36 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



NEW EDIBLE ROOTS. 



It is surprising how little we have experimentalized 

 ill this country upon new edible roots, which might 

 come in as useful aids to the potato for food purposes. 

 But two or three attempts are all that we can call to 

 mind ; and yet the field of research is a wide and a 

 promising one, especially now that our trade with 

 foreign countries, and quick steam navigation, places 

 so many tuberous-rooted plants within our reach for 

 trial and cultivation. The attempt to introduce some 

 that might prove suitable to our climate, and enlarged 

 by cultivation, is surely a patriotic one, and within the 

 means of any enterprizing cultivator who chooses to 

 give himself to the task. 



The introduction and success of the common potato 

 is an example worth following. Two centuries and a 

 half ago this root was recommended by old Gerarde, in 

 his " Herbal," to be eaten as a " delicate dish," but 

 not as a common food ; and within little more than a 

 century its culture has been so extended over the 

 United Kingdom, Europe, and America, that it has 

 not only become a common food, but the various uses 

 to which it is applied are almost infinite. And yet, if 

 we trace it to Chili and Peru, we shall find that in its 

 indigenous condition it bears but a poor resemblance 

 to the magnificent tubers resulting from continued 

 careful cultivation. 



Protracted nui'sing has alone produced such effects 

 on wild vegetable productions as to render them our 

 commonly cultivated plants. The large and juicy 

 Attringham carrot is only the woody spinal root of the 

 wild carrot, luxuriously fed. Our cabbages, cauli- 

 flowers, kohl-rabis, and turnips in all their varieties, 

 spring from one or more species oi Brassica, which in 

 their natural state have poor woody bitter stems and 

 leaves, and useless spindle-shaped roots. Our culti- 

 vated potato, with all its varieties, springs from the 

 tiny and bitter root of the wild potato, which has its 

 native home on the sea-shores of Chile ; and our apples, 

 plums, grapes, strawberries, and other prized fruits, 

 from well-known wild and little-esteemed progenitors. 

 Our gardens are full of such vegetable transformations. 

 It is so also with our corn plants. 



It is the new chemical conditions in which the 

 plants are placed which cause the more abundant in- 

 troduction of certain forms of food into this circula- 

 tion ; and the more full development, in consequence, 

 either of the whole plant or of some of its more useful 

 parts. It has been well observed that if a new plant has 

 a chance of becoming useful in rural economy, it must 

 fulfil certain conditions, in the absence of which its 

 cultivation cannot be profitable. In the first place it 

 must have been domesticated in some measure, and 

 must suit the climate ; moreover, it must in a few 

 months go through all the stages of development, so as 

 not to interfere with the ordinary and regular course 

 of cropping j and, finally, its produce must have a 



market- value in one form or another. If the plant is 

 intended for the good of man, it is also indispensable 

 that it shall not ofi'end the tastes or the culinary habits 

 of the persons among whom it is introduced. To this 

 may be added, that almost all the old perennial plants 

 of the kitchen garden have been abandoned in favour 

 of annuals wherever the latter could be found with 

 similar properties. Thus Lathyrus tuberosus, Ledum 

 telephium, &c., have given way before potatoes, spin- 

 ach, and the like. 



Let us glance at some of the roots and tubers eaten 

 in different countries which are worth notice. We 

 need not specify the sweet potato, the cassava or 

 mandroc root, the yam, and other tropical tubers 

 which can scarcely be acclimatized here ; although 

 some may be so modified, as we have seen in the 

 Chinese yam, as to be raised with care here. It is a 

 curious investigation to run over the different roots 

 that are eaten as food by many tribes and people, many 

 of which would not be very acceptable to the dainty 

 palates of Englishmen. Very few of the coarse fibrous 

 yams would find favour with those used to the mealy 

 potato. 



The root of the common carraway plant when im- 

 proved by culture resembles the parsnip, and is used 

 as food by the inhabitants of the North of Europe. 



Many of the water-plantain tribe have a fleshy root- 

 ing stem which is eatable. At the root-stock of the 

 arrowhead {Saffittaria sagittifolia) there is a tuber 

 composed almost entirely of starch. The fecula of these 

 tubercles Martius compares to arrowroot. The Cal- 

 mucks, the Chinese, and the Japanese eat these as arti- 

 cles of wholesome food. By the two latter the plant is 

 cultivated for these tubercles. From the bulbous roots 

 of the cacomite, fa species of Tigridia, a good flour is 

 prepared in Mexico. 



The roots of several species of Caladium are nutri- 

 tious, and furnish an abundance of food. The very 

 large roots of the C. csculentum especially furnish a 

 great quantity of fecula. Several species of arrow, the 

 same family which furnishes the indigenous Portland 

 arrowroot, formerly held in some repute, are eaten in 

 diff'erent countries. A. indicum is much cultivated in 

 Brazil, about the huts of the natives, for its esculent 

 stem and pendulous tuber. The roots of Arisarum 

 vulgare are boiled and eaten in the South of Europe. 

 A7norphophallus campanulatusisextensi\e\y cu.Uiva.ted 

 in the northern Circars, India, for its roots, which are 

 highly nutritious. The roots of Colocasia microrkiza, 

 a native of the Moluccas and the South Sea Islands, 

 are very large, and when washed to deprive them of 

 their acid principle, are eaten in Tahiti. Colocasia 

 esculenta grows in Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and par- 

 ticularly in Egypt, where it has been cultivated from 

 time immemorial for its roots, which serve as an article 

 of food. They contain an immense quantity of fecula, 



