Among the most commonly cultivated legum_The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

(_Ervum lens_), horse gram (_Dolichos biflorus_, Linn), various

species of _Cytisus_ and _Cajanus_, &c. Many of these are grown in

India as fodder plants; others for their seeds, known as gram, dholl,

&c. The _Cajanus flavus_, of Decandolle (_Cytisus Cajan_), is very

generally cultivated along the Western coast of Africa, and continues

to bear for three years. Several species of dolichos are used as food

in various countries, as _D. ensiformus_ in Jamaica, _D. tuberosus_ in

Martinique, _D. bulbosus_ and _D. lignosus_ in the East Indies.

The vessels of the North bring to Shanghae a great quantity of a dry

paste, known under the name of tanping, the residuum or husk of a

leguminous plant called Teuss, from which the Chinese extract oil, and

which is used, after being pressed, as manure for the ground. Captain

H. Biggs, in a communication to the Agri.-Hort. Soc. of India, in

1845, states that of the esculents a large white pea forms the staple

of the trade of Shanghae, or nearly so, to the astonishing amount of

two and a-half millions sterling. This he gives on the authority of

the Rev. Mr. Medhurst, of Shanghae, and Mr. Thorns, British Consul at

Ningpo. These peas are ground in a mill and then pressed, in a

somewhat complicated, though, as usual in China, a most efficient

press, by means of wedges driven under the outer parts of the

framework with mallets. The oil is used both for eating and burning,

more for the latter purpose, however, and the cake, like large

Gloucester cheese, or small grindstones in circular shape, is

distributed about China in every direction, both as food for pigs and

buffaloes, as also for manure.

We import on the average about 20,000 quarters of beans, peas, &c.,

from Ireland, 450,000 quarters of beans and 200,000 quarters of peas

from foreign countries.

The land under cultivation with pulse, and the crops raised, have been

estimated as follows:--

Acres. Quarters.

England 500,000 1,875,000

Ireland 130,000 540,000

Scotland 50,000 150,000

------- ---------

680,000 2,565,000

This is of course exclusive of garden cultivation. The average produce

of beans per acre in England is 3¾ quarters, 3½ in Ireland, and three

in Scotland.

The price of beans per quarter in the last ten years has ranged from

39s. to 27s. the quarter; peas from 40s. 6d. to 27s. 6d.

_Algaroba beans_.--The seed pods or bean of the carob-tree (_Ceratonia

siliqua_, or _Prosopis pallida_?) a tree common in the Levant and

South of Europe, are used as food. The pods contain a large proportion

of sweet fecula, and are frequently used by singers, being considered

to improve the voice. The name of St. John's Head has been applied to

them, from the supposition that they were the wild honey spoken of in

Scripture as the food of John the Baptist. About 40,000 quintals of

these carobs are annually exported from Crete. During the Peninsular

war, the horses of our cavalry were principally fed upon these

algaroba seeds. The pods of the West India locust tree, _Hymenæa

courbaril_, also supply a nutritious matter.

That well known sauce, Soy, is made in some parts of the East, from a

species of the Dolichos bean (_Soja hispida_), which grows in China

and Japan. In Java it is procured from the _Phaseolus radiatus_. The

beans are boiled soft, with wheat or barley of equal quantities, and

left for three months to ferment; salt and water are then added, when

the liquor is pressed and strained. Good soy is agreeable when a few

years old; the Japan soy is superior to the Chinese. Large quantities

are shipped for England and America. The Dolichos bean is much

cultivated in Japan, where various culinary articles are prepared from

it; but the principal are a sort of butter, termed _mico_, and a

pickle called _sooja_.

1,108 piculs of soy were shipped from Canton in 1844, for London,

British India, and Singapore. 100 jars, or about 50 gallons of soy,

were received at Liverpool in 1850. The price is about 6s. per gallon

in the London market.

THE SAGO PALMS, BREAD-FRUIT, &c.

Sago, and starchy matter allied to it, is obtained from many palms. It

is contained in the cellular tissue of the stem, and is separated by

bruising and elutriation. From the soft stem of _Cycas circinalis_, a

kind of sago is produced in the East and West Indies. The finest is,

however, procured from the stems of _Sagus lævis_ (_S. inermis_, of

Roxburgh), a native of Borneo and Sumatra; and _Arenga saccharifera_,

or _Gomutus saccharifus_, of Rumphius. The _Saguerus Rumphii_, or

_Metroxylon Sagus_, which is found in the Eastern Islands of the

Indian Ocean, yields a feculent matter. After the starchy substance is

washed out of the stems of these palms, it is then granulated so as to

form sago. The last-mentioned palm also furnishes a large supply of

sugar. Sago as well as sugar, and a kind of palm wine, are procured

from _Caryota urens_.

In China sago is obtained from _Rhapis flabelliformis_, a dwarfish

palm; and some sago is made from it for native use in Travancore,

Mysore, and Wynaad, and the jungles in the East Indies.

The trunk of the sago palm is five or six feet round, and it grows to

the height of about 20 feet. It can only be propagated by seed. It

flourishes best in bogs and swampy marshes; a good plantation being

often a bog, knee deep. The pith producing the sago is seldom of use

till the tree is fourteen or fifteen years old; and the tree does not

live longer than thirty years. Mr. Crawfurd says there are four

varieties of this palm; the cultivated, the wild, one distinguished by

long spines on the branches, and a fourth destitute of these spines,

and called by the natives female sago. This and the cultivated species

afford the best farina; the spiny variety, which has a slender trunk,

and the wild tree, yield but an inferior quality of sago. The

farinaceous matter afforded by each plant is very considerable, 500

lbs. being a frequent quantity, while 300 lbs. may be taken as the

common average produce of each tree.

Supposing the plants set at a distance of ten feet apart, an acre

would contain 435 trees, which, on coming to maturity in fifteen

years, would yield at the before-mentioned rate 120,500 lbs. annually

of farinaceous matter. The sago meal, in its raw state, will keep good

about a month. The Malays and natives of the Eastern Islands, with

whom it forms the chief article of sustenance, partially bake it in

earthenware moulds into small hard cakes, which will keep for a

considerable time. In Java the word "saga" signifies bread. The sago

palm (_Metroxylon Sagus_) is one of the smallest of its tribe, seldom

reaching to more than 30 feet in height, and grows only in a region

extending west to Celebes and Borneo, north to Mindanao, south to

Timor, and east to Papua. Ceram is its chief seat, and there large

forests of it are found. The edible farina is the central pith, which

varies considerably in different trees, and as to the time required

for its attaining proper maturity. It is eaten by the natives in the

form of pottage. A farina of an inferior kind is supplied by the

Gomuti palm (_Borassus gomutus_), another tree peculiar to the Eastern

Archipelago growing in the valleys of hilly tracts.

At so great a distance it is difficult to decide as to which of these

trees really produce the ordinary sagos of commerce, for there are

several kinds. Planche, in an excellent memoir on the sagos, has

described six species, which he distinguishes by the names of the

places from which they come. Preferring to classify them according to

their characters, M. Mayet distinguishes only three species.

The first he denominates Ancient sago, which comes from different

parts, and varies much in color. It comprehends--1st, Maldivian sago

of Planche, in spherical globules, of two or three millimetres in

diameter, translucid, of an unequal pinkish white color, very hard and

insipid. 2nd, New Guinea sago, of Planche, in rather smaller globules,

of a bright red color on one side, and white on the other. 3rd. Grey

sago of the Moluccas or brown sago of the English; of unequal

globules, from one to three millimetres in diameter, opaque, of a dull

grey color on one side, and whitish on the other. This grey color

probably arises from long keeping and humidity. 4th. Large grey sago

of the Moluccas, exactly resembling No. 3, only that the globules are

from four to eight millimetres in diameter. 5th. Fine white sago of

the Moluccas; entirely resembling No. 3, only that it is purely white,

owing to the complete edulcoration of the fecula of which it is made.

Whatever may be the places of origin of these sagos, they all possess

the following characters--

Rounded globules, generally spherical, all isolated, very hard,

elastic, and difficult to break or powder. The globules put into

water, generally swell to twice their original size, but do not adhere

together.

_Second sage_.--This species corresponds with the pinkish sago of the

Moluccas of Planche. It is in very small globules, less regular than

those of the "first sago," and sometimes stuck together to the number

of two or three. Soaked in water, it swells to double its volume.

Third Species.--_Tapioca sago_.---This name has been applied to a

species of sago now abundant in commerce, because it bears the same

relation to the ancient or first sago, and even to the preceding sago,

that tapioca bears to "Moussache," which is the fecula of the manioc,

_Janipha manihot (Manihot utilissima_).

Whilst the two preceding species of sago, whatever may have been

stated to the contrary, have been neither baked nor submitted to any

heating process, as is proved by the perfect state of nearly all their

grains of fecula, this species has been subjected to the action of

heat while in a state of a moist paste. This sago is not in spherical

globules, like the two preceding species, or at least there are but

few of the globules of that form; it is rather in the form of very

small irregular tubercular masses, formed by the adherence of

different numbers of the primary globules. The facility with which

this sago swells and is divided by water, has occasioned it to be

preferred as an article of food to the ancient sago. It has been

described by Planche under the name of the white sago of the Moluccas,

and by Dr. Pereira under the name of pearl sago.

Bennet, in his work on "Ceylon and its Capabilities," (1843), states

that sago is procured from the granulated pith of the talipot palm,

_Corypha umbraculifera_.

The _Sagus Rumphii_, Willdenow, and _S. farinifera_, Gaertner.--Before

maturity, and previous to the formation of the fruit, the stem

consists of a thin hard wall, about two inches thick, and of an

enormous volume of tissue (commonly termed the _medulla_ or _pith_),

from which the farina or sago is obtained. As the fruit forms, the

farinaceous medulla disappears, and when the tree, attains full

maturity, the stem is no more than a hollow shell. Sago occurs in

commerce in two states, pulverulent and granulated. 1. The meal or

flour as imported in the form of a fine amylaceous powder. It is

whitish, with a buffy or reddish tint. Its odor is faint, but somewhat

unpleasant and musty. 2. Granulated sago is of two kinds, pearl and

common brown. The former occurs in small hard grains, not exceeding in

size that of a pin's head, inodorous, and having little taste. They

have a brownish or pinkish yellow tint, and are somewhat translucent.

By the aid of a solution of chloride of lime they can be bleached, and

rendered perfectly white. The dealers, it is said, pay £7 per ton for

bleaching it. Common sago occurs in larger grains, about the size of

pearl barley, which are brownish white.

