eee | PAPAVERACE®, 
so as to be insured at all times of an abundant supply. 4 
of water. Therich black loam supposed to be produced by the — 
decomposition of trap, und known by the name.of cotton soil, é 
is preferred for opium ; though fertile and rich enough to. pro- 4 
duce thirty successive crops of wheat without fallowing, it is nob 
- sufficiently rich for the growth of the poppy until well manured; ~ 
. there is, in fact, no crop known to the agriculturist, unless — 
_ Sugar-cane, that requires so much care and labour as the poppy: 
The ground is first four times ploughed on four successive days, 
_ half what is allowed to a turnip crop in Britain. r is 
after this watered once every eight. or ten days, the total 
number of waterings never exceeding nine. in all.., One bighi 
takes two days to soak thoroughly in the cold: weather, and 
four as the hot season approaches. Water. apphed after t 
petals drop from the flower causes the whole to- wither’ ant 
in three months ‘they reach maturity, and are then.about fou 
feet in height if well cultivated. The full-grown seed-pod 
“measures three and a half inches vertically, and two and a hal 
_ in horizontal diameter, ’ Early in February and March the blee 
ing process commences, Three small lancet-shaped pieces of 
iron are bound together with cotton, about one-twelfth of an’ 
- ineh alone protruding, so that no discretion as to the depth of 
the wound to be inflicted shall be left to the operator; and 
this is drawn sharply up from the top of the stalk at the base to 
the sunimit of the pod. Three sets of people are so. arranged, 
that each plant is bled all over once every three or four days, 
the bleedings being three or four times repeated on each. 
plant. This operation always begins to be performed about 
P licle. The exudation 1 
‘the incisions are washed and key 
