CULTURE OF THE POPPY IN INDIA. 145 
Since that time they have even supplied Madras, where their 
potatoes are preferred to those of Bengal."* 
CULTURE OF THE POPPY IN INDIA. 
Opium, so well known, and so extensively produced, need 
hardly be adduced as an instance of the physical capabilities 
of India for producing valuable commodities; were it not that 
the cultivation of the Poppy gives us an instructive lessen, 
not afforded by the other cultures successfully practised in 
India. Cotton, the Sugar-Cane, Indigo, and Pepper, are all 
indigenous products of the country, while the Poppy is a 
striking instance of the successful introduction of a valuable 
plant of more northern latitudes, into a hot country. 
The history of the Poppy ; and of Opium, its inspissated 
juice, are imperfectly known. Though extensively cultivated 
in India, the Poppy is also common in the gardens of Eng- 
land. Very good Opium has sometimes been prepared even 
in this uncertain climate, and in France and Germany it has 
been so very frequently. The Opium, so called Turkish, is 
chiefly collected in Asia Minor, and is exported to the extent 
of about 400,000 lbs. from Smyrna. It is produced at several 
places, at from ten to thirty days' distance in the interior; but 
that grown at Caisar, about six hundred miles from Smyrna, 
is the most esteemed for its cleanness and good quality. Be 
sides this, other kinds of Opium are known in commerce, as 
that of Constantinople, and of Trebisond, as .well as the 
Egyptian. 
* Dr. Heyne not having had leisure to publish the results of all his 
observations, says, "I have in the mean time not been sparing in commu- 
nicating my specimens to such as will be able to make them useful ; and 
this, on the whole, was and is the primary object. It matters but little 
whether it be known by whom a thing is collected, provided it only be 
used for the good of the community. Many of my friends seem to be of 
the same opinion!" Tracts, Preface, p. vii. 
vol. vn. — no. II. 19. 
