218 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



the evening. The latex exudes, coagulates in the cuts, and 

 is collected the next morning. The collections are fashioned 

 into masses or blocks weighing up to 20 pounds and in this 

 form the crude opium comes upon the market. Crude 

 opium is a black tar-like mass with a characteristic nauseating 

 odor. 



The petals are removed at the time of flowering, dried, and 

 used as a covering for the opium blocks. The United States 

 imports about 450,000 pounds of crude opium annually, mostly 

 from Turkey and Persia. Several alkaloids are obtained from 

 crude opium, especially morphine, codeine, narcotine, and papa- 

 verine. Crude opium ordinarily yields from 5 to 22 per cent, of 

 morphine and from 0.5 to 2 per cent, of codeine. Opium ob- 

 tained from Turkey has the highest percentage of morphine, 

 while Persian opium stands next, and Indian opium has the 

 least morphine. 



The opium industry of India has given rise to a vast amount 

 of literature on politics, anthropology, and medicine. It is 

 quite unnecessary for present purposes to discuss the great 

 extent of the opium habit in India and China in former years 

 or the political complications which arose during the devel- 

 opment of this industry. The value of the opium export from 

 India in 1906 was over $30,000,000 and of this amount opium 

 to the value of more than $24,000,000 went to the treaty ports 

 of China. 



The variety of poppy grown in India and China is largely 

 used for smoking and eating. At present, however, an anti- 

 opium campaign of great intensity and extent is being 

 maintained in China and the cultivation of the poppy has in 

 consequence been greatly restricted. 



NUX VOMICA 



Nux vomica is the trade name for the seed of Strychnos nux- 

 vomica, a small tree native to Ceylon and India. This tree bears 



