362 
But the merit of first cultivating the Poppy for Opium is due to Mr. 
John Bull, of Williton, who in the year 1 7 Q <0 was rewarded by the Society 
of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, for procuring Opium in an unsophis¬ 
ticated state from British Poppies, and communicating his mode of preparing 
it to the Society, for the use of the public. 
Wlien the leaves die away and drop off, the capsules or heads being then 
in a green state, is the proper time for extracting the Opium, by making 
four or five small longitudinal incisions with a sharp-pointed knife, about an 
inch long, on one side only of the head, taking care not to cut to the seeds: 
immediately on the incision being made, a milky fluid will issue out, which 
being of a glutinous nature, will adhere to the bottom of the incision; but 
some are so luxuriant, that it will drop from the head. The next day, if the 
weather should be fine, the Opium will be of a greyish substance? and some 
almost turning black; it is then to be scraped off, with the edge of a knife, 
into pans or pots; and in a day or two it will be of a proper consistence to 
make into a mass, and to be potted. 
As soon as the Opium is all taken away from one side, make incisions 
on the opposite side, and proceed in the same manner. The reason of not 
making the incisions all round at once is, that the Opium cannot be so con¬ 
veniently taken away; but every person, upon trial, will be the best judge. 
Children may with ease be soon taught to make the incisions, and take off 
the Opium, so that the expence will be trifling. 
An instrument might be made, of a concave form, with four or five 
pointed lancets, about the twelfth or fourteenth part of an inch, to make the 
incisions at once. 
Mr. Ball calculates, that supposing one Poppy to grow in one square foot 
of earth, and to produce only one grain of Opium, more than 50lb. will be 
collected from one statute acre. But since one Poppy produces from three 
or four to ten heads, each incision sometimes producing two or three grains, 
what must be the produce, and what the profit at the present price of Opium, 
22 s. the pound?* 
I am sensible that great abatements must be made in practice from such 
theoretical calculations as these; and that in our moist climate many seasons 
will occur, and many days in almost every summer, unfavourable to the 
* Trans, Arts. Yol. XIV. p. 260 to 263, 
