PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM. 



65 



easier, and hence its distribution is artificial, and is only partially dependent on natural 

 qualifications of soil and climate. In the Meerut Division no poppy is grown down to 

 Aligarh, the easternmost District, in which its cultivation commences. Some years 

 ago its introduction was attempted in Saharanpur (and TJmballa), but was subsequently 

 abandoned. It is grown in all the Districts of Eohilkhand, but in insignificant quanti- 

 ties, except in Budaun and Sliahjahanpur, in which the area under it amounts respectively 

 to some 8,000 and 1 0,000 acres. Every District in the Agra Division also returns some 

 opium cultivation, which is of very small proportions in the case of Muttra and Agra, 

 but extensive in Farukhabad (21,000 acres), Etawah (13,000 acres), and Mainpuri (10,000 

 acres). In the Jliansi Division opium cultivation is limited to the Jalaun District, 

 but it is permitted in all the Districts of the Allahabad and Benares Divisions. The 

 area is exceptionally large in Oudh and the Districts of the Benares Division, and the 

 total Provincial area under opium amounts in ordinary years to at least 2|- lakhs of 

 acres, or to "6 per cent, on the total cropped area, and TS per cent, on that portion of it 

 under rabi crops. 



The system on which opium is grown for Government is not unlike that on which 

 ladni indigo is grown for an indigo factory. Every cultivator wishing to grow the plant 

 must obtain a written license to do so, and receives at the same time an advance in cash 

 of from Es. 12 to Es. 13 an acre, paid in two instalments, one, two months before 

 the poppy is sown, and the second, one month after sowing. The whole of the produce 

 is purchased by Government, at a rate varying between Es, 4-8 and Es. 6 a seer. Under 

 these conditions one would have imagined that poppy cultivation would be extremely 

 popular with the people, but it is tolerably certain that this is not the case, and that it 

 is in many cases only the urgent need of cash to pay their kharif rent (in which the 

 first instalment of opium advance is generally expended) that induces many men to 

 undertake poppy cultivation at all. In some tracts its introduction has been resisted 

 with extraordinary persistency. More than fifty years have passed since attempts were 

 first made to extend its cultivation to the portion of the Allahabad District which lies 

 north of the Ganges. The Settlement officer writes that — " the people then assembled, 

 " rooted up the obnoxious plant, and threatened excommunication to any member of the 

 "tribe who should again attempt its culture. They are of the same mind still (1876). 

 " I have often enquired the reason of this, but all the answer I can get is the ' panchayet 

 "'has interdicted it.' Why this was done in the first instance, except from a spirit of 

 "opposition to the powers that be, I can not imagine, and the cultivators either cannot 

 "or will not tell." The Deputy Commissioner of Partabgarli, an adjoining District of 

 Oudh, writes — "Notwithstanding an increase in the area under poppy (from 181 acres 

 "in 1860-61 to 1,289 acres in 1870-71), I am by no means prepared to say that the cul- 

 " tivation is particularly popular." This is all the more inexplicable, since to an out- 

 sider the terms on which opium is grown appear to offer many advantages. They afl'ord a 

 loan without interest, a certain market for the produce at a fairly remunerative price, and 

 the opportunity of embezzling a small portion of the produce, which can be disposed of at 

 a large profit, since the Opium officials are entirely dependent on tables of average pro- 

 duce in determining whether the whole produce is surrendered or not, and can exercise 

 no really eifectivc check. The Iviichi was formerly the opium cultivator par excellence, 



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