416  Cultivation  of  Poppy  hi  Turkey.         { ^  August;  isss™* 
the  end  of  a  penkDife,  and  with  it  to  cut  a  semi-circular  line  in  the 
pod  beginning  from  the  middle  and  going  round  the  edges,  at  the  same 
time  leaving  a  space  of  about  a  finger's  breadth.  Immediately  after 
this  is  done  there  appears  a  white  milk-like  fluid  of  a  bitter  taste,  and 
there  forms.  This  fluid  little  by  little  increases  in  consistency,  and  its 
color  becomes  darker  and  darker,  until  in  twenty-four  hours  it  becomes 
coflee-colored  and  as  thick  as  paste.  This  is  opium.  This  must  be  scraped 
off  with  the  edge  of  a  somewhat  large  and  blunt  knife  and  put  into  a 
poppy  leaf,  and  so  on  until  as  much  as  20  or  30  drachms  of  opium  have 
been  collected  on  one  leaf,  the  edges  of  which  must  be  turned  in  so  as  to 
prevent  its  being  spilled.  If,  while  the  opium  is  being  collected,  the 
film  above  described  be  mixed  with  it,  it  has  a  beneficial  effect. 
"  At  Karahissar  the  work  of  cutting  lines  in  the  pods  of  the  poppies 
is  generally  begun  early  in  the  afternoon  and  continued  until  night- 
fall. As  the  opium  must  be  collected  twenty-four  hours  after  the 
above  operation  has  been  concluded,  the  following  day  also,  soon  after 
twelve  o'clock,  they  begin  on  the  one  hand  to  collect  the  opium  from 
the  pods  which  were  cut  the  day  before,  and  also  to  cut  lines  in  other 
pods,  which  work  occupies  them  until  the  evening.  But  should  they  come 
across  pods  which  are  not  quite  ripe,  they  leave  them  alone,  and  five 
or  six  days  afterwards  they  again  visit  them,  and  after  cutting  lines  in 
them  collect  their  juice. 
In  order  that  the  exact  season  for  collecting  the  juice  may  not  be 
missed,  the  whole  work  must  be  gone  through  and  finished  in  five  or 
ten  days.  Moreover,  the  proper  time  for  marking  the  pods  must  be 
accurately  ascertained,  for  if  the  pods  be  cut  say  ten  days  before  or 
after  they  are  quite  ripe,  there  is  no  yield  of  opium.  As  an  instance 
of  this  it  may  be  mentioned  that  in  the  plain  of  Broussa  the  experi- 
ment was  made.  Although  the  plants  had  reached  their  full  growth, 
the  pods  were  marked  or  cut  both  before  and  after  the  exact  time  when 
the  operation  should  have  been  performed,  and  consequently  there  was 
no  yield  of  opium.  Sometimes  it  happens  that  a  dry  wind  begins  to 
blow  at  the  very  time  when  the  poppy  pods  should  be  cut,  and  the 
atmosphere  becomes  chilly  in  consequence.  During  such  weather  the 
yield  of  opium  is  very  small.  The  pods  also  should  not  be  cut  when 
it  is  raining,  for  the  rain  washes  away  and  destroys  the  juice  as  fast  as 
it  exudes  from  the  seams  that  have  been  cut  for  it. 
After  the  opium  crop  has  been  gathered  in,  the  pods  change  their 
previous  hue  of  either  green  or  yellow  to  rose  color ;  when  this  change 
