The arrowroot plant (_M. arundinacea_) i_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.

fleshy and creeping, and very full of knots and numerous long white

fibres. Arising from the root are many leaves, spear-shaped, smooth on

the upper surface and hairy beneath. The length of the leaf is about

six or seven inches, and the breadth about three towards their base,

the color and consistence resembling those of the seed. From the root

arise slender petioles upon which the leaves stand, and several

herbaceous erect stalks come out between them, rising to the height of

about two feet. A loose bunch of small white flowers is succeeded by

three-cornered capsules, each containing one hard rough seed.

The propagation and culture of this plant are of the simplest kinds.

The roots should be parted, and the most suitable soil is a rich loam.

In the Bermudas, a deep rich soil, or one in which marsh or peat

prevail, is alone adapted for growing arrowroot in perfection.

A correspondent from the Bermudas, (where arrowroot forms the great

staple crop of the islands), informs me that he ploughed up a small

piece of land, twenty rods (or the eighth part of an acre), with a

small plough and one horse. He ploughed it over three times, and the

third time planted the arrowroot as he ploughed it. The land had not

been turned up before for twenty years.

The expenses and profits stand thus:--

EXPENSE.

£. s. d.

To the ploughman, harrowing and planting the

arrowroot 1 0 0

Arrowroot plants 16 0

Digging it up £1 0 0

Deduct half, as the land was planted for the next

year 0 10 0 0 10 0

Balance carried down, being net profit 5 14 0

--------

8 0 0

PRODUCE.

By 2,000 lbs. of root at 8s. per 100 lbs. 8 0 0

By balance brought down as net profit 5 14 0

The above £5 14s. clear profit on the 20 rods, is at the rate of £45

12s. profit for one acre. Now, if a small cultivator were to plant

three or four acres, and get only one-half of the above profit, it

would give a good return, and would be well worth the trial.

Arrowroot requires a good rich red soil, of which there is still much

lying waste. The best time for planting it is in April, but it can be

planted in March, or indeed at any time after the first of the year,

till May: though if taken up and planted before Christmas, you may

depend it will not come to any perfection. Arrowroot can be planted in

many ways; either in holes made with a hoe, ploughed under, or in

drills like Irish potatoes. Now the way I prefer is to prepare the

land, then strike the line at two feet apart, and make holes with a

pointed stick or dibble six inches apart, putting in each hole one

strong plant or two small ones, then cover them up. This is more

trouble than the old way, but it gives an excellent crop. It can also

be planted like Irish potatoes in drills, two feet apart in the rows,

and six inches between the plants. It should be hand-weeded in the

spring, because if it is hoed, most likely you will cut some of it off

which may be springing under ground, and it will never come up so

strong again. Arrowroot requires very strong ground and plenty of

manure. Farm yard manure is the best; next to that green seaweed

dripping with salt water--this is an excellent manure, and should be

dug in the ground as the arrowroot is taken up. I have no doubt that

it would be of great advantage to the planter, if he were to put a

cask in a cart, fill it with salt water, and put it on the land a few

weeks before it is planted. Some people say that arrowroot does not

pay so well, because it has to stay in the ground a whole year; but

then if you have onions you can plant them over it, and so obtain a

crop which will pay much better than the arrowroot itself. If you have

a large piece of arrowroot ground, take up one half early, and plant

it out with Irish potatoes; then take up the other half later, and

with the plants set out your potato ground, that is if you have taken

up your potatoes; if not, plant the arrowroot between the rows, in

holes; so that when you take up the potatoes, you clean the arrowroot

and loosen the ground, which will give a good crop; or you can plant

Indian corn very thin over the arrowroot ground (if you have nothing

else), but be sure to cut it up before it ripens corn, or it will

injure your arrowroot crop; or you may plant a few melon seeds over

it, and you will have a fine crop of fruit.

In 1845 I planted, in the months of January and February, a quarter of

an acre of good land, in arrowroot and onions.

The expense and profit stand as follow.--

EXPENSE

£. s. d.

To digging the ground 1 0 0

Planting arrowroot 0 6 0

Twelve load of seaweed, at 1s. 0 12 0

Rotten manure for onions, 10 loads, at 2s. 1 0 0

One bottle onion seed 0 16 0

Sowing onion seed and keeping the plants clean 0 10 0

Planting out onions 1 0 0

Cleaning onions after set out 0 15 0

Tops and making basket 1 8 0

Pulling, cutting, and basketing 0 18 0

Carting and shipping 0 8 0

Digging arrowroot 2 0 0

--------

10 13 0

Clear profit on quarter acre 22 13 9

--------

33 6 9

PRODUCE

By onions sold 20 16 0

By arrowroot 12 10 9

--------

33 6 9

This is at the rate of £90 15s. clear profit per acre, which is more

than double the worth of the land. I have not named the arrowroot

plants, because I have planted my land with them again, but they might

be fairly put to the credit of the account. The above statement shows

what may be done with good land and good management; but even if a man

can only clear £10 on an acre of land, he ought not to grumble.

Dr. Ure gives a most interesting and lucid account of the mode of

manufacture in the island of St. Vincent, where the plant is now

cultivated with great success, and the root manufactured in a superior

manner.

It grows there to the height of about three feet, and it sends down

its tap root from twelve to eighteen inches into the ground. Its

maturity is known by the flagging and falling down of the leaves, an

event which takes place when the plant is from ten to twelve months'

old. The roots being dug up with the hoe, are transported to the

washing-house, where they are thoroughly freed from all adhering

earth, and next taken individually into the hand and deprived, by a

knife, of every portion of their skins, while every unsound part is

cut away. This process must be performed with great nicety, for the

cuticle contains a resinous matter, which imparts color and a

disagreeable flavor to the fecula, which no subsequent treatment can

remove. The skinned roots are thrown into a large cistern, with a

perforated bottom, and there exposed to the action of a copious

cascade of pure water, till this runs off quite unaltered. The

cleansed roots are next put into the hopper of a mill, and are

subjected to the powerful pressure of two pairs of polished rollers of

hard brass; the lower pair of rollers being set much closer together

than the upper. The starchy matter is thus ground into a pulp, which

falls into the receiver placed beneath, and is thence transferred to

large fixed copper cylinders, tinned inside, and perforated at the

bottom with numerous minute orifices, like a kitchen drainer. Within

these cylinders, wooden paddles are made to revolve with great

velocity, by the power of a water-wheel, at the same time that a

stream of pure water is admitted from above. The paddle-arms beat out

the fecula from the fibres and parenchyma of the pulp, and discharge

it in the form of a milk through the perforated bottom of the

cylinder. This starchy water runs along pipes, and then through

strainers of fine muslin into large reservoirs, where, after the

fecula has subsided, the supernatant water is drawn off, and fresh

water being let on, the whole is agitated and left again to repose.

This process of ablution is repeated till the water no longer acquires

anything from the fecula. Finally, all the deposits of fecula of the

day's work are collected into one cistern, and being covered and

agitated with a fresh change of water, are allowed to settle till next

morning. The water being now let off, the deposit is skimmed with

palette knives of German silver, to remove any of the superficial

parts, in the slightest degree colored; and only the lower, purer, and

denser portion is prepared by drying for the market.

On the Hopewell estate, in St. Vincent, where the chief improvements

have been carried out, the drying-house is constructed like the

hot-house of an English garden. But instead of plants it contains

about four dozen of drying pans, made of copper, 7½ feet by 4½ feet,

and tinned inside. Each pan is supported on a carriage having iron

axles, with _lignum vitæ_ wheels, like those of a railway carriage,

and they run on rails. Immediately after sunrise, these carriages,

with their pans, covered with white gauze to exclude dust and insects,

are run out into the open air, but if rain be apprehended they are run

back under the glazed roof. In about four days the fecula is

thoroughly dry and ready to be packed, with German silver shovels,

into tins or American flour barrels, lined with paper, attached with

arrowroot paste. The packages are never sent to this country in the

hold of the ship, as their contents are easily tainted by noisome

effluvia, of sugar, &c.

Arrowroot is much more nourishing than the starch of wheat or

potatoes, and the flavor is purer. The fresh, root consists, according

to Benzon, of 0.07 of volatile oil; 26 of starch (23 of which are

obtained in the form of powder, while the other 3 must be extracted

from the parenchyma in a paste, by boiling water); 1.48 of vegetable

albumen; 0.6 of a gummy extract; 0.25 of chloride of calcium; 6 of

insoluble fibrine; and 65.6 of water.

Arrowroot is often adulterated in this country with potato flour and

other ingredients.

Dr. Lankester asserts that the value of arrowroot starch, as an

article of diet, is not greater than that of potato starch, and that

the yield of starch is not greater from the arrowroot than from

potatoes; but this I must decidedly deny. Chemical analysis and

experience are proofs to the contrary.

The analogy arrowroot has to potato starch, has induced many persons

to adulterate the former substance with it; and not only has this been

done, but I have known instances in which potato starch alone has been

sold for the genuine foreign article. There is no harm in this, to a

certain extent; but it certainly is a very great fraud upon the public

(and one for which the perpetrators ought to be most severely

punished), to sell so cheap an article at the same price as one which

is comparatively costly. There is, moreover, in potato starch, a

peculiar taste, bringing to mind that of raw potatoes, from which the

genuine arrowroot is entirely free. This fraud, however, can be

readily detected; arrowroot is not quite so white as potato starch,

and its grains are smaller, and have a pearly and very brilliant

lustre; and further, it always contains peculiar clotted masses, more

or less large, which have been formed by the adhesion of a multitude

of grains during the drying. These masses crush very readily when

pressed between the fingers, and as before stated, arrowroot is free

from that peculiar odor due to potato starch. This may be most readily

developed by mixing the suspected sample with hot water; if it be

genuine arrowroot, the mixture is inodorous, if potato starch, the

smell of raw potatoes is immediately developed. If a mixture of

arrowroot and potato starch be minutely observed by means of a good

microscope, the grains of arrowroot may be readily detected; they are

very small and exceedingly regular in shape, whilst those of potato

starch are much larger, and very irregular in shape. But the most

convenient and delicate test of all, is that proposed by Dr.

Scharling, of Copenhagen. After mentioning the test by the microscope,

he goes on to state that he has obtained more favorable results by

employing diluted nitric acid; and that, if arrowroot or potato starch

be mixed with about two parts of concentrated nitric acid, both will

immediately assume a tough gelatinous state. This mass, when potato

starch is employed, is almost transparent, and when arrowroot is used,

is nearly opaque, as in the case above mentioned, in which

hydrochloric acid is substituted. A mixture of nitric acid and water,

however, operates very differently on these two kinds of starch. The

glutinous mass yielded by the potato starch, becomes in a very brief

period so tough that the pestle employed for stirring the mixture is

sufficiently agglutinated to the mortar, that the latter may be lifted

from the table by its means. Arrowroot, on the other hand, requires

from twenty-five to thirty minutes to acquire a like tenacity.

