Rajputana.—In none of the ancient heroic poems of Hindustan is opium ever alluded to ; the guest is often mentioned in them as welcomed by the munwar piala, or cup of greeting,' but nowhere by the uml-pani, or infused opiate,' which in Rajputana has usurped the place of the phul-ra arrac, or essence of flowers.' Rajputs used the opiate in its crudest form, by simply bruising the capsules, which they steeped a certain time in water, afterwards drinking the infusion, to which they gave the name of tejarro,' and not unfre quently post," the poppy capsule ;' and this prac tice still prevails in the remote parts of Rajputana, and in parts of the Panjab.
11Ialwa.—The culture of the poppy for opium seems to have been at first confined to the Doab tract between the Chambal and Sepra, from their sources to their junction ; whence it spread throughout Malwa, and into various parts of Rajputana,"especially Mewar and Harauti. Kunbi and Jat, and Bauya and Brahman, try the cul ture, but the Kunbi extracts one - fifth more from the plant than any of his competitors. In Rajputana the cultivation of opium increased in the inverse ratio of general prosperity,; as war, pestilence, and famine augmented their virulence and depopulated the country, so did the culture ' of the poppy appear to thrive. The predatory system which succeeded Moghul despotism gradu ally restricted the harvests of barley, wheat, and gram to a bare sustenance for the families of the cultivator, who then found a substitute in the poppy. From the small extent of its culture, he was able to watch it, or to pay for its protection from pillage ; this he could not do for his corn, which a troop of horse might save him the trouble of cutting. The maximum of oppression in Mewar was the maximum of the culture of the poppy in Malwa. Emigration commenced in S. 1840 (A.D. 1784) ; it was at its height in S. 1856 (A.D. 1800), and went on gradually depopulating that country until S. 1874 (A.D. 1818). Its consump tion, of course, kept pace with its production, it having found a vent in foreign markets. The districts to which the emigrants fled were those of Mundisore, Kachrode, Oneil, and others situated on the feeders of the Chambal, in its course through Lower Malwa. There they enjoyed comparative protection and kind treatment, under Appa Sahib and his father, who were long the farmers-general of these fertile lands. Appa advanced funds, and appointed them lauds, all fertile though neglected, in which they excavated wells for themselves. They abandoned altogether wheat and barley, growing only inakki or Indian corn' for food, which requires no irrigation, and to which the poppy succeeds in rotation ; to these and the sugar - cane, all their industry was directed. From the year S. 1840 (A.D. 1784) to S. 1857 (A.D. 1801), the market price of the crude opium from the cultivator ran from sixteen to twenty - one salimshahi rupees per durri, measure of five pucka seers, each seer being the weight of ninety salimshahi rupees. This was
the price of the drug by the grower in the first stage, and a better criterion than that of the manufacturer in its prepared state. Iu the year S. 1857, it rose to twenty-five rupees ; in S. 1860 to twenty-seven, gradually increasing till S. 1865 (A.D. 1809), when it attained its maximum of forty-two, or an advance of one hundred and seventy per cent. above the price of the year A.D. 1784 ; after which it gradually fell until S. 1870 (A.D. 1814), when it was so low as twenty nine. In S. 1873 it had again risen to thirty-three, and in S. 1874-75, when its transit to the ports of Sind and Gujerat was unmolested (whence it was exported to China and the Archipelago), it had reached thirty-eight and thirty-nine, where in S. 1876 (or A.D. 1820) it stood. In Kanthul (which includes Partabgurh Deola), or the tracts upon the Myhie river, opium was, about A.D. 1820, cultivated to a great extent, and adulterated in an extraordinary manner.
Writing about 1842, Dr. Impey reported that for the successful cultivation of opium, a mild climate, plentiful irrigation, a rich soil, and dili gent husbandry, are indispensable. In reference to the first of these, Malwa is placed most favour ably. The country is in general from 1300 to 2000 feet above the level of the sea ; the mean temperature is moderate, and range of the ther mometer small. The poppy is always cultivated in ground near a tank or running stream, so as to be insured at all times of an abundant supply of water. The rich black loam, known by the name of cotton soil, is that preferred there for opium. Though fertile and rich enough to pro duce thirty successive crops of without fallowing, it is not sufficiently rich for the growth of the poppy until largely supplied with manure. There is, in fact, no crop known to the agricul turist, unless sugar-cane, that requires so much care and labour as the poppy. The ground is first four times ploughed on four successive days, then carefully harrowed ; when manure, at the rate of from eight to ten cartloads an acre, is applied to it. This is scarcely half what is allowed a turnip crop in Britain. The crop is after this watered once every eight or ten days, the total number of waterings never exceeding nine in all. One bigha takes two days to soak thoroughly in the cold weather, and four as the hot season approaches. Water applied after the petals drop from the flower, causes the whole to wither and decay. When the plants are six inches high, they are weeded and thinned, leaving about a foot and a half betwixt each plant ; in three months they roach maturity, and are then about four feet in height if well cultivated. The full-grown seed-pod measures three and a half inches vertically, and two and a half in horizontal diameter.