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CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, ETC., IN INDIA. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY AND THE 
MANUFACTURE OF OPIUM IN BRITISH INDIA, MORE ESPECIAL- 
LY AT BENARES, TAKEN CHIEFLY FROM A REPORT TO THE 
BENGAL GOVERNMENT. 
By W. C. B. Eatwell, M. D., of Calcutta. 
[The following interesting account of the Opium culture and manufac- 
ture, under the direction of the East India Company, has been carefully 
abridged from a Report by Dr. Eatwell, First Assistant and Opium Exami- 
ner at Calcutta ; and the illustrations are from a paper on the same subject by 
the Editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal, (which were taken from paintings 
in the Great Exhibition accompanying the deposit of this branch of indus- 
try by the East India Company,) in which work they were published in the 
numbers from Nov. to Feb. inclusive. The intrinsic interest of the paper 
is our only apology for its great length even in its condensed form. — Ed. 
Amer. Journ. Pharm.~] 
The cultivation of the poppy in British India is confined to the 
large central Gangetic tract, about 600 miles in length and 200 
in breadth, which is bounded north and south by Goruckpore and 
Hazareebaugh, and east and west by Dingepore and Agra. 
This large extent of country is divided into two agencies, the 
Behar and the Benares, each presided over by an Agent ; that of 
Behar at Patna, that of Benares at Ghazeepore. There is a central 
factory at each agency. The control of the entire department is 
vested in the Board of Customs, Salt, and Opium at Calcutta. The 
Behar agency produces three times more opium than that of 
Benares. 
The Benares agency comprises eight divisions, the aggregate 
amount of land under poppy cultivation in which, during the season 
1849-50, was 107,823 Beegahs (3025 square yards each.) 
Each division is under the management of a sub-deputy opium 
agent, who resides at a central factory, at which the produce of his 
division is collected and forwarded to the Sudder factory at Gha- 
zeepore. 
All correspondence between the agent and sub-deputy agent, 
passes through the hands of the deputy opium agent, who, besides 
being answerable to the agent for monies expended by the sub- 
deputies, is charged with the investigation of all suits which may 
arise out of matters connected with the department ; and whilst 