The _Lancet_ recently stated that, on a microscopical analysis of 50

samples of arrowroot, purchased indiscriminately of various London

tradesmen, 22 were found to be adulterated. In 16 cases this

adulteration consisted in the addition of a single inferior product

much cheaper in price, such as potato flour, sago meal, or tapioca

starch, while in other instances there was a combination of these

articles, potato flour being usually preponderant. Ten of the mixtures

contained scarcely a particle of the genuine Maranta or West India

arrowroot, for which they were sold. One consisted almost wholly of

sago meal; two of potato flour and sago meal; two of potato flour,

sago meal, and tapioca starch; one of tapioca starch; and four of

potato arrowroot, or starch entirely. The worst specimens were those

which were done up in canisters especially marked as "Genuine West

India arrowroot," or as being "warranted free from adulteration;" and

one, which contained a considerable quantity of potato flour, was

particularly recommended to invalids, and certified as the finest

quality ever imported into this country. The profits to the vendors of

the inferior compounds are to be estimated from the fact that the

price of sago meal and potato starch is about 4d. per lb., while the

genuine Maranta arrowroot is from 1s. to 3s. 6d. per lb.

The arrowroot of Bermuda has long borne a high reputation, being

manufactured on a better principle and being therefore of superior

quality to that produced in Antigua, St. Vincent, and other West

Indian islands. The process is tedious and requires a good deal of

labor. There is no doubt, however, that the quality of the water has a

great deal of influence on the fecula. Bermuda arrowroot is

necessarily made from rain water collected in tanks or reservoirs, and

the lime and the deposit from houses, &c., may alter its properties.

After the root is taken from the ground it is placed in a mill, and is

thereby cleansed of its exterior excrescences; it is then thoroughly

washed, when it is ready for the large machine, the principle of which

is similar to the "treadmill." A horse is placed on something like a

platform, and as he prances up and down, the machinery is set in play.

A person stands at the end, and places the root in the wheel of the

machine, which, after being ground, falls into a trough of water.

After going through this process, it is rewashed and then placed in

vessels to dry in the sun. It is packed in boxes lined with blue paper

or tin, and sent to the markets in England and America, where it

generally meets with ready sale.

At a meeting of the Agricultural Society of Bermuda, held in May,

1840, Mr. W.M. Cox submitted a new arrowroot strainer which he had

invented. It consists of two cloth strainers fixed to hoops from 15 to

20 inches in diameter. The strainers working one within the other, are

kept in motion by a lever, moved by hand. The whole apparatus is not

an expensive one, and is well adapted for aiding the manufacture of

arrowroot upon an expeditious and economical plan.

A simple method by which starch may be extracted from the fecula with

much purity consists in enclosing the flour in a muslin bag and

squeezing it with the fingers while submerged in clean water, by which

process the starch passes out in a state of white powder and subsides.

Two essential constituents of flour are thus separated from each

other; a viscid substance remains in the bag, which is called gluten,

and the white powder deposited is starch.

The principal quarters from whence the supply is derived, are the

Bermudas, St. Vincent, Barbados and Grenada, in the West Indies;

Ceylon, and some other parts of the East--and a few of our settlements

on the West coast of Africa. The annual imports for home consumption

average 500 tons.

The cultivation of arrowroot for the production of starch in St.

Vincent has increased enormously of late years. In 1835, the island

produced 41,397 lbs.; in 1845 it exported 828,842 lbs. The exports to

15th June, 1851, were, 2,934 barrels, 2,083 half barrels, 5,610 tins.

The culture is year by year extending, and as, unlike that of the

sugar cane, it may be carried on on a small scale with very little

outlay of capital, we may reasonably anticipate a still further

progressive extension for some years to come. Arrowroot, when once

established in virgin soil, produces several crops with very little

culture. In the first half of 1851, 25,027 lbs. were shipped from

Montego Bay, Jamaica. The quantity of arrowroot on which duty of 1s.

per cwt. was paid in the six years ending 1840, was as follows:--

Cwts.

1835 3,581

1836 3,280

1837 2,858

1838 2,538

1839 2,264

1840 2,124

The imports in the last few years have been in

Cwt.

1847 8,040

1848 10,580

1849 9,252

1850 15,980

1851

About 500 cwt. are re-exported.

East India arrowroot is procured in part from _Curcuma angustifolia_,

known locally as Tikoor in the East, and a similar kind of starch is

yielded by _C. Zerumbet_, _C. rubescens_, _C. leucorhiza_, and

_Alpinia Galanga_, the Galangale root of commerce. _C. angustifolia_

grows abundantly on the Malabar coast, and is cultivated about the

districts of Patna, Sagur and the south-west frontier, Mysore,

Vizigapatam, and Canjam, Cochin and Tellicherry. It was discovered but

a few years ago growing wild in the forests extending from the banks

of the Sona to Nugpore.

The particles of East India arrowroot are very unequal in size, but on

the average are larger than those of West India arrowroot.

Dr. Taylor, in his Topography of Dacca, speaks of fecula or starch

being obtained from the Egyptian lotus (_Nymphæa lotus_), which is

used by the native practitioners as a substitute for arrowroot.

Chinese arrowroot is said to be made from the root of _Nelumbium

speciosum_.

The original Indian arrowroot is extracted at Travancore, according to

Ainslie, from the root of the _Curcuma angustifolia_. It is easily

distinguished by its form, which is sometimes ovoid, sometimes

elongated, of considerable size, rounded at one of the extremities,

and terminating in a point at the other, often resembling a grain of

rice.

The manufacture of arrowroot on the southern borders of the

Everglades, at Key West, Florida, bids fair to become as extensive and

as profitable as at Bermuda, whence, at present, we receive the bulk

of our supplies. The wild root, which the Indians call Compti, grows

spontaneously over an immense area of otherwise barren land. It is

easily gathered, and is first peeled in large hoppers ingeniously

contrived, and thrown into a cylinder and ground into an impalpable

pulp. It is then washed and dried in the sun, baked and broken into

small lumps, when it is ready for the market. The article is

extensively used in the Eastern woollen and cotton establishments, as

well as for family use. Arrowroot is cultivated in the interior of

East Florida with great success. It is also cultivated to a

considerable extent in Georgia, and is, I understand, a profitable

crop.

The following is the process of manufacture:--The roots, when a year

old, are dug up, and beaten in deep wooden mortars to a pulp; which is

then put into a tub of clean water, well washed, and the fibrous part

thrown away. The milky liquor being passed through a sieve or coarse

cloth, is suffered to settle, and the clean water is drawn off; at the

bottom of the vessel is a white mass, which is again mixed with clean

water, and drained; lastly the mass is dried in the sun, and is pure

starch. Arrowroot can be kept without spoiling for a very long time.

A considerable quantity of arrowroot is now produced in the Sandwich

Islands. In 1841 arrowroot to the value of 3,320 dolls. was shipped,

and in 1843, 35,140 lbs., valued at £1,405, was exported, principally

to Tepic and San Blas, where it is used as starch for linen.

A kind of arrowroot of very good quality was sent to the Great

Exhibition of 1851, by Sir R. Schomburgk, which is obtained in St.

Domingo from the stems of a species of Zamia, called there Guanjiga;

and the _Zamia Australis_, of Western Australia, yields even better

fecula. The taste was unpleasant and salt, as if it had been immersed

in lime. The other starch, from the Western Australian Zamia, in

quality rivalled arrowroot. This fecula hangs together in chains,

quite unlike the ordinary appearance of arrowroot when seen under the

microscope.

The following figures show the exports of arrowroot from Bermuda:--

lbs. Value of the exports.

1830 18,174 --

1831 77,153 --

1832 34,833 --

1833 44,651 --

1834 54,471 --

1835 65,500 --

1836 -- --

1841 91,230 --

1842 136,610 --

1843 151,757 £8,682

1844 173,275 10,974

1845 224,480 8,084

1847 -- 4,716

1848 -- 4,747

1849 -- 6,760

1850 854,329 --

In the spring of 1851, 201,130 lbs. were shipped from Bermuda.

In 1843 the quantity of arrowroot in the rough state made in Bermuda

was 1,110,500 lbs.

ARROWROOT EXPORTED FROM ANTIGUA TO

Great Britain B.N. America B.W. Indies

Boxes Boxes Boxes

1835 1,075 20 --

1836 581 43 --

1837 100 42 --

1838 472 20 --

1839 682 -- 32

1840 453 -- 30

1841 289 -- 10

1842 582 -- --

1843 744 -- --

1844 376 -- --

1845 402 5 --

Barbados exported in 1832, 16,814 lbs., value £469; in 1840, 387

packages; in 1843, 302; in 1844, 790 packages; in 1851, 306 packages;

these average about 30 lbs. each.

Ceylon now produces excellent arrowroot. In 1842, 150 boxes were

exported; in 1843, 200; in 1844, 300; in 1845, 600 boxes.

From Africa we now import a large quantity: 250 boxes were received in

1846. Not unfrequently arrowroot from Africa has been sent to the West

Indies in the ships with the liberated Africans, and thence

re-exported to England, as of St. Vincent or Bermuda growth. The duty

on arrowroot, under the new tariff, is equalised on all kinds to 4½d.

per lb.

The imports and home consumption of arrowroot have increased very

largely, as may be seen from the following figures:--

Retained for home

Imports consumption

lbs. lbs.

1826 318,830 358,007

1830 449,723 516,587

1834 837,811 735,190

1835 287,966 895,406

1838 404,738 434,574

1839 303,489 224,792

1840 408,469 330,490

1841 -- 454,893

1842 890,736 846,832

1846 905,072 981,120

1847 1,185,968 1,211,168

1848 906,304 933,744

1849 1,036,185 1,032,992

1850 1,789,774 1,414,669

1851 2,083,681 1,848,778

1852 2,139,390 2,024,316

SALEP is the prepared and dried roots of several orchideous plants,

and is sometimes sold in the state of powder. Indigenous salep is

procured, according to Dr. Perceval from _Orchis mascula_, _O.

latifolia_, _O. morio_, and other native plants of this order. On the

continent it is obtained from _O. papilionaceo_, and _militaris_.

Oriental salep is procured from other orchideoe. Professor Royle states

that the salep of Kashmir is obtained from a species of Eulophia,

probably _E. virens_. Salep is also obtained from the tuberous roots

of _Tacca pinnatifida_, and other species of the same genus, which are

principally natives of the East Indies and the South Sea Islands.

The large fleshy tubers of tacca, when scraped and frequently washed,

yield a nutritious fecula resembling arrowroot.

Salep consists chiefly of bassorin, some soluble gum, and a little

starch. It forms an article of diet fitted for convalescents when

boiled with water or milk. The price of salep is about eight guineas

per cwt. in the London market. A little is exported from

Constantinople, as I noticed a shipment of 66 casks in 1842; excellent

specimens from this quarter were shown in the Egyptian department of

the Great Exhibition in 1851. It was formerly a great deal used, but

has latterly been much superseded by other articles.

Major D. Williams ("Journal of the Agri. and Hort. Soc. of India,"

vol. iv., part I), states that the tacca plant abounds in certain

parts of the province of Arracan, where the Mugs prepare the farina

for export to the China market.

After removing the peel, the root is grated on a fish-skin, and the

pulp having been strained through a coarse cloth, is washed three or

four times in water, and then dried in the sun.

According to a recent examination of the plant by Mr. Nuttall

("American Journal of Pharmacy," vol. ix., p. 305), the Otaheite salep

is obtained from a new species of tacca, which he names _T. oceanica_.

