upon it; why may not the farmer of this country? Five hundred thousand
pounds of opium are sold every year in our drug stores, but it has been
thought that the drug could only be raised in the East. This is a
mistake. The French farmers sold 5,000,000 francs worth last year. It
yields a net profit of $25 an acre and requires little culture. It may
yet become a rival of King Cotton in our Southern States, but those who
are wide-awake enough to be the first in the field will reap the lion’s
share of this new bidder for our enterprise.