Sago is an article of exportation to Europe, and is also shipped to

India, principally Bengal, and to China. It is in its granulated form

that it is usually sent abroad. The best sago is the produce of Siak,

on the north coast of Sumatra. This is of a light brown color, the

grains large, and not easily broken. The sago of Borneo is the next in

value; it is whiter, but more friable. The produce of the Moluccas,

though greatest in quantity, is of the smallest estimation. The cost

of granulated sago, from the hands of the grower or producer, was,

according to Mr. Crawfurd, only a dollar a picul. It fetches in the

London market--common pearl, 20s. to 26s. the cwt., sago flour, 20s.

the cwt. The Chinese of Malacca and Singapore have invented a process

by which they refine sago, so as to give it a fine pearly lustre, and

it is from thence we now principally derive our supplies of this

article. The exports from Singapore in 1847 exceeded 6½ million

pounds, but are now much larger.

The following is a description of the manufacture of this important

article of commerce:--The tree being cut down, the exterior bark is

removed, and the heart, or pith of the palm, a soft, white, spongy and

mealy substance is gathered; and for the purpose of distant

transportation, it is put into conical bags, made of plantain leaves,

and neatly tied up. In that state it is called by the Malays _Sangoo

tampin_, or bundles of sago; each bundle weighs about 30 lbs.

On its arrival at Singapore it is purchased by the Chinese

manufacturers of sago, and is thus treated:--Upon being carried to the

manufactory, the plantain-leaf covering is removed, and the raw sago,

imparting a strong acid odor, is bruised, and is put into large tubs

of cold spring water, where it undergoes a process of purification by

being stirred, suffered to repose, and again re-stirred in

newly-introduced water. When well purified thus, it is taken out of

the tubs by means of small vessels; and being mixed with a great deal

of water, the liquid is gently poured upon a large and slightly

inclined trough, about ten inches in height and width; and in the

descent towards the depressed end, the sago is deposited in the bottom

of the trough, whilst the water flows into another large tub, where

what may remain of sago is finally deposited. As the strata of

deposited sago increases in the trough, small pieces of slates are

adjusted to its lower end to prevent the escape of the substance. When

by this pouring process the trough becomes quite full of sago, it is

then removed to make room for a fresh one, whilst the former one is

put out into the air, under cover, for a short time; and on its being

well dried, the sago within is cut into square pieces and taken out to

be thoroughly dried, under cover, to protect it from the sun. It has

then lost the acid smell already noticed, and has become quite white.

After one day's drying thus, it is taken into what may be called the

manufactory, a long shed, open in front and on one side, and closed at

the other and in the rear. Here the lumps of sago are broken up, and

are reduced into an impalpable flour, which is passed through a sieve.

The lumps, which are retained by the sieve are put back to be

re-bruised, whilst that portion which has passed is collected, and is

placed in a long cloth bag, the gathered ends of which, like those of

a hammock, are attached to a pole, which pole being suspended to a

beam of the building by a rope, one end of it is sharply thrown

forward with a particular jerk, by means of which the sago within is

shortly granulated very fine, and becomes what is technically termed

"pearled." It is then taken out and put into iron vessels, called

_quallies_, for the purpose of being dried. These quallies are small

elliptical pans, and resemble in form the sugar coppers of the West

Indies, and would each hold about five gallons of fluid. They are set

a little inclining, and in a range, over a line of furnaces, each one

having its own fire. Before putting in the sago to be dried, a cloth,

which contains a small quantity of hog's-lard, or some oily substance,

is hastily passed into the qually, and the sago is equally quickly put

into it, and a Chinese laborer who attends it, commences stirring it

with a _pallit_, and thus continues his labor during the few minutes

necessary to expel the moisture contained in the substance. Thus each

qually, containing about ten pounds of sago, requires the attendance

of a man. The sago, on being taken off the fire, is spread out to cool

on large tables, after which it is fit to be packed in boxes, or put

into bags for shipment; and is known in commerce under the name of

"pearl sago." Thus the labor of fifteen or twenty men is required to

do that which, with the aid of simple machinery, might be done much

better by three or four laborers. A water-wheel would both work a

stirring machine and cause an inclined cylinder to revolve over a

fire, for the purpose of drying the sago, in the manner used for corn,

meal, and flour in America, or for roasting coffee and chicory in

England. But the Chinese have no idea of substituting artificial

means, when manual ones are obtainable.

A considerable quantity of sago is exported from Singapore in the

state of flour. The whole quantity made and exported there exceeds, on

the average, 2,500 tons annually. The quantity shipped from this

entrepot is shown by the annexed returns, nearly all of which was

grown and manufactured in the settlement. The estimated value for

export is set down at 14s. per picul of 1¼ cwt.

EXPORTS FROM SINGAPORE.

Piculs

1840-41 Pearl sago 41,146

" Sago flour 33,552

1841-42 Pearl sago 46,225

" Sago flour 7,447

1842-43 Pearl sago 25,306

" Sago flour 4,838

1843-44 Pearl sago 14,266

" Sago flour 14,067

1844-45 Pearl sago 18,472

" Sago flour 36,141

1845-46 Pearl sago 19,333

" Sago flour 26,925

1846-47 Pearl sago 40,765

" Sago flour 9,025

Imports of sago into the United Kingdom, and quantity retained for

home consumption:--

Imports. Home consumption.

Cwts. Cwts.

1826 9,644 2,565

1830 2,677 3,385

1834 25,763 13,827

1838 18,627 28,396

1842 45,646 50,994

1846 38,595 45,671

1848 65,000

1849 83,711 72,741

1850 89,884 83,954

THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE.

_Artocarpus incisa_.--This tree is less cultivated than would be

supposed from its useful properties. In the West Indies and the Indian

Islands, where it has been introduced from its native place, the South

Sea Islands, it is held in very little consideration, the graminea,

tuberous roots, and farinaceous plants being more easily and readily

cultivated. There are two or three varieties known in the Asiatic

regions. The properties of this tree are thus enumerated by

Hooker:--The fruit serves for food; clothes are made from the fibres

of the inner bark; the wood is used for building houses and making

boats; the male catkins are employed as tinder; the leaves for table

cloths and for wrapping provisions in; and the viscid milky juice

affords birdlime.

_A. integrifolia_is the Jack or Jacca, the fruit of which attains a

large size, sometimes weighing 30 lbs., but is inferior in quality to

the bread-fruit.

The nuts or fruit of _Brosimum Alicastrum_, an evergreen shrub, native

of Jamaica, are nutritious and agreeable articles of food. When boiled

with salt fish, pork or beef, they have frequently been the support of

the negroes and poorer sorts of white people in times of scarcity, and

proved a wholesome and not unpleasant food; when roasted it eats

something like our common chesnut, and is called bread-nut.

_Kafir Bread_.--According to Thunberg, the Hottentots being very

little acquainted with agriculture, or with the use of the cerealia,

and subsisting principally upon wild bulbs and fruits, obtain food

also from _Encephalartos caffer_, a species of _Zamia_, with a

cylindrical trunk, the thickness of a man's body, and about seven feet

high. Having cut down a tree, they took out the pith, that nearly

fills its trunk, and which abounds in mucilage and an amylaceous

fluid; after keeping this for some time buried under ground in the

skin of an animal, they reduced it by pounding and kneading into a

kind of paste; and then baked it in hot ashes, in the form of round

cakes, nearly an inch thick. The Dutch colonists, in consequence of

this practice of the natives, called the plant brood-boon, which

signifies literally bread tree.

THE PLANTAIN AND BANANA.

The several varieties of the edible plantain which are known and

cultivated throughout the West Indies, Africa, and in the East are all

reducible to two classes, viz., the Plantain and the Banana (_Musa

Paradisiaca_and _sapientum_). The difference between these two plants

is even so slight as to be scarcely specific; it is therefore most

probable that there was originally but one stock, from which they

have, by cultivation and change of locality, been derived.

The tiger plantain (_M. maculata_) and the black ditto (_M.

sylvestris_) are cultivated in Jamaica. The whole of the species and

varieties of the tribe are what are called polygamous monoecious

plants, each individual tree bearing the male and female organs of

reproduction.

The plantain and its varieties invariably bear male, female and

hermaphrodite flowers within the same spathe, all of them being

imperfect and consequently unproductive of seed. An individual may,

even from excess of culture, moisture, &c., be entirely incapable of

flowering. During the prevalence of a disease or blight among the

plantain walks of Demerara in the years 1844 and 1845, it was

seriously proposed to introduce male plantains, or obtain fresh stock

by seed.

It is, therefore, necessary to determine with exactness, if possible,

whether the Plantain or Banana, (whichever be the parent stock) exists

anywhere at present, or has been known to have existed as a perfect

plant, that is bearing fertile seeds; or, whether it has always

existed in the imperfect state, that is, incapable of being procreated

by seed, the only state in which it at present exists in our colonies.

Whether Linnæus be right in his conjecture (Spec. Plant, 1763) that

the "Bihai" (_Heliconia humilis_), a native of Caraccas, which

produces fertile seeds, is the stock plant of the plantain, it is

almost impossible to ascertain; but the absence of any description of

a wild seed-bearing plantain, renders it highly probable that the

cultivated species are hybrids produced long ago. The banana, from

time immemorial, has been the food of the philosophers and sages of

the East, and almost all travellers throughout the tropics have

described these plants exactly as they are known to us, either as

sweet fruit eaten raw, or a farinaceous vegetable roasted or boiled.

It is remarkable that the plantain and banana should be indigenous, or

at all events cultivated for ages both in the Old and New World.

Numerous South American travellers describe some one of these plants

as being indigenous articles of food among the natives, thus showing

(if the plantain and its varieties be hybrids) a communication between

the tropics of America, Asia and Africa, long before the time of

Columbus. The older writers on the colony of Guiana, as Hartsinck,

Bellin and others, consider the plantain to be a native. It is

remarkable that Sir R. Schomburgk, during his travels, found a large

species of edible plantain far in the interior. It appears, therefore,

from all the investigations that have been made, that the plantain is

either a hybrid, or its power of production from seed has been

destroyed long ago by cultivation, and that it is not known to exist

anywhere in a perfect state; in which case any attempt to improve the

present stock by the introduction of suckers from elsewhere, must be

totally futile. Mr. A. Garnett recommends the following system of

cultivation, as calculated to prevent the blight. The walk or

plantation is to be formed into beds 36 feet wide, divided by open

drains 30 inches deep. Two rows of plantains to be planted upon each

bed at 18 feet distance, both between and along the rows, to afford a

clear ventilation to the enlarging plants, and so soon as the

plantation has been established, the space of land between each row to

be shovel-ploughed 12 inches deep; the same to be repeated annually,

and upon the interspace may be planted maize, yams, sugar cane, or

eddoes, and the whole kept clear at all times. Thus, with the

conjoined principles of good tillage, free ventilation, and mixed

crops, the blight may yet be successfully combated.

A great diminution in the cultivation of the plantain has been

occasioned in British Guiana by this blight or disease, which first

made its destructive appearance in Essequibo, upwards of thirty years

ago, where its ravages increased with such fatal intensity as to

render the profitable growth of the plant almost hopeless; and up to

this hour no one has been able to discover the immediate or remote

cause of this extraordinary vegetable endemic; whether arising from

the action of insects among the sheathes of the petioles of the

leaves, or in the soil, or from organic decay of the plant, remains

without solution. The last-named cause seems to be rejected, by the

fact that the fructification of the plant is as healthy and abundant

in parts of the colony where the blight does not prevail, both in

number and size of the fruit upon the spike, as at any former period.