For many years we have obtained from Tahiti, and other islands of the

South Seas, this fecula, known by the name of Tahiti arrowroot,

probably the produce of _Tacca pinnatifida_. It is generally

spherical, but also often ovoid, elliptic, or rounded, with a

prolongation in the form of a neck, suddenly terminated by a plane.

The tacca plant grows at Zanzibar, and is found naturalised on the

high islands of the Pacific. The art of preparing arrowroot from it is

aboriginal with the Polynesians and Feejeeans.

At Tahiti the fecula is procured by washing the tubers, scraping off

their outer skin, and then reducing them to a pulp by friction, on a

kind of rasp, made by winding coarse twine (formed of the coco-nut

fibre) regularly round a board. The pulp is washed with sea water

through a sieve, made of the fibrous web which protects the young

frond of the coco-nut palm. The strained liquor is received in a

wooden trough, in which the fecula is deposited; and the supernatant

liquor being poured off, the sediment is formed into balls, which are

dried in the sun for twelve or twenty-four hours, then broken and

reduced to powder, which is spread out in the sun further to dry. In

some parts of the world cakes of a large size are made of the meal,

which form an article of diet in China, Cochin-Caina, Travancore, &c.,

where they are eaten by the natives with some acid to subdue their

acrimony.

Some twenty varieties of the Ti plant (_Diacaena terminalis_) are

cultivated in the Polynesian islands. There is, however, but one which

is considered farinaceous and edible. In Java the root is considered a

valuable medicine in dysentery.

Within the last three or four years, considerable quantities of a

feculent substance, called Tous les mois, have been imported from the

West Indies. It is cultivated in Barbados, St. Kitts, and the French

islands, and is said to be prepared by a tedious and troublesome

process from the rhizomes of various species of _Canna Coccinea_,

_Achiras_, _glauca_, and _edulis_. It approaches more nearly to potato

starch than to any other fecula, but its particles are larger. Like

the other amylaceous substances, it forms a valuable and nutritious

article of food for the invalid.

The large tuberous roots of the Canna are equal in size to the human

head. The plant attains in rich soils a stature of fourteen feet, and

is identical, it is supposed, with the Achira of Choco, which has an

esculent root highly esteemed; and my friend, Dr. Hamilton, of

Plymouth, has named it provisionally, in consequence, _Canna achira_.

The starch of this root, he asserts, is superior to that of the

_Maranta_.

ROOT CROPS.

Amongst tuberous rooted plants, which serve as food for man in various

quarters of the globe, the principal are the common potato, yam,

cocoes or eddoes, sweet potatoes, taro, tacca, arrowroot, cassava, or

manioc, and the Apios (_Arracacha esculenta_). There are others of

less importance, which may be incidentally mentioned. The roots of

_Tropæolum tuberosum_ are eaten in Peru, those of _Ocymum tuberosum_

in Java. In Kamschatka they use the root of the _Lilium Pomponium_ as

a substitute for the potato. In Brazil the _Helianthus tuberosus_. The

rhizomæ and seed vessels of the Lotus form the principal food of the

aborigines of Australia. As a matter of curious information, I have

also briefly alluded to many other plants and roots, furnishing

farinaceous substance and support in different countries.

The comparative amount of human food that can be produced upon an acre

from different crops, is worthy of great consideration. One hundred

bushels of Indian corn per acre is not an uncommon crop. One peck per

week will not only sustain life, but give a man strength to labor, if

the stomach is properly toned to the amount of food. This, then, would

feed one man 400 weeks, or almost eight years! 400 bushels of potatoes

can also be raised upon an acre. This would give a bushel a week for

the same length of time; and the actual weight of an acre of sweet

potatoes (_Convolvulus batatas_) is 21,344 lbs., which is not

considered an extraordinary crop. This would feed a man (six pounds a

day) for 3,557 days, or nine and two-third years!

To vary the diet we will occasionally give rice, which has been grown

at the rate of 93 bushels to the acre, over an entire field. This, at

45 lbs. to the bushel, would be 4,185 lbs.; or, at 28 lbs. to the

bushel when husked, 2,604 lbs., which, at two pounds a day, would feed

a man 1,302 days, or more than three-and-a-half years!

POTATOES.

The common English or Irish potato (_Solanum tuberosum_), so

extensively cultivated throughout most of the temperate countries of

the civilised globe, contributing as it does to the necessities of a

large portion of the human race, as well as to the nourishment and

fattening of stock, is regarded as of but little less importance in

our national economy than wheat or other grain. It has been found in

an indigenous state in Chili, on the mountains near Valparaiso and

Mendoza; also near Monte Video, Lima, Quito, as well as in Santa Fe de

Bogota, and more recently in Mexico, on the flanks of Orizaba.

The history of this plant, in connection with that of the sweet

potato, is involved in obscurity, as the accounts of their

introduction into Europe are somewhat conflicting, and often they

appear to be confounded with one another. The common kind was

doubtless introduced into Spain in the early part of the sixteenth

century, from the neighbourhood of Quito, where, as well as in all

Spanish countries, the tubers are known as papas. The first published

account of it we find on record is in "_La Cronica del Peru_," by

Pedro de Cieca, printed at Seville, in 1553, in which it is described

and illustrated by an engraving. From Spain it appears to have found

its way into Italy, where it assumed the same name as the truffle. It

was received by Clusius, at Vienna, in 1598, in whose time it spread

rapidly in the South of Europe, and even into Germany. It is said to

have found its way to England by a different route, having been

brought from Virginia by Raleigh colonists, in 1586, which would seem

improbable, as it was unknown in North America at that time, either

wild or cultivated; and besides, Gough, in his edition of Camden's

"Britannia," says it was first planted by Sir Walter Raleigh, on his

estate at Youghal, near Cork, and that it was cultivated in Ireland

before its value was known in England. Gerarde, in his "Herbal,"

published in 1597, gives a figure of this plant, under the name of

_Batata Virginiana_, to distinguish it from the _Batata edulis_, and

recommends the root to be eaten as a "delicate dish," but not as a

common food. "The sweet potato," says Sir Joseph Banks, "was used in

England as a delicacy, long before the introduction of our potatoes.

It was imported in considerable quantities from Spain and the

Canaries, and was supposed to possess the power of restoring decayed

vigor." It is related that the common potato was accidentally

introduced into England from Ireland, at a period somewhat earlier

than that noticed by Gerarde, in consequence of the wreck of a vessel

on the coast of Lancashire, which had a quantity on board. In 1663 the

Royal Society of England took measures for the cultivation of this

vegetable, with the view of preventing famine.

Notwithstanding its utility as a food became better known, no high

character was attached to it; and the writers on gardening towards the

end of the seventeenth century, a hundred years or more after its

introduction, treated of it rather indifferently. "They are much used

in Ireland and America as bread," says one author, "and may be

propagated with advantage to poor people."

The famous nurserymen, Loudon and Wise, did not consider it worthy of

notice in their "Complete Gardener," published in 1719. But its use

gradually spread as its excellencies became better understood. It was

near the middle of the last century before it was generally known

either in Britain or North America, since which it has been most

extensively cultivated.

The period of the introduction of the common potato into the British

North American colonies, is not precisely known. It is mentioned among

the products of Carolina and Virginia in 1749, and by Kalm as growing

in New York the same year.

The culture of this root extends through the whole of Europe, a large

portion of Asia, Australia, the southern and northern parts of Africa,

and the adjacent islands. On the American continent, with the

exception of some sections of the torrid zone, the culture ranges from

Labrador on the east, and Nootka Sound on the west, to Cape Horn. It

resists more effectually than the cereals the frosts of the north. In

the North American Union it is principally confined to the Northern,

Middle, and Western States, where, from the coolness of the climate it

acquires a farinaceous consistence highly conducive to the support of

animal life. It has never been extensively cultivated in Florida,

Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, probably from the greater

facility of raising the sweet potato, its more tropical rival. Its

perfection, however, depends as much upon the soil as on the climate

in which it grows; for in the red loam, on the banks of Bayou Boeuf, in

Louisiana, where the land is new, it is said that tubers are produced

as large, savory, and as free from water as any raised in other parts

of the world. The same may be said of those grown at Bermuda, Madeira,

the Canaries, and numerous other ocean isles.

The chief varieties cultivated in the Northern States of America are

the carter, the kidneys, the pink-eyes, the mercer, the orange, the

Sault Ste. Marie, the merino, and Western red; in the Middle and

Western States, the mercer, the long red, or merino, the orange, and

the Western red. The yield varies from 50 to 400 bushels and upwards

per acre, but generally it is below 200 bushels.

Within the last ten years an alarming disease, or "rot," has attacked

the tubers of this plant, about the time they are fully grown. It has

not only appeared in nearly every part of America, but has spread

dismay, at times, throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and has been

felt more or less seriously in every quarter of the globe.

To the greater uncertainty attending its cultivation of late years,

must be attributed the deficiency of the United States crop of 1849,

as compared with that of 1839. This is one of the four agricultural

products which, by the last census, appears smaller than ten years

since.--("American Census Reports for 1850.")

The crops in Ireland, where the potato is the principal object of

culture, vary from 1½ to 10½ tons per acre, according to the season;

but in the average of three years ending 1849, the annual growth of

Great Britain and Ireland amounted to nine million tons, which, at £3

per ton, exhibits the value at £27,000,000 sterling. Ireland produced

in 1847 a little over two million tons, the yield being 7¼ tons per

acre. In 1848 the produce was 2,880,814 tons, averaging only four tons

to the acre. In 1849, 4,014,122 tons, averaging 5½ tons to the acre.

In 1850, 3,954,990 tons; and in 1851, 4,441,022 tons; the average

yield per acre not stated. In many parts of Scotland 24 tons to the

acre are raised. The sales of potatoes in the principal metropolitan

markets exceed 140,000 tons a year, which are irrespective of the

sales which take place at railway stations, wharfs, shops, &c. The

imports into the United Kingdom average about 70,000 tons annually.

Potatoes are exported to the West Indies, Mediterranean, and other

quarters. For emigrant ships, preserved or dried potato flour is now

much used.

The following quantities of potato flour were imported from France in

the last few years:--

Cwts.

1848 17,222

1849 3,858

1850 12,591

1851 2,631

We also imported the following quantities of potatoes in the last

five years:--

Cwts.

1848 940,697

1849 1,417,867

1850 1,348,867

1851 636,771

1852 773,658

Thoroughly dried potatoes will always produce a crop free from

disease. Such is the positive assertion of Mr. Bollman, one of the

professors in the Russian Agricultural Institution, at Gorigoretsky.

In a very interesting pamphlet[47] by this gentleman, it is asserted,

as an unquestionable fact, that mere drying, if conducted at a

sufficiently high temperature, and continued long enough, is a

complete antidote to the disease.

The account given by Professor Bollman of the accident which led to

this discovery is as follows:--He had contrived a potato-setter, which

had the bad quality of destroying any sprouts that might be "on the

sets, and even of tearing away the rind. To harden the potatoes so as

to protect them against this accident, he resolved to dry them. In the

spring of 1850, he placed a lot in a very hot room, and at the end of

three weeks they were dry enough to plant. The potatoes came up well,

and produced as good a crop as that of the neighbouring farmers, with

this difference only, that they had no disease, and the crop was,

therefore, upon the whole, more abundant. Professor Bollman tells us

that he regarded this as a mere accident; he, however, again dried his

seed potatoes in 1851, and again his crop was abundant and free from

disease, while everywhere on the surrounding land they were much

affected. This was too remarkable a circumstance not to excite

attention, and in 1852 a third trial took place. All Mr. Bollman's own

stock of potatoes being exhausted, he was obliged to purchase his

seed, which bore unmistakable marks of having formed part of a crop

that had been severely diseased; some, in fact, were quite rotten.

