560 Mr Young on the Preparation 
chest containing from 150 lb. to 500 lb. of opium. This state- 
ment is from a member of the Turkey Company in London. 
As the method of gathering opium, about to be proposed^ 
differs materially from any other hitherto in use, it may be pro- 
per to observe, that Mr Ball, who obtained a premium of fifty 
guineas from the Society of Arts, collected his opium according 
to the Bengal method, which is accurately described by Mr 
Kerr who was an ocular witness, and by A. W. Davis “[*9 
whose accounts agree with that given by Ksempferius J respecting 
the mode of collecting opium in Persia. The seeds, according 
to Mr Kerr, are sown in quadrangular areas, the intervals of 
w hich are formed into aqueducts for conveying water into each 
area. The plants are allowed to grow six or eight inches from 
each other, and are plentifully supplied with water till they are 
six or eight inches high, when a nutrient compost of dung, 
ashes, and nitrous earth, is laid over the areas. A little be- 
fore the flowers appear, they are again well watered till the 
capsules are half grown, when the watering is stopped, and they 
begin to collect the opium. This they effect by making, at sun- 
set, two longitudinal incisions from below upwards, without 
penetrating the cavity, with an instrument that has two points 
as fine and sharp as a lancet. The incisions are repeated every 
evening, until each capsule has received six or eight wounds^ 
and they are then allowed to ripen their seeds. The juice which 
exudes is collected in the morning, and being inspissated to a 
proper consistence, by working it in an earthen pot in the sun’s 
heat, it is formed into cakes for sale. 
In this manner Mr Bail collected four ounces of opium from 
one fall and twenty-eight square yards of ground, which is at 
the rate of 55 lb. 8 oz. per acre. But, in another place, he ob- 
serves, that by a calculation which he made, supposing one 
poppy growing in one square foot of earth, and producing one 
grain of opium, more than 50 lb. will be collected from one sta- 
tute acre of land. But if I take his proposition, and calculate 
by the rule used by land-measurers, the produce in that case 
Medical Observations and Inquiries^ vol. v, arc. 28, 
t* Tranaaciions of Society of Arts ^ voJ. xvi. p. 273, 
Amoenitates Fas, 3. 15- 