On the east coast of Demerara, both the plantain and banana have been

grown for more than twenty years upon the same land, without any

attack of the disease, and without any extraneous manure or even lime

having been applied, and the plants still exhibit great luxuriance,

and produce their former weight of fruit.

The foliage of the plantain affords food and bedding, and is used for

thatch, making paper, and basket making; and from its petioles is

obtained a fine and durable thread. The tops of the young plants are

eaten as a delicate vegetable; the fermented juice of the trunk

produces an agreeable wine.

The abundance and excellence of the nutritive food which the plants of

this valuable genus supply are well known; but of the numerous uses to

which they are applied I may mention, the following:--

The fruit is served up both raw and stewed; slices fried are also

considered a delicacy. Plantains are sometimes boiled and eaten with

salt meat, and pounded and made into puddings, and used in various

other ways. In their ripe state these fruits contain much starchy

matter. From their spurious stems, the fibres of the spiral vessels

may be pulled out in such quantity as to be used for tinder. _M.

textilis_ yields a fibre which is used in India in the manufacture of

fine muslins, and the coarser woody tissue is exported in large

quantities from Manila, under the name of white rope or Manila hemp.

Horses, cattle, swine, and other domestic animals are fed upon the

fruit, leaves, and succulent trunks.

The same extent of ground which in wheat would only maintain two

persons, will yield sustenance under the banana to fifty. That eminent

naturalist and elegant writer, the Baron Von Humboldt, states

("Political Essay on New Spain," vol. ii.) that an acre of land

cultivated with plantains produces nearly twenty times as much food as

the like space sown with corn in Europe. He refers to a place in

Venezuela, where the most careful tillage was rendered to a piece of

land, yielding produce supporting a humble population residing in

huts, each placed in the centre of an enclosure, growing the sugar

cane, Indian corn, the Papaw tree, and the Musa--a tropical

garden!--upon the elaborate culture of which a whole family relied for

subsistence.

Although from the extensive plantain walks in our colonies--which are

seldom cultivated with a garden-like care--so large an average

proportion may not be obtained as twenty times the production of wheat

in Europe, yet I have had practical experience of the prodigious

quantity of farinaceous matter obtainable from an acre of tolerably

well-cultivated plantains, and no esculent plant requires less labor

in its culture upon land suitable for its production. They are readily

increased by suckers, which the old plants produce in abundance.

Lindley enumerates ten species of Musa, some of which grow to the

height of 25 or 30 feet, but that valuable species _M. Cavendishii_,

does not grow more than four or five feet high.

The bananas of the family of the Musaceæ, appear to be natives of the

southern portion of the Asiatic continent (R. Brown, "Bot. of Congo,"

p. 51). Transplanted at an unknown epoch into the Indian Archipelago

and Africa, they have spread also into the, New World, and in general

into all intertropical countries, sometimes before the arrival of

Europeans.

According to Humboldt it affords, in a given extent of ground,

forty-four times more nutritive matter than the potato, and 133 times

more than wheat. These figures must be considered as only

approximative, since nothing is more difficult than to estimate the

nutritive qualities of different aliments.

_Musa paradisiaca_ is cultivated in Syria, to latitude 34 deg.

Humboldt says it ceases to yield fruit at a height of 3,000 feet,

where the mean annual temperature is 68 deg., and where, probably, the

heat of summer is deficient.

The banana seems, however, to be found no higher than 4,600 feet in a

state of perfection.

No fruit is so easily cultivated as are the varieties of the plantain.

There is hardly a cottage in the tropics that is not partly shaded by

them; and it is successfully grown under other fruit trees, although

it is independent of shelter. Its succulent roots and dew-attracting

leaves render it useful in keeping the ground moist during the

greatest heats. The plantain may be deemed the most valuable of

fruits, since it will, in some measure, supply the place of grain in

time of scarcity. To the negroes in the West Indian Islands the

plantain is invaluable, and, like bread to the Europeans, is with them

denominated the staff of life. In Jamaica, Demerara, Trinidad, and

other principal colonies, many thousand acres are planted with these

trees.

The vegetation of this tree is so rapid that if a line of thread be

drawn across, and on a level with the top of one of the leaves, when

it begins to expand, it will be seen, in the course of an hour, to

have grown nearly an inch. The fruit when ripe is of a pale yellow,

about a foot in length and two inches thick, and is produced in

bunches so large as each to weigh 40 lbs. and upwards.

The soil best suited to the growth of the plantain is found in the

virgin land most recently taken in from the forest, having a formation

of clay and decomposed vegetable substances. A large portion of

organic matter is required, as well as clay or other ponderous strata,

to afford the greatest production of fruit. I have known good

plantains produced in the West Indies, upon land considerably

exhausted by the culture of cotton, but which was enriched by the

application of a quantity of the decomposed seed of that shrub near

the roots of the young plantains.

In the Straits' settlements of the East, the following are the most

approved varieties:--The royal plantain, which fruits in eight months;

one which bears in a year, the milk plantain, the downy plantain, and

the golden plantain or banana. A species termed _gindy_ has been

lately imported from Madras, where it is in great request. It has this

advantage over the other kinds, that it can be stewed down like an

apple while they remain tough.

The Malays allege that they can produce new varieties, by planting

three shoots of different sorts together, and by cutting the shoots

down to the ground three successive times, when they have reached the

height of nine or ten inches.

About 144 suckers of the plantain are set on an orlong (1-1/3 acres),

each of which spreads into a group of six or eight stems, of about six

inches to one foot in diameter, which yield each a bunch of fruit, and

are then cut down, when fresh shoots succeed. In very rich soils the

plant will continue to bear for twenty years, but otherwise it is dug

up after the seventh or eighth year. The cost of cultivating 100

orlongs of land exclusively with plantains, will be nearly 2,000

Spanish dollars until produce be obtained. About 43,200 bunches may be

had afterwards yearly, which might give a return of 2,160 dollars, or,

deducting the cost of cultivation and original expenses, a profit per

annum of 1,450 dollars.

The plantain has frequently been suggested as an article of export

from our colonies. A few bunches are occasionally brought over by the

Royal West India Mail Company's steamers running to Southampton, but

more as a curiosity than as articles of commerce.

In its ripe state no unexceptionable and sufficiently cheap method of

preserving it has yet been suggested.

In some districts of Mexico it is, indeed, dried in the sun, and in

this state forms a considerable article of internal commerce under the

name of "plantado pasado."

It is sometimes so abundant and cheap in Demerara, Jamaica, Trinidad,

and other of our colonies, that it might, if cut and dried, in its

green state, be exported with advantage.

It is in the unripe state that it is so largely used by the peasantry

of the colonies as an article of food. It has always been believed to

be highly nutritive, but Dr. Shier states that, in any sample of the

dried plantain which he analysed, he could not find a larger amount

than 88 per cent of nitrogen, which corresponds with about 5½ per

cent. of proteine compounds.

When dried, and reduced to the state of meal, it cannot, like wheat

flour, be manufactured into maccaroni or vermicelli, or at least the

maccaroni made from it falls to powder when put into hot water. The

fresh plantain, however, when boiled whole, forms a pretty dense firm

mass, of greater consistency and toughness than the potato. The mass,

beaten in a mortar, constitutes the _foo-foo_ of the negroes. The

plantain meal cannot be got into this state unless by mixing it up

with water to form a stiff dough, and then boiling it in shapes or

bound in cloths.

Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off the husk of the plantain,

slicing the core, and drying it the sun. When thoroughly dry it is

powdered and sifted. It is known among the Creoles of the West Indies

under the name of _Conquin tay_. It has a fragrant odour, acquired in

drying, somewhat resembling fresh hay or tea. It is largely employed

as the food of infants, children, and invalids. As food for children

and convalescents, it would probably be much esteemed in Europe, and

it deserves a trial on account of its fragrance, and its being

exceedingly easy of digestion. In respect of nutritiveness, it

deserves a preference over all the pure starches on account of the

proteine compounds it contains.

The plantain meal would probably be best and freshest were the sliced

and dried plantain cores exported, leaving the grinding and sifting to

be done in Europe. The flavor of the meal depends a good deal on the

rapidity with which the slices are dried; hence the operation is only

fitted for dry weather, unless indeed, when there was occasion for it,

resource were had to a kiln or stove. Above all, the plantain must not

be allowed to approach too closely to yellowness or ripeness,

otherwise it becomes impossible to dry it. The color of the meal is

injured when steel knives are used in husking or slicing, but silver

or nickel blades do not injure the color. On the large scale a

machine, on the principle of the turnip slicer, might be employed. The

husking could be greatly facilitated by a very simple machine. Were

the plantain meal to come into use in England, and bear a price in any

way approaching to that of Bermuda arrowroot, it would become an

extensive and very profitable export. Full-sized and well-filled

bunches give 60 per cent. of core to 40 of husk and top-stem, but in

general it would be found that the core did not much exceed 50 per

cent., and the fresh core will yield 40 per cent. of dry meal, so that

from 20 to 25 per cent. of meal is obtained from the plantain, or 5

lbs. from an average bunch of 25 lbs.; and an acre of plantain walk of

average quality, producing during the year 450 such bunches, would

yield a ton and 10 lbs. of meal, which, at the price of arrowroot,

namely, 1s. per lb., would be a gross return of £112 10s. per acre. A

new plantain walk would give twice as much. Even supposing the meal

not to command over half the price of arrowroot, it would still form

an excellent outlet for plantains whenever, from any cause, the price

in the colony sank unusually low.

In respect of the choice of a situation for establishing a plantain

walk, with a mill, boiling-house and drying ground, it will be

necessary to fix upon new land with plenty of moisture, and flat if

possible, in order that there may be no difficulty in making roads to

carry the trees; whilst a deep river traversing the land, where there

is no tide or danger of salt water--where facility would be afforded

in making the basins wherein to wash the fibre; where a sea port would

be near at hand for shipping the produce--where workmen, provisions,

and fuel would be readily obtained, and where the climate is

particularly healthy, should be especially sought after.

The plantain grows in profusion between the tropics in all parts of

the world; but as it is an object to have the London market available

for the prepared fibre, the following places may be mentioned as best

calculated to produce a good and constant supply, viz:--the West India

Colonies, the British Colonies in Africa, the South American

Republics, along the Mosquito shore, and other places on the Continent

of America, including Porto Rico, Hayti, and Cuba. The advantages to

the paper manufacturer in employing the prepared fibre instead of

rags, will be numerous, for the fibre is equal in texture, clean, and

aromatic; whilst rags are dirty, full of vermin, and very often

pestilential.

A large stock of the plantain can always be secured, without fear of

its being injured by keeping. The paper will be superior to that made

of rags, and the process of making it will be more economical,

inasmuch as the _sorting_ of the material will not be required.