After keeping them about a month in a hot room, as before, he cut the

largest potatoes into quarters, and the smaller into halves, and left

them to dry for another week. Accidentally the drying was carried so

far that apprehensions were entertained of a very bad crop, if any.

Contrary to expectation, however, the sets pushed promptly, and grew

so fast that excellent young potatoes were dug three weeks earlier

than usual. Eventually nine times the quantity planted was produced,

and although the neighbouring fields were attacked, no trace of

disease could be found on either the herbage or the potatoes

themselves.

This singular result, obtained in three successive years, led to

inquiry as to whether any similar cases were on record. In the course

of the investigation two other facts were elicited. It was discovered

that Mr. Losovsky (living in the government of Witebsk, in the

district of Sebege), had for four years adopted the plan of drying his

seed potatoes, and that during that time there had been no disease on

his estate. It was again an accident which led to the practice of this

gentleman. Five years ago, while his potatoes were digging, he put one

in his pocket, and on returning home threw it on the stove (poele),

where it remained forgotten till the spring. Having then chanced to

observe it, he had the curiosity to plant it, all dried up as it was,

and obtained an abundant, healthy crop; since that time the practice

of drying has been continued, and always with great success. Professor

Bollman remarks that it is usual in Russia, in many places, to

smoke-dry flax, wheat, and rye; and in the west of Russia, experienced

proprietors prefer, for seed, onions that have been kept over the

winter in cottages without a chimney. Such onions are called _dymka_,

which may be interpreted smoke-dried.

The second fact is this:--Mr. Wasileffsky, a gentlemen residing in the

government of Mohileff, is in the habit of keeping potatoes all the

year round, by storing them in the place where his hams are smoked. It

happened that in the spring of 1852 his seed potatoes, kept in the

usual manner, were insufficient, and he made up the requisite quantity

with some of those which had been for a month in the smoking place.

These potatoes produced a capital crop, very little diseased, while at

the same time the crop from the sets which were not smoke-dried was

extensively attacked by disease. Professor Bollman is of opinion that

there would have been no disease at all if the sets had been better

dried.

The temperature required to produce the desired result is not very

clearly made out. Mr. Bollman's room, in which his first potatoes were

dried, was heated to about 72 degrees, and much higher. By way of

experiment he placed others in the chamber of the stove itself, where

the thermometer stood at 136 degrees, and more. He also ascertained

that the vitality of the potato is not affected, even if the rind is

charred. Those who have the use of a malt-kiln, or even a lime-kiln,

might try the effect of excessive drying, for a month seems to be long

enough for the process.--(Gardener's Chronicle.)

A Mr. Penoyer, of Western Saratoga, Illinois, publishes the following,

which he recommends as a perfect cure and preventive of the potato

rot, having tested it thoroughly four years with perfect success;

while others in the same field, who did not use the preventive, lost

their entire crop by the rot. It not only prevents the rot, but

restores the potato to its primitive vigor, and the product is not

only sound, but double the size, consequently producing twice the

quantity on the same ground, and the vines grow much larger, and

retain their freshness and vitality until the frost kills them. Aside

from the cure of the rot, the farmers would be more than doubly

compensated for their trouble and expense in the increase and quality

of the crop. The remedy or preventive is as follows:--"Take one peck

of fine salt and mix it thoroughly with half a bushel of Nova Scotia

plaster or gypsum (the plaster is the best), and immediately after

hoeing the potatoes the second time, or just as the young potato

begins to set, sprinkle on the main vines, next to the ground, a

tablespoon full of the above mixture to each hill, and be sure to get

it on the main vines, as it is found that the rot proceeds from a

sting of an insect in the vine, and the mixture coming in contact with

the vine, kills the effect of it before it reaches the potato." I

cannot but consider Professor Bollman's as the most important of the

two remedies suggested.

The potato crop of the United States exceeds 100 million bushels,

nearly all of which are consumed in the country; the average exports

of the last eight years not having exceeded 160,000 bushels per annum.

According to the census returns of 1840, the quantity of potatoes of

all sorts raised in the Union, was 108,298,060 bushels; of 1850,

104,055,989 bushels, of which 38,259,196 bushels were sweet potatoes.

Last year (1852) there was under cultivation with potatoes in Canada,

the following extent of land:--

Acres. Bushels.

Upper Canada 77,672 Produce 498,747

Lower Canada 73,244 Produce 456,111

About 782,008 cwts. of potatoes are annually exported from the Canary

Islands. In Prussia, 153 million hectolitres of potatoes were raised

in 1849. In 1840 Van Diemen's Land produced 15,000 tons of potatoes,

on about 5,000 acres of land.

The potato is not yet an article of so much importance in France, as

in England or the Low Countries, but within the last twenty years its

cultivation has increased very rapidly. It is mostly grown where corn

is the least cultivated. The quantity raised in 1818, was 29,231,867

hectolitres, which had increased in 1835 to 71,982,814 hectolitres.

About 2,000,000 hectolitres of chesnuts are also annually consumed in

France, a portion of the rural population in some of the Central and

Southern Departments living almost entirely on them for half the year.

In Peru dried potatoes are thus prepared:--Small potatoes are boiled,

peeled, and then dried in the sun, but the best are those dried by the

severe frosts on the mountains. In the Cordilleras they are covered

with ice, until they assume a horny appearance. Powdered, it is called

_chimo_. They will keep for any length of time, and when used required

to be bruised and soaked. If introduced as a vegetable substance in

long sea voyages, the potato thus dried would be found wholesome and

nourishing. A large and profitable business is now carried on, in what

is called "preserved potatoes," for ships' use, prepared by Messrs.

Edwards and Co., which are found exceedingly useful in the Royal Navy,

in emigrant ships, for troops and other services, from their

portability, nutritious properties, and being uninjured by climate.

Few persons are probably aware of the quantity of potatoes used in

England, America and the Continent, in the manufacture of starch,

arrowroot, and tapioca, &c., A starch manufactory in Mercer, Maine,

United States, grinds from 16,000 to 24,000 bushels annually of

potatoes, and makes 140,000 to 240,000 lbs. of starch, which finds a

ready market at Boston, at four dollars the hundred pounds. The New

England manufacturers prefer it to Poland starch. Another starch

manufacturer, in Hampden, America, consumes 2,500 bushels per day. In

a single district in Bavaria, in Germany, 400,000 lbs. of sago and

starch are manufactured from potatoes; 100 lbs. of potatoes are said

to yield 12 lbs. of starch. From experiments made in America, with

three varieties of potatoes, the long reds, Philadelphia, and

pink-eyes, it was found that the former yielded the most starch, viz.,

about 6 lbs. to the bushel. A bushel of potatoes weighs about 64 lbs.

The following table from Accum, gives the rate of starch and component

parts per cent. in different varieties:--

+-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+------+

+-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+-------

|Red potatoes | 7.0 | 15.0 | 1.4 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 75.0 |

|Ditto germinated | 6.8 | 12.2 | 1.3 | 3.7 | | 73.0 |

|Potato sprouts | 2.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 3.3 | | 93.0 |

|Kidney potatoes | 8.8 | 9.1 | 0.8 | | | 81.3 |

|Large red ditto | 6.0 | 12.9 | 0.7 | | | 78.0 |

|Sweet ditto | 8.2 | 15.1 | 0.8 | | 74.3 |

|Potato of Peru | 5.2 | 15.0 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 76.0 |

|Ditto of England | 6.8 | 12.9 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 77.5 |

|Onion potato | 8.4 | 18.7 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 70.3 |

|Voigtland | 7.1 | 15.4 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 74.3 |

| environs of Paris| 6.8 | 13.3 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 73.1 |

+-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+------+

The first six varieties were analysed by Einhoff, the next four by

Lamped, and the last named by Henry.

YAMS.

The different species of yams have a wide range. In the West Indies

there are several varieties, having distinctive names, according to

quality, color, &c., as the white yam, the red yam, the negro yam, the

creole yam, the afoo yam, the buck yam (_Dioscorea triphylla_), which

is found wild in Java and the East; the Guinea yam, the Portuguese

yam, the water yam, and the Indian yam, &c. The last is considered the

most farinaceous and delicate in its texture, resembling in size the

potato; most of the other sorts are coarse, but still very nutritive

and useful. The common yam (_Dioscorea sativa_) is indigenous to the

Eastern Islands and West Indies. The Guinea yam (_D. aculeata_) is a

native of the East. The Barbados or winged yam (_D. alata_?) has a

widely extended range, being common to India, Java, Brazil, and

Western Africa. The yam species are climbing plants, with handsome

foliage, of the simplest culture, which succeed well in any light,

rich, or sandy soil, and are readily increased by dividing the

tuberous roots. The Indian, Barbados, and red yams are planted in the

West Indies early in May, and dug early in the January following. If

not bruised, they will keep well packed in ashes, the first nine, and

the second and last twelvemonths. The Portuguese and Guinea yams are

planted early in January and dug in September. Creole yams and Tanias

are dug in January. Sweet potatoes from January to March. In most of

our colonies large crops of the finest descriptions of yams, cocos,

&c., could be obtained, but the planting of ground provisions is too

much neglected by all classes. From the tubers of yams of all sorts,

and particularly the buck yam, starch is easily prepared, and of

excellent quality. Some varieties of the buck yam are purple-fleshed,

often of a very deep tint, approaching to black, and although this is

an objection, because it renders more washing necessary, yet even from

these the starch is at last obtained perfectly white.

As an edible root the buck yam, especially when grown in a light soil,

is equal to the potato, if not superior to it. It does not, however,

keep for any length of time, and therefore could not be exported to

Europe, unless the roots were sliced and dried.

Yams and sweet potatoes thrive well in the northern parts of

Australia; indeed the former are indigenous there, and constitute the

chief article of vegetable food used by the natives. The yam was

introduced into Sweden, where it succeeded well, and bread, starch,

and brandy were made from it, but it prefers a warmer climate.

Yams are occasionally brought to this country. When cooked, either by

roasting or boiling, the root is even more nutritious than the potato,

nor is it possessed of any unpalatable flavor, the pecularity being

between that of rice and the potato. Dressed in milk, or mashed, they

are absolutely a delicacy; and from the abundance in which they are

cultivated in the West Indies and other parts, they promise to become

a most economical and nutritious substitute for the potato.

The yam frequently grows to the enormous size of forty or fifty pounds

weight, but in this large state it is coarse-flavored and fibrous.

An acre of land is capable of producing 4½ tons of yams, and the same

quantity of sweet potatoes, within the twelve months, or nine tons per

acre for both, being nearly as much as the return obtained at home in

the cultivation of potatoes; and I have the authority of all

analytical chemists for saying that in point of value, as an article

of food, the superiority is as two to one in favor of the tropical

roots.

The kidney-rooted yam (_D. pentaphylla_), is indigenous to the

Polynesian islands, and is sometimes cultivated for its roots. It is

called _kawaii_ in the Feejee islands. _D. bulbifera_, a native of the

East, is also abundantly naturalised in the Polynesian islands, but is

not considered edible.

