122 
CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, ETC. 
In February, the plant is 
generally in full flower, and 
towards the 15th the petals are 
carefully stripped off and col- 
lected, (see figure 1,) and subse- 
quently formed into circular 
cakes, ten to fourteen inches in 
diameter by l-16th thick, by 
placing them in layers, in a flat 
earthen vessel, moderately heat- 
ed, so as to wilt them and ex- 
tract a glutinous juice, which 
causes their adherence, one layer 
being added after another and 
pressed till the cake is completed. 
Native woman gathering poppy petals. These cakes, which are techni- 
cally called " leaves," are of different qualities, and are used 
in the formation of the shells for opium cakes. 
In a few days after the removal of the petals, the capsules have 
attained their utmost development, when the process of collection 
commences, and extends from February 22d to March 25th. 
The juice is collected thus : — At about three or four o'clock in 
the afternoon, the laborers repair to the fields and scarify the poppy 
capsules with sharp instruments called nushters. The nushter 
(see g, b, fig. 2,) consists of three or four narrow iron bars from three 
to six inches long, and of the thickness of a pen-knife blade, deep- 
ly notched at one end, and narrow at the other. The points con- 
stituting the notch are ground sharp, and constitute the cutting 
edges. The bars are bound together by cotton thread, which, by 
passing between, keeps the edges l-16th of an inch apart; and 
when complete, the instrument presents fine cutting points on each 
side. 
In using the nushter, only one set of points is employed at a 
time, the capsule being scarified longitudinally from base to sum- 
mit, as in the figure. The blades only penetrate the pericarp, 
and do no not cue into the cavity of the seed vessels. The line 
of scarification is chosen along the lateral prominences of thecap- 
sule marking the attachment of the internal dissepiments, because 
of a horizontal section be made of a growing poppy head, the 
Fig. l. 
