Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1879 — Poppy Culture. [ARTICLE]

Poppy Culture.

The way the opium flower is cultivatted on the high tablej lands of Asia Minor, is thus described in the Denier Tribune by an old resident of that country: In the spring, as soon as the snow leaves the ground at the commencement pf April, the ground is scratched ovef a second time, but across the previous scratching in the fall, and then the clods are crushed by spiked heavy wooden rollers, in order to pulverize the ground. Then the seed is cast in like wheat, and a kind of a rake,~ madeof thorn bushes, weighted with stones, is passed over the field in order to cover the seed. Nothing more is required. In the middle of Junethe flowers begin to appear, and toward the end of June the poppy heads have grown their full size, and the seed grains formed. The poppy heads ate filled with a milk-like, bitter juice

I This forms the opium. Before the seeds commence to ripen, and the juice dries up, the opium is gathered. This is done by making in the afternoon, after the great heat has passed away, a alight incision on the lower part of the poppy heads. In the night juice oozes out of the incision, and becomes sticky and of brownish color, by absorbing oxygen. Every day in the morning, shortly after sunrise, and after the drying up of the dew, the opium is scratched off the poppy heads. This is mostly children’s and women’s work. After the poppy heads give out no more juice, they are left tn ripen, and after being quite dry are broken off the stems, thrashed, and the seed separated. Great care must be taken in breaking off the heads of the stems, as by careless handling all the seed grains, or at least a great part of them, are spilt. This seed is not fit for sowing, but furnishes very fine oil, and is pounded up into a paste in a mortar, and mixed with honey or white molasses —an excellent addition to many kinds of cakes and pastry.