SCIENCE-GOS SIP. 197 
for the manufacture of its alkaloids, its value being 
determined by strict chemical analysis. The 
Turkish government encourage the industry, by re- 
mitting the tithes on opium and poppy seeds, for 
one year, on lands sown for the first time. The 
officials also distribute printed instructions regard- 
ing poppy cultivation and preparation of the juice, 
where it is pointed out, that opium is ten times 
more profitable than the growing of wheat. 
(2) Indian Opium. The variety usually grown 
in India is, as in Persia, Papaver somniferum 
var. album. In some parts of the Himalayas a red 
flower variety with black seeds is occasionally seen. 
In Bengal, opium cultivation is a Government 
monopoly, and it forms a considerable item in the 
revenue of our Eastern Empire. The bulk of 
that produced is exported to China. Any person 
may undertake the industry, but cultivators are 
obliged to sell the whole to the Government agent 
at a definite price previously determined, usually 
about 3s. 6d. per pound. The authorities re-sell it 
at about rrs., certainly a very fair profit, although 
the grower is said to be fully remunerated at the 
price he receives. In Malwa the cultivation is 
free, and very profitable, the crop realising from 
three to seven times, or even more, the value of 
wheat or other cereals. On entering British terri- 
tory the opium is heavily taxed, so as to bring its 
price to that of the Government article. 
The seed is sown between the rst and rs5th of 
November, and germinates in from ten to fifteen 
days. When two or three inches high the seed- 
lings are thinned and weeded. During growth the 
plants are very liable to injury from frost, rain, 
insects and fungi, or the attack of the root parasite 
Orobanchi indica. When about to fall, the petals 
are collected to make “leaves” for the finished 
opium, and are dried and pressed for that purpose. 
They are forwarded to the factories, their value 
varying from five to ten rupees per maund of 
82 2-7th pounds. The collection of the drug 
begins in Behar about February 25th, and in 
Malwa in March or April. The capsules are verti- 
cally scarified ; the cutting instrument or ‘‘ mashtur” 
is drawn upwards for each incision, the operation 
being performed in the afternoon. The opium is 
collected the following day, a small sheet iron 
scoop or ‘‘seetoah”’ is used in Bengal for that pur- 
pose ; and as it becomes full the drug is transferred 
to an earthenware pot carried for the purpose. A 
flat scraper is employed in Malwa and linseed oil 
or water is used to prevent adhesion, but the use 
of either is said to injure the product, and give rise 
to more or less of a darkish fluid ‘* passewa,” which 
is allowed to drain off in a tilted shallow earthen- 
ware yessel. The mass is next exposed to the air 
in the shade to harden, being regularly turned over 
for three or four weeks, when it is taken to the 
Government factory and examined by a_natiye 
expert as to colour, aroma, impurities, etc. The 
price is chiefly regulated by the percentage of 
moisture present. The opium is then stored in 
large wooden boxes, each holding about fifty 
maunds, and is finally transferred to be manufactured 
into cakes ; which process is effected in a somewhat 
complicated manner. After haying been very 
carefully mixed to ensure the mass being of 
standard consistence, 7.¢., 70 per cent. of the dry 
drug, with 3o per cent. of water, the quantity of 
opium is weighed out. After being formed into a 
ball it is enyeloped in a crust of dried poppy petals, 
skilfully agglutinated together by means of a liquid 
called ** lewa,” a pasty fluid composed of inferior 
opium “‘pasewa” and ‘‘dhoe,” or washings of 
the various vessels which have contained opium. 
The finished balls, usually termed cakes, are quite 
spherical, have a diameter of about six inches, and 
weigh about 4% lbs. These are rolled in “ poppy 
trash,”’ a mixture of the coarsely powdered stalks, 
capsules and leaves of the plant, and then placed in 
earthenware dishes and dried in the sun. These 
cakes, known as ‘provision opium,” are then 
packed in cases of about 160 lbs. each for expor- 
tation to China, where the bulk of this variety is 
consumed. for use in India the drug is further 
dried until it contains only ro per cent. of moisture, 
and then formed into cakes of two pounds each in 
weight, which are wrapped in oiled paper or made 
into flat square tablets. 
(3) Persian Opium is collected from the roundish 
ovate capsules of the variety alum of Papaver som- 
niferum, which in some districts are incised verti- 
cally, and in others diagonally. It is collected in 
May and June and exported between September 
and January. After being dried in the sun, that 
intended for China is mixed with about q per cent. 
of oil, with the object it is said of improving the 
flavour, whilst that intended for this country is 
usually without oil. It is met with in England in 
roundish cones, each from six to eight ounces in 
weight, and sometimes, but rarely, twice that size. 
It is firmer and smoother than the opium from 
Turkey, being beaten into uniform masses, before 
it is formed into the cones. Only a small propor- 
tion of that which is imported into this country is 
used here, as the bulk is again exported. 
(4) Chinese Opium. The white variety of poppy 
is also principally cultivated in China, though, in 
the low lands, the red and purple forms are 
occasionally met with. The seeds are sown in No- 
vember and December. In the following month 
the plants are thinned out, and earthed up. After 
careful weeding and treatment with liquid manure 
in March and April, the capsules begin to form. 
In May the opium is collected. Vertical incisions 
are usually made as in India, but in some parts a 
vertical shaving is taken off. The juice is scraped 
off and transferred into a small pot suspended at 
the waist of the collector. The actual mode of 
preparation is not known, but from occasional 
specimens that come under my notice, it appears 
to have undergone some manipulation, as it has 
a uniform pasty consistence, without any trace of 
granular structure like the drug from Turkey. The 
odour is good and some specimens have oil mixed 
with them, but it is darker and softer than the 
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