Another advantage is, that a new article of commerce will be opened

for the benefit of the colonial shipping interests, and a stimulus

will be given to the cultivation of a fruit which is the favorite food

of large masses of the population.

The following is a "specification" of articles requisite for making

three tons of prepared fibre in a day:--

Four wooden boilers lined with lead, in the form of coolers, 7 feet

deep by 6 in diameter. One hydraulic press, from 400 to 500 tons. One

stout screw press, to compress the fibre before it is submitted to the

hydraulic press. One iron mill with horizontal cylinders. Six waggons;

twenty mules. Utensils, such as spatulas, cutlasses, hoes, rakes, &c.

&c. One lever, to take out the fibre from the boilers. One steam

boiler, equal to 12-horse power, to steam the four wooden boilers.

It being very desirable that the works should be in the immediate

neighbourhood of a river, the machinery should be worked by

water-power; but if this mode should be inconvenient, a steam engine

in addition must be obtained, of about 8 or 10-horse power; or if one

steam engine of 20-horse power were employed, it would be sufficient

for all purposes. Thirty men are required to make three tons of fibre

in a day.

_Buildings_.--A store, 100 feet long by 25 feet broad, in wood,

covered with straw, to contain the dried fibre and the presses. One

open shed of the same dimensions, covered with straw for the boilers.

_Capital required_.--It is ascertained that the following outlay will

be sufficient:--

The materials will cost £2,000

Buildings 500

Purchase of land 1,500

Working capital 1,000

------

£5,000

The estimated expense in cultivating one quarree, or 5 1-5th English

acres, in plantains, will be £30, as the work can be easily performed

by one laborer in 300 days, at 2s. sterling per day.

A quarree will produce 18 tons of mill fibre, the cost of the

preparation of which is as follows:--

For workmen's wages, soda, lime, and fuel, at £3 per ton £54

Freight to Europe at £4 per ton 72

Managers 30

Duty, insurance, office fees, &c., at £1 per ton 18

----

£174

Thus, making the total expense of producing 18 tons of fibre £174, or

£9 13s. 4d. per ton. In 1848 Manila rope, or plantain fibre of good

quality, was worth £38 per ton.

A correspondent in Jamaica, who has devoted much attention to the

subject, has furnished me with some very valuable detailed

information, the most complete and practical that has ever yet

appeared:--

_Cultivation_.--The first care of a planter in superintending the

cultivation of the banana tree, with the two-fold object of

collecting both fibre and fruit, will be to study the nature of the

tree to which he will give the preference. A number of experiments

have been made upon different species of the banana with a view of

obtaining therefrom the largest quantity and the best color of

fibre, as well as the finest fruit. Those experiments were very

tedious and minute, but were absolutely necessary, in order to

arrive at the most economical and advantageous method of rendering

the fibre into a state fit for shipment to Europe. At the same time,

it was of the utmost importance to find out the best description of

tree, for producing the strongest, the most abundant, and the most

silky fibre--for containing the least quantity of juice, for

producing the color sufficiently white to facilitate the operation

of bleaching, for bearing fruit of the most esteemed quality, and,

therefore, the most favorable for general consumption.

A banana tree, which seemed at first sight to possess all those good

qualities--being of a large size, with whitish or flaxen colored

fibre, and producing very savoury fruit, only gave 2 per cent, of

fibre after preparation; that is to say, 100 lbs. in its raw state,

only gave two pounds of fibre after it was boiled. In endeavoring to

find out the cause of such a small result, it was discovered that

this specimen of banana (commonly called the "pig banana,")

contained a larger proportion of water than of fibre, compared with

other sorts--that the heart was too large, and that the inside

leaves were so tender that they almost dissolved in the process of

boiling. These were the greatest inconveniences of this species of

tree. There was also another disadvantage, in the quality of its

fruit, which was yellow in color, and not so useful as those

descriptions of banana which are generally eaten as a substitute for

bread. The results of several experiments made upon various

descriptions of banana, demonstrated the properties of each species,

both as regarded fibre and fruit. The most profitable in both

respects is undoubtedly the yellow banana, or common plantain. This

tree grows to the height of about fifteen feet, it is nine or ten

inches in diameter, its fibre is firm and abundant, and its fruit is

used both in a green and ripe state. This plantain abounds on the

continent of Spanish America and between the tropics, where the

natives cultivate it as producing the most nutricious fruit of its

kind. Cargoes of the fruit are frequently exported from Surinam and

Demerara. On the Spanish part of the American continent, land is

measured by _fanegas_, each fanega containing twelve _quarrees_, and

each quarree five and one-fifth English acres. A quarree measures

one hundred geometrical paces, or three hundred square feet.

In the first instance, the suckers of the plantain (the tree being

propagated by cuttings or suckers which shoot up from the bulb),

should be set at ten feet distance from each other; this proposition

gives 300 plants on one line of trees, or 900 on the surface of one

quarree of land. Each plant propagates itself and gives upon an

average ten trees of the same size and bearing. On one quarree of

land, therefore there would be 9,000 trees, yielding four pounds of

fibre and one bunch of fruit each, which is 9,000 bunches of fruit,

and 36,000 lbs. nett of fibre, in the whole. In good ground the same

plant will last fifteen years without any further trouble. Flat

lands ought to be cultivated in preference to any other. The

plantain thrives with the root in the water, and the head to the

sun. On the borders of the river Orinoco it grows to the height of

twenty feet, is one foot in diameter, and the stalks of the branches

are three inches in circumference.

_Cutting_.--The tree which has not produced its ripe fruit ought to

be cut, for two reasons--first, that the fruit be not lost; and

secondly, that the tree will not have arrived at its full growth and

ordinary size, and the fibres will be too tender. In cutting it

down, take it off six inches above the surface of the ground, then

divide it longitudinally into four parts, take out the heart, which

must be left to serve for manure, and if fermentation is decided

upon, leave the pieces at the foot of the tree, otherwise take them

to the mill to be crushed. The tree being very tender, may, on being

bent down, be cut asunder with a single stroke of a hatchet,

cutlass, or other convenient instrument. One man can cut down 800

trees, and split them in a day.

_Carrying_.--The trees being thus divided, may be immediately

carried to the mill to be crushed, or may remain until the

fermentation separates the juice of sap from the fibres and the

pith. By fermenting the trees, their weight will be so much reduced

as to render their carriage considerably lighter than if taken away

when first cut down. A wagon, with oxen or mules, can carry about a

ton per day, and one man can load the wagon and drive the cattle.

_Crushing_.--If the tree is carried from the plantation without

being subjected to fermentation, it must be passed through a mill,

the rollers of which, if made about three feet in length, and one

foot in diameter, will be found a very convenient size. In this

operation, care should be taken, first of all, to separate the

tender from the harder or riper layers of fibre. The tree is

composed of different layers of fibre, which may be divided into

three sorts; those of the exterior, having been exposed to the

atmosphere, possess a great degree of tenacity--whilst those of the

interior, having been secluded from the air, are much more soft and

tender. If, therefore, the layers of the plantain are passed

indiscriminately through the mill, those which are hard or firm will

not be injured by the pressure, whilst those which are soft will be

almost reduced to pulp. Therefore, the rollers of the mill should be

always placed horizontally, and upon passing the trees lengthways

through the mill, the pressure will be uniform and the fibre

uninjured. In this manner, pass the different sorts of layers

separately, and the produce will be about four pounds of fibre from

each tree. The stalks of the branches of the plantain give the best

fibre, and a large quantity, as compared with the body of the tree;

100 lbs. of the stalk will give 15 lbs. nett of fibre. In general,

if a tree will give 4 lbs. nett of fibre, the stalks will give 1 lb.

out of the 4 lbs. The stalks ought also to be crushed separately,

because they are harder than the exterior layers of the tree. About

3,000 trees may be passed through the mill in a day. Whilst the

experiments were in progress it was ascertained that with a single

horse, 100 plantain trees on an average were crushed in twenty

minutes, giving five minutes rest for the horse.

_Fermentation_.--This operation may be performed in several ways. If

the trees are allowed to ferment upon the spot after being cut, a

great saving will occur in respect of _carriage_; this matter ought

to be carefully studied, because, on an extensive scale of

manufacture, it is of serious importance. It is found that the trees

when cut and heaped up, are subject to a drainage of juice, which,

having a tanning property, discolors those pieces which lie at the

bottom; hence much time is consumed in afterwards restoring the

fibre to its natural color. The cut plants should be removed from

the stumps of the trees, and then placed in heaps, shaded from the

sun by laying the leaves over them. They will take several weeks to

ferment. To pursue this process in the immediate vicinity of the

establishment, would give rise to many inconveniences, in

consequence of the very large space of ground that would thereby be

occupied. Fermentation requires a mean temperature. A tree cut down

and exposed to the sun, would be nearly dry at about 30 deg.

centigrade, showing a result quite different to that which ought to

be obtained; whilst a tree placed on a wet soil, and open for the

fresh air to circulate between the plants, covered at the same time

with its own leaves, and shaded by the foliage of the plantation,

would be decomposed at the desired point of about 22 degrees. The

different modes of fermentation require the same proportions. If the

cut plants be covered with a thick layer of earth, they will not

decompose in six _months_; but if, on the contrary, they are covered

slightly, so that they may receive the freshness of the earth, and

the heat of the air, they will decompose in six _weeks_. It is the

same with the fermentation of alkaline baths. Baths at only _one_

degree will produce decomposition, whilst baths at _three_ degrees

will not produce any decomposition. The stuff after being passed

through the mill, or after fermentation, will be put into the

chemical baths, or vats, or chemical liquor, and the persons in

charge of the mill and boilers will do this work. Fermentation may

be advantageously used, in cases where the trees are grown at a

distance from the establishment--but, where they are in the

immediate vicinity of the works, it will be best to crush them by

the mill. The principal saving that is occasioned by fermentation,

will be found in the carriage, as the substance will be much reduced

in weight by that process. In an establishment where the manufacture

is carried on upon a very large scale, trees cut down at a distance

can be fermented, whilst those produced near the mill can be

crushed.

_Chemical Agents._--For decomposing the gluten in the trees during

the process of boiling, soda, carbonate of soda, and quick lime, are

used. The proportions herein given, are those requisite for making

three tons of fibre per day, upon which scale the cost price of the

fibre in a prepared state for bleaching, is subsequently calculated.

To make three tons of fibre per day, it is necessary to have four

boilers of 800 gallons each, and give five boilings in a day, or

1,650 lbs. of nett fibre for each boiler, or 6,600 lbs. for the four

boilers per day. After having put into the boiler a sufficient

quantity of water to cover the material, wait until the water begins

to boil, and then add the chemical agents.

lbs.

To the first boiling of a copper, put of soda 60

To the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th boilings of the same

copper, 15 lbs., each making 60

-----

120

-----

Therefore the four boilings will take of soda 480

The same liquid will serve for two other days, by

adding 15 lbs. to each fresh boiling, say, in the

whole, 40 lbs., or 600

It will consume in soda for nine tons made in three

days 1,080

Or 360 lbs. for three tons made in one day.

