In March or April the poppy flowers according to the climate, the soil, and the location.

The opium is garnered in April or May, and prepared for the market.

The Chinese merchant values most of all the Shense drug, while the Ynnan and the Szechuen drugs take next rank.

The opium is generally made into flat cakes and wrapped up in folds of white paper.

It is said that it was introduced into China in the reign of Taitsu, between the years A.D.1280 and 1295; but it is worthy of note that up to the year 1736 it was imported only in small quantities and employed simply for its medicinal properties, as a cure for diarrhoea, dysentery, and fevers, hemorrhage and other ills.