Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/172

164 KHE must continue to be dug and irrigated every two weeks; the roots thug imbibe moisture and the plant springs up large and luxuriant. “In the process of irrigation care should be taken not to allow the water to exceed one inch in depth; or, in other words, the entire seedling should not be under water. It is very necessary that irrigation should be pur- sued at stated intervals of time until the collections begin. When the plants have been in bloom for some time the green capsules become lightly coated over with a fine transparent white-coloured surface, and the pods become less yielding to the touch when pressed. When this change presents itself the cultivators at once perceive that the plant has arrived to maturity and is fit for incision. Another means for recognising this is when juice exudes on breaking off the series of stigmata formed at the apex of the pod. "When the incisions commence the process should be carried on regular- ly every third day, and according to the time of collection, whether late or early in season, or the condition of the plant, whether sickly or healtby, from 2 to 7 incisions might be expected. It is to be noted that there is a wide difference between the produce of the earlier conpared with the later sowings; the former is of lower spissitude, but more abundant in bulk, whilst the latter is just the reverse, poor in quantity, but of higher and more superior consistence. "Gentle westerly winds are most favourable for our opium collections, as also for inspissating the drug when collected. Opium gathered in during the prevalence of easterly winds is scanty, because the juice does not exude freely from the incisions, and the opium collected is somewhat dark in colour from the atmospheric humidity with which it gets impregnated. The incisions should invariably be made in the afternoon, and the opera- tion of collection the next morning. " It will be necessary now to enumerate a few of the causes which con- tribute to the falling off of produce or tend to the entire destruction of the plant. Bhur bhar,' a prickly plant, is very destructive to the poppy, absorbing the nutritive qualities of the ground intended for the latter alone: these ought to be steadily rooted up ierever they make their appearance. Insects are apt very often to attack the crops. When this occurs among the early sowings the best plan is to persevere and re-sow; but when they begin their ravages after the plants have germinated and attained to some size, the following bait must be used with very great success, viz., to cut gourds or castor-oil leaves into pieces and strew them over the land. The next morning they will be covered over with the insects, as they readily forsake the poppy for the more palatable food offered to them; thus they can easily be removed and destroyed in a collective mass. The process of irrigation, too, offers a good opportunity for the insects to be destroyed by birds. There is a parasitic shrub call- ed by the natives 'tokra' which is very detrimental to the growth. of the poppy; it completely entwines itself round the root of the poppy, and gradually injures and chokes up the absorbing pores of the little poppy spongelets; being a much stronger plant, it easily overpowers the tender poppy, and so induces premature decay. The poppy plant is sub- ject, in common with other crops, to certain vegetable diseases, the two most common and most fatal are called 'purka, and khurka' in the