On the fourth day commence again in the same manner, and go on for

the two remaining days as above, producing eighteen tons in the six

days. The quick lime is to be employed in each of the boilings, in

the proportion of one-third less than the quantity of soda. Crude

soda may be used in the boilings, without previously discarbonising

it, and quick lime reduced to lime water; but, to render the action

of the chemical ingredients more quick and certain, it is better to

discarbonise the soda before it is put into the boiler. This may be

done by preparing in a small separate boiler the quantity of liquid

necessary for a day's consumption, which is prepared in about an

hour. The carbonisation is effected in the following manner:--

Ten parts of salt of soda. }

Six parts of quick lime. } In weight.

Seventy parts of water (never less.) }

_Boiling_.--This is a most important operation. By it the gluten and

coloring matter are separated from the fibres, which separation is

absolutely necessary, in order to prepare the fibre to receive the

bleaching. It is necessary to observe that the three several sorts

of layers which are found in the tree, and which, under the head of

"crushing," are recommended to be _pressed_ separately, should be

also _boiled_ separately, because the outermost layer has more

coloring matter than the next under it, which again has more than

the innermost layer. As they are boiled so will they be dried and

shipped, and each sort will have a different price in the market;

that fibre which is lightest in color bearing the preference, in

consequence of its not requiring more than _six_ hours to

bleach--whilst the darkest will, probably from its greater tenacity,

take _twelve_ to _eighteen_ hours. It is advisable to place over

each boiler the means of lifting the mass of fibre when boiled, and

suffering it to drain into the boiler before it is carried away to

be washed. This is easily effected by a chain from the roof, to

which may be hung a lever, having at that end over the boiler some

hooks attached to it, whereby the mass is lifted out of the boiler,

and the liquor thus preserved for the next boiling.

_Washing_.--It is absolutely necessary that the fibre should be well

washed after being taken out of the boiler, in order that all

extraneous matter may be separated therefrom. In choosing the site

for an establishment of this kind, care must always be taken to make

choice of a spot in the immediate neighbourhood of a large river, or

other plentiful supply of fresh clean water. The machinery necessary

for cleansing and washing the fibre may be of various descriptions;

but, perhaps a selection from one of the three following sorts will

be found to answer every purpose, viz., those used by paper

manufacturers in England, and by coffee planters and arrowroot

growers in the West Indies.

_Drying_.--The washed fibre, when hung over lines made of the

twisted fibre, or any other convenient material, will be

sufficiently dry in a few hours to be taken down, when more can be

hung up, and then several batches can be dried in a day; and it will

be necessary to have the drying ground as near the water as

possible, in order to save weight in carriage.

_Pressing_.--When the fibre is perfectly dry, it must be well

pressed, for the convenience of packing, carriage, and shipment. The

hydraulic press is the best machine that can be used for the

purpose; but in the absence of that, the lever and screw will make a

large amount of pressure available. A hydraulic press of from 400 to

500 tons, will press bales of from four to five hundred weight each,

which will not be too large for shipment."

STARCH-PRODUCING PLANTS INVESTIGATED.

Starch is one of the constituent parts in all mealy farinaceous seeds,

fruits, roots, and other parts of plants, and is in large demand for

domestic use, the arts, &c. Our common starch is made from wheat, and

a good deal from potatoes. Pure fecula is separated by art from a

variety of plants.

Of plants yielding starch we have the Indian arrowroot, which is the

fecula in the rhizomata of several species of the Marantaceæ. In the

West Indies it is obtained from the _Maranta arundinacea_, _Allomyca_

and _nobilis_, and also from various species of _Canna_ called _Tous

les mois_, and in the East Indies from species of _Curcuma_, and from

_Maranta ramossissima_ in Silhet.

The bread fruit (_Artocarpus incisa_), already alluded to, yields a

large quantity of starch; as do the sweet potato (_Convolvulus

Batatas_, or _Batatas edulis_). The pith or farinaceous part of the

trunk of the _Caryota urens_, is almost equal to the finest sago. In

Assam the sago of this palm is much used.

The two varieties of the Cassava afford a very superior fecula, which

is imported under the name of Brazilian arrowroot. 8,354 bags of

tapioca and farina were imported from Maranham in 1834. Some excellent

starch from Norfolk Island was shown at the Great Exhibition.

The Cycadaceous family yields much starchy matter, along with

mucilage. From the soft stems of _Cycas revoluta_ and _C. circinalis_,

natives of China and the East Indies, a kind of sago is made. These

plants are propagated by suckers. _Zamia pumila_, a native of the Cape

of Good Hope, and other species of this remarkable genus of plants,

which is nearly related to both ferns and palms, supply an amylaceous

matter, which has been sold as arrowroot. A similar product is

obtained from _Alstroemeria pallida_, a perennial plant, with pink red

flowers, growing in Chili. From the nuts of the _Cycas circinalis_,

the Singalese prepare an inferior kind of starch, by pounding the

fresh kernels. These are cut in slices, and well dried in the sun

before they are fit for use, otherwise when eaten they are

intoxicating, and occasion vomiting and purging.

The quantity of starch in a plant varies according to the period of

growth. The results of examination on the comparative yield of starch

in the potato, showed that while it abounded towards the latter part

of the season, it decreased when the tubers began to germinate in the

spring. It was found by Professor Balfour that 240 lbs. of potatoes

left in the ground, contained of starch--

lbs. Per cent.

In August 23 to 25 or 9.6 to 10.4

September 32 " 38 " 13.3 " 16

October 32 " 40 " 13.3 " 16.6

November 38 " 45 " 16 " 18.7

April 38 " 28 " 16 " 11.6

May 28 " 20 " 11.6 " 8.3

The quantity of starch remained the same during the dormant state of

winter, but decreased whenever the plant began to grow, and to require

a supply of nourishment.

Mr. Harris, of Jamaica, some years ago, made experiments upon the

nutritious qualities of the principal roots and vegetables of the West

Indies. These being well washed and scraped, were grated, in each case

into two gallons of clear rain-water, and the whole then filtered

through a clean linen strainer, after which it was left to settle;

when the amylaceous matter had wholly subsided the supernatant liquor

was carefully decanted, and fresh water added, which process was

repeated until every foreign substance appeared to be removed; the

produce of these several operations was then carefully collected and

dried with a temperature of about 110 deg. Fahrenheit, and, when dry,

weighed. In this manner the results given in the following table were

obtained:--

PRODUCE FROM FIVE POUNDS OF THE

Oz. Drms. Centes. prop.

Root of the sweet cassava (_Janipha

Loeflingii_) 14 1 17.27

Root of ocoes or taniers (_Caladium

esculentum_) 11 17 14.29

Root of the bitter cassava (_Janipha

manihot_), the Yucca amarga of the

Spaniards 11 2 13.90

Full grown but unripe fruit of the plantain

(_Musa paradisiaca_) 11 1 13.82

Root of the Guinea yam (_Dioscorea_

_bulbifera_) 8 6 10.46

Root of the sweet potato (_Batatas_

_edulis_) 8 6 10.46

Root of the arrowroot (_Maranta_

_arundinacea_) 5 6 6.71

The full-grown but unripe fruit of the banana

(_Musa sapientum_) 0 0 0.00

This table exhibits, no doubt, very unexpected results, since it

places the sweet cassava at the very top, and the banana at the lowest

place in the list, while the bitter cassava, which seems to be little

more than a variety of the sweet, notwithstanding its being the staple

material of West Indian bread, occupies two places lower down, and is

followed by the plantain. The sweet potato and the yam, both of which

are considered to be less nutritious than the arrowroot, rank above it

in the centesimal proportion of their amylaceous produce. Upon what,

then, do the nutritive properties of these various substances depend?

Is it upon a gluten which was overlooked by Mr. Harris, in his

experiments, or, if not, may we not suspect some inaccuracy in the

proportion of starch assigned by him to each? It is to be wished that

similar experiments were repeated with care in different quarters, and

the list extended to other tropical products applicable to human

sustenance, especially the roots which yield the farinaceous starch of

the South Sea islanders, to the achira of Choco, &c.

I shall extract largely from a very valuable report drawn up by Dr.

John Shier, agricultural chemist, of Demerara, and submitted to the

Governor of that colony in 1847, on the starch-producing plants, which

is deserving of more widely extended publicity than the merely local

circulation it has received. The remarks and results of experiments

are worthy of deep consideration; and although they were meant to

apply specially to British Guiana, they are equally pertinent to the

West India colonies generally, our African and Australian settlements,

and many other of our foreign possessions.

For many reasons it is desirable that the number of the staples of

cultivation and export of our colonies should be increased. It is the

general experience of British agriculturists, that the mixed system of

agriculture is more profitable to the farmer and safer for the land,

than the continued cultivation of any single crop, or indeed of

nearly allied crops; and although fewer valid objections can be urged

against the continued cultivation of the sugar cane, when properly

conducted, than against that of grain crops, it is nevertheless

certain that a well-arranged alternation or rotation of crops would be

better. When an efficient system of covered drainage is adopted in

British Guiana, there can be no doubt that the sugar cane will be

replanted at shorter intervals of time than at present, and that other

crops, such as provender crops for cattle, and provision crops for the

colonial and perhaps the home market, will be made to alternate in

cultivation with the cane. When the cane rows are as far apart as they

require to be, to admit of sufficient tillage with the plough and

other implements, it will also be possible to intercalate crops of

rapidly growing plants; and were this done, as it easily might, in

such a manner as to prevent undue exhaustion of the land, or

impoverishment of the sugar crop, the returns could not fail to be

materially increased. It would then probably be found that the

fluctuations in prices would be less felt, for they would not likely,

at the same time, affect different crops in the same manner.

It has been ascertained, in regard to some plants at least, that a

much larger return can be obtained in the colonies than can be grown

in temperate countries, however fertile. This is partly owing to the

greater fertility of the soil under powerful tropical atmospheric

influences, and partly to the fact that vegetation is continuous

throughout the year, so that slow growing plants can do more within

the time, from their functions not being arrested by the chill of

winter; and of many rapidly growing plants, two successive crops can

be grown within the year.

Starch is a substance easily manufactured, and being largely used in

several of the arts, as well as an article of diet, there consequently

exists a considerable demand for it in England. It may be obtained

from a great variety of plants, and many of the most productive of it

are natives of the tropics.

The high prices commanded by grain and breadstuffs in Europe, renders

the present a remarkably favorable time to ascertain what can be done

in this branch of tropical agriculture; for should the potato disease

return, or this root be less extensively planted than hitherto, starch

must maintain a high price, and it will be worth ascertaining whether

some of the superior starch-producing plants of the tropics might not

be cultivated to such an extent as to supply the English market, and

thus be at once profitable to the colonies and advantageous to the

mother country.

