Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1837-09-08
VOL. XI..No. 533

tanning seed, as you will readily perceive.
on examination, as the perfcrate, or open
seeds capsules, would render the gather
ing Of the crop tedious and expensive.
ed THIS species Of the poppy has very
general adaptation 10 ell the different solls
usually met with IN this State. Yet, when
cultivated as a field crop, for the purpose
OF obtaining oil from the seed, it should
have warm dry l,--either sand and
loan, or loamy gravel. Planted on deep
moist, and very rich soil. it continues to
shoot up lateral branches which bud and
blossom until killed by very severe frosts.
Under such circumst ancee, we can meyer
! have that perfect and simultaneous matu.
rity of the bols which is necessary 10 Oh.
tain good crop Of seed. This difficulty
| however. can be obviated in a great meas.
ure, # not entirely BY the method Of sow.
ing and cultivation mentioned in answering
your Sd inquiry.
Sd. Sow the seed in drills, eight inches
apart, and four inches in the drill, with az
light covering as practicable. It the
weather be damp and rainy Immediately
after sowing. the seed will vegeta'e in a
| few days. The objections to sowing broad
cast are, that much Of the seed is covered
| too deep if the common harrow ia used, and
! that so small portion Of it has an equal
| covering of earth, the crop will never be
uniformly ripened. Those seeds having
deep covering either not vegltating at all
or go late IN The season that some part Of
the crop will be fit for harvesting, while
another 10 IN blossom, and another with
the bud IN embryo. THIS was the case
with field sowed broad Ca.', in deep.
rich alluval soil, aud was never harvested
winter setting in while a portion Of the
crop was 10 blossom. and another in the
bud. / have q hand drill, Of different
construction from any have examined.
1t sows the poppy seed with the most per
feet accuracy, dropping just one or two
seeds at time. Imay, at some future pc
Rod. send you drawing Of it. Another
objection to sowing broad cast is, the utter
lmpossbllity Of making q uniform distribu.
ton of seed. II. however. this method is
practlsed, the seed should be sown lust be-
fore rain, having the surface Of the field
made as smooth and level az may be, and
no covering attempted.
9TH Sow the seed as early in the season
as good preparation of The soil can be
made.
5ih. An acre, will, distances as before
mentioned, will contain 1876 ,020 plants.
aud unless there be an unnecessary waste
OF seed. one pint will prove sufficient for
an acre.
9th. The growth Of the plant will be So
rapid as not to reqnlr" or even admit Of,
much cultivation. The plants should b.
'h'nned out when small. and all Iuxurian,
] q Iot ,,t, 4,
or check their growth. The poppy is
very hardy mot liable to be destroyed by
any insects, or injured by early fros,s.
9TH Reap it as you d. wheat, and bind
in bundles. Thresh It upon the barn floor.
(which should be very tight in the same
manner "a wheat, and separate the seed
from the broken capsules and stalks with
q wire seive.
The oil may be extracted in the same
manner as faxseed-and the roller aud
plate used in the first operation upon fax
seed is well adapted for poppy seed. Az
Ter it has passed through The rollers.
portion Of the oil may be taken gu, for ia
BILE use. and the cake then broken up. and
ground under the stone in the same mans
ner as haxseed-and after heating in tn,
cylinder, The remainder Of tie oil may be
expressed. The cold expressed oil is very
valuable for many purposes. The gen.
ulne Macassar oil, for improving and beau
tfylng the human hair, is the oil Of the
poppy seed. The article is often coun-
'erielted at present, by substituting fine
olive oil for the poppy. This deception
may detect ed in cold wether-the olive oil
losing entirely It's hudity, while the poppy
oil lie not in the least affected by the mos,
intense degrees Of cold.
The quantity of seed an acre oil land will
produce, must depend very much on the
soil and cultivation. II the plants stand
slngly upon good soil the distances above
mentioned. each one will produce from 4
10 heads. or capsules, averaging through
ou' the field to every plant, making $50.
100 to The acre. OF those | raised last
season, II often produced one gill of seed
but this was measured before it was
quite dry-so thu, in estimating the aver-
age quantity, we will say 25 heads TO tbs
gull. This calculation would give the en-.
ormous quantity Of $50 bushels of seed u
the acre.
The experiment has not been made on
an acre OF ground, which it must be ac-
knowledge is the iarest way Of les, rng tho
produciveness Of any crop-but 1t will DO
found practically true. that an acre of good
land, we'll fitted will produce 10000
poppy plants, of vigorous growth, avern.
glng seed capsules each and 10 proof OF
the quantity OF seed they contain, you have
but TO examine those send you. ! shall
{ be able to furnish you with the results If
further experiments, as early As the com.
ing October, and will send you some ofthe
seed capsules entlre-that you may dlstrib-
. ute them among your friends if they are