Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.59

v3.c43.t1.59

One bigha of Malwa land, of the measure Shahjahani (when the *jarib*, or rod, is one hundred cubits long), will yield from five to fifteen sers of opium-juice, each ser being forty-five Salimshahi¹ rupees in weight: the medium is reckoned a good produce. The cultivator or farmer sells it, in the state described, to the speculator, at the price current of the day. The purchaser puts it into cotton bags of three folds, and carries it home. Having obtained the leaves of the poppy, he spreads them in a heap of two or three inches in depth, and thereon deposits the opium, in balls of fifteen rupees’ weight each, which are allowed to remain five months for the purpose of evaporation. If the milk has been thin, or treated with oil, seven parts in ten will remain; but if good and pure, eight. The *beoparis* (speculators) then sell it, either for home-consumption in Rajputana, or for exportation.