Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-09
Papaver SOmniferum Can Be
Grown Here.
An Experimental Opium Farm
Located in VerdugO.
DR.. T. C. Monks Succeeds in PrOduc.
ing the Valuable Drug.
He Procured Seed OF the Fast Indian
Poppy and Successfully Raised 1t.
Pure Opium Worth One Hun
dred Dollars a Pound.

DR.. 7. @. Marks, physician of ex-
perience and standing, has added an
other to the long list of things that can
be proftably produced in the glorious
climate OF Southern California. The
particular substance this time is opium.
About year ago, as an experiment,
DIR. Marks sent for package OF seed of
the East Indian poppy, the Papaver
Somniferum of the botanists. This seed
he planted in the proper soil, at Yer
dugo, and the result was a fine crop of
the beautiful flowers that produce the
much abused but valuable drug, opium.
When visited by a HERALD reporter
yesterday, the doctor produced, as the
results of one mornings work, little
bunch of opium gum, about the size of
hazel nut. When the small glass cup
containing it was opened the room was
quickly filled with the nauseating odor
peculiar to opium, and the reporter was
almost obliged to leave the house, to get
his breath.
DIR. Marks says he has an abundance
OF the dust-like seed of the opium plant
which can be obtained by any one de-
string to experiment with it.
The processes of growth and manu-
facture are simple and easy. A tea
spoonful of the seed is sufficient to plant
an acre. Light. sandy soil is the best,
but not too sandy. Where there is no
frost the seed should be sown about the
middle of February, in other places as
soon as there is certain to be no more
frost, for the plant is exceedingly ten
der.
Two months after the seed is sown
the crop is gathered. By that time the
plants are up from Is inches to feet in
height, and in the mornings will show
large, pure white flowers, with
brilliant red centers, as beautiful
as an artists dream and as
evanescent as the breath on a mirror,
for the first light breeze shakes off the
delicate petals, leaving the small seed
vesicle in the center of the flower alone.
By the following day these denuded
seed vesicles are ready for treatment.
The opium grower goes along with
knife and slits each seed pod longitudin'
ally. Out of each slit exudes thick,
creamy-looking sap, which during the
day hardens, turns dark, and the follow
ing morning is ready to be gathered.
That is pure opium, and it is worth
500 per pound. The opium of COM
nerce is adulterated with other SUBJ
stances to the amount of four or five
times its bulk, and sells for from $25 to
$28 per pound. according to sits purity.
An acre of poppies should produce from.
three to FIVE pounds OF pure opium, and
the experiment is an easy one to try, as
after planting the seed requires abso-
lutely no care until the crop is ready for
gathering. Not an insect or animal will
touch the plants or flowers, so far as is
known, and in India, the opium growing
country of the world, the same ground
has been used for generations without
exhausting the land, as tobacco and
other crops are sure to do. At present
India produces about all the opium con-
sumed in the world, and the drug is
certainly high-priced enough to warrant
the trying of an experiment seemingly
as inexpensive as the growing of poppies
appears to be.