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CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, ETC., IN INDIA. 
After the plant is exhausted of juice, the capsules are removed, 
and the seed extracted and pressed to get the fixed oil, which is 
largely used for domestic purposes. The cake left is generally 
used for feeding cattle, but sometimes for a coarse bread, 
and medicinally for cataplasms. The capsules, deprived of seed, 
are also used for poultices and anodyne decoctions. The stems 
and leaves are allowed to dry in the field, and then, when broken 
into a coarse powder called 'poppy trash' they are used to pack 
the opium cakes. 
When first collected, the juice from the capsules presents the ap- 
pearance of a wet, granular mass, of a pinkish color, and a dark fluid 
collects in the bottom of the vessel, resembling an infusion of cof- 
fee, to which the name of "pussewah" is given. The recent juice 
strongly reddens litmus paper, acts rapidly on metallic iron and 
covers it with a crust of meconate of iron. The juice when brought 
home from the field is placed in a shallow earthen vessel, inclined 
so that the pussewah can drain off as long as any separates. The 
pussewah is set aside, and at the proper time, is taken to the Ghaze- 
pore factory to be weighed. 
The opium now requires much attention. It is daily exposed 
to the air in the shade, is turned over every few days to render 
the inspissation uniform ; and this is continued 3 or 4 weeks, or 
until the drug has reached nearly the standard degree of dryness. 
Standard opium according to the Benares regulations, will yield a 
dry residue of 70 per cent when subjected to a temperature of 200° 
F., till it ceases to lose weight. This is the consistency of the 
marketable opium, and the agents adhere as closely to it as pos- 
sible. The payment of the cultivator is regulated also by this 
standard, his pay being less or more as the drug is less or more 
concentrated. 
The opium on its arrival at the Ghazeepore factory, is emptied 
from the earthen pots in which it is received ; and is weighed in 
wide tin vessels called tagers, care being taken that no larger 
quantity than 10 seers (20 lbs.) is brought to the scale at one 
time. The weighing is witnessed by the gomashta (or his agent) 
of the kotee to which the opium belongs, and in neighboring kotees 
the cultivators alsj attend. 
This weighing is verified by an European officer in another 
room, and the tager and its contents is passed in to a table at 
