Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/171

 KHE 163 " From July, or when the rains set in and the ground is moist, the lands should commence to be prepared by being ploughed up, so that by the iniddle of October, according to their requirements, a liberal supply of manure might be used on them. Ploughing should), however, be suspend- ed when the fields are covered with rain-water, as it impoverishes the soil. As the season for sowing advances, or about the month of November, tocks of goats or sheep, if procurable, might be penned with very great advantage on the fields for one or more nights, as the manure thus obtain- ed operates favourably on, and is peculiarly invigorating for, the soil. The poppy, unlike many other plants, the soil of which requires what is agri- culturally termed a rotation of crops' znay be sowo on the same ground year after year with unerring regularity, as the quantity of decayed vege- table and animal manure put into the soil imparts sufficient, nourislıment to the ground to sustain andual crops of poppy without in the least degree being deteriorated by these yearly sowings. 5 Wlien the lands are ready, or about the middle of November, the early sowings may commence, and the 2nd and 3rd be concluded in all Decem- ber. The seed should be of the previous year, free from damp; it should be moistened in water the evening previous to sowing, and the next morn- ing, after being removed out of the water, it shoukl be scattered over the fields mixed with fine eartlı, at the rate of 2 seers per beegah of the large bazar weight : should the ground be dry, it inight be irrigated with ad- vantage prior to sowing. Another way is adopted in soine districts of throwing broadcast the dry seed. After sowing the land should be irri- gated the next day (if not previously done), and then on the succeeding day ploughed and liarrowed. " After a weck the beds should be made from 3 to 4 cubits in length by 2 to 2 cubits in breadth. All the beds slould be placed in consecutive Tows according to the level of the ground, so that there may be no difficul- ty in irrigating the land. A drain or outlet should intervene between every two beds for the passage of water. Lands bordering on rivers and jheels, as they retain their moisture till December, the necessity of forming beds in them does not exist on that account, as they (the beds) are only useful to facilitate the watering of crops. Wells are essentially necessary for poppy fields, and every facility and encouragement should be given to construct them wherever they are wanted. Kucha wells may be dug at a very trifling cost, which would be more than threefold repaid by the productive retums of the crops. Well water is preferred to water obtained from any other sources, such as jheels and rivers; but the cultivators from necessity are frequently obliged from the want of wells, or their great distance from the fields, to avail themselves of jheel irrigation. after being well irrigated should be carefully weeded and thinned, and the plants to be retained should be kept from 3 to 4 inches apart from each other. Two weeks after the same operations are to be practised, all the sickly and superfluous plants, together with all foreign and noxious berbs, should be removed, leaving the vigorous poppy plants at distances of 7 or 8 inches from each other. Then the process of gently digging up the soil with a hoe or spud should diligently carried out, and the fields
 * " When the plant attains to the size of two inches in height, the beds