CANNABIS SATIVA. 



81 



fibre in the world is produced) to the effect that it will grow anywhere, but without 

 manure will be fit for no use though planted in heaven itself. The seed is sown 

 in May, at the rate of 30 seers to the acre, and the plants are thinned oub if they 

 come up too closely and are kept carefully weeded. Ey September they will have 

 attained a height of 12 or 14 feet. In the hemp the male and female organs 

 are contained in separate flowers and borne on separate plants. The male plants 

 (^called ^/m7 yield the best fibre, and they are cut a month or six weeks before 



the female plants {gul bhang), which are allowed to stand until their seed ripens. The 

 next process is the collection of the charas, which is done by rubbing the seed pods and 

 leaves between the hands. The stalks are then laid in water to promote a fermentation, 

 which will allow the bark to strip easily ; on being taken out they are beaten with mal- 

 lets to loosen the bark, which is then detached by hand in strips, and after a second 

 beating breaks up into a fibre which is made up into hanks for sale. In some places 

 the fibre is boiled in potash and bleached before spinning. The principal things manu 

 factured from it are hemp cloth {bhangra or hhangeld), and the ropes which are used for 

 the swing-bridges over hill streams. The cloth makes an admirable material for sacks, 

 and is largely used in the grain trade on the Nepal frontier ; and, latterly, in the export 

 of potatoes from Kumaun. It also furnishes a large portion of the hill population with 

 a characteristic article of clothing — a hemp blanket, worn like a plaid across the should- 

 ers and fastened in front with a wooden skewer. Other uses to which the fibre is ap- 

 plied by the hill men have been described as "hanging their supernumerary female 

 " children, ropes-ending their wives, penning up cattle and making a sort of netted, or 

 " knitted, or knotted shoes, to which a sole of untanned leather is sometimes, but by no 

 " means generally, afiixed," 



The seed — of such repute in Europe as a food for cage birds — is not uncommonly 

 roasted and eaten by the hill men. Occasionally oil is expressed from it, and the oil cake 

 given to their cattle. 



The outturn of an acre of hemp in Garhwal is given by Captain H. Huddlestone, 

 who enquired into the matter in 1840, as " three seers charas, worth Rs. 6, four maunds 

 "of hemp fibre, worth Es. 8, and from 30 to 35 seers of seed, yielding some five 

 " seers of oil, worth a rupee." 



It may be mentioned that hemp growing is restricted to the lowest classes of cul- 

 tivators, being considered beneath the dignity of the higher castes. " So* much is this 

 the case, that the phrase ' may hemp be sown in thy house ' is one of the commonest 

 abusive imprecations." 



Explanation of Plate XIX. 



1. Upper part of plant, 1 . | 3. Side view of flower, ^ 



"3. Leaf from lower part of plant, J ' 4. Ditto seen from above, j ^^^^^S^'^' 



Explanation of Plate XX. 



1. Upper part of plant, J 



2. Fruit, > nat. size. 



3. Seed, 3 



* Kumaun Gazetteer, Vol. I., page 80i. 



M 



