56 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



May 3, 1858. 



Present — Hon. R. S. Livingston, Solon Robinson, Hon. John D. Ward, 

 of Jersey city ; Adrian Bergen and Hon. John Gr. Bergen, of Gowanus, 

 Long Island ; the venerable Benjamin Pike, of Jersey ; Wm. Silliman, of 

 West Chester ; Judge Doughty, of Jersey ; Mr. Chilson, Mr. Stacey, Thos. 

 W. Field, of Brooklyn ; Mr. Fuller, of Williamsburgh ; Prof. James J. 

 Mapes, of Jersey ; Mr. Paine, of Brooklyn ; Mr. Baker, Mr. Hite, of Mor- 

 risania ; Mr. Bruce, Wm, Lawton, of New Rochelle ; Pt. Gr. Pardee and 

 others — between 50 and 60 members. 



Hon. Robert S. Livingston in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



Mr. Pell read the following extracts : 



VALUE OF OPIUM. 



Opium is the production of a well-known plant called Papaver somnif- 

 erum^ or poppy, a native of Persia, but now found in every part of the 

 known world. In India one hundred thousand acres of land is appropri- 

 ated to its growth, giving constant employment to thousands of people. 

 The seed is sown in November, and the juice collected in February. 

 When the flower drops off an incision is made around the capsules in the 

 evening, from which a milky sap exudes, and is hardened into a dark mass 

 by the following day's sun ; this constitutes crude opium. There are two 

 localities for the cultivation of this drug in Bengal, subject to the East 

 India Company. Another in the province of Malera is beyond their con- 

 trol, but passes through their territories to the market at Bombay, upon 

 which they levy a tax of five millions of dollars. The income from this 

 tax, together with the revenue received at Calcutta in 1846, amounted to 

 the enormous sum of fifteen millions of dollars. In 1848 19,111 chests 

 were sent from Bombay into China, and from Calcutta 30,000 chests, 

 ■worth $550 per chest, or thirty-two millions of dollars ; on this sum the 

 Chinese pay an advance of many millions more in pure silver. It is well 

 known that the British government in India have derived a revenue for the 

 last six years of over eighty millions of dollars, and without this drug they 

 could not sustain themselves. Four hundred millions of dollars have been 

 paid by the Chinese within fifty years for opium alone. 



VALUE OF TOBACCO. 



Tobacco, next to salt, is now the product generally most consumed by 

 man. It is grown in every climate, and all nations have adopted its use. 

 The annual production is now not less than two millions one hundred thousand 

 tons. It may strike you more forcibly when I state that all the flour con- 

 sumed by the inhabitants of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales only 

 weighs five millions of tons, so that the annual crop of tobacco weighs 

 as much as the wheat consumed by ten millions one hundred thousand 

 Englishmen. 



VALUE OF INSECTS— (COMMERCIALLY speaking). 

 This is a matter we never think of, still it is one of immense importance, 

 England pays a million of dollars annually for the dried bodies of the 



