THE OPIUM POPPY. 207 
to thin out to six or eight inches between the plants. In order to get 
as many plants as possible on a given area, some prefer to make the 
first two rows a foot apart, and then to leave a space of eighteen inches, 
thus alternating throughout the field. Three or four ounces of seed are 
said to be sufficient to sow an acre, but in order to insure a “ good 
stand” a much larger quantity is generally used. The covering should 
be very slight, not exceeding one-fourth of an inch. The time for sow- 
ing should be such that the plant may mature its blossoms and the 
opium be gathered in the dry season of the year; for, if the soil is wet 
at the time of blossoming, opium will not be formed in large quan- 
tity, nor will it be of good quality. The plant matures sufliciently for 
gathering its opium in ninety to one hundred days. In Jefferson County, 
New York, the time of sowing is from the 5th to the 20th of May; at 
Benares, in Hindostan, in November. In the former place the flowers 
mature in July; in the latter in February, before the rainy season 
commences; therefore a.favorable season is secured for maturing and 
gathering the opium. 
COLLECTING THE OPIUM. 
No other process yet devised for collecting opium has proved equal to 
that of scarifying the capsules. A knife has been invented which is 
said to be well adapted to this purpose. It has four lancet-points fixed 
in the end of a wooden handle, the end being curved in such a manner 
as to conform to the spherical shape of the capsule, and the blades of 
such length as to penetrate only through the epidermis, or outer skin. 
A deeper incision would be injurious. The capsule is held in the left 
hand, and the knife applied at the bottom and drawn upward, making 
four incisions at once. Some make three incisions and others one, hori- 
zontally around the capsule, and think more opium can be obtained in 
this way than by making them ina vertical direction. Some practical 
culturists say that the most favorable results can be obtained by mak- 
ing one spiral incision around the capsule, from the top to the bot- 
tom. When the incisions are made vertically the operation may be 
performed from two to six times during the season on each capsule, 
according to its size and yield; but, when they are made horizontally 
or spirally, one operation on each capsule is usualiy found sufficient to 
extract all the opium; and it is asserted that the experience of Euro- 
pean culturists has proved that one incision is as effectual as three or 
four. The process of scaritying the capsules must commence in a few 
days after the petals of the flowers have fallen. The first part or mid- 
dle of the afternoon is usually selected for scarifying, on the supposi- 
tion that the dampness of the night is more favorable to the exudation 
of the opium than the dry atmosphere of the day. The opium exudes 
in the form of white tears, and hardens into a brown substance around 
the incisions. It is scraped off the next morning as soon as the dew is 
off, with the crooked blade of a small knife, and placed in a vessel pre- 
pared to receive it. This is the best quality of opium, When it has 
hardened to a convenient consistency it is wérked into balls, and may 
be ready for market in forty-eight hours after being collected. 
Another mode of extracting the opium is by grinding or pounding the 
capsules, a little water being added, and then expressing and straining 
the juice, and evaporating it by a gentle heat. The watery portion will 
pass off, and the inspissated opium will be left in the vessel. A more 
pepiee account of this process is taken from the Scientific Press, as 
ollows : 
In collecting opium by expression the gapsules are cut from the stems and ground or 
mashed to a pomace. The vat for holding it should be lined with tin @r brass. Before 
