596 Transactions of the American Institute. 



lioe them — hoe them close as possible with a sharj^-cornered hoe; 

 then weed the third time ; joii will not want to weed the fourth time ; 

 dress over ; you will need to watch a little for worms. 



3. The next in order is to get ready to manufacture the crop into 

 opium. Get your mill and press in good order, then get your rat to 

 hold the pomace ; have it lined with tin or brass ; then vour plates 

 to dry the milk on ; get your sifter to cleanse in, and your alcohol to 

 prepare the milk to eat off the morphine fi-om the pomace. This will 

 help, in drying, to prevent souring and to give the odor of foreign 

 opium. 



4. When you commence cutting the plant, yon will see there are 

 some plants that are more forAvard than the others. Sort them out 

 and cut them first, just before the buds begin to ripen; you must 

 not let them ripen; the seeds want to be full grown; keep sorting 

 every day, until you get through, so as to have them uniform. The 

 main thing to get the matter riglit is to put half a pint of alcohol to 

 every fifty pounds of the pomace ; then let it be stirred well together 

 before pressing; then set a half hour; then press it. The alcohol 

 will cut the morphine from the plant ; then the extract will be per- 

 fect and in order ; then the odor Avill be like foreign opium. 



5. You will keep the cheese in the press about one-half hour ; 

 press it dry ; about as much time is enough to set. Then have in 

 the side of the setter, two inches from the bottom up the side, put in 

 the faucet so the green can settle below the faucet ; then draw off 

 and fill your plates one-half inch deep. 



6. Prepare your rack ancl shelves, three feet from the floor, eight 

 inches apart, one above another, as high as six feet ; have the shelves 

 four rows of ])lates wide ; have them so you can get on both sides 

 with 3'our pail with dipper to pour in the plates, all set on the 

 shelves ready. 



7. You must have the dry house or room a tight, plastered room, 

 so that the heat will escape only from one window ; have that drop 

 down about three or four inches, so that the steam can escape. We 

 want no chopping or jarring about. 



8. As to heat, we want the thermometer hung half way tip the 

 room to temper the heat; you want the heat kept up fi-om 125 to 

 150 or 160, and have coarse, hard, dry wood ; if heat gets down it 

 will sour. The business pays well, so keep up heat night and day 

 until you get through. 



9. As soon as the opitim is dry enough to scrape off" the plates, 



