of British Opium. 75 



have been misled by the result of trials on very fertile land, in a 

 fortunate season. Such information as we have been able to ob- 

 tain, has led us to estimate little more than four se'rs, or eight 

 pounds of opium from a bi'gha." Now, as I understand a bi'gha 

 to be about one-third of an acre, this reduces the acreable pro- 

 duce of opium in India from sixty to about twenty-four pounds. 

 Mr. Young, in his essay in the Edinburgh Philosophical Jour- 

 nal, before referred to, tells us, that, in the year 1817, " he 

 collected as much of the milky juice as was equal to one drachm 

 of solid opium in the space of an hour ;" and that, " in the year 

 1818, he gathered at the rate of two drachms of solid opium in 

 one hour." And he further says, that, " supposing one acre 

 had been cultivated in the same manner (which was by sowing 

 two rows of poppies between alternate rows of potatoes,) as the 

 piece of ground on which his experiment was made in 1818, 

 the produce in that case would have been equal to 57Ib 9 oz. 

 and 48 gr, of solid opium." But he no where tells us, that I 

 can perceive, how much milky juice, or how much solid opium 

 he actually collected himself or obtained by the collection of 

 others, from a given quantity of ground. 



In the year 1818, 1 obtained from eight rods of poppies about 

 52 ounces of liquid, from which were made about 30 ounces of 

 hard opium, part of which was sent to the Royal Institution. 

 This is after the rate of 37 Jib per acre. In 1819, I personally 

 collected 13 J oz. oi liquid, from which were made seven ounces 

 of hard opium, from 368 square feet of ground. The calculation 

 from which gives 51 lb 12|^ oz. to the acre. But the poppies 

 which yielded this unusually abundant produce were of a new 

 variety oipapaver, obtained in the year 1818, by the process of 

 artificial impregnation, described by T. A. Knight, Esq., in the 

 Philosophical Transactions ; and at present, as far as I am aware, 

 in the possession of no other person but myself. For, as this 

 new hybrid has flowered but once, induced thereto by a remark 

 of that distinguished physiologist, in his treatise on the apple 

 and pear, expressing a doubt of the permanency of such produc- 

 tions, I had intended to submit it to further experiments, that 

 I might be entitled to give it u decided character, before 1 



