278 On Britijh Opium. Aug. 



comes from the Eafl: Indies. From 600 heans of chat kind of 

 poppy, I, lad year, collected five drachms of pure opium, which 

 made ei^ht ounces of tin^lure, equal in quality to what is made 

 from forci^^n opium. The method of collecting opium is well 

 defcribcd by Mr Jones, in the 18th volume of the Tranfaclions 

 of the Society of Arts. The high price of opium feems to 

 have encouraged the adulteration of it in the country where it 

 is collected ; a circumflance of ferious confideration in the cafe 

 of a medicine that requires to be dofed out witli great exact- 

 \\c{6. The poppy b^^ing an annual and hnrdy plant, it requires 

 no care beyond garden culture •, and as the collection of the 

 opium is performed by womeTi and children, I make no doubt 

 but that this drug may be profitably attended io in every part 

 of Great Britain. 



Yours, &c. A. H. 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE TARMEr's MAGAZINE. 



Method of Dra'inin? praa'ifed In the Counties of EJfjx^ b'e. 



Sir, 



As the method of hnd-drainliig, adopted in fcvcral Englifli 

 counties, efpecially in Eiiex, SulTolk, and Herts, appears to be 

 imperfectly undcrilood in Scotland, I truft it will not be unac- 

 ceptable to your readers, to receive a Ihort detail of our cultom- 

 ary practice j efpecially as Mr Elkington, in his treatife on that 

 important fubje<!i, pafics it over nearly in fi Icnce. 



It is neceflary to premifc, that the chief object in viev/ is, to 

 clear the ground of furface water; particularly if it is incumbent 

 upon a retentive bottom, which is accomplillied by an operation 

 wliich we call hollow-draining, or land-ditching. On the fuppo- 

 fition that a farm, under the above circumilances, is taken upon 

 Icafe, the firlt thing which is attended to is to have it completely 

 iurface-drained, in the way tlrat I am now to mention. Various 

 other plans may be followed •, but I (hall give you a Iketch of tl>c 

 pradlice in my neighbourliood. 



The implement.-', ufed, arc a common plough, a hoe, and fpades 

 and (liovel.s of dltferent dimenfions. If the field is flat, we en- 

 deavour to find which way the water draws -, an objeCl particularly 

 to be iittended to, otherwife the drain will burlt, and prove of 

 confidcrable injury. Let the declivity of the field be which way 

 jt will, it is proper to make the drains aflant, at the diltance of 

 Jjctvvixt five and fix yards from each other ; for if parallel to th(^ 



furrows^ 



