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KEW OAKBEN MUSEUM. H 



5. Laying out the fields into compartments, or small squares, pre- 

 paratory to sowing. 



6. Sowing the seed. 



7- Weeding the plants. 



8. Watering the plants. 



9. Gathering the " leaves" (or petals) from the ilowers, for " caking." 



a gentle fire. 



(p 



11. Puncturing the Poppy "pods" (heads^ or green capsules) with 



the Nushtur (called Mikurnee at Patna), or lancet. 



with 



which flows after the incisions. 



13. Placing fresh -gathered Opium in a sloping shallow vessel, to 

 allow the moisture to be drawn off. 



14. Conveying Opium to the sub-deputy agent, for weighing. 



After the reference to the drawings and the implements above men- 

 tioned, our readers will be the better able to understand the following 

 Report on " The System of cultivating the Opium Poppy, and pre- 

 paring of Opium, in the Benahes Opium Agency, by W. C. B. 



Eatwell, M.D., extracted from the Selection of Records of the Bengal 

 Government." 



"The cultivation of the Poppy," says Dr. Eatwell, " in British India 

 is confined to the large central Gangctic tract, about GOO miles in length 

 and 200 miles in depth, which is bounded on the north by Goruckpore, 

 on the south by Hazareebaugh, on the east by Dinagepore, and on the 

 west by Agra. 



" This large extent of country is divided into two agencies, the Behar 

 and the Benares^ the former being presided over by an agent stationed 

 at Patna, at which station is the central or Sudder factory of the agency, 

 the latter being under the control of an agent residing at Ghazecpore, 

 which station contains the Sudder factory of the Benares agency. Fi- 

 nally, the control of the entire department is vested in the Board of 

 Customs, Salt, and Opium, located in Calcutta. Of the two agencies, 

 the Behar is the larger and more important, sending to the market 

 about treble the quantity of drug turned out by the Benares agency, 



** The Benares agency comprises eight divisions, and the aggregate 

 amount of land under Poppy cultivation in the season 181D-50 



