
At seven or eight days after sowing the seeds the. plants come up, but 
their rapidity of growth and their size and strength depend on the abun- 
dance of the rains or artificial watering. Ifthe plants be very thick, they 
must be thinned, so as to stand three inches distance from each other. 
They flower and fruit in Sawun (July); and at the beginning. of Bhadoon 
(August) are in their full growth; but while yet succulent and in flower, 
they are tobe cut, with exception of some seed plants, which are not to be 
reaped till October. It is the bark of the young but full-grown or Sawun 
