120 
CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, ETC., IN INDIA. 
each account. To enable the contractors to go on with their 
operations, money advances are made from time to time equal in 
all to one half of the average produce. The first advance is made 
on completing the agreement in September, the second after the 
sowings in November, and the final, or chooktee payment, is made 
on the delivery and weighment of the produce. This arrangement 
is very fair for the cultivators, and it is a rule that the accounts 
of one season must be settled before any new contract is began. 
When the cultivators behave fraudulently in reference to advances, 
they are at once prosecuted ; but if their default is from calamity 
unavoidable, the debt is generally placed in the profit and loss ac- 
count. The fairness of the system is manifested by the readiness 
with which the natives engage in the service. 
Lands are selected for poppy cultivation in the vicinity of vil- 
lages, where facilities for manuring and irrigation are greatest. 
When the soil is rich in such situations, a crop of maize or vege- 
tables is taken off in the rainy season previous to the preparation 
of the ground for the poppy crop in September. When the soil is 
poor, no extra crop is raised ; and from July to October the ground 
is dressed, cleaned and manured as much as possible, and in Octo- 
ber, just before the sowing, is ploughed and rolled. 
The land produces very differently. Under favorable circum- 
stances, as much as 12 or 13 seers (26 lbs.) of opium is yielded by 
each Beegah (3,025 square yards) of land; in unfavorable seasons 
only 3 or 4 to 6 or 8 seers. 
The chemical examination of soils, in connection with their 
opium producing powers, presents a field for profitable and inter- 
esting enquiry ; nor is the least important part that which has re- 
ference to variation in the proportions of the alkaloids (morphia 
and narcotina,) which occur in the opium of various localities. 
That atmospheric causes are influential is probable ; that they in- 
fluence the amount of the product and its physical appearance, 
are facts well known to every cultivator. Thus, dews facilitate 
the flow of juice, increase its quantity, but render it darker and 
more liquid. An easterly, damp wind, retards the flow of juice 
and renders it dark and liquid. A moderate westerly wind, with 
dew at night, form the conditions most favorable for collections, 
both as regards quantity and quality. If this wind (which is very 
