334 On the Cullivation of the Poppy. 
the oil of poppies was cultivated in several parts of France, 
Flanders, and Brabant, thought it an object of sufficient im- 
portance to make more particular inquiry ; and they learned, 
from indubitable authority, not ouly that it was generally 
used in the place of olive oil, but that several thousand casks 
of it were exported annually, a Jarge quantity of which was 
imported into Holland and sold under the name of olive oil, 
or mixed with it in considerable abundance; and they ap- 
pealed to several merchants, who were members of the soci- 
ety, for the truth of this assertion, without being contradicted. 
These facts induced the society to propose three premiums, 
consisting of a silver medal and ten ducats each, which were 
divided into the three following classes : 
The first to the husbandman who should sow not less than 
half an acre of a clayey soil with poppy seed; the second on 
a sandy ground; and the third on turf or peat land. 
They also offered to the person who shall have cultivated 
the largest quantity of ground, on the two first species of 
soil, in the most masterly and advantageous manner, a gold 
medal, value fifty ducats, or that sum in money, in lieu of 
the above premiums. 
The candidates were to give an accurate statement of the 
quantity of seed sown per acre; the time of sowing and of 
gathering the poppies; the quality of the soil; the manner 
of procedure in every part of the process; the quantity of 
oil produced, and the total of the expenses. 
In consequence of the above proposals, in the year fol- 
lowing (1799) Mr. P. Haak became a claimant; sent in sa- 
tisfactory specimens of the oil produced, accompanied with 
testimonies from two respectable physicians, that upon ex- 
periments made, it fully appeared that the use of the oil was 
not in the least prejudicial to the human constitution; and 
that the oil cakes were very whclesome and nutritive food 
for cattle. 
The committee appointed to receive this report, not only 
expressed their entire satisfaction at the attestations of the 
physicians, but they laid before the society at large an ac- 
count of the proteedings which had taken place in France 
upon the interesting question concerning the noxious or sa- 
lubrious 