There are seven or eight kinds of yams grown in India. Two are of a

remarkably fine flavor, one weighing as much as eighteen pounds, the

other three pounds. These are found in the Tartar country.

COCOS OR EDDOES

_Arum esculentum_.--This root has not hitherto been considered of

sufficient importance to demand particular care in its cultivation,

except by those who are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and derive

their subsistence from the production of the soil. But though the

cultivation of the root is almost unknown to the higher classes in

society, and little regarded by planters in the colonies, it is a most

valuable article of consumption. Amongst the laboring population it is

the principal dependence for a supply of food. Long droughts may

disappoint the hopes of the yam crop, storms and blight may destroy

the plantain walks, but neither dry or wet weather materially injure

the coco; it will always make some return, and though it may not

afford a plentiful crop, it will yield a sufficiency until a supply

can be had from other sources. For this reason the laborer in the West

Indies always takes care to put in a good plant of cocos to his

provision ground as a stand by, and knowing their value, is perhaps

the only person who bestows any degree of care or attention upon them.

Previous to their emancipation, whole families of negroes lived upon

the produce of one provision ground, and the coco formed the main

article of their support. Where the soil is congenial to the white and

black Bourbon coco, the labor of one industrious person once a

fortnight will raise a supply sufficient for the consumption of a

family of six or seven persons. The coco begins to bear after the

first year, and with common care and cultivation the same plant ought

to give annually two or three returns for several years. In Jamaica, a

disease something similar to that affecting the potato, has been found

injurious to the coco root. This disease, which has baffled all

inquiry as to its origin, affects the plants in and after the second

year of their being planted. The first indication of it is the change

in the leaves, which gradually turn to a yellow hue, have a sickly

appearance, and at length drop off at the surface of the earth. The

stock or "coco head," as it is called, below ground, having become

rotten, nothing but a soft pulpy mass remains. In some fields every

third or fourth root is thus affected, in others much greater numbers

are destroyed, so much so that the field requires to be almost

entirely replanted, by which not only an expense is entailed, but a

heavy loss sustained, from the field being thrown out of its regular

bearing. The black coco seems to suffer less than the white.

Another species, the Taro (_Arum Colocasia_, _Colocasia esculenta_ and

_macrorhizon_), is an important esculent root in the Polynesian

islands. In the dry method of culture practised on the mountains of

Hawaii, the roots are protected by a covering of fern leaves. The

cultivation of taro is hardly a process of multiplication, for the

crown of the root is perpetually replanted. As the plant endures for a

series of years, the tuberous roots serve at some of the rocky groups

as a security against famine. It is also extensively cultivated in

Madeira and Zanzibar, and has even withstood the climate of New

Zealand. It is grown also in Egypt, Syria, and some of the adjacent

countries, for its esculent roots. A species is cultivated in the

Deccan, for the sake of the leaves, which form a substitute for

spinach. Farina is obtained from the root of _Arum Rumphii_ in

Polynesia.

SWEET POTATOES.

The batatas, or camote of the Spanish colonies (_Convolvulus batatas_,

Linn; _Batatas edulis_, of Choisy, and the _Ipomæa Batatas_ of other

botanists), belongs to a family of plants which has been split into

several genera. It is a native of the East Indies, and of

intertropical America, and was the "potato" of the old English writers

in the early part of the fourteenth century. It was doubtless

introduced into Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia soon after their

settlement by the Europeans, being mentioned as one of the cultivated

products of those colonies as early as the year 1648. It grows in

excessive abundance throughout the Southern States of America, and as

far north as New Jersey, and the southern part of Michigan. The

varieties cultivated there are the purple, the red, the yellow, and

the white, the former of which is confined to the South.

The amount of sweet potatoes exported from South Carolina in 1747-48,

was 700 bushels; that of the common potato exported from the United

States, 1820-21, 90,889,000 bushels; in 1830-31, 112,875,000 bushels;

in 1840-41, 136,095,000 bushels; in 1850-51, 106,342,000 bushels.

The sweet potato is cultivated generally in all the intertropical

regions, for the sake of its roots, and as a legume in temperate

countries. In the Southern States of North America, the culture ceases

in Carolina under latitude 36 degs.; in Portugal and Spain it reaches

to latitude 40 and 42 deg.; and as a legume its cultivation is

attempted to the vicinity of Paris. In India it is a very common crop;

its tubers are very similar to the potato, but have a sweeter taste,

whence the common name; but it must not be confounded with the

topinambur (_Helianthus tuberosus_), a native of Brazil, which is less

cultivated. The root contains much saccharine and amylaceous matter.

Several marked varieties of the sweet potato are raised in the

Polynesian groups. In some islands it forms the principal object of

cultivation.

It is grown in the Northern districts of New Zealand, at Zanzibar,

Monomoisy, Bombay, and other parts of the East Indies. They are

raised on the bare surface of the rock in some parts of the Hawaiian

islands, and a sourish liquor is procured from them. It was early

cultivated on the Western Coast of Africa, for the Portuguese Pilot

(who set out on his voyages to the colony at St. Thomas, in the Gulf

of Guinea) speaks of this plant, and states that it is called "batata"

by the aboriginals of St. Domingo. They are abundant at Mocha and

Muscat. Sweet potatoes form a principal and important crop in the

Bermudas.

A valuable addition has lately been made to the votaries of the sweet

potato in Alabama, supposed to be from Peru. A letter describing it

says:--"It is altogether different and equally superior to any variety

of this root hitherto known. It is productive, and attains a

prodigious size, even upon the poorest sandy land, and the roots

remain without change from the time of taking them out of the ground

until the following May. The plant is singularly easy of cultivation,

growing equally well from the slip or vine, the top or vine of the

full-grown plant being remarkably small; the inside is as white as

snow. It is dry and mealy, and the saccharine principle contained

resembles in delicacy of flavor fine virgin honey."

There is in general a great error in cultivating this root, as most

people still plant in the old way, two or three sets in the hole,

which is a great deal too close.

When a piece of land is to be planted in sweet potatoes, it should be

top-dressed with some manure, to be dug or ploughed under a week or

two before it is to be planted. Drills should be made two feet apart,

and the potatoes placed in the drill about one foot asunder. From

eight to twelve to the pound are the best size for planting. The

"white upright" kind, when intended for sets, should be taken up early

in March, and kept about a month, so as to be quite dry before

planting. Abundant crops can rarely be raised from the stem of the

"uprights;" the old potato, however, grows to a large size. I have

planted a potato weighing about an ounce, and dug it up in August,

weighing over two pounds. The drills can be made with a small plough

to great advantage, when a person understands it.

The best manure for the sweet potato is anything green, such as fresh

seaweed, green oats, bushes, or anything of the kind, put in in

abundance.

Care should be taken to get early and good strong slips. A slip with

about six joints is quite long enough; three or four joints to be put

under ground, and the rest above. For slips, the land must be prepared

as already described for the potatoes; this should be done before the

slips are ready to cut.

The best way to plant slips is to drill, the same way as for the

potatoes, only a little closer; then put the end of the slip in,

leaving about two joints out of ground, placing them one foot apart.

The drills can be made in dry weather, so as not to have any delay

when it rains; by this means a great many can be planted in a day.

The best land for sweet potatoes is the light sandy kind; a rich

friable black mould, or a rocky substratum; for hill sides, rocky

ravines, and places which would be called barren and unprofitable for

other crops, are found to yield a good return when planted with sweet

potatoes. The best time to plant slips to get stock from, is the

latter end of August or early in September, as the season may suit.

The sweet potato of Java, says Mr. Crawfurd, is the finest I ever met

with. Some are frequently of several pounds weight, and now and then

have been found of the enormous weight of 50 lbs. The sweetness is not

disagreeable to the palate, though considerable, and they contain a

large portion of farinaceous matter, being as mealy as the best of our

own potatoes. In Java it is cultivated in ordinary upland arable, or

in the dry season as a green crop in succession to rice.

A tuberous root (_Ocymum tuberosum_), an inhabitant of the hot plains,

is frequently cultivated in Java. It is small, round, and much

resembling in appearance the American potato, but has no great flavor.

Its local name is _kantang_.

CASSAVA OR MANIOC.

Of this plant, which is a shrub about six feet high, extensively grown

for its farinaceous root, there are several species, nearly all

natives of America, principally of Brazil, whence it derives one of

its common names of Manihot or Mandioc. Two species of Manihot have

been found indigenous in South Australia. The varieties commonly

cultivated for their roots, are the sweet and the bitter.

1. Sweet cassava (_Janiphi_ (or _Jatropha_,) _Loeflingii_, Kunth;

_Manihot Aipi_, of Pohl).--This species has a spindle-shaped root

brown externally, about six or seven ounces or more in weight, which

contains amylaceous matter, without any bitterness, and is used as

food, after being rasped and washed, so as to cleanse it from the

fibrous matter, in the same manner as arrowroot is prepared. It is

distinguished from the bitter cassava by a tough ligneous fibre, which

runs through the heart of the tuber. Manihot starch is sometimes

imported into Europe under the name of Brazilian arrowroot. The

cassava is known in Peru as _yucca_.

A dry mixed soil is best suited to its culture. So exhausting is this

crop, that it cannot be raised more than two or three times

successively on the same land. The roots arrive at maturity in eight

or nine months after planting, but may be kept in the ground a much

longer time without injury. Sweet cassava might be sliced, dried in

the sun, and sent to Europe in that state. In dry weather the process

succeeds remarkably well, and the dried slices keep for a considerable

time. Dr. Shier ascertained that when these sliced and dried roots

were first steeped and then boiled, they return to very nearly their

original condition, and make an excellent substitute for the potato.

The plant thrives on even the poorest soil; the mode of planting is

simple. It consists in laying cuttings a foot long in square pits a

foot deep, and covering them with mould, leaving the upper ends open.

From two to four pieces may be placed in each square. The planting

ought to be in the rainy season. The cuttings must be made from the

full-grown stem. A humid soil causes the root to decay, a dry soil is

therefore more adapted for its cultivation. As blossoms are

occasionally plucked from potato plants, so the manihot or cassava is

deprived of its buds to increase the size of its roots. The raw root

of the bitter species, when taken out of the ground, is poisonous--if

exposed, however, to the sun for a short time, it is innocuous, and

when boiled is quite wholesome.

The starch of the root of the manioc is prepared in the following

manner, as described by Dr. Ure:--" The roots are washed and reduced

to a pulp by means of a rasp or grater. The pulp is put into coarse

strong canvas bags, and thus submitted to the action of a powerful

press, by which it parts with most of its noxious juice. As the active

principle of this juice is volatile, it is easily dissipated by baking

the squeezed cakes of pulp upon a plate of hot iron. The pulp thus

dried concretes into lumps, which become hard and friable as they

cool. They are then broken into pieces, and laid out in the sun to

dry. In this state they are a wholesome nutriment. These cakes

constitute the only provisions laid in by the natives, in their

voyages upon the Amazon. Boiled in water, with a little beef or

mutton, they form a kind of soup similar to that of rice.

