Crotalaria juncea is a plant of the order Fabacem. It is extensively cultivated in many parts of India, and to the east of India, for the sake of its fibres. These form one of the hemps of commerce, sometimes as Madras hemp, also Indian hemp, also sunn hemp; amongst the Tamil people as Wuckoo nar or Janapa nar, in Telugu as Shanamoo. It is cultivated in Rajamundry as a second crop on wet lands with profit to the ryot, and is planted in November and plucked in March. It is of import ance in the great agricultural districts to the east of the Godavery, in Malabar, Canara, Darwar, Mysore, in all the great grain countries to the south, and in Kandesh. There is a common belief that a cow in calf, if tied with a rope, of sunn, will miscarry. In Gujerat it is often sown for a green manure, being ploughed into the land just after the flower has appeared. Also in the collec torate of Broach, it is somewhat extensively cultivated on those broken lands and edges of ravines, which decline from the level of the Khannun or black soil to the Myhee river. In cleared patches of the different forests which sidrt and lie at the foot of the Ghats, it is regularly cultivated as a rotation crop.
The plant is pulled up by the roots, and, after the seeds are beaten out, the steins aro immersed in running water for four or five days, and the fibres are then separated by the fingers. They are strong, and made into cordage, ropes, canvas, gunny bags, paper, and into excellent twine for nets. The fibres are much stronger if left in salt water ; and if carefully prepared yield foss and hemp of excellent quality, and in its cleanest condition always sells in Britain at £45 to £50 the ton for twine or common purposes. When prepared with the patent liquid, they compare with the best flax, and sell at £80 the ton. In India. its price ranges from Rs. 30 to 140 the ton. Another species or variety, C. 'tenuifolia, the Jubbulpur hemp, yields a strong fibre equal to Russian or Polish hemp.
Flax.—Linum usitatissimum is grown in every part of India, sometimes extensively, but almost exclusively for its seeds. It is often sown as an edging crop to wheat and other grain, because it is not eaten by cattle in the g,reen state. The reason given for its being sown in both long and cross drills, is that the plant, being weakly, requires close sowing to guard it against the action of the weather.
In Vizagapatam it is cultivated chiefly as an oil-seed, which is also the case to some extent in Cuddapali, where, as well as in the Godavery district, it is used for feeding cattle. In Vizagapatam, however, the use of its fibre in the manufacture of fabrics is not unknown, as the collector states that the Gudabah females (a hill tribe) are clothed with a coarse linen of their own making. Beyond Galikondah there are plains 3000 feet above the sea, very similar to the Mysore country, where it could be grown to any extent.
In Bellary, South Arcot, and Tinnevelly, gunnies are manufactured from its fibres.
In Tanjore it is prized for the excellent manure which its leaves and roots supply.
In South Canara its fibres are used for making fishing, nets and lines, and probably the same use is made of it in the adjoining district of North Canara.
' Flax grown on the Neilgherries was forwarded to England, where it was valued at E28 per ton, or nearly equal to the best Russian flax. But the profit
derived from it is only 4 rupees per acre, which is less than that obtained by the cultivation of other products.
The most promising substitutes for flax appear to be the pine-apple, yercum, palay, ootrum, and kooringa. Several of these grow abundantly in Southern India.
The imports of flax into Britain range near to 100,000 tons, valued about £40 the ton, from Russia, Germany, Holland, and Belgium.
Hemp, in India, is a commercial term applied to the fibres of several plants,—to rheea fibre of the Boehmeria nivea, to that of the true hemp, Cannabis sativa, to the fibres of a species of Crotalaria,-C.-teLuifolia being known as Jubbulpur hemp ; Madras hemp is the sunn fibre of Crotalads juncea; brown and other hemp' are species of Hibiscus ; Manilla hemp is from the Musa textilis. In China there are three plants which produce a fibre made iuto cloth, known under thia name, viz. the Cannabis saliva, or hemp, at Canton, the Itoelimeria (Urtica) nivea, a speciea of nettle grown about Suchan, and the Sida tilirefolia near Tien-tsin-fu (Williams' Middle Kingdom, p. 106). The nettle hemp is culti vated in the provinces north of the Meiling, but the plant also grows in Foh-kien. The grass-cloth made from it is not so much used for common dresses iu; cotton and silk. This has been noticed under the word Boehmoria.
In cultivating' aunn, hemp, or flax, tho seeds should bo sown thickly together, in order that they may shoot up into long wand-liko plants, which will yield much longer fibres, and be mudi less branched than if sown wide and freely exposed.
Heinp.—Tho Himalayan districts of Kamaon, Garb wal, and Kota Kangm abound in true hemp of the finest quality, cultivated both on account of its fibre and for the different preparations of bhang. The fibre is sold among themselves for 2 rupees for 82 lbs., or about 5s. a cwt. Hemp sent by D. F. Macleod, Esq., as the produce of Kote Kangra, was highly approved of in England. The culture seems to be very well understood in many parts of the hills, as they carefully prepare and usually manure the ground, thin the plants to within 3 or 5 inches, and out the male plant. phoolbhanga, which flowers but has no seed, a month or six weeks before the female plant, goolanga or glsool blianga, which has seed, the latter being cut about the end of September. Kote ICangra hemp is strong. It is at the same time liked for its colour and texture, and would be certain to bo employed for all the purposes for which the best hemp is required, if it could be procured. It is grown throughout Southern Asia, to obtain its intoxicating resin or charms, and its leaves for bhang. In several places the Musalman popula tion are just as great consumers of the intoxicating hemp product as the Hindus. In Sind the extent to which it is used by all classes is frightful. In China, a gigantic species of henip (Cannabis), growing from 10 to 15 feet in height, is also a staple summer crET This is chiefly used in maldng ropes and string of various sizes, such articles being in demand for tracking the boats up riven and in the canals of the country.