REPORTS BY Ma. B. C. BASIJ, ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND RECORDS AND AGRICULTURE, BENGAL, ON THE SPONTANEOUS GROWTH OF THE WILD HEMP PLANT IN THE DISTRICTS OF BHAGALPUR AND PURNEA.

With reference to your letter No. 333, dated 29th ultimo, I have the honour, in the absence of Mr. W. C. Macpherson, Officiating Director of Land Records and Agriculture, on tour, to submit the following report on the spontaneous growth of the wild hemp plant in the districts of Bhagalpur and Purnea. The statements contained in this report are based on my personal observations and enquiries conducted in different parts of these districts. For this purpose I visited a large number of villages in Purnea and north Bhagalpur. I was informed by the Excise Deputy Collector of Bhagalpur and other gentlemen whom I had the 'opportunity of consulting on the subject that the bhang plant grows rarely on the hard reddish soil of the South Gangetic division of the Bhagalpur district, and for this reason, and also on account of the extremely short time within which I was required to submit my report,. I was obliged to leave this tract of country out of the scope of my enquiries.

2. The prevailing soil of north Bhagalpur and of Purnea is of a more or less sandy character and of a light grey colour ; loamy soils are occasionally found in the low rice lands, and clay soils are practically unknown. The different parts of these districts suffer unequally from floods. Some tracts enjoy complete immunity from floods ; some are inundated only during short periods when the rivers rise very high, and even then a considerable area of each village remains above water, while in others the villages are completely inundated by water on all sides during the entire rainy season, the houses alone with little bits of elevated land adjoining thereto remaining above water. I tried to extend my enquiries to every typical tract of country in north Bhagalpur and Purnea, and I trust that what I have said below with regard to the Spontaneous growth of the bha,ng plant will apply equally to the whole of these districts.

3. There appears to be some confusion about the right use of the terms "alluvial lands," "dearah" and*" chur lands." " Alluvial land" is a very general term which applies equally to all lands that have been formed by the silting action of water. In fact, it includes almost the whole of Bengal proper and Bihar. By " dearah " or " chur" (which terms are synonymous) is meant land that is still in course of formation by fresh deposits of silt from a river -which actually flows over it during the rains. It is unlike land which is inundated with the spill water of a river carrying with it little or no silt, and thus derives little addition or benefit from the inundation. In course of time, dearah lands may be sufficiently raised to get beyond the reach of ordinary floods ; villages are settled on them, and gradually they lose their destructive character and merge into old :fluvial lands.

4. The points on which the Commission have desired for information are :

(1) The circumstances under which the hemp plant grows wild in those districts ?

(2) If it grows on land that is submerged, for how long a period is such land submerged?

5. To the second question I may reply at once that the plant will never grow in land that remains submerged under water during the rains. The floods of the Kosi come with sudden violence, so that it occasionally happens that the waters have reached the anginas or quadrangles of the houses, and people have to wade through water in moving from one house to another. But this state of things ordinarily lasts for a day or two, and seldom for so long a period as seven days. The same is true of the floods of the Ganges, though they do not occur or subside with such suddenness as those of the Bosi. Bhang may grow on lands which undergo such short submersions, but I am satisfied that it will never grow on land that remains longer under water: The plant is essentially a weed of high and dry land.

6. I am not surprised that the evidence laid before the Commission'was discrepant as to the question whether wild 'hemp grows on submerged lands or on the higher lands above the reach of floods. Very few of the villagers whom I questioned seemed to have any definite idea on the subject, some averring that hemp seed remaining in the soil retains is vitality for an indefinite time even when submerged under water, and that it sprouts as soon as the soil has become sufficiently dry after the subsidence of the flood, while others allege that the seed is bound to lose its germinating power under prolonged submersion. The following facts which I observed would, however, appear to lend support to 'what I have said above :-

First.—The class of land on which the hemp plant grows in Purnea and Bhagalpur, as will appear later on, precludes entirely the possibility of long submersiou under water.       

Secondly.—The plant is very often found to grow on the upper edges of deep ditches and other hollows which remain more or less full of water during the rains, but in no single instance could I discover a hemp plant growing on their bottoms and slopes which were nevertheless crowded with numerous weeds characteristic of a water-logged soil.

