126 
PAP AVER SOMNIFERUM. 
dominates nearly in the proportions of two-thirds to one- 
third of clay. This land should be amended the year be- 
fore by transient manures, and prepared during the summer 
by deep digging, so as to render the earth as light as gar- 
den land. 
It is also very useful for the plantation to be sheltered as 
much as possible from the west winds; the slightly inclined 
declivities which face the east, seem to present the most fa- 
vorable exposure. 
The seeds should be sown in the autumn ; they appear 
immediately after the first rains. They are covered with 
leaves by a slow vegetation during the winter ; and, in the 
spring, they give stems and capsules of a strength not to be 
obtained by seeds sown during or after the winter, forced 
as they are by conditions of climate as soon as those sown 
four or five months earlier. 
It may happen in a rainy spring, like that of this year, 
for example, that these late-sown seeds may give very fine 
products, but this case is of rare occurrence. 
The land should be divided into beds of 2 metres broad, 
with paths of 40 or 50 centimetres left free from the opera- 
tions of weeding, gathering, &c. ; the length of the bed is 
immaterial. From 2 kil. 500 grs. to 3 ML, may be sown in 
each hectare of land. 
Sowing in a line does not answer for so fine a seed, be- 
cause it is difficult to bury it at a proper depth ; there are al- 
most always vacant parts, the seeds which are too deep in 
the ground not being able to spring up. 
As soon as the young plants have four or five leaves they 
should be freed from weeds, and the superfluous plants re- 
moved so as to leave a distance of 0.20 to 0.25 centimetres 
between each. The most vigorous plants should be pre- 
served. Afterwards, when necessary, the ground is dug up 
a second time, and care is taken that no other plant grow in 
the plantation. When the young poppies completely cover 
the ground with their foliage, the binette must not be intro- 
