THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1887. 
INDIAN HEMP— WILD AND CULTIVATED— 
AND ITS PRODUCTS 
are thus noticed in the Pioneer We said the 
other day in connection with provincial excise that 
the local Government has explained to the Board of 
Revenue that their proposals with regard to the hemp 
plant ignore the distinction between bhang and ganja. 
To avoid miscouception it may be useful to give the 
exact words used in the correspondence to which we 
referred. " In many districts," wrote the Board, 
" the hemp plant (from which charas, ganja, and bhang 
are prepared) grows wild in great profusion, but is 
not known to be used for the manufacture of drugs ; 
whereas in other districts, uuder apparently similar 
conditions, e.g., Farukhabad aud Bahraich, large quan- 
tities of bhang are manufactured for local and ex- 
port *ale. It is a question whether the time has 
not arrived for restricting the cultivation of the hemp 
plant and the manufacture of the drugs therefrom, 
as is done in Bengal and the Central Provinces." 
On this the Government remarked : — " A recommend- 
ation is made by the Fyzabad Excise Officer that 
cultivation of the hemp plant should be prohibited 
and the drug contractor empowered to destroy the 
wild plant. The Board are inclined to think that 
some a«tion of this kind may now be required in 
these Provinces. But much clearer evidence as to 
the extensive culture of the hemp plant in the North- 
western Provinces or Oudh is necessary before the 
proposal can be entertained, nor should the distinc- 
tion between bhang, ganja, and charas be overlooked. 
The former is a comparatively harmless decoction 
from the leaves of the wild hemp, which grows freely 
in many districts, which cannot be made into ganja, 
and which it would be utterly impossible to extir- 
pate by enactment. The cultivated plant from which 
ganja is made in Bengal and the Central Provinces 
requires, it is believed, somewhat different climatic 
conditions from those obtaining in these Provinces. 
The sole question, therefore, is whether any attempts 
to cultivate the ganja plant in these Provinces are 
increasing, and on this point the opinion of the 
Commissioner of Excise should be obtained." 
The interpretation put by us on these passages 
was that the Board, through ignorance of the dis- 
tinction between the wild hemp plant, which 
produces only bhang, and the cultivated special variety 
of the Rajshahye district from which alone ganja 
is made, proposed to take measures generally against 
the hemp plant in these Provinces with the object 
of checking the internal manufacture of ganja ; and 
that the Government pointed out the futility of this 
by explaining that the common wild hemp of these 
Provinces does not produce gaija. We understand, 
however, that the Board was not guilty of this lapse 
and that all it meant was that the cultipation of 
the special gania-pvoduc'wg variety should be restricted. 
Our error seems to have been shared by the Govern- 
ment, for the whole gist of the remarks recorded 
by it on the Board's proposal is that wild hemp 
alone is at present found to any appreciable extent 
in these Provinces, and that it is unnecessary to 
restrict its growth or cultivation, insomuch as it does 
U'it produce either ch,irax or ganja. The misinterpret- 
ation of the Board's meaning is excusable on account 
of til .-, ambiguous wording of the passage. The open- 
ing sentences refer exclusively to the general prevalence 
of the wild plant in the province, and contain uo 
allegation that the cultivation of ganja is at present 
attempted here as in the Rajshahye district. As the 
Board wou'd not be likely to propose to restrict 
wijat does not exist, it was not unnatural to attribute 
to it the intention of proceeding agaiust the wild 
variety, the prevalence and use of which it had just 
been deploring. We are glad, however, to learn that 
this was not the Board's meaning, and that what 
it did wish to do was to prohibit cultivation of the 
ganja-pmdVLCing variety, even though the cultivation 
a-, i' yet been attempted in these Provinces and 
- v to ne impracticable. This would indeed 
ptfli p,f he forelock. We apologise sin- 
Ceieiy to ihe Board for having imputed ignorance 
to a , but we tail to »w thai its proposal, when 
put into clear language, has any particular meaning. 
If the authoritative accounts of ganja cultivation (such 
for instance, as are contained in the statistical hi story 
of Bogra or Rajshahye, or in Baboo Hem Chandra 
Kar's report) be examined, it becomes clear that 
ganja can only be successfully produced on particular 
soils, by expensive and special methods of cultivation, 
and by cultivators possessing traditional knowledge 
of the habits and formation of the plant. The drug 
is obtained from the immature flowers and floral en- 
velopes of the female plant, which in the cultivated 
variety and under special conditions contain a sort 
of resinous juice. To create or increase the quantity 
of resin is the art of the ganja cultivator in Rajshahye 
and Bogra, and we can assert from personal know- 
ledge that the hereditary aptitude of the particular 
castes cultivating the plant is very marked. In the 
Doab the most that the Board can point to is an 
occasional hemp plant or two growing in a man's 
garden, ofteu for the sake of ornament, which in 
loose language may be said to be cultivated, but is 
to all intents and purposes the wild variety growing 
uuder normal conditions, which can be readily dis- 
tinguished from its congener, the cultivated plant of 
Bengal, and which will not yield marketable ganja, 
still less charas. Of the " drugs " which the Board 
imply are made in these Provinces, the only one 
which has any real existence is bhang. This is ob- 
tained by gathering and drying the leaves of the 
common wild hemp, which the Board correctly say 
grows in profusion in the northern districts. The 
Board, however, it is understood, do not propose to 
interfere with its growth : indeed, interference with 
it would be as little feasible as interference with 
the wild datoura plant. The Board's proposal is re- 
stricted to the few plants occasionally found within 
the enclosure of a cultivator's garden, which will not 
yield decent ganja, and which may yield an in- 
fintesimally small amount of bhang. There may be 
some point in the proposal which has escaped our 
notice, but, as far as we understand it, it seems un- 
called for by the present conditions under which hemp 
grows in these Provinces. Nec Deus intersit nisi 
nodus vindice dignus. The knot in the present case 
is almost too small to be seen. 
♦ 
THE CHINESE FAN PALM (LIVISTONA 
SINENSIS) AND ITS USES. 
In the report of the superintendent of the Botanical 
and Afforestation Department of Hong Kong for 
1886, the following interesting facts are given on the 
cultivation of the Chinese Fan palm (Livistona sinensis, 
Mart.), for the manufacture of fans. 
The Rev. B. C. Henry, who has travelled much in 
the Kivangtung province, says in his book "Ling 
Nam," that the palm district extends about twenty 
miles from east to west, and ten miles from north to 
south. It appears that fan palm cultivation is con- 
fined to the San Ui district. In reference to this, 
Mr. Henry says "That the limitation of this industry 
is a matter of necessity and not of choice, is proved 
by attempts made at various times to cultivate the 
palm in other places, attempts that have always re- 
sulted in failure." 
Judging from the appearance of the country in 
travelling through the deltn, the reputed failure of the 
palm when its cultivation has been attempted iu 
other places than the S in Ui district could scarcely 
be attributed to soil, as everywhere this had much 
the same appearance of ric mess and constituency. 
Knowing the immense influence which winds have 
on the growth and success of not only delicate plants, 
but also on the hardiest of trees, it is possible that 
the uninterrupted swe°p of certiin winds over the 
flat land of the delti, combined with some other 
minor unconsenial circum stances, may be the cause 
of the failure of the palm for commercial purposes. 
The Sail Ui district is protected by lofty hills to the 
north and westward, which possibly afford the con- 
ditions of shelter that the palm requires for th9 
development of perfect leaves suitable for the manu- 
facture of fans. 