The fact that the bhang plant grows in the greatest profusion and with the greatest luxuriance in those villages which suffer most from floods has doubtless given rise to the impression that it grows on land that remains under water for a long time.

7. The range of the plant being confined to the higher lands of villages above the ordinary flood level, it must not be imagined that it grows on every description or such lands. In fact the conditions under which it grows appear to me to be extremely simple. As a rule,; it is confined to land in the immediate vicinity of the raiyats' homesteads. Such land is usually called dihisar in Purnea and Bharsalpur, and is naturally the richest in the village. It receives the dropping of the raiyats' cattle, which ate kept tethered on it, as well as all kinds of house refuse and sweepings. It is almost invariably cropped with mustard and tobacco crops, which never flourish except on rich soil. In those villages, however, which suffer most from floods, the extent of such land is limited, and what little there is of it is seldom cultivated, but is used as standing room for the raiyats' cattle during the rains, and is left bare during the rest of the year. It would thus appear that a rich soil is essentially necessary for the growth of the hemp plant, and such soil is never found at a distance from the village site; the plant is practically confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the raiyats' homesteads.

8. I have said that wild hemp is generally associated with tobacco and mustard. The cultivation of these crops seems to afford conditions which are eminently favourable to the growth of bhang, and which are not afforded by the cultivation of any other crops grown in those districts. In the first place, the soils on which tobacco and mustard are grown are eich in manure, while the outlying fields, which grow different kinds of bhadoi and rabi crops (e.g., paddy, marua, indigo, rahar, etc., during the rains and kurthi, barley, gram, lentils, etc., during the cold weather), are never manured. In the second place, dihisar lands which bear tobacco or mustard are left wihout tillage till May or June, by which time the hemp plants have dried up and shed their seeds ; these lands are invariably kept fallow during the rains for the benefit of the succeeding tobacco or mustard crop, and the raiyats being too busy with the cultivation and sowing of indigo, bhadoi, paddy and other rain crops, have no time to attend to the tillage of the dihisar lands until May or June. The outlying fields are however, broken up after the first shower in Magh (January-February), and the hemp plant, even if it could once find a footing on such lands, would be eradicated before it had a chance of sheddino-P' its seeds. I have also noticed.that the hemp plant grows at its best in the higher Parts of sloping fields. On deserted house sites, a most favourable resort of this weed, it grows more luxuriantly over the top of the mounds than on the sides, and better over the sides than at the bottom. These facts would show that the plant affects well-drained soil and cannot bear a soil which remains over-charged with water for a long time. This may also account for the absence of bhang from outlying fields from which water does not flow off so readily as from homestead lands.

9. I found bhang growing most luxuriantly in those villages which are reduced to the state of little islands during the rainy season. These villages contain large areas of waste land which afford pasturage to enormous herds of buffaloes and cows during the cold and hot weather; and cattle-breeding is a regular profession with the villagers. The dihisar, lands are used as bathan, or standing ground for the cattle, and thus get abundantly manured with cattle dung. The washings from these lands flow over the alleys and ditches in the village, and as there is little or no cultivation at any time of the year, every bit of bare ground, which is otherwise suited, is covered with a luxuriant mass of wild hemp as soon as the cold weather has set in.

10. The soil on which the bhang plant grows in Purnea and North Bhagalpur is invariably of a sandy character ; in fact, as I have said before, there is little else but sandy soil in these districts in particular on the higher lands which form the village site. The hemp , plant is known to require a loose sandy soil and a moist climate, both of which conditions are offered by the district of Parnea and the northern half of the Bhagalpur District. I cannot also help believing that the negligent character of the prevalent system of cultivation encourages the growth and spread of bhang. Thus I found that although tobacco is very largely grown in Purnea, very little care is bestowed on keeping the crop free from, weeds. The young seedlings are transplanted early in Kartik, and after two or three weeks, that is about the end of Kartik, the soil is lightly stirred up with a hoe, and bhang and all other weeds are removed. Beyond this single cleaning, few cultivators would attempt to check the fresh growth of weeds. A _ fresh crop of bhang comes up in a short time and overspreads the field. It is in fact said that bhang comes up anew after each weeding during the cold weather, the roots throw up fresh shoots, and there are always some seeds in the soil ready for germination at any time during the cold weather as soon as circumstances permit. In North Bengal and in parts of Central Bengal, where tobacco forms a staple crop, the raiyat would never allow a single weed to appear iu his tobacco field until the crop is actually reaped, and however favourable the conditions of soil and climate may be, it is certain that the bhang plant can never obtain a. footing on land lc carefully cultivated.

