50
Extracted from the Dictionary of
PAPAVER
Cultivation of Poppy in the
somniferum.
CULTIVATION
in
Baroda.
PANJAB.
these beds, the earth is then turned over with an implement called the
khandi, and is watered immediately after Care is required in selecting
the seed : it should be a year old and free from damp, and the cultivators,
as a rule, preserve a stock from the crop of the previous year. The pro-
portion sown is about 2lb to the bighá. In poppy cultivation irrigation
requires attention, charnels having to be made for the even watering of
the beds. Poppy fields are watered seven times : the first watering com-
mences with the sowing. the second four days after, and others follow at
intervals of about a fortnight, and after the flowers appear there is one
watering. Weeding is a laborious process. It has to be gone through
three times, and on each occasion, besides removing strange growth, the
poppy plants are thinned until they are left at a distance of eight inches
from one another. The First weeding is clone twenty days after the plants
appear, the other two at intervals of a fortnight.. Withered or jogido plants
are removed. But barren or vánjia plants are kept for the seed, although
they produce no juice. The plants, when tender, are used as a vegetable
by many classes. The earlier sowing is in flower in January, and the
later in February The poppy-heads are considered ready for scarifica-
tion when they present a coating of a light brown colour and do not yield
easily to the touch. The process of scarification commences in February
or March according to the date of the sowing " (Gazetteer, p. 98) .
V.—PANJÁB.
" There is no district in the Panjáb that produces more of this
drug than Shάhpur. The poppy plant requires a rich soil and abund-
ance of moisture. The mode of culture is this ; the land which it is
proposed to sow with this crop is allowed to lie fallow for one season
at least. During the rains it is repeatedly ploughed and well manured.
It then remains untouched till the beginning of November, when it is pre-
pared to receive the seed, which, at the rate of half a seer to the acre, is
sown broadcast, mixed with equal parts of sand to ensure equal distribu-
tion. Water is supplied as often as the surface shows signs of dryness.
The young plants begin to show themselves about the twelfth day, and
from this time, till the pods begin to ripen, the successful cultivation of the
crop depends on the attention paid to watering, weeding, and manuring.
The pods begin to swell in March, and towards the end of this month, an
estimate can be framed of the probable yeld of opium. Traders then
come forward and buy the standing crop, after which the cultivator has
nothing to do but supply water as required. The drug is obtained by
making incisions in the pod with a three-bladed lancet. The incisions are
made vertically, about half an inch in length, in the centre of the pod.
Three strokes are made with the instrument each time, making nine cuts,
and this is repeated four times at intervals of as many days, making 36
incisions in all, the whole operation extending over about a fortnight. The
work is carried on during the middle of the day, as it is found that the
heat assists the exudation of the juice. The morning following the making
of each set of incisions, the juice which has exuded from the cuts is scooped
off with shells, and collected in cups made of the leaves of the plant itself.
It is estimated that one man (women and children are not much employed
in this work) can, on an average incise the pods, and collect the juice of
about 10 marlas ( 1 1 / 6 a c r e ) o f t h e c r o p i n a d a y ; a n d a s t h i s i s r e p e a t e d
four times, and the labourers are paid from two to four annas a day, the
cost of extraction varies from eight to sixteen rupees an acre. The produce
of an acre is from four to eight seers, the selling price from eight to twelve
rupees. In the process of drying, the extract loses about a fourth of its
weight. In 1881-32 the area under poppy cultivation was little below