216 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



in great abundance ■which, with the employment of a 

 little capital and labour, might form an important 

 branch of this manufacture. It would be a great boon 

 to society if thousands of tons of food were now thrown 

 on to the markets, and their value cheapened to the 

 consumer. 



Although we equally deprecate the extensive use of 

 the cereals and edible root-plants for the production of 

 starch for the use of our manufacturers, yet, if the de- 

 mand must be thus supplied, our agriculturists might 

 find it to their interest to raise, by the application of 

 suitable fertilizers, wheat specially adapted for the 

 starch-maker, by lessening the proportion of gluten 

 and increasing the quantity of starch in it. The hard 

 wheats contain a inuch smaller proportion of starch 

 than the soft wheats. Davy states tliat spring-sown 

 wheat yields 70 per cent, of starch, and autumn-sown 

 wheat 77 per cent. The proportions given by Dr. Cal- 

 vert show 564 pci" cent, in hard Russian wheat, 02 in 

 soft, and from 73 to lol in ordinary English flours. 

 In potatoes the proportion is from 13 to 15 per cent, 

 of starch. 



INIr. P. L. Simmonds, who is looked upon as an im- 

 portant authority upon all these matters of commercial 

 products and manufactures, took a leading part in the 

 discussion that ensued, and supplied a great deal of use- 

 ful data and much valuable information as to what was 

 and might be obtained from the colonics and foreign 

 countries. He pointed out that we already received 

 some 10,000 or 12,000 tons a year of starches and 

 their allied farinas, although most of these were of the 

 more expensive" class of food substances — the arrowroots, 

 tapiocas, cassava flouis, maccaroni, and vermicelli. 

 But when the want was more generally known, the 

 ready market appreciated, and a fair price attain- 

 able, thousands of tons of more inferior farinas and 

 feculas suitable for the British starch manufacturers 

 could be readily obtained. 



On the continent attention had already been pro- 

 minently directed to this matter. In Helgium a pre- 

 mium of ,£400 had been offered for any substance not 

 a food product, available for starch. In France the 

 horse chestnut had been largely utilized for this pur- 

 pose. In St. Domingo a plant (the Zamia media) 

 which covers immense tracts of wild land along the 

 coast and interior, yields very good starch. 



The Society of Arts hus placed on its premium list 

 a reward for the largest and best sample of starch 

 l^roduced from a nouedible substance, cheaper than 

 any at present in use, and obtainable in large quanti- 

 ties. Here th.en we find investigation and inquiry has 

 been set on foot. Looking at the small expense of 

 cultivation, and the immense production of tuberous 

 roots and rhizomes of plants yielding starch, in trojtical 

 countries, we believe there is a large field open for 

 profitable returns to those who embark in the manu- 

 facture. The process is so simple, that no outlay for 

 expensive machinery is required. Some improvements 

 on the ordinary graters used, and a little more atten- 

 tion in washing out the fecula, is all that is necessary. 

 Tlie yams, the cassavas — bitter and sweet — the canna 

 or arrowroot tribe, thecurcumas, and hundreds of other 

 roots, are common in South America, in Africa, in the 

 East and West Indies and the Pacific islands. Instead 

 of being raised in patches, these might be grown on a 

 more extended scale. When we see what progress has 

 already been made in the production of the higher class 

 arrowroots in Bermuda, St. Vincent, Barbados, and 

 Natal, there is an ample field for good investment by 

 small capitalists and holders of land. The subject is 

 of interest both to producers and consumers, and the 

 starch manufacturers of the United Kingdom would 

 readily avail themselves of a more extended supply of 

 any new starch or flour that can come into competition 

 with that obtainable from wheat and the potato. 



OUR EAST INDIAN AGRICULTURE. 



The agriculture of our East Indian empire, extending 

 over upwards of 600,000,000of acres, is in a very back- 

 ward state. 1 1 was so when this immense territory fell into 

 our possession, and it continues to be so to this day, ex- 

 hibiting very little signs of progress. What between 

 rajahism, zemindarism, anda money-making sijecula- 

 tion tn the British capital, our Hindoo farmers, or 

 ryots, who cultivate the soil, are, perhaps, of all the 

 wretches upon the habitable globe, the most miserable 

 of any — being bought and sold in the market as part and 

 parcel of the lauds they occupy, with all they possess. 

 Such was their deplorable condition in 1800, such in 

 1850, and to all appearances will be so, when time has 

 added another half-century to the responsibility of 

 England. In one word, John Bull has proved himself 

 a worse farmer in India than his predecessor — the Great 

 Mogul. 



This is not, perhaps, as it should be, nor as, we hope, 

 it will be. Indeed, judging from the progress of other 

 branches of industry in the East, it is absolutely impos- 

 sible for it to continue so much longer, for as the loyal 

 subjects of Her Majesty, our East Indian farmers have 

 a? good claims to pohtical freedom as the farmers of 

 England. 



The solid foundation of all reforms, physically speak- 

 ing, is an improved and prospering state of agri- 

 culture. The greater the produce of the soil, for 

 example, animal and vegetable, the greater the 

 amount of manufactures and commerce, and vice 



versd, and from the peculiar position of Hindos- 

 tan, and her relation with England, she is, perhaps, 

 more dependent upon a prosperous state of agriculture 

 than any other portion of the globe. The reverse of this 

 is what she has hitherto experienced, hence the silent 

 grumbling and misery which characterises the whole 

 Empire, from her lowest ryot, without a rag to cover 

 his nakedness, up to the Company, who virtually pre- 

 tended to occupy her throne. A few Rajahs and princely 

 merchants, perhaps, may have accumulated fortunes ; 

 but, generally speaking, her subjects are in a state of 

 comparative beggary, while the few fortunes thus made 

 add to the depth of their misery ! Take the present 

 period, or any one past, and few exceptions will be 

 found from this rule. 



Now the cause of this unfortunate state of things ap- 

 pears tangible the moment we examine the details of 

 our Hindustanee agriculture. Let us go back, for ex- 

 ample, to Hyde Park in 1851, and there compare the 

 agricultural implements and machinery of our Indian 

 empire with those of the English department. Let us, 

 then, answer the question, Did any one of the many 

 English farmers who examined with curious but scruti- 

 nizing eye the modus operandi of the rude ploughs, 

 harrows, carts, and other et ceteras of oriental tillage, 

 there exhibited — formed of bamboo-rods tied or pinned 

 together in the most artless manner — entertain the idea 

 of paying, under the broiling sun of an eastern climate, 

 rent, tithes, and taxes tenfold more exorbitant than 