Before entering on such a cultivation, however, various points require

investigation. We ought to be able to answer such questions as the

following:--

1. What differences exist between the characters of starch produced by

different plants?

2. What are the qualities or properties that lead

manufacturers--calico printers for example--to prefer one variety to

another?

3. For culinary purposes, and as an article of diet, what qualities

or characters obtain a preference?

4. Can the starches from different plants be distinguished from one

another by distinct and well marked characters, so that the

substitution of a less esteemed variety for a more esteemed one, or

the adulteration of a high priced variety with a cheaper one, could be

readily detected?

5. What plants produce the most esteemed varieties?

6. What plants produce it in the largest quantity?

7. What plants produce the largest yield per acre?

8. From what plants is it most easily manufactured?

9. Is the process attended with any particular difficulties that ought

to deter the East and West India planters from engaging in it?

In the following observations (continues Dr. Shier) I shall be able to

reply to several of these questions, especially those capable of being

settled in the laboratory. On other points, particularly those

relating to the returns per acre, I am at present but imperfectly

informed, in consequence of the limited extent to which these plants

have hitherto been cultivated in this colony (Demerara), and from the

total absence of authentic data regarding the amount of yield.

_Characters of starch produced from different plants_.--Starches from

different plants are best distinguished from one another by

examination under a good miscroscope. The grains or globules may be

examined either as transparent or opaque objects; and although in the

same species there are considerable differences in size and form, the

different kinds are, on the whole, quite distinguishable. One of the

best ways of examining the form of the globules, under the microscope,

is to lay them on a plate of glass and cover them with a drop of

aqueous solution of iodine, which renders them gradually blue and

opaque. When the difference in size and form between the globules of

different species is considerable, as between the _Tous les mois_

starch and cassava starch, or even between the arrowroot starch and

cassava starch frequently used to adulterate it, it is not difficult,

with a little practice, to detect the fraud.

TABLE ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SIZE AND FORM OF THE STARCH GLOBULES OF

VARIOUS PLANTS.

1. Tous-les-mois (_Canna coccinea_).--Grown in Grenada, 1-300 to

1-2,000 of an inch; general size, 1-500; form of the globules, large,

elliptical and ovate, and remarkably transparent.

2. Ditto ditto (species unknown).--From a plant grown in the garden of

the Hon. J. Croal, Georgetown, but gathered before the root was fully

ripe; globules spherical, shortly ovate and elliptical; size, from

1-600 to 1-1,600; general size, 1-800.

3. Buck Yam (_Dioscorea triphylla_).--Grown on the banks of the

Demerara River. Form of globules, elliptical, often truncated at one

end, so as to be mullar-shaped, some pear-shaped; length, twice the

width; size, 1-600 to 1-2,000; general size, 1-800.

4. Common Yam (_D. sativa_).--Grown on No. 1 Canal, Demerara River.

Elliptical, some long elliptical; size, 1-700 to 1-2,000; general

size, 1-1,000.

5. Guinea Yam (_D. aculeata_).--Grown in the same locality. Larger

globules, elliptical; smaller ditto, spherical, often truncated; some

shortly ovate, with the appearance of being flattened; general size

and range, same as No. 4.

6. Barbados Yam, grown on banks of Demerara river. Globules,

pear-shaped and mullar-shaped; range, 1-700 to 1-1,600; general size,

1-1,000.

7. Plantain (_Musa paradisiaca_).--Grown on the banks of the Demerara

river. Globules long and narrow, generally long elliptical, often more

acute at the ends than in any other species, some linear ended

abruptly; length, often three times the width; range, from 1-400 to

1-4,000 of an inch; general size, 1-800.

8. Potato (_Solanum tuberosum_).--Irish tubers, from Belfast Sound.

Globules, 1-600 to 1-2,000; general size, 1-1,200.

9. Potato (Commercial).--Locality unknown. Range from 1-600; globules

generally same as former, but a few stray ones as large as 1-40 of an

inch.

10. Sweet Potato (_Convolvulus Batatas_).--Grown at the Lodge,

Demerara. Form of globules, spherical aggregated; range, 1-1,000 to

1-4,000; general size, 1-2,400.

11. Arrowroot (_Maranta arundinacea_).--Specimens from Bermuda, where

the highest priced and best quality is prepared. Ovate and elliptical;

length in the larger globules, twice the width; range, from 1-800 to

1-2,400; general size, 1-1,400.

12. Ditto ditto, grown on plantation Turkeyen, Demerara, by J.W. King.

Size and description same as No. 11.

13. Ditto ditto, grown and prepared in Barbados. Characteristics the

same, but globules more uniform in size.

14. Ditto ditto, grown on plantation Enmore; not quite so uniform in

size.

15. Bitter Cassava (_Janipha Manihot_).--Grown on Haagsbosch

plantation. A few globules occur as large as the 1-1,000 of an inch;

these are ovate, the rest are spherical. The range is from 1-2,000 to

1-8,000; general size, 1-4,000.

16. Sweet Cassava (_Janipha Loeflingii_).--Grown on No. 1 Canal,

Demerara River.

17. Tannia (_Caladium sagittifolium_).--Grown at the Lodge. Globules

not so truly spherical as the foregoing, but range and size the same.

18. Wheat (_Triticum sativum_).--Locality unknown. Form of globules,

spherical and slightly elliptical, some very small; range, 1-2,000 to

1-6,000, the former the general size.

19. Maize (_Zea Mays_).--Grown in the colony, but locality uncertain.

Globules, approaching to spherical, much aggregated; range, 1-2,000 to

1-4,000; general size, 1-3,000.

From an inspection of this list, it does not appear that the species

would be easily distinguishable, and it is not easy briefly to

describe the differences; in practice, however, and especially when

the observer has a number of pure and authentic specimens before him,

to have recourse to as standards of comparison, the discrimination is

by no means difficult.

_Specific gravity of starch derived from various plants_.--Of many

bodies the determination of the specific gravity is one of the best

modes of distinguishing the purity. With the view of ascertaining

whether the different varieties of starch have all the same density,

as has been asserted by some, trials were carefully made of as many

specimens as I could procure. The results are embodied in the

following table:--

TABLE No. I.--DENSITY OF STARCH DERIVED FROM VARIOUS PLANTS.

------------------+-------+-------+-----------------------------------------

| |Tem. at|

Names of |Density|time of| Remarks

Plants | |Obs. F.|

------------------+-------+-------+------------------------------------

1. Bitter cassava|1.4 3 | 87. |Grown in the colony and prepared in

| | | the Colonial Laboratory.

2. Tannia |1.4773 | 87. |Ditto ditto

3. Arrowroot |1.4772 | 86.25 |Ditto ditto

4. Arrowroot |1.4748 | 86.25 |Ditto ditto

5. Common yam |1.4733 | 83.25 |Ditto ditto

6. Sweet potato |1.4718 | 85.75 |Ditto ditto

7. Arrowroot |1.4717 | 82.75 |St. Vincent's, commercial

8. Arrowroot |1.4701 | 84.75 |Grown in the colony and prepared in C.L.

9. Tous les mois |1.4698 | 85.25 |Ditto ditto

10. Sweet cassava |1.4692 | 86.5 |Ditto ditto

11. Wheat starch |1.4632 | 85. |Commercial, of English manufacture

12. Plantain |1.4615 | 85.75 |Grown in the colony and prepared in C.L.

13. Tous les mois |1.4611 | 84.25 |Grenada, commercial

14. Barbados yam |1.4607 | 83.5 |Grown in the colony and prepared in C.L.

15. Irish potato |1.4589 | 84.75 |Tubers from Belfast; prepared in C.L.

16. Guinea yam |1.4581 | 84.2 |Grown in the colony and prepared in C.L.

17. Potato |1.4561 | 84. |Commercial

18. Buck yam |1.4489 | 81.25 |Grown in the colony and prepared in C.L.

19. Arrowroot |1.4443 | 85.5 |Barbados, commercial

20. Arrowroot |1.4158 | 86.25 |Bermuda, ditto

21. Maize |1.4109 | 85.5 |Grown in the colony and prepared in C.L.

------------------+-------+-------+----------------------------------------

From this it will be seen that the order of density does not

correspond with the order in any of the other tables. Probably those

specimens prepared from dry seeds, such as wheat and maize starch,

which, as commercial articles at least, are less pure than those

prepared from recently dug roots, have also the lowest density.

_Hygroscopic properties of starch produced from different

plants_.--Such of the specimens as are marked in the following table,

as prepared in the colonial laboratory, were dried in the sun in

shallow trays, to which they had previously been transferred in the

wet state. When sun dried, the masses were broken down, and the

starches freely exposed to the air in the shade for ten days. Any

adherent masses were then rubbed to powder by light pressure in a

glazed mortar, and the whole sifted. Portions of each of these

starches, and of others for the sake of comparison, were then dried,

at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, in a current of dry air, and the loss

determined:--

TABLE No. II.--SHOWING THE HYGROSCOPIC WATER CONTAINED BY STARCH

PRODUCED FROM DIFFERENT PLANTS.

Per centage of water. Remarks.

1. Potato 20.27 Commercial, locality unknown

2. Sweet potato 19.57 C., C.L.**

3. Buck yam 19.43 C., C.L.

4. Barbados yam 19.40 C., C.L.

5. Arrowroot 18.81 Bermuda, commercial

6. Irish potato 17.28 Tubers from Belfast, C.L.

7. Guinea yam 17.14 C., C.L.

8. Tous les mois 16.74 Grenada, commercial

9. Arrowroot 16.43 Barbados, ditto

10. Common yam 16.36 C., C.L.

11. Plantain 16.23 C., C.L.

12. Arrowroot 15.65 C., C.L.

13. Arrowroot 14.84 C., Plantation Enmore

14. Tous les mois 14.64 C., C.L.

15. Tannia 14.60 C., C.L.

16. Sweet cassava 14.30 C., C.L.

17. Maize 14.22 C., C.L.

18. Arrowroot 13.36 C., C.L.

19. Bitter cassava 11.88 C., C.L.

20. Wheat starch 11.16 Commercial, of English manufacture

[** The initial C. throughout these tables indicates that the plant

was grown in the colony; C.L., that the starch was prepared in the

colonial laboratory.]

That the extremes in this table should occur in the case of the

starches of commerce, was, perhaps, to be expected; nevertheless the

difference between the starch of the sweet potato and that of the

bitter cassava is nearly as great, and both these specimens were

prepared in the laboratory, by the same process, and subject to the

same temperature and exposure.

_Characters of the jellies formed by various

starches._--_Tenacity_.--I have met with no very precise results on

this subject, except the well-known fact that it takes a much larger

quantity of some starches, the arrowroot for instance, to form a jelly

of equal tenacity with that formed by others, such as the _Tous les

mois_; and hence in the West Indies the latter is universally

preferred to the cassava starches.

