CH. VIIl] TOBACCO, OPIUM, HEMP 99 



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) has until lately been largely carried on in Bengal, 

 and in other parts of India. The object of its cultivation 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 

 medicinal purposes comes to this day from Asia Minor. The 

 plant comes into flower about three months after sowing, and 



72 



