g66 
Mr Young on the Preparation 
areas, yet they can be easily pushed over to one side^ so as to 
allow the opium gatherers to 'walk along the areas without 
trampling upon them. 
The distance between the poppy plants being wider than last 
year. Upon an average they produced four full grown capsules 
each, and some of them produced seven or eight capsules ; and 
I gathered this season at the rate of two drachms of solid opium 
in one hour, while, by the same method of gathering, I could 
not collect more than one drachm in the same time last year. 
Supposing one acre had been cultivated in the same manner 
as that piece of ground on which my experiment was made, 
the produce in that case would have been equal to 57 lb., 
9 oz, 4 dr., and 48 gr. of solid opium, which is just twice as 
much as I collected the year before. But the season of 1818 
being so much more favourable than the preceding year, will in 
a great measure account for the success of this experiment. 
Therefore the quantity of opium that may be collected depends 
greatly upon the season ; yet the comparative view of the re- 
sult of the experiment made in 1817, although the season was 
extremely unfavourable, is sufficient to prove, that my method 
of extracting and gathering opium, has a decided advantage 
over any other that has been recommended. 
As my poppies were sown about the middle of April, they 
were ready for bleeding about the middle of July. 
For making the incisions I use a double bladed 'convex 
edged knife, having all the blade covered with sealing-wax, ex- 
cept so much of the cutting edge as is sufficient for wounding 
the external rind of the capsule, without penetrating its cavity, 
and with which I make one or more double incisions, according 
to the size of the head, at first longitudinally, and afterwards 
obliquely upwards from the stalk, Plate V. Fig. 4. This operation 
commences about a week after the flowers fall, when the capsules 
discover to the pressure a proper degree of hardness. 
The instrument I used consisted of two convex edged scal- 
pels, the blades of which were covered with sealing-wax, except 
about one-sixteenth part of an inch of the edge, and being 
wound round the handles with waxed thread, the two were 
fastened together with other thread twisted round them, and 
thus held at the distance of about half an inch between each 
