100 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



countries, but there are many difficulties. The soil is often 

 unsuitable through containing too little lime or potash or 

 for other reasons, or the plants may not grow well through 

 being in a somewhat unsuitable climate. To get enough leaf 

 to cure properly, a comparatively large area has to be grown in 

 tobacco, say 50 acres, and the curing is a matter requiring 

 considerable experience and skill. 



In northern Ceylon there is a considerable industry in pre- 

 paring tobacco, not for the European or American market, to 

 which the tobacco of most countries goes, but for South India, 

 where the preference is for a coarse rank tobacco. Many thou- 

 sands of acres are given up to this crop in the extreme north 

 of Ceylon. As a rule, each villager only grows a very small 

 area. The tobacco grown has extremely large leaves, and is 

 very rapidly cured, so as to form a rank and heavy brand, which 

 can rarely be smoked with pleasure by any white man. The 

 trade in this tobacco is, however, fairly profitable. Attempts 

 have at different times been made to get a tobacco from Ceylon 

 suitable for the European market, but the difficulties are many, 

 not the least being that the villagers grow areas too small to 

 give enough tobacco for a proper cure, and consequently anyone 

 trying to cure properly would have to buy the tobacco from a 

 large number of villagers. 



Opium. The cultivation of the opium poppy (Papaver 

 somniferum) is largely engaged in in Bengal, and a small amount 

 is cultivated in other parts of India. The object of its cultiva- 

 tion is mainly for export to China, where the drug is largely 

 smoked. Opium, whose effect depends on the presence of 

 morphine and other alkaloids, is one of the most useful but, at 

 the same time, most dangerous drugs, and the habit of opium 

 smoking, which produces very pleasant dreamy sensations, is 

 one that rapidly grows upon its victims. Opium was the 

 primary cause of the China war of 1860, a Chinese customs 

 official, anxious to prevent its importation into that country, 

 having destroyed about 2,000,000 worth of it on landing. 



The cultivated opium poppy is apparently a form of Papaver 

 setigerum, a Mediterranean species, and the finest opium for 