After trying various plans, the method which I found best fitted for

comparing the tenacity of different starch jellies, was the

following:--Of each of the kinds of starch, 24 grains were weighed out

and mixed with 400 grains of distilled water, in a porcelain capsule

of suitable size. The mixture was then heated and boiled briskly for

three minutes, with constant stirring, and was immediately poured into

a conical test-glass,[45] which the jelly nearly filled. The time at

which each glass was filled was noted, and exactly two hours were

allowed for the contents to cool in a current of air. The glass is

then set on a plate of glass, supported on a ring of a retort stand,

and the weight ascertained, which was necessary to force a metallic

disc, of ascertained size, through the jelly. The most convenient way

of doing this was by using a piece of apparatus of the form rudely

represented on the margin. The rectangular frame is of thin brass

wire, and the slightly cup-shaped disc, _d d_, is soldered to a wire,

attached to the upper short side of the rectangle. From the opposite

or lower side of the rectangle a small glass cup, _c._, is suspended,

into which weights are put as soon as the disc has been made to rest

on the surface of the jelly, _pp_ is the plate of glass on which the

test-glass is set. Whenever the disc tears the skin of the jelly and

begins to sink in it, no further addition, of weights is made, and

the weight of the disc, framework, and cup being known, we have an

estimate of the tenacity of the jelly. This process is but

approximative, and some practice is necessary before the operator

succeeds in getting uniform results from the same series of specimens.

+--------------------+

| | |

| d \_____/ d |

| |

| p--------------p |

| |

+--------------------+

---------

The following statement shows the results on such specimens as I could

procure. The disc was exactly 7/10ths of an inch in diameter.

TABLE NO. III.--TENACITY OF STARCH IN JELLIES.

No. Names of specimens. Weight in grains required

to break the jelly.

1. Tous les mois, C., C.L. 2,446*

2. Tous les mois, Grenada, Commercial 1,742

3. Maize, C., C.L. 955

4. Barbados yam, C., C.L. 895

5. Irish potato, from Belfast, C.L. 756

6. Tannia, C., C.L. 630

7. Bermuda arrowroot, finest Commercial 627

8. Common yam, C., C.L. 657

9. Guinea yam, C., C.L. 571

10. Plantain, C., C.L. 467

11. Potato starch, Commercial 467

12. Arrowroot, C., C.L. 393

13. Sweet potato, C., C.L. 368

14. Arrowroot, C., C.L. 340

15. Arrowroot, C. 301

16. Arrowroot, St. Vincent's, Commercial 289

17. Barbados arrowroot, Commercial 273

18. Wheat starch, Commercial 183

19. Buck yam, C., C.L. 151

20. Bitter cassava, C., C.L. 150

21. Sweet cassava, C., C.L. 78

[* In this instance the weight stated detached the jelly from the side

of the glass, but the skin of the jelly was not torn as in the other

cases.]

From this list it is obvious that, in respect of tenacity, there is a

very great difference between the jellies prepared from the different

starches--greater, indeed, than exists in regard to any other

character. At first I thought it probable that the tenacity of the

jelly would bear some relation to the size of the globules, and it is

true that we find the Grenada Tous les mois, the largest globule, next

the top, and the cassava among the smallest, at the bottom of the

scale. But, on the other hand, we have the Buck yam starch, a large

sized globule, very high; together with many other exceptions.

As an article of diet, the most tenacious varieties of starch are

preferred, on account of the economy of employing an article of which

a less quantity will suffice; and the same is true when applied to

starching linen, provided the jelly be not deficient in clearness.

_Clearness of jellies_.--When starch jelly is used for the purpose of

starching, or glazing linen, or cotton goods, those varieties that are

most transparent are understood to be preferred, provided, at the same

time, they possess the requisite tenacity. This and other matters

will be best determined by practical men in England; but having had

occasion many times to prepare specimens for trying the tenacity, the

opportunity was always taken of arranging the specimen of jellies in

the order of their clearness, or, to speak more accurately, of their

translucency. In this respect also they exhibit considerable

differences, varying, when prepared according to the formula described

under the head of tenacity, from very translucent approaching to

opaque. The order is shown in the annexed list, which begins with the

clearest.

TABLE NO. IV.--SHOWING THE ORDER OF CLEARNESS OR TRANSLUCENCY OF

UNIFORMLY PREPARED STARCH JELLIES.

Order. Names of specimens.

1. St. Vincent Arrowroot, Commercial

2. Arrowroot, C., C.L.

3. Sweet cassava, C., C.L.

4. Bitter cassava, C., C.L.

5. Bermuda arrowroot, Coml.

6. Arrowroot, C., C.L.

7. Irish potato, C.L.

8. Potato starch, Coml.

9. Buck yam, C., C.L.

10. Arrowroot, C.

11. Plantain, C., C.L.

12. Tannia, C., C.L.

13. Sweet potato, C., C.L.

14. Common yam, C., C.L.

15. Tous les mois, Grenada, Cml.

16. Barbados arrowroot, Coml.

17. Tous les mois, C., C.L.

18. Barbados yam, C., C.L.

19. Guinea yam, C., C.L.

20. Wheat starch, Coml.

21. Maize, C., C.L.

On comparing this list with the former one, and taking a general view

of the subject, it will be seen that the jellies that are most

tenacious are generally the least translucent, and that the order of

the two lists is more nearly the converse than occurs in regard to any

other properties.

_Percentage of starch yielded by different plants_.--On this point no

two writers do or can agree. The quantity of starch, even in the same

plants, the potato for instance, varies with the season, the soil,

climate, age, ripeness, length of time the roots have been out of the

ground, &c.

In the following table I have given the result of a series of trials

made in the Colonial Laboratory, Demerara. The roots were all fresh

dug, and, with two exceptions, noticed in the remarks, were fair

average specimens. The process was the common one. The grater or

rasping machine was of copper, to avoid injuring the color of some of

the starches, which an iron grater is liable to do:--

TABLE NO. V.--PERCENTAGE OF STARCH YIELDED BY DIFFERENT PLANTS.

No. Names of plants. Percentage of starch.

1. Sweet cassava 26.92

2. Bitter cassava 24.84

3. Another sample 20.26

4. A third 16.02

5. Common yam 24.47

6. Arrowroot (roots scarcely ripe) 21.43

7. Another sample 17.28

8. Barbados yam 18.75

9. Tannia 17.05

10. Another sample 15.35

11. Guinea yam 17.03

12. Plantain 16.99

13. Sweet potato 16.31

14. Buck yam 16.07

15. Another sample 15.63

16. A third, from a dark colored variety 14.83

From the foregoing list it appears that the sweet and bitter cassava

merit attention as starch-producing plants. They are occasionally

grown for this purpose in the colonies, and yield a large per centage

of starch; but there exists an opinion, whether well or ill founded,

that it is liable to rot linen, and the preference is given here to

the starch of arrowroot. It remains to be seen, however, what estimate

will be formed of this starch in England, for if it should prove an

esteemed variety, there can be no doubt of its proving a highly

profitable cultivation. Cassava grows readily in almost any soil, and

when the drainage is tolerable, two crops of the sweet variety can, it

is stated be grown in a year. I have seen it growing luxuriantly in

the light soils of the interior, as well as in the stiff clay soils of

the coasts. It is considered an excellent preparatory crop in new and

stiff land, on account of its tendency to loosen the soil. Were the

bitter variety fixed on, the preparation of _Casareep_ might be

combined with the preparation of starch; and as that substance is one

of the most esteemed bases for the preparation of various sauces, it

is probable that this might turn out the most profitable part of the

produce. At all events, bitter cassava would have this advantage over

all other starch-producing roots, that the juice of the roots could be

turned, to account as well as the starch.

Of all the plants mentioned in the list, starch is most readily

separated from the arrowroot, in consequence of the tissue being more

fibrous, and yielding little or no cellular tissue requiring to be run

off the starch. Time and water are thus saved in the process, and were

the fibrous residue pressed and dried, it could probably be turned to

good account in the manufacture of paper.

In respect of facility of preparation, the plantain starch, though of

excellent quality, ranks lowest, for the flesh-colored tissue in which

the starch is embedded is somewhat denser than the starch, and settles

down under it, and it is not a little difficult to arrange the process

so as completely to separate the finer parts of this matter from the

starch, and hence its color is never perfectly white.

_Yield of starch-producing plants per acre_.--On this subject, as

already remarked, I do not at present possess sufficiently accurate

data.

In England ten tons of potatoes are not unfrequently produced per

acre; now assuming 15 the per centage of starch, there would be a

yield of one-and-a-half tons per acre, which, at the-lowest quotation,

28s. a cwt., would give £42 per acre; and were the starch to rank with

that prepared from wheat, it would produce £40 per ton, or £60 per

acre. In the thorough drained land of Demerara, and under a good

system of cultivation, I have no doubt that ten tons of cassava could

easily be grown, and if it yielded 25 per cent. of starch, it would be

a return of 2½ tons, or of £62 10s. per acre, reckoned at the price of

potato starch.

Of the yield of the plantain we possess much more accurate

information. A new plantain walk in this colony (British Guiana) will

yield 450 bunches, of 50 lbs. each, of which, as nearly as possible,

50 per cent. will be of core, containing 17 per cent. of starch, thus

producing 17 cwt. of starch per acre. But an old plantain walk, even

when free from disease, could not be reckoned to yield more than half

this quantity, namely, 8½ cwt. per acre. Considering the value that is

set on the plantain as an article of food, and the difficulties

incident to the process of making starch from it, it is by no means

probable that it will ever be used as a source from which to obtain

starch.

Of the quantity of arrowroot that can be grown per acre, I have been

able (continues Dr. Shier) to procure no information; but from the

price it commands in the market, the facility with which it can be

grown, and the ease with which the process of separating the starch

can be carried on, it deserves a fair trial here. To cultivate it to

advantage it ought to be done on thorough-drained and well-tilled

land, planted at the proper season, and not dug till ripe and in dry

weather.

Of the Tous les mois, I have only been able to procure a single plant,

for which I am indebted to the kindness of the Hon. John Croal. As the

root was immature, it would be unfair to deduce from the quantity of

starch obtained, the per centage generally contained by the plant. Its

immaturity was also indicated by the globules being smaller than in

the specimen obtained from Grenada; in other respects, however, such

as the tenacity of its jelly, it stands highest. It is altogether one

of the most promising starch-producing plants, and obviously deserves

a careful trial. It is a plant that expends a good deal of matter in

maturing a considerable quantity of dense and bulky seeds, but as it

propagates both by root and seed, it is probable that, as a root-crop,

it would be highly advantageous to procure a variety that does not

flower.

Both the tannia and the sweet potato can be readily grown, and the

produce per acre is large; but from the foregoing tables it would

appear that there are other plants whose starch is likely to be held

in greater estimation.

