(See Encycl.), is a medicine of such intrinsic value, and of so high a price, that every method which promises to increase the quantity in the market must be of importance. It was therefore, with much propriety, that the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., some time ago, voted 50 guineas to Mr John Ball of Williton, Somersetshire, for the discovery of his method of preparing opium from poppies of the growth of England. The poppies, which he recommends as the most productive, are the double or semi-double, of a dark colour; the seeds of which he advises to be sown the latter end of February, and again about the second week in March, in beds three feet and a half wide (well prepared with good rotten dung, and often turned or ploughed, in order to mix it well, and have it fine), either in small drills, three in each bed, in the manner salads are sown, and when about two inches high, to thin them one foot apart; or otherwise, to sow them in beds, in the broad-cult way, and thin them to the same distance. If they be kept free from weeds, they will grow well, and will produce from four to ten heads, shewing large and different coloured flowers; and when their leaves die away, and drop off, the pods then being in a green state, is the proper time for extracting the opium, by making such longitudinal incisions as are, for this purpose, made in the eat (See Opium and PAFVER, Encycl.). Immediately on the incision being made, a milky fluid will issue out; which is the opium, and which, being of a glutinous nature, will adhere to the bottom of the incision; but some poppies are so productive, that it will drop from the pod on the leaves underneath. The next day, if the weather should be fine, and a good deal of sunshine, the opium will be found a greyish substance, and some almost turning black; it is then to be scraped from the pods, and (if any there) from the leaves, with the edge of a knife, or other instrument for that purpose, into pans or pots; and in a day or two it will be of a proper consistence to make into a mass, and to be potted.

According to Mr Ball, fields cannot be sown with anything more lucrative to the farmer than poppies, especially if those fields have a south exposure. "By a calculation (says he) which I have made, supposing one poppy to grow in one square foot of earth, and to produce only one grain of opium, more than L50 will be collected from one statute acre of land; but if we consider, that one poppy produces from three or four to ten heads, that in each head from five to ten incisions may be made, and that from many of them (I mean from one incision) I have taken away two or three grains of opium—What must then be the produce?"

Mr Ball produced to the Society letters from Dr Latham of Bedford-row, Dr Pearson of Leicester-square, and Mr Wilson of Bedford-street, declaring, that, in their opinion, his English opium is equal in effect, and superior in purity, to the best foreign opium.