The cassava cakes sent to Europe are composed almost entirely of

starch, along with a few fibres of the ligneous matter. It may be

purified by diffusion in warm water, passing the milky mixture through

a linen cloth, evaporating the straining liquid over the fire, with

constant agitation. The starch, dissolved by the heat, thickens as the

water evaporates, but on being stirred it becomes granulated, and must

be finally dried in a proper stove.

2. Bitter cassava (_Janipha Manihot_, of Kunth; _Jatropha Manihot_, of

Linnæus; and _Manihot utilissima_, Pohl).--This species has a knotty

root, black externally, which is occasionally 30 lbs. in weight. In

the root there is much starchy matter deposited, usually along with a

poisonous narcotic substance, which is said to be hydrocyanic acid.

The juice of the plant, when distilled, affords as a first product a

liquor which, in the dose of thirty drops, will cause the death of a

man in six minutes. It is doubted whether this acid pre-exists in the

plant; some suppose it to be generated after it is grated down into a

pulp. It can be driven off by roasting, and then the starch is used in

the form of cassava bread. It is principally from the starch of the

bitter cassava that tapioca is prepared by elutriation and granulating

on hot plates. This serves to agglutinate it into the form of

concretions, constituting the tapioca of commerce. This being starch

very nearly pure, is often prescribed by physicians as an aliment of

easy digestion. A tolerably good imitation of it is made by beating,

stirring, and drying potato starch in a similar way.

The grated starch of the roots, floated in water, is spontaneously

deposited, and when repeatedly washed and dried in the sun, forms

cassava flour, called "Moussache" by the French.

The juice of the bitter cassava, mixed with molasses and fermented,

has been made into an intoxicating liquor, which is much relished by

the negroes and Indians.

The concentrated juice of the bitter cassava, under the name of

cassareep, forms the basis of the West India dish, "pepper pot." One

of its most remarkable properties is its highly antiseptic power,

preserving meat that has been boiled in it for a much longer period

than can be done by any other culinary process. Cassareep was

originally an Indian preparation.

The manioc or cassava is cultivated in America, on both sides of the

equator, to about latitude 30 degrees north and south. Among the

mountains of intertropical America, it reaches to an elevation of

3,200 feet. It is cultivated also in great abundance on the island of

Zanzibar, and among the negro tribes of Eastern Africa to the

Monomoesy, inclusive; on the west coast of Africa, in Congo and

Guinea. It appears not to have been introduced into Asia. The farina

of the manioc is almost the only kind of meal used in Brazil, at least

in the north, near the equator. An acre of manioc is said to yield as

much nutriment as six acres of wheat. Meyen states, "It is not

possible sufficiently to praise the beautiful manioc plant." The

Indians find in this a compensation for the rice and other cerealia of

the Old World. It has been carried from Brazil to the Mauritius and

Madagascar.

The following quantities of Brazilian arrowroot, or tapioca, were

imported in the undermentioned years:--

Cwts.

1833 942

1834 888

1835 1,663

1836 3,735

1837 2,142

1838 462

1839 402

1840 983

1841 1,870

1843 2,325

St. Lucia grows a considerable quantity of manioc; it exported of

cassava flour in--

Barrels.

1827 8

1828 814

1829 279

1830 99

1831 59

1834 713

The cassava root grows abundantly in most of the West India islands

and tropical America; the trouble of planting is inconsiderable, and

the profit arising from its manufacture, even by the common process of

hand-grating, is immense. I should be glad if I could induce the

enterprising of our colonial settlers to give this a fair trial, as

well as encourage the present growers to increase their crops and

improve the quality of the article, so as to render it suitable for

the English market. The manufacture of starch will one of these days

become a productive source of colonial wealth. Since cassava was first

grown in the West, its capabilities as a starch-producer have, to a

certain extent, been known, and for that purpose it has been in

limited use.

Mr. James Glen, of Haagsbosch plantation, Demerara, has recently

tested its value as an article of export, and added it to the other

industrial resources of that colony.

This gentleman, by erecting machinery on his plantation for grinding

the root and preparing the starch of the bitter cassava, has already

shipped the article in considerable quantities to Europe, and it has

been sold at a price which puts the profit upon sugar cultivation

completely to the blush. His agent in Glasgow writes, that any

quantity (like that already shipped) can command a ready sale at 9d.

per lb. Its use is co-extensive, or nearly so, with that of sugar. The

productive capabilities of the soil are not perhaps generally known;

nor is it necessary that, to pay the grower there, it should bring

even half that price. A sample of a ton, which was prepared at

Haagsbosch in 1841, was submitted for examination to Dr. Shier, at the

colonial laboratory, Georgetown, who admitted it to be a beautiful

specimen of starch, although it had undergone but _one_ washing. The

root from which it was made, was planted eight or nine months

previously, upon an acre of soil, which had never undergone any

preparation of ploughing, or been broken and turned up in any way. The

plants were never weeded after they had begun to spring, nor were they

tended or disturbed until they were ripe and pulled up. The expense of

planting the acre was five dollars, and reaping this crop would, I

suppose, amount to as much more, say £2 in all. The green cassava was

never weighed, but the acre yielded fully a ton of starch--equal, at

9d. per lb., to £84.

The experimental researches of Dr. Shier have led him to believe that

the green bitter cassava will give one-fifth its weight of starch. If

this be the case the return per acre would, under favorable

circumstances, when the land is properly worked, be enormous. On an

estate at Essequibo, a short time ago, an acre of cassava, grown in

fine permeable soil, was lifted and weighed; it yielded 25 tons of

green cassava. Such a return as this per acre would enable our West

India colonies to inundate Great Britain with food, and at a rate

which would make flour to be considered a luxury. Dr. Shier is

convinced that, in thorough drained land, where the roots could

penetrate the soil, and where its permeability would permit of their

indefinite expansion, a return of 25 tons an acre might uniformly be

calculated upon. What a blessing, not only for those colonies, but for

the world, would the introduction be of this cheap and nutritious

substitute for the potato.

NEW TUBEROUS PLANTS RECOMMENDED AS SUBSTITUTES FOR THE POTATO.

In the present disturbed state of the grain markets of Europe, the

advantage of cultivating plants which directly or indirectly can form

a substitute for the potato, admits of no doubt. It appears to me,

moreover, that when the way is once opened up, even under ordinary

circumstances, the tropical colonies of Great Britain, without

diminishing the quantity of sugar and coffee they produce, could

advantageously supply the British market with the purest starches, and

possibly also with various other articles of farinaceous food.

Anything that will lead the planters to a more varied cultivation than

the present uniform and persistent one, will be advantageous to our

colonies; and the growth of farinaceous root crops for exportation,

cannot fail to produce most beneficial effects on that class of the

peasantry in the British possessions, who are owners of small lots of

land, which at present they either totally neglect, or cultivate most

imperfectly.

In 1846, Dr. A. Gesner, one of my correspondents, called attention, in

my "Colonial Magazine," to two indigenous roots of North America,

which he thought deserving special attention. These were _Apios

tuberosa_, and _Claytonia acutiflora_, _or Virginiana_.

1. _A. tuberosa_ (Boerhave), or _Glycine Apios_.--This plant is common

throughout the Northern and Southern States of America, and is also

met with in the lower British North American Provinces. It is known

under the native name of _Saa-ga-ban_ by the Micmac Indians, by whom

the pear-shaped roots are used as an article of food. Like the

_Arachis hypogæa_, it belongs to the Leguminosæ family. The fruit and

flower resemble those of the wood vetch. It is thus described in

Professor Eaton's "Manual of Botany for North America," published in

1836:--"Color of corolla, blue and purple; time of flowering, July

(and August in Nova Scotia), perennial; stem, twining; leaves,

pinnate, with seven lance-ovate leaflets; racemes shorter than the

leaves, axillary; root, tuberous. Root very nutritive; ought to be

generally cultivated."

The average size of the tubers is that of cherries, but a few are

found of much larger dimensions. In their appearance they resemble the

common potato, having apparently the peculiar indentations called

eyes. The skin of the tuber is of a rusty or blackish brown color. The

interior is very white, and the root has the taste and odor of the

common potato. The Indians state that the roots, if kept either in a

dry or moist state, will not suffer any decay for a lengthened period.

They are very farinaceous, and contain a large per centage of starch,

which resembles that of wheat; by being dried the tuber shrinks a

little, but it immediately expands on being thrown into warm water. It

contains much nutritive matter, is wholesome, and I have no doubt, if

properly cultivated, it will prove to be very prolific. The tubers are

situated a few inches below the surface of the soil, and are strung

together like beads by a strong ligament.

A similar kind of earth-nut, or tuberous root, probably the _Glycine

subterranea_ of Linnæus, the Voandzou of Madagascar, is extensively

cultivated in various parts of Africa.

2. _Claytonia acutiflora_ or _Virginiana_, the Musquash of the Micmac

Indians, is found throughout the Northern and Southern States of North

America. It is thus described by Prof. Eaton, "Man. Bot. N.A."--"Color

of corolla, white and red; situation, alpine, perennial; leaves,

linear, lance-ovate; petals, obovate, retuse; leaves of the calyx,

somewhat acute; root, tuberous. It blossoms in May. The seed is ripe

in June, when the plant disappears."

These roots may be collected along the sea coasts and principal lakes

and rivers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward's Island,

although they are not plentiful, for they are greedily devoured by

some of the wild animals, and wherever swine have been permitted to

run at large they have been destroyed.

Dr. Gesner shipped several bushels of the saa-ga-ban to the principal

agricultural societies in Great Britain, also to Halifax, and Nova

Scotia. The ordinary potato of this country does not yield more than

14 per cent. of starch, and it contains 76 per cent. of water. From

the best saa-ga-ban Dr. Gesner obtained 21 per cent. of starch, and

the quantity of water is reduced to 50 per cent. It also contains

vegetable albumen, gum, and sugar. From these facts it is evident that

the saa-ga-ban is much more nutritive than the potato, and the weight

of the tubers, in their wild state, compared with the weight of the

slender vine in the best samples, is equal in proportion to the common

cultivated potato in its ordinary growth. The starch is very white,

and closely resembles that made from the arrowroot. It is not

improbable that the quantity of water in the tuber will be increased

by cultivation; yet the fibrous parenchyma will be reduced, and taken

altogether, the nutritive properties will be increased; if the plant

improve as much by cultivation as the potato and many others have

done, its success is certain.

The North American Indians have several wild roots which they dig up

for sustenance when other food is exhausted. Among these are--1st, the

mendo, or wild sweet potato; 2nd, the tip-sin-ah, or wild prairie

turnip; 3rd, the omen-e-chah, or wild bean. The first is found

throughout the valleys of the Mississippi and St. Peter's, about the

basis of bluffs, in rather moist but soft and rich ground. The plant

resembles the sweet potato, and the root is similar in taste and

growth. It does not grow so large or long as the cultivated sweet

potato, but I should have thought it the same, were it not that the

wild potato is not affected by the frost. A woman will dig from a peck

to half a bushel a day.

The Indians eat them, simply boiled in water, but prefer them cooked

with fat meat.

