Am.  Jour-  Pharm.  ") 
Mar.  1,  1874.  J 
Culture  of  Gunjah  in  Bengal. 
123 
BO  to  35  rupees.  The  quantity  of  manure  required  for  a  beegah  of 
land  and  cost  incurred  for  it,  as  well  as  other  expenses  incidental  to 
the  cultivation,  are  given  below. 
Quantity  required  for  manuring 
Cost  incurred. 
one  beegah  of  land. — Maunds. 
Rs. 
a. 
p. 
Cow-dung, 
.  10 
1 
14 
0 
Oil-cake, 
10 
12 
2 
0 
Rent, 
2 
0 
0 
Irrigation, 
6 
0 
0 
Labor,  cutting  and  thrashing, 
12 
0 
0 
Fresh  earth  added, 
2 
0 
0 
Total, 
36 
0 
0 
In  fact,  without  irrigation  and  manure  ganja  does  not  thrive.  There 
are  no  irrigation  wells  in  this  district,  and  the  water  required  is  bailed 
from  the  nearest  tank,  bil,  khal,  and  river.  The  cultivators  fully  un- 
derstand the  advantages  of  allowing  land  to  remain  fallow  for  a  year  or 
two,  in  order  that  it  may  produce  a  good  crop  of  ganja.  Ganja  is 
sometimes  alternated  with  barley,  mustard,  or  other  pulses.  Ganja, 
like  mulberry,  is  grown  on  high  lands  ;  extreme  moisture  injures  the 
plants.  Each  cultivator  cultivates  one  cottah  to  four  beegahs  of  land  ; 
the  produce  varies  from  5  maunds  20  seers  to  9  maunds  20  seers  per 
beegah.  About  1,100  to  1,200  beegahs  of  land  are  annually  sown 
with  ganja,  and  the  produce  amounts  from  9,000  to  10,000  maunds  • 
1,300  to  1,400  men  are  engaged  in  the  cultivation.  They  cultivate 
on  their  own  account ;  some  of  them  occasionally  take  advances  from 
money-lenders,  or  their  landlord,  and  mortgage  the  produce  under  a 
system  of  hypothecation,  and  sometimes  they  sell  off  the  crops  to 
wholesale  dealers  and  content  themselves  with  a  small  profit.  Some 
of  them  let  out  the  lands  in  bhagjote  to  under-ryots,  and  divide  the 
crop  in  equal  shares  with  them.  When  fields  are  sold  to  wholesale 
dealers,  they  cut,  dry,  and  manipulate  the  plants  at  their  expense  for 
exportation  to  their  own  districts.  The  cultivation  of  ganja  under  a 
system  of  advances,  as  is  done  in  indigo,  has  not  succeeded.  Twenty 
years  ago,  Mr.  Brown  commenced  the  cultivation  of  ganja  by  making 
advances  to  the  cultivators ;  about  8,000  maunds  of  the  drug  were 
cultivated  in  the  first  year,  which  were  made  up  like  opium  cakes  and 
shipped  to  the  China  market.  The  advances  were  not  renewed — 
probably  Mr.  Brown  found  that  the  trade  was  not  sufficiently  remu- 