_Difficulties attendant on the process of preparing starch_.--Were the

manufacture of superior starch to be carried out in this colony

(British Guiana) on a large scale and profitably, recourse would

require to be had to all the well-known means of economising labor. In

the cultivation as much as possible would require to be done by cattle

and implement labor, and this would be the easier to accomplish,

inasmuch as, to grow roots to great advantage, the land would require

to be thorough drained. When the produce was brought to the buildings,

machinery similar to what is already in use in Europe, for the

purpose of washing and rasping roots, and of separating and washing

starch, would suffice with comparatively little manual labor. An

ordinary amount of judgment being exercised in determining the proper

period of ripeness of the roots, and in selecting seasons when the

weather is usually most suitable for conducting the process of

manufacture, it does not appear that any unusual difficulty would have

to be encountered by growers or manufacturers, unless as regards the

obtaining of a sufficient supply of good water; for that is essential

to the production of good starch.

The creek water of the colony is generally too brown, and the trench

water too muddy, and contains often too much salt to produce starches

of the finest color, hence recourse would require to be had to rain

water, or Artesian water. The first is remarkably pure, and it

certainly does not appear that were sufficiently capacious reservoirs

built, or ponds dug, and protected from infiltration by the usual

well-known means, there would be great difficulty in getting a

sufficient supply of rain water. It is done in Bermuda, and why not

here? On the other hand, almost all the Artesian wells in the colony

contain a large quantity of oxide of iron held in solution by carbonic

acid, and which separates as an ochrey deposit on free exposure to the

air. Were this water used in the starch process, it would certainly

injure the color materially; but by a chemical process, exceedingly

simple, inexpensive, and easy of application, it is possible to purify

the Artesian water, and render it almost as fit as rain water for the

purpose of manufacturing starch.

In some of the other colonies a great deal of the best starch is

produced by the holders of small lots of land, and many parts of the

labor being light, and suited for women and children, it is one of the

most desirable cultivations for small holders, and would be very

beneficial for Demerara, where the lands of the peasantry too

generally lie in a state of utter neglect; yet small holders could not

be expected to be able to compete with those who should grow starch on

the large scale, and prepare it with the best machinery.

_Cassava meal, plantain meal, &c., as articles of export_.--It may

soon become an important question whether the plantain, or some of the

edible roots grown in the tropics, might not be sent to Europe in a

fresh state as a substitute for the potato. Many of them, the buck yam

and the cassava, for instance, ought to be used when fresh dug, for

every day they are out of the ground they deteriorate. This, however,

is not so much the case with some of the larger yams. It is worth

trying whether the finer sorts that deteriorate by keeping, might not,

after being sliced and dried in the sun, become articles of export,

either in that state or when ground to meal. For this purpose the

bitter cassava, the plantain, and the buck yam are the most promising.

Of the bitter cassava mention has already been made as a substance

from which the starch and _casareep_ might be prepared. In this case,

however, the woody and cellular tissue, with the small quantity of

starch left in it by the ordinary starch process, would form far too

poor an article of diet to constitute part of the food of man. But the

roots might be used as a medium from which to prepare cassava meal,

_casareep_, and the very small quantity of starch which is expressed

along with the juice, leaving all the rest of the starch to form part

of the meal. It is of such meal that the cassava cakes of the Indians

are prepared; and although by no means so nutritive as Indian corn

meal[46], there can be little doubt that in the Scotch and Irish

markets the cassava meal would obtain a preference; and were it

exported in quantity it would probably come into extensive use among

all classes.

The process would be as follows:--After washing in a revolving

apparatus, by which means the adherent earth would be got quit of, and

almost the whole of the thin dark colored cuticle become detached, the

roots could be reduced to pulp in a rasping-mill, without the use of

water; the pulp might be compressed in bags by hydraulic pressure,

whereby the juice, together with a small portion of the starch, would

be expressed. After allowing the starch to subside, the juice should

be concentrated to about the density of 1.4. The starch would be

washed, purified, and dried. The contents of the bags would then be

broken up and dried in the sun or in a current of air, after which the

meal would be sifted through a coarse sieve to separate the coarser

parts, which, if their amount was considerable, could be ground and

added to the rest. In this state of rough meal it is fit for making

the cassava cakes. If ground to flour it might be used to mix with

wheat, rye, or barley flour.

The process is usually conducted as follows:--The squeezed pulp is

broken up, sifted, and exposed to the sun on trays or mats till it is

fully more than half dry. An iron hoop of the size and thickness of

the cake to be made is then laid on a griddle or hot plate, and the

space within the hoop is filled evenly with the somewhat moist meal,

no previous kneading or rolling having been employed. As soon as the

coarse meal coheres, the ring is lifted and the cake is turned and

heated on the opposite side. The heat should not be sufficient to

brown the cake. The cakes are finally dried by exposure to the sun.

From the dry cassava meal cakes may be prepared by sprinkling it with

as much cold water as to moisten it to the proper point, and then

proceeding as above. Hot water cannot be employed, neither can

kneading, or any considerable degree of compression be used, otherwise

the water does not evaporate readily enough; the starch gets too much

altered by the heat, and the cake becomes tough.

If an acre of well-tilled thorough-drained land yield 10 tons of fresh

roots, and I have every reason to believe that such a return might be

obtained, I have ascertained that the produce would be 3½ tons of

meal, 598 lbs. of _casareep_, and 2 cwt. of starch; and estimating the

meal at 1d. per lb., the _casareep_ at 1s. 5d. per lb., and the starch

at 40s. per cwt., the gross amount would be £78 13s. 4d. per acre. In

ascertaining these proportions, very simple machinery was employed,

and had the pulp been better pressed the quantity of _casareep_ would

have been considerably greater.

From the table given in a former note it will be seen that the cassava

meal prepared in this way contains but a very small proportion of

matter nutritive in the sense of contributing to the formation of

blood, and that the expressed juice carries off fully one-half of the

proteine compounds contained in the plant.

Lichenin is a variety of starch occurring in _Cetraria islandica_, or

Iceland moss.

_Indian corn starch_.--The advance of science has recently brought to

our knowledge the preparation and use of another article, not only

important as food, but also essential in the arts. I have had occasion

to mention the high value of the Indian corn, and I might with

advantage allude to many of its uses and properties; at present I must

confine my remarks to a product from this valuable grain, known as

corn starch, and yet another as the fecula of maize. In the close of

1849, Mr. Willard and his associates, of Auburn, established extensive

works at Oswego, for the preparation of these important products,

their establishment covering an area of 49,000 square feet. As the

proprietors have to some extent held unrevealed the process by which

they produce a starch more pure than the starch of commerce, we may

not indulge in speculative curiosity; yet I can hardly doubt their

great success is mainly attributable to perfect machinery, guided by

science and talent. The rapid and extended demand for these new

products presents sufficient evidence of their character, as we are

told that about three millions of pounds of this corn starch are

demanded annually by the trade, notwithstanding the usual supply of

wheat starch is undiminished. A remarkable feature of maize starch is

the absence of impurities; upon being subjected to analysis, it is

found that only 2 76-100 parts in 1000 are of other matter than pure

starch. According to Dr. Ure, wheat yields only 35 to 40 per cent, of

good starch, a material extensively used in arts and manufactures.

In addition to starch, the Oswego starch-factory produces from Indian

corn a fecula, peculiarly adapted to culinary purposes, presenting to

our domestic economy one of the most acceptable, pure, and nutritious

articles of food. Already has it become an indispensable household

article, and is consumed largely at home and abroad. The factory,

though in its infancy, consumes annually 150,000 bushels of corn,

equal to about nine millions of pounds in weight. Hitherto the

quantities of starch used for laundry purposes and in the

manufactories of America, have been produced from costly wheats,

though it may be found in many vegetable substances, such as potatoes,

the horse chesnut and other seeds. In England, where breadstuffs,

particularly wheat, have been raised in quantities inadequate to the

demand for food, attempts have been made to convert the viscid matter

of lichens into a gum, for the use of calico printers, paper-makers,

and ink makers; for the stiffening of silks, crapes, and the endless

variety of dry goods, which, by means of these gums or starch, are

made to appear of greater consistency. Most of these attempts had

partial success, yet the making of starch from wheat has not been

arrested.

The Oswego starch factory has happily introduced the use of Indian

corn, as a grain producing a larger proportion of pure amylaceous

properties than any other known vegetable substance, proffering to the

American manufacturer another economic advantage, sustaining, in a

most legitimate matter, sound rivalry and competition with all the

world. I am not aware whether the Oswego factory has converted its

starch into gum--a process easily accomplished by heat, and thus

rendered soluble in cold water, which cannot be done while in its

condition of starch. Here is another result of vast importance

derivable from Indian corn; and we can well conceive that, in a short

period of time, the advantages now derived from the production of corn

starch, may have grown into a national benefit.

Rice (according to Prof. Solly) contains on an average about 84 per

cent of starch; but till comparatively a few years ago, no starch was

manufactured from it, notwithstanding its low price, and the large

quantity of starch which exists in it. The reason of this was, that

the old process of fermentation, by means of which starch is procured

from grain, was not found to be applicable to rice; and hence the

latter only became available as a source of starch in 1840, when Mr.

Orlando Jones introduced his new process, for which he obtained a

patent. This process consisted in macerating the rice for about 20

hours in a dilute solution of caustic potash, containing about 200

grains of the alkali in every gallon; the liquor is then drawn off,

the rice dried, reduced to powder by grinding, then a second time

digested in a similar alkaline lye for 24 hours, repeatedly agitated.

After this it is allowed to settle, and well washed with pure cold

water. A prize medal was awarded for this rice starch at the Great

Exhibition.

Mr. S. Berger, of Bromley, also received a prize medal. He adopts a

different mode of preparation. In place of employing a dilute solution

of caustic potash to dissolve the gluten and other insoluble matters

of the grain, Mr. Berger uses a solution of carbonate of soda,

containing half a pound to the gallon. The rice is steeped, in cold

water for 48 hours, levigated in a suitable mill, and the pulp thus

formed is treated with the solution of carbonate of soda for 60 or 70

hours, being repeatedly stirred; it is then allowed to settle for some

hours, the alkaline liquor is drawn off, and the starch is washed and

purified. This process was patented by Mr. Berger, in December, 1841.

A third process was patented in February, 1842, by Mr. J. Colman; he

uses dilute muriatic acid for the same purpose as Messrs Jones and

Berger.

ARROWROOT, EAST AND WEST INDIAN.

The genuine arrowroot of commerce is the produce of the tuberous

rhizomata of _Maranta arundinacea_, a native of South America, and _M.

indica_, indigenous to the West Indies, but also cultivated in the

East. The best West Indian arrowroot comes from Bermuda. Its globules

are much smaller and less glistening than those of _Tous-les-mois_, or

potato starch.

The peculiar characteristics of the starch obtained from various

plants has been particularised and described already in the elaborate

investigation of the commercial yield and value of the

starch-producing plants. Amylaceous matter of a similar kind to

arrowroot is obtained from other species of Maranta, as from some

species of _Canna_, well known under the popular name of Indian shot,

from the similarity of their round black seeds.

The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. · 第 10 / 20 章

Among the most commonly cultivated leguminous plants are the lentil