CHAPTER VI.

PREPARATION OF THE RAW DRUGS FROM THE CULTIVATED AND WILD
                                                  PLANT.

Bengal.

220. The preparation of the finest sort of ganja is a somewhat laborious pro-
cess, and requires skill and knowledge. For a full
description of the preparation of flat, round, and chur
ganja in the Ganja Mahal, the reader is referred to Babu Hem Chunder Kerr's
report. Dr. Prain has given a shorter account of it. It must be remembered
that the terms 'flat,' 'round,' and 'chur' are peculiar to the Bengal manufacture
and excise system. Their exact meaning is rarely understood outside the prov-
ince. The more important details of the processes may be briefly noticed.

Bright sunny weather is essential to the best manufacture. The crop does
not all come to maturity at the same time, and the plants must be manipulated
within three or four days of maturity, or they become useless. These conditions
have to be borne in mind in arranging for the manufacture, and it would seem that
the plants have sometimes to be gathered before they are full ripe. The plants
are cut in batches, as many as can be handled, by the available labour and means
in three days. The Khasia plants are left standing, or, if gathered by mistake,
are rejected in selecting the portions of the plant to be worked up.

The manufacture of flat ganja.

221. The manufacture of flat ganja takes three days, and is carried out on a
piece of ground near the field which has been specially
levelled for the purpose, and is called the chator or
khola. The number of plants handled in each three-days' operations is usually
about fifty or sixty. The first day the plants are cut in the morning, brought to
the manufacturing ground, and spread out in the sun till the afternoon. They are
then cut up one by one into lengths of about one or two feet. Those having
flower spikes upon them are retained, and the rest is thrown away. The portions
selected are spread out in the dew for the night.

The work of the second day begins at noon. It consists in alternately press-
ing and drying the crop and getting rid of useless leaf and seed. The branches
are piled by bundles of five or ten, flower spikes inwards and overlapping, in a
circular heap about four feet in diameter. The workmen tread this down, mov-
ing round upon it and supporting one another. Bundles are added from time to
time till the heap is about two feet high. A mat is then placed over the heap,
and the men sit or place weights upon it. After half an hour of the pressure the
pile is unstacked, the bundles are taken off and beaten together over a mat to
shake out seeds and leaf. The heap is again built exactly as before, the upper
layers of the previous heap being put at the bottom of this, and the processes of
treading, pressing, unstacking, and beating are repeated. The bundles are now
laid out side by side on mats and trodden individually, the workman holding the
stem ends with one foot while he passes the other foot downwards over the flower.
The bundles are turned and beaten against the mat during this process. When
it is complete, they have been reduced in size, and consist of four or five twigs each.
They are then laid in slanting position over a pole on the ground, and left for the
night.

The third day's work begins in the early morning. The twigs are separated,
and again piled in bundles in the same circular form as before, trodden for a short

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