78 Swayne on the Manufacture 



says likewise, that he believes, if the inhabitants of Europe 

 were as industrious as those of Asia, opium could be made in 

 this part of the world as well as in that. " Credimus quod si 

 in Europa ea diligentia adhibeatur quam adhibent, posset etiam 

 fieri sicut in Asia." 



When the capsules will bleed no longer, and the seed is 

 nearly ripe, the stalks are to be cut off near the ground with a 

 reap-hook or other sharp instrument, and set up for a few days 

 in stooks to harden. After which* they are to be singly cut off 

 close to the head, thrown into baskets, and carried under cover, 

 to be spread on a floor, or on wattled hurdles set up one above 

 another, or some such contrivance, till they are perfectly dry. 

 When the seed is to be evacuated, by cutting open the capsules 

 transversely, and emptying it out into a tub or other vessel. 

 To all which work, women and children are quite equal. 



Before this time, the crop is to be guarded from the birds 

 called Titmice whilst in the field, who would otherwise devour, 

 or rather waste, much of the seed by picking holes at the bottom 

 of the capsules, where instinct tells them they can only come 

 at it ; and in the house from the four-legged mice, who are quite 

 as fond of this sweet food as their feathered namesakes with 

 two legs. 



There are two sources of profit arising from a crop of poppies, 

 from which the author of the Essay in the Edinburgh Journal 

 so often referred to, has omitted to calculate, viz., the stalks, 

 and the dried capsules. The ashes of the stalks when burnt, 

 before they are quite dry, will yield a considerable quantity of 

 saline matter. From less than half a bushel of which I ob- 

 tained, in the year 1818, four pounds and thirteen ounces, 

 which was found upon analysis at the Royal Institution to be 

 chiefly carbonate and sulphate of potash, but principally the 

 latter. The stalks, when perfectly dry, are a good substitute 



* This direction is applicable only to the Pap. somnifer. petalis et semi- 

 nihus albis, and other species or varieties whose capsules are closed. The 

 seeds of all the others which have open foramina, are to be shook out 

 when ripe on cloths in the field, in some such manner as that described 

 by the Rev. Mr. Radcliftin his Report of the Agriculture of Fkmtltrs, p. 8"). 



