KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 13 



" The lands selected for Poppy cultivation are generally situated in 

 the vicinity of villages, M^here the facilities for manuring and irriga- 

 tion are greatest ; and from the commencement of the rains in June or 

 July, until October, the ground is dressed and cleaned by successive 

 ploughing and weedings, and manured to the extent which the means 

 of the cultivator will permit. In the final preparation of the land in 

 October and November, the soil, after being well loosened and turned 

 up by the plough, is crushed and broken down by the passage of a 

 heavy log of wood over its surface, and it is in this state ready for 

 sowing. The amount of produce from various lands differs consider- 

 ably. Under very favourable circumstances of soil and season, as much 

 as twelve or even thirteen seers (26 lbs.) of standard Opium may be 

 obtained from each beegah of 27,225 square feet^ under less favour- 

 able conditions the out-turn may not exceed three or four seers ; but the 

 usual amount of produce varies from six to eight seers per beegah. 



" The Poppy cultivated in the Benares and Behar agencies is exclu- 

 sively the white variety (Palaver somniferum, album). In situations 

 favourable to its growth it vegetates luxuriantly, attaining usually a 

 height of about four feet. The stem is branched, and is terminated by 

 from two to five ovate-globose capsules, averaging in size a duck's egg. 

 The plant takes about three months and a half in reaching maturity, 

 and the time for its cultivation is exclusively the cold season, extending 

 from November to March. 



" The soil having been prepared, the sowing is effected by throwing 

 the seed broad-cast over the land, between the 1st and 15th of Novem- 

 ber. In three or four days the plough is again passed over the land, to 

 bury the seed; and the soil is afterwards again levelled, by means of 

 the log of wood before alluded to. The whole surface is then divided 

 into square compartments, the sides of which are about ten feet in 

 length, and are raised and converted into little channels for the pur- 

 pose of irrigation. The number of times the plant may require irriga- 

 tion depends, in a great measure, upon the nature of the season. 



** Ten or twelve days are sufficient for the germination of the seed, 

 and after the little plants have attained a height of two or three inches, 

 they are carefully weeded and thinned. 



" In February the plant is generally in fuU flower, and towards the 

 middle of the month, and just before the time for the fall of the petals, 

 these latter arc all carefully stripped off and collected. They are then 



