01^ THE CULTIVATION OF THE POrPY. 717 



understand that it was adopted hj the Congress with some 

 modifications. 



r 



The project, as finally adopted, is to be communicated to the 

 Council by the Belgian Confederation as soon as it is printed. 



Your Deputation cannot conclude without expressing their 

 warm sense of the great kindness and consideration which they 

 received, Loth officially and personally, from the members of the 

 International Congress, and more especially from the Belgian 

 Federation and its officers. A beautifully executed Bronze Medal, 

 stiTick in commemoration of the occasion, was presented to each 

 of the delegates attending the Congress. They were also royally 

 entertained at two great banquets given in their honour. The 

 private hospitality pressed upon your delegates was not less 

 gratifying; and they trust that a foundation has been laid for a 

 sincere and cordial feeling of regard between the Federal Horti- 

 cultural Societies of Belgium and the Royal Horticultural Society 

 of England. 



XC— ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, 



AND THE PRODUCTION OF OPIUM IN 

 THE PBOVINCE OF CANTON, IN CHINA. 



^ 



By V. B. EoBEBTSO>', ff, M. Consul at Canton, 



Poppy seed was first brought into the Sin-hwei and adjacent 

 districts during the year 1861, when it was procured from the 

 Kao-chow Prefecture (in the south-west of the province), where 

 the plant has been cultivated for some years from seed brought 

 from the province of Yun-nan. 



The cultivation last year was nierely an experiment, few 

 pei'sons being acq[uainted with the proper method. In planting, 

 the ground is first prepared in ridges in the month of November, 

 and a hole is made, into which seven or eight of the seeds are 

 dropped, and on them a small quantity of the ash of paddy 

 straw, and watered until they sprout. Almost all seeds, such as 

 cucumber, melon, &c., are planted in this way, the hole being 

 filled up with paddy or wheaten straw ash, and left open, that 

 is, not covered with mould, until they germinate. 



When the sprouts show, the usual liquid manure is then applied 

 until the plants reach a height of about seven inches, then a 

 dressing of ground nut oil cake (the husk of the ground nut after 

 the oil has been pressed out, and in great repute in China as a 



