208 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
putting the pomace into the press, half a pint of alcohol is added to every forty or fifty 
pounds of pomace, the whole being well stirred together and allowed to stand for 
about an hour. The mass is then ready for the press. The alcohol used unites with 
the juice and renders it limpid and more easy to be taken away from the pomace by 
the action of the press. The liquid, as it comes from the pomace, is received into a 
“settler,” in which it should be allowed to stand about one hour; during which time 
the green matter of the plant will settle to the bottom, so that the opium liquid may 
be drawn off from the surface by faucets properly arranged for the purpose. This 
should be immediately placed in shallow tin pans, so as tostand about half an inch 
deep, and the pans arranged on suitable racks in a drying or evaporating room. This 
room should be tight, and so arranged that the heat and moisture may escape from a 
single opening ator near the top. The temperature should never be allowed to fall 
below 130° F., nor to exceed 160°. If the heat gets too low the juice will become sour 
and spoiled; if teo high it will scald. The evaporating process must be carefully 
watched day and night until completed, and it should be continued until the opium is 
dry enough to be scraped from the plates, care being taken not to allow it to get teo 
dry for that operation. When taken from the pans it should be molded into balls of 
about one pound weight, when it is ready for market. In cutting the capsules for 
grinding, care should be taken that they be as ripe as is required for collecting opium 
by scarification. ' 
‘Sometimes, when the scarifying process has been continued till the 
juice ceases to exude, the capsules are then cut from their stems and the 
remaining opium extracted by the foregoing process, but the product is 
inferior, and is often used for the extraction of morphia, or sometimes 
fraudulently for adulterating opium of good quality. Although a larger 
quantity of opium can be obtained by the evaporating process than b-y 
scariiicaticn, in all cases the quality is inferior and the seeds are lost, 
which are worth about one-third as much for oil as the opium ob- 
tained. ; 
QUALITY AND CLIMATE. 
The quality of opium is generally estimated by the quantity of mor- 
phia which it contains. A certain amount of heat is necessary in the 
cultivation of the poppy in order to produce opium of the best quality 
and in the largest quantity. Tlris requisite is commonly supposed to be 
found only in what may be called warm climates. ‘The poppy is exten- 
sively cultivated for opium in Asiatic Turkey, India, Egypt, and France. 
Turkey opium, most of which is obtained from Smyrna, has the highest 
reputation for medicinal purposes, and is that which is principally used 
by physicians in this country. It is declared, however, on the best au- 
thority, that opium is produced in France fully equal to the best quality 
from Smyrna, and is less frequently adulterated than that obtained from 
¢ the latter place. ‘The mean annual temperature of the opium districts of 
the foregoing countries, named in their order, is respectively 65°, 80°, 
75°, and 50°. There are doubtless other conditions besides temperature 
which are essential to the production of opium of the first quality, as 
soil, equability of climate, and a proper proportion of wet and dry 
weather—things which can be accurately determined only by actual 
trial in the different localities in which it is proposed to cultivate it. 
We give the results of analyses of dried specimens of opium from the 
countries named, recently made by M. Guibourt, in which he gives the 
percentage of morphia found in each, as follows: Turkey opium, from 
Smyrna, highest percentage, 21.46; lowest, 11.70; mean, 14.78. India, 
from Patna, highest, 7.72; lowest, 5.27; mean, 6.45. Egypt, from Alex- 
andria, highest, 12.21; lowest, 5.81; mean, 9.01. France, from Amiens, 
highest, 22.28; lowest, 14.83; mean, 17.69. The mean percentage here 
given of each kind of opium is the mean of all the specimens analyzed, 
and therefore does not in every case correspond with the mean of the 
highest and lowest. From an examination of the mean temperature of 
the climates of the countries named, it will be seen that the opium of 