The wild potato, of the north-west of America, is a general article of

food; it is called by them wabessepin; it resembles the common potato,

is mealy when boiled, and grows only in wet clay ground, about one and

a half feet deep. The crane potato, called sitchauc-wabessepin, is of

the same kind, but inferior in quality. The Indians use these for food

as well as the memomine, and another long and slender root called

watappinee. Probably it is the first of these that is referred to by

Nicollet, as the prairie potato. "All the high prairies (he says)

abound with the silver-leafed _Psoralia_, which is the prairie turnip

of the Americans, the _pomme des prairies_ of the Canadians, and

furnishes an invaluable food to the Indians." There are several

species of _Psoralia_, viz., _esculenta_, _argophylla_, _cuspidata_,

and _lanceolata_.

The prairie turnip grows on the high dry prairies, one or two

together, in size from that of a small hen's egg to that of a goose

egg, and of the same form. They have a thick black or brown bark, but

are nearly pure white inside, with very little moisture. They are met

with four to eight inches below the surface, and are dug by the women

with a long pointed stick, forced into the ground and used as a lever.

They are eaten boiled and mashed like a turnip, or are split open and

dried for future use. In this state they resemble pieces of chalk. It

is said that when thus dried they may be ground into flour, and that

they make a very palatable and nutritious bread. M. Lamare Picot, a

French naturalist, has lately incurred a very considerable expense to

obtain the seed, which he has carried to France, believing that it is

capable of cultivation, and may form a substitute both for potato and

wheat.

The wild bean is found in all parts of the valleys where the land is

moist and rich. It is of the size of a large white bean, with a rich

and very pleasant flavor. When used in a stew, I have thought it

superior to any garden vegetable I had ever tasted. The Indians are

very fond of them, and pigeons get fat on them in spring. The plant is

a slender vine, from two to four feet in height, with small pods two

to three inches long, containing three to five small beans. The pod

dries and opens, the beans fall to the ground, and in spring take root

and grow again. The beans on the ground are gathered by the Indians,

who sometimes find a peck at once, gathered by mice for their winter

store.

There are also several kinds of edible roots growing in the ponds or

small lakes, which are gathered by the Indians for food.

The _psui-cinh-chah_, or swamp potato, is found in mud and water,

about three feet deep. The leaf is as large as the cabbage leaf. The

stem has but one leaf, which has, as it were, two horns or points. The

root is obtained by the Indian women; they wade into the water and

loosen the root with their feet, which then floats, and is picked up

and thrown into a canoe. It is of an oblong shape, of a whitish

yellow, with four black rings around it, of a slightly pungent taste,

and not disagreeable when eaten with salt or meat.

The _psui-chah_, with a stem and leaf similar to the last, has a root

about the size of a large hickory-nut. They grow in deep water, and

being smaller are much more difficult to get, but the Indians prefer

them; they have an agreeable taste, and are harder and firmer when

cooked. Both these roots are found in large quantities in the musk-rat

lodges, stored by them for winter use.

The _ta-wah-pah_, with a stem, leaf, and yellow flower, like the

pond-lily, is found in the lakes, in water and mud, from four to five

feet deep. The Indian women dive for them, and frequently obtain as

many as they are able to carry. The root is from one to two feet in

height, very porous; there are as many as six or eight cells running

the whole length of the root. It is very difficult to describe the

flavor. It is slightly sweet and glutinous, and is generally boiled

with wild fowl, but is occasionally roasted.

In his exploring expedition into the interior of Guiana, in the region

of the Upper Essequibo, Sir E. Schomburgk notices the discovery of a

variety of Leguminosæ, whose tubers grow to an enormous size, fully

equal to the largest yam. These roots were not, at the time he was

there, in full perfection, but their taste was somewhat between the

yam and the sweet potato. The Taruma Indians called them Cuyupa. The

roots are considered fit for use when the herb above ground dies. Sir

Robert brought a few of the seeds of the plant with him on his return

to Demerara.

Two interesting productions have been recently introduced into the

Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, from the Ecuador, by M. Bourcier,

formerly Consul-General of France in that country. One is the red and

yellow _ocas_, which is of the form of a long potato, and has the

taste of a chesnut; the other is the _milloco_, which has the taste

and form of our best potatoes. These two roots, which are found in

great abundance in the neighbourhood of Quito, grow readily in the

poorest land. The _oca_ is cultivated in the fields of Mexico, but

only succeeds in the warmer districts. From the bulbous roots of the

cacomite, a species of _Tigridia_, a good flour is also prepared

there.

Stevenson ("Travels in South America," vol. ii., p. 55) says, a root

called the oca is cultivated in several of the colder provinces of

Peru. "This plant," he states, "is of a moderate size, in appearance

somewhat like the acetous trefoil; the roots yellow, each about five

or six inches long, and two in circumference. They have many eyes, and

the roots, several of which are yielded by one plant, are somewhat

curved. When boiled it is much sweeter than the camote or batata;

indeed it appears to contain more saccharine matter than any root I

ever tasted; if eaten raw it is very much like the chesnut. The roots

may be kept for many months in a dry place. The transplanting of the

oca (he adds) to England, where I am persuaded it would prosper, would

add another agreeable and useful esculent to our tables."

The Brussels paper, _L'Emancipation_, mentions that a root has been

discovered by the Director of the Museum of Industry, in that place,

destined to take the place of the potato. It is the _Lathyrus

tuberosus_, called by the peasants the earth mouse, on account of its

form, and the earth chesnut on account of its taste. This plant exists

only in some localities of Lorraine and Burgundy. The Lathyrus has

never been cultivated, and it is thought that it will attain, with

cultivation, the size of the potato. The French peasants have a

prejudice against cultivating it, because they say it walks under

ground, and leaves the place it is planted in to go into the

neighbouring field. The fact is, that it grows in a chaplet, of which

the bulbs are arranged along a root running horizontally, of which the

two extremities are very rarely found, so that on taking up the

hinder tubercles it continues its growth in front, which gives rise to

the saying that if the plant had only time enough, it would make the

tour of the world.

The bulb of _Gastrodia sesamoides_ (R. Brown), a curious herbaceous

species of orchis, native of New Holland, is edible, and preferred by

the aborigines to potatoes and other tuberous roots. Some of my

accredited informants believe it might be turned to profitable

account, but being a parasitic plant, it could scarcely be

systematically cultivated. It flourishes in its wild state on loamy

soil in low or sloping grounds. The first indication of its vegetation

in the spring, is the appearance of a whitish bulb above the sward, of

an hemispherical shape, and about the size of a small egg. The dusky

white covering resembles a fine white net, and within it is a pellucid

gelatinous substance. Again within this is a firm kernel, about as

large as a Spanish nut, and from this a fine fibrous root descends

into the soil. It is known in Van Diemen's Land, and other parts of

Australia, by the common name of native bread. Captain Hunter, in his

Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson on the first settlement of

the Convict Colony, speaks of finding large quantities of "wild yams,"

on which the natives fed, but the roots were not bigger than a walnut;

therefore it was probably this plant.

_Arracacha esculenta_, of Bancroft and Decandolle (_Conium

Arracacha_).--This perennial herb is a native of South America, which,

from its salubrious qualities, is extensively cultivated in the

mountains of Venezuela and other parts of tropical and Southern

America, for culinary purposes. It is propagated by planting pieces of

the tuberous root, in each of which is an eye or shoot. The late Baron

de Shack introduced it into Trinidad, from Caraccas, and it has thence

been carried to the island of Grenada. It throve there remarkably

well, but has been unaccountably neglected. He also sent roots of this

valuable plant to London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Although it bears

cold better than the potato, it requires a warmer and more equal

temperature than most of the countries of Europe afford. It would,

however, make an excellent addition to the culinary vegetables of many

tropical countries, uniting the taste of the potato and parsnip, but

being superior to both.

The arracacha has been introduced into the South of Europe, not as a

substitute for, but as a provision against a failure of the potato

crop. It is highly recommended by the Rev. J.M. Wilson, in the "Rural

Encyclopædia."

Stevenson ("Travels in South America," vol. ii., p. 383) says the

yucas (cassava), camotes (sweet potatoes), and yams cultivated at

Esmeraldas and that neighbourhood, were the finest he ever saw. "It is

not uncommon for one of these roots to weigh upwards of twenty pounds.

At one place I saw a few plants of the yuca that had stood upwards of

twenty years, the owner having frequently bared the bottom of the

plants and taken the ripe roots, after which, throwing up the earth

again, and allowing a sufficient time for new roots to grow, a

continual succession of this excellent nutritious food was procured."

The Aipi grows in Brazil, and according to T. Ashe, may be eaten raw,

and, when pressed, yields a pleasant juice for drink; or being

inspissated by the heat of the sun, is kept either to be boiled and

eaten, or dissolved and drank. The tapinambar grows in Chili, and is

used by the Indians.

The tapioca, or bay rash, a plant which grows about the out-islands of

the Bahamas group, was found of great use as a food plant to the

inhabitants of Long Island, during a scarcity of food occasioned by

the drought in 1843. This root grows in the form of a large beet, and

is from twelve to sixteen inches in length. It is entirely

farinaceous, and, when properly ground and prepared, makes good bread.

It fetches there four to six cents a pound.

The root of the kooyah plant (_Valeriana edulis_) is much used by some

of the North American Indians as food. The root is of a very bright

yellow color, with a peculiar taste and odor, and hence is called

"tobacco root." It is deprived of its strong poisonous qualities by

being baked in the ground for about two days. A variety of other roots

and tubers furnish them with food. Among these are kamas root

(_Camassia esculenta_), which is highly esteemed; the bulb has a sweet

pleasant flavor, somewhat of the taste of preserved quince. It is a

strikingly handsome bulbous plant, with large beautiful purple

flowers. Yampah root (_Anethum graveolens_) is a common article of

food with the Indians of the Rocky Mountains.

The roots of a thistle (_Cersium virginianium_, or _Carduus

virginianus_), which are about the ordinary size of carrots, are also

eaten by them. They are sweet and well flavored, but require a long

preparation to fit them for use.

The people of Southern India and Ceylon have for many hundred years

been in the habit of eating the bulb or root, which is the first shoot

from the Palmyra nut, which forms the germ of the future tree, and is

known locally as _Pannam kilingoes_. It is about the size of a common

carrot, though nearly white. It forms a great article of food among

the natives for several months in the year; but Europeans dislike it

from its being very bitter. Recent experiments have proved that a

farina superior to arrowroot can be obtained from it, prepared in the

same way; and 100 roots, costing 2½d., yield one and a-half to two

pounds of the flour.

From the boiled inner bark of the Russian larch, mixed with rye flour,

and afterwards buried a few hours in the snow, the hardy Siberian

hunters prepare a sort of leaven, with which they supply the place of

common leaven when the latter is destroyed, as it frequently is by the

intense cold. The bark is nearly as valuable as oak bark. From the

inner bark the Russians manufacture fine white gloves, not inferior to

those made of the most delicate chamois, while they are stronger,

cooler, and more pleasant for wearing in the summer.

The fruit of the _Cycas angulata_ forms the principal food of the

Australian aborigines during a portion of the year. They cut it into

thin slices, which are first dried, afterwards soaked in water, and

finally packed up in sheets of tea-tree bark. In this condition it

undergoes a species of fermentation; the deleterious properties of the

fruit are destroyed, and a mealy substance with a musty flavor

remains, which the blacks probably bake into cakes. They appear also

to like the fruit of the _Pandanus_, of which large quantities were

found by Dr. Leichardt in their camps, soaking in water, contained in

vessels formed of stringy bark.

