Ch. XXVI.] ON THE POPPY. 315 



repeated, or, if any seed then remain, it is extracted in the barn by the 

 flail." 



It is, however, evident that the latter operation may be performed by old 

 men, women, and children, who are not capable of other harvest work ; 

 and, indeed, Von Thaer says that it is not unusual to commit the whole 

 process to the flail, or else the pods are cut off" and the seed is separated 

 by means of the winnowing machine ; but the shaking out of the seed by 

 hand is preferable, as preventing any mixture of unripe seed, which would 

 give a bad taste to the oil. Although he also states that the land ought 

 to be rich and clean, yet he does not allude to any peculiar species or par- 

 ticular quantity of manure ; and he considers a little more than a pound 

 of seed as quite sufficient for an acre : great care is therefore evidently 

 necessary in the sowing, so as to secure the equal distribution of the seed ; 

 for the gaps which may otherwise occur cannot be filled up by transplanta- 

 tion. It may be sown early in March, though autumn is considered the 

 best season. There are two species of seed — one black, the other white — 

 the former being generally considered as more productive of oil than the 

 white, but not of equal quality. The plants should be hoed out to at least 

 six or even twelve inches from each other. He also mentions that it is 

 not unusual to sow poppy with carrot-seed, as the crop of the farmer is 

 harvested two months earlier than the latter, but this occasions a difficulty 

 in the hoeing. 



Mr. RadclifT estimates the average produce at about thirty bushels the 

 English acre, and says, — " the seed is not so productive as rape, in point 

 of quantity, but exceeds it in price, both as grain and as oil, by at least 

 one-sixth ; the measure of oil produced from rape being as one to four of 

 the seed ; that produced from the seed of the oillettes being as one to five.'' 

 Von Thaer states that an English acre of good soil may be expected to 

 produce at least forty gallons of oil*. It will, however, be seen from the 

 following experiments, that there is much discrepancy in the accounts 

 given of its product : — 



In one reported to have been made in Holland upon about two 

 acres of land — half a sandy soil, and the other half a heavy peat — the 

 produce of the former was rather the largest of the two ; but the dif- 

 ference was so trifling, that the seed was mixed, and yielded together, 

 as nearly as it can be calculated, about 100 gallons of oil, two-thirds 

 of which was cold-drawn. 



From some trials made in Wiltshire — one of which was honoured 

 with a premium — it would however appear that a good crop only 

 amounted to 16 bushels, of 48 lbs. each, per acre, and an indifferent one 

 to about half that quantity : taking therefore the average at 12 bushels, 

 they yielded close upon 18 gallons of oil. 



By an experiment made in Cambridgeshire, it was found that 3^ 



bushels, weighing 1 cwt. 2qrs., produced 6 gals, 2 lbs. of oil, — 7J lbs. 



to the gallon, and 3 qrs. 25 lbs. of cake; but the account does not 



state the produce per acre of the seed. 



The cakes are considered equal in the feeding of cattle to tliose of linseed f. 



. * See Radcliffon the Agriculture of East and West Flanders, chap. viii. sect, v.; 

 and Von Thaer, Prin. Rais. d'Agric, 2nde edit. torn. iv. § 1175 to § 118'.'. 



t See Papers of the Bath Society, vol. x. art. xxviii.; vol. xiii. art, ix. ; and vol.xi. p. 258. 