11. I have so far dealt with the circumstances under which the wild hemp plant grows spontaneously in Purnea and Bhagalpur. It is clear that the plant is never found on land that remains long under water, that it is as a rule found on homestead lands, such as are .either cropped with mustard and tobacco, or are used as hathan for cattle.

12. There can be no doubt that Government is now foregoing what may prove to be an - important source of excise revenue owing to the free use of bhang in those districts where the hemp plant grows in a state of nature, and, what is more serious is that no attempt is made to check the use of this noxious drum. The working man often stands in need of ganja, but bhang is the beverage of the comparatively well-to-do and lazy classes, and it is only reasonable that they should be called on to pay their share pf taxation instead of altogether escaping from it, as is the case at present in many of the districts of North Behar. I have considered the possibility of exterminating the wild bhang plant, and if this can be done, as I believe it can, bbang may be grown under the same restrictions as ganja is at present cultivated in Rajshahi. I have said that the plant grows very seldom at a distance from the raiyats' houses, so that if the responsibility for eradicating the plant is thrown upon the immediate occupier of lands, I have little doubt that the weed can be exterminated in the course of a few years. If the plant grow like many other weeds in all circumstances of soil and situations, its extermination would be a work of great difficulty ; but, confined as it is to lands immediately adjoining the raiyats' homesteads, its eradication need not entail undue hardship on the cultivators. The plant comes up in November and occupies the soil till May, and although each weeding causes fresh plants to come up, yet two or three weedings given in succession cannot fail to free the land for the year from this noxious weed. The point to be insisted. upon is that the plants should never be allowed to flower and seed. The seeds of the plant are easily carried from place to place; they are easily transported by wind and water, and cattle and goats, which occasionally browse on bhanm, may drop seeds with their excrements in fields that may be previously free froth the pest. e•The total extermination of the plant may therefore require several years of determined and continued effort. Efforts have been made from time to time to exterminate wild hemp in several police circles through the agency of village chowkidars, but they were of an extremely desultory character and conse-quently failed to produce the desired effect. In case it be decided to have the plant exterminated, I may suggest that an experiment may be made in a small isolated tract of "country for two or three years in order to see if the plant can be wholly destroyed by a continued course of eradication.

In continuation of my letter No. 1258-A., dated the 18th instant, I have the honour to submit, for the information of the Commission, the following facts which came to my notice in the course of my enquiries with regard to the spontaneous growth of the wild hemp.. plant in Purnea and North Bhagalpur.

2. I could find no evidence of the hemp plant being actually cultivated in any part of Purnea and Bhagalpur : everywhere it came up as a weed. In some places, however, where the plant did not grow in abundance and would, therefore, seem to be an object of considerable value to bhang drinkers, I observed signs of its having been looked after with some degree of care. As a rule, the people of these districts could not distinguish between male and female plants, the leaves of both being used as bhang, but one man pointed out to me a plant which was a female and said that this class of plants produced the best drum. It is not uncommon to see a few selected plants, mostly females, left on the ground ; these acquire a nice bushy appearance, not unlike that of the ganja-bearing plant. All this made me suspect that the people knew a great deal more about the bhang plant than they were willing to avow.

3. I was told by several persons, among them a European gentleman who has long resided in North Bhagalpur, that bhang is often used to adulterate ganja. 1 am unable to vouch for the accuracy of the statement, but if it be true it will furnish a strong argument in favour of the extermination of the hemp plant from those districts in which it grows spontaneously at present.

4. Besides yielding the intoxicant drug the wild hemp plant is used in Purnea and North Bhagalpur as fuel, and occasionally, though seldom, the green plants are twisted in the absence of other materials at hand into a rough sort of rope for binding bundles of wheat and. barley and carrying them from the field to the threshing-floor.