Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume III
(249) Volume 3, Page 245
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BULLETIN BY MR. C. BENSON, M.R.A.C. 245
A month after planting
the fields are hand-weeded, and about a fortnight later a plough
is
run between the rows, and the plants are earthed up slightly. Two
months after planting
out flowering begins, and then the removal of the male (here as
elsewhere termed female) plants
begins. They are cut off near the roots and thrown away. This work
goes on continuously
as long as male plants are found.
About February the plant
begins to ripen and the harvest commences. It goes on till
the end of March. The plants are cut bodily with the sickle, and
are laid out in the field,
where they grow for three days to dry in the sun. On the fourth day
they are tied into small
bundles of about ten plants each, and then piled, head and tail, in
the field. The
heaps are opened, and the bundles re-piled next day, the process
being repeated over
several days. When the quantity to be dealt with is small and space
allows, the bundles are
carried to the grower's house and there piled; but in all cases the
crop is finally carried to the
house, and a month later the spikes are removed. Each spike is
plucked off by hand and then
they are spread out on a hard floor in the open for one night in
the dew to soften and become
pliable. In the morning the spikes are collected and stored in
large gunny-bags, being packed
closely therein by a man treading them down into the bag. The
produce is then ready for
sale, and may be kept for as much as two years.
In both localities it is
stated that of late years the area planted with hemp has been
reduc-
ed, the price offered for ganja having fallen with the restriction
of the demand owing to the
introduction of the system of licensing retail vendors.
A few years ago, the crop
was also grown to some extent in one village in the
Palivendla
taluk, Cuddapah District, but its growth there has now been
abandoned. It was then grown as
a garden crop, in rotation with garden korra (Setaria
italica) or garden ragi (Eleusine
coracana),
the plants being raised in seed-beds and
then planted out. The method of manufacture adopt-
ed there appears to have resembled that still followed in
Kistna.
62
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India Papers > Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume III > (249) Volume 3, Page 245 |
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Description | Volume 3: Appendices. Miscellaneous. |
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