552     CULTIVATION  OF  THE  OPIUM  POPPY  IN  AUSTRALIA. 
to  the  opium  culture,  and  I  expect  that  sufficient  will  shortly  be 
made  to  enable  a  trial  shipment  to  be  made  to  London,  as  from 
the  high  price  ruling  for  opium  and  its  preparations  it  is  very 
desirable  that  new  sources  of  supply  be  discovered.  With  the 
beautiful  climate  and  fine  soil  of  Australia,  eminently  adapted 
for  poppy-growing,  enough  opium  should  be  produced  to  make  a 
marked  influence  on  the  price  in  the  European  markets,  as  the 
growers  here  will  be  well  paid  at  from  ten  to  twelve  shillings  per 
pound ;  but  as  our  consumption  here  is  enormous,  owing  to  the 
great  number  of  Chinese  colonists,  it  will  probably  be  some 
years  before  the  supply  greatly  exceeds  the  local  demand. 
I  send  herewith  samples  of  opium  from  Tarious  localities, 
produced  in  1867-8,  1868-9  and  1869-70. 
The  poppy  is  sown  here  in  the  months  of  June,  July  and  early 
part  of  August,  the  opium  being  collected  in  the  summer  months 
of  January,  February  and  March.  Most  of  the  seed  was 
obtained  from  Smyrna,  and  produces  plants  from  five  to  seven 
feet  high,  each  bearing  three  or  four  flowers  of  four  large  white 
petals.  There  is  also  some  East  Indian  variety  cultivated,  with 
double  purple  or  black  flowers,  but  it  is  not  popular,  as  it  only 
has  one  flower  on  each  plant  and  yields  but  little  opium. 
In  1868  I  was  desirous  of  ascertaining  whether  special 
manures  or  manner  of  culture  had  any  influence  on  the  amount 
of  opium  yielded  and  its  richness  in  morphia,  and,  to  determine 
it,  made  the  following  experiments : 
I  took  six  plots  of  virgin  ground  and  treated  them  as  follows : 
Nos.  1  and  4  were  manured  with  well  decayed  stable  manure. 
Nos.  2  and  5  were  entirely  without  manure. 
Nos.  3  and  6  were  manured  with  spent  lime  from  soft-soap 
works,  containing  about  3  per  cent,  of  potash,  and  with  Peruvian 
guano. 
Each  plot  was  the  same  size,  and  was  drill  sown  with  the  same 
lot  of  seeds  on  the  following  dates : 
Nos.  1  and  2  sown  on  June  13th. 
Nos.  3  and  4      "     July  1st. 
No.  5  "       "  12th. 
No.  6  "       "  20th. 