The flour obtained from the seeds of Spurry (_Spergula sativa_), when

mixed with that of wheat or rye, produces wholesome bread, for which

purpose it is often used in Norway and Gothland. In New Zealand,

before the introduction of the potato, the roots of the fern were

largely consumed.

Many species of _Bolitus_ are used as food by the natives in Western

Australia, according to Drummond.

The thick tuberous roots of a climbing species of bean (_Pachyrhizus

angulatus_, or _Dolichos bulbosus_) are cultivated and eaten in some

parts of the Polynesian islands. The bulbous roots of some species of

Orchideæ are eagerly sought after in New South Wales by the natives,

being termed "boyams," and highly esteemed as an article of food for

the viscid mucilage which they contain. The root of the Berar

(_Caladium costatum_) is eaten by the natives of the Pedir coast

(Achin), after being well washed.

The pignons or edible seeds of _Pinus Pinea_ are consumed occasionally

in Italy. In Chili the cone or fruit of the _pehuen_, or _pino de la

tierra_, are considered a great delicacy. The _pinones_ are sometimes

boiled, and afterwards, by grinding them on a stone, converted into a

kind of paste, from which very delicate pastry is made. The pine is

cultivated in different parts of this province on account of its

valuable wood and the pinones. The seeds from the cones of the

Auracanean pine, collected in autumn, furnish the Pawenches (from

_pawen_ pine) and Auracanians with a very nutritious food. When

cooked, the flavor is not unlike that of the chesnut, and as they will

keep for some time, they constitute, when the gathering season has

been favorable, a great part of their diet.

The seeds of the cones of the nut pine (_Pinus monophyllus_), a new

species described by Dr. Torrey, and alluded to by Col. Fremont in his

exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, are largely used by the

North American Indians. The nut is oily, of a most agreeable flavor,

and must be very nutritious as it constitutes the principal

subsistence of many of the native tribes.

The cone of another magnificent pine (_Auracaria Bidwillii_),

indigenous to the Eastern coast of Australia, about the Moreton Bay

district, is frequently met with twelve inches in diameter, and

containing 150 edible seeds as large as a walnut. The aborigines

roast these seeds, crack the husk between two stones, and eat them

hot. They taste something like a yam or hard dry potato. The trees

bear cones only once in four years, during a period of six months.

This season is held as a great festival by the aborigines of that

locality, called by them Bunga Bunga, and they congregate in greater

numbers than is known in any other part of Australia, frequently

coming from a distance of 300 miles. They grow sleek and fat upon this

diet. An Act has been passed by the legislature of the colony,

prohibiting, under heavy pains and penalties, the demolition of those

trees, being the natural food of the natives.

The common people eat the seeds of the red sandal wood (_Adenanthera

Pavonina_) in the South of India. The pulp of the fruit of the

_Adansonia digitata_, or monkey bread, is also used as an article of

food.

SINGHARA OR WATER NUTS.--The large seeds of _Trapa bicornis_, a native

of China, and of _T. bispinosa_ and _natans_, species indigenous to

India, are sweet and eatable, and the aquatic plants which furnish

them are hence an extensive article of cultivation. In Cashmere and

other parts of the East they are common food, and known under the name

of Singhara nuts. In Cashmere the government obtains from these nuts

£12,000 of annual revenue. Mr. Moorcroft mentions that Runjeet Sing

derived nearly the same sum. From 96,000 to 128,000 loads of this nut

are yielded annually by the lake of Ooller alone. The nut abounds in

fecula. In China the kernel is used as an article of food, being

roasted or boiled like the potato. The seeds of various species of

_Nelumbium_, natives of the East Indies, Jamaica, and the United

States, also form articles of food. The fruit of _N. speciosum_ is

supposed to be the Egyptian bean of Pythagoras. The petioles and

peduncles contain numerous spiral vessels, which have been used for

wicks of candles. The fruit of _Willughbeia edulis_, a native of the

East, as its name implies, is eatable. The kernel of the mango can be

reduced to an excellent flour for making bread.

Not only from the Lichen tribe, but also from the Algæ, fungi, mosses

and ferns man derives nutriment and valuable products. Some of the

cryptogamic plants form considerable articles of commerce,

particularly as food plants, affording gelatinous and amylaceous

matter, and being useful in medicine and the arts.

_Nostoe eduli_ is used in China as food; _Gelidium corneum_ enters

into the formation of the edible swallows' nests of the Japanese

islands. Agar-agar moss is shipped from Singapore to the extent of

13,000 tons a-year. Irish moss, Iceland moss, Ceylon moss, and some

others, are also of some importance. Iodine and kelp are prepared to a

considerable extent from sea weeds; one species (_Fucus tenax_)

furnishes large supplies of glue to the Canton market, and the

orchilla weed is of great importance to the dyer. It is principally as

food that I have to speak of them in this section.

In some of the islands off the Scotch coasts, sea-wrack (_Fucus

vesiculosus_) forms the chief support of horses and cattle in the

winter months. _F. serratus_ is similarly employed in Norway.

The _Laminaria saccharina_ is interesting from the fact of its

containing sugar. It is highly esteemed in Japan, where it is

extensively used as an article of diet, being first washed in cold

water and then boiled in milk or broth.

CARRAGEEN, or IRISH ROCK MOSS, _Sphæroccus_ (_Chondus_) _crispus_,

abounds on the Western Coast of Ireland, round the Orkneys, Hebrides,

Scilly Islands, &c. It is purplish white, and nearly transparent, and

is largely imported to feed cattle and pigs in Yorkshire. It is also

used for dressing the warp of webs in the loom, and mixing with the

pulp for sizing paper in the vat. It swells up like tragacanth in

water; and, by long decoction, affords a considerable quantity of a

light, nutritious, but nauseous jelly. It is sometimes sold as pearl

moss, and is employed in the place of gelatine or isinglass for

preparing blanc-manges, jellies, &c. It fetches about £7 the ton.

AGAR-AGAR, a sort of edible seaweed, or tripe de roche, is found

growing on the rocks about the eastern islands that are covered by the

tide. It is much used for making a kind of jelly, which is highly

esteemed both by Europeans and natives for the delicacy of its flavor.

The first quality is worth about 30s. the picul (133 lbs.). An

inferior kind is collected on the submerged banks in the neighbourhood

of Macassar (Celebes), by the Bajow Laut, or Sea Gipsies. It is also

collected on the rocks about the settlement of Singapore, for export

to China, where it is much used as a size for stiffening silks and for

making jellies. It constitutes the bulk of the cargoes of the Chinese

junks on their return voyage. The quantity shipped from Singapore is

about 10,000 piculs (12,500 tons) annually.

ICELAND MOSS (_Cetraria islandica_) combines valuable alimentary and

medicinal properties. It is imported in bags and barrels from Hamburg

and Gothenburg, and is said to be the produce of Norway and Iceland.

The quantity consumed varies; in 1836, 20,599 lbs. paid duty; in 1840,

6,462 lbs. In Carniola, swine, oxen, and horses, are fattened on it.

Boiled in water or milk, and flavored to the palate with sugar, wine,

and aromatics, it forms a very agreeable diet for invalids.

CEYLON MOSS (_Gracelaria_, or _Gigartina, lichenoides_), a small and

delicate fucus, is well known for the amylaceous property it

possesses, and the large proportion of true starch it furnishes. The

fronds are filiform; the filaments much branched, and of a light

purple color. It grows abundantly in the large lake or back-water

which extends between Putlam and Calpentyr, Ceylon. It is collected by

the natives principally during the south-west monsoon, when it becomes

separated by the agitation of the water. The moss is spread on mats

and dried in the sun for two or three days. It is then washed several

times in fresh water, and again exposed to the sun, which bleaches it,

after which it is collected in heaps for exportation.

Professor O'Shaughnessy has given the best analysis of this moss,

which he described under the name of _Fucus amylaceus_; 100 grains

weight yielded the following proportions:--

Vegetable jelly 54.50

True starch 15.00

Ligneous fibre 18.00

Sulphate and muriate of soda 6.50

Gum 4.00

Sulphate and phosphate of lime 1.00

-----

Total 99.00

With a trace of wax and iron.

I observe among the imports into New Orleans, 911 bushels of Spanish

moss in 1849, and 1,394 bushels in 1848. I do not know precisely its

use, or from whence derived, but I believe it is chiefly used for

stuffing cushions, mattresses, &c.

FERN.--The rhizome of _Pteris esculenta_ is used as food in Australia,

and that of _Marattia alata_ in the Sandwich Islands. The trunks of

the _Alsophila_, or tree fern, of the western side of Van Diemen's

Land, and of the common tree fern, _Cibotium Billardieri_ (the

_Dicksonia antarctica_, of Labillardiere), contain the edible pith or

bread-fruit eaten by the natives. Many other species of ferns are

esculent. Typha bread is prepared in Scinde from the pollen of the

flowers of the _Typha elephantina_, and in New Zealand from another

species of bulrush (_Typha utilis_).

"It must not be supposed, as some have believed, that the fern root,

wherever it grows, is fit for food. On the contrary, it is only that

found in rich loose soils which contains fecula in sufficient quantity

for this purpose: in poorer ground the root contains proportionally

more fibre. We were now encamped on an alluvial flat in the valley of

the river, thirty or forty feet below the general level of the plain;

and I observed that, even in this favourable spot, a great deal of

discrimination was used in selecting the best roots, which was

discoverable by their being crisp enough to break easily when bent:

those which would not stand this test being thrown aside. Here a

quantity sufficient for several days was procured, and was packed in

baskets, to last till another spot equally favourable could be

reached.

"The process of cooking fern root is very simple; for it is merely

roasted on the fire, and afterwards bruised by means of a flat stone

similar to a cobbler's lap-stone, and a wooden pestle. The long fibres

which run like wires through the root are then easily drawn out; and

the remainder is pounded till it acquires the consistence of tough

dough, in which state it is eaten, its taste being very like that of

cassava bread. Sometimes it is sweetened with the juice of the 'tutu.'

"The natives consider that there is no better food than this for a

traveller, as it both appeases the cravings of hunger for a longer

period than their other ordinary food, and renders the body less

sensible to the fatigue of a long march. It is in this respect to the

human frame, what oats or beans are to the horse. They have a song in

praise of this root, which I have once or twice heard chanted on

occasions of festivals, by a troop of young women who carry baskets of

the food intended for the guests."--("Shortland's New Zealand.")

I ought not to omit noticing the _Tuber cibarium_, a plant of the

mushroom family, growing under ground, which furnishes the famous

truffle, so celebrated in the annals of cooking, of which immense

quantities are imported, chiefly from the South of France. It is

common also in Italy and Germany, and is often found in

Northamptonshire, and some other of our own counties. The "kemmayes,"

a desert plant of the truffle kind, is a great favorite with the

Arabs.

In Terra del Fuego the only vegetable food of the natives, besides a

few berries of a dwarf arbutus, is a species of globular bright yellow

fungus (_Cyttaria Darwinii_), which grows in vast numbers on the beech

trees. In its tough and mature state it is collected in large

quantities by the women and children, and eaten uncooked. It has a

slightly sweet mucilaginous taste, with a faint smell like that of a

mushroom.

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 11 / 20 章

The arrowroot plant (_M. arundinacea_) is a perennial, its root is