38 
Doctor Jackscen further stated: ‘* When these tubers are beaten toa a. 
paste and mixed with water a remarkable emulsion is formed, which, 
after straining, resembles milk in appearance. The fat at length rises to 
the surface and looks like cream, while most of the starch subsides to 
the bottom of the vessel; but enough still remains suspended to give 
the emulsion the appearance of thin or skim milk. Thus mingled with 
water, the most nutritive ingredients of this plant may be taken as a 
drink. It is much used in this manner by the Spaniards, and I have no 
doubt will be so employed in this country. This emulsion may be 
sweetened and fiavored, so as to make it very agreeable to the taste.” 
A writer in the Agricultural Report of the Patent-Office for 1855, p. 
259, wrote that he had raised a patcb of them at Pittsburgh, Pa., each 
plant of which had produced over 100 tubers; and that when pounded 
with sugar the mixture is equal in every respect to the emulsion of 
almonds. They are chiefly used in Spain and other hot European 
climates, for making an orgeat, (orchata de chufas,) a delightful and 
refreshing drink. 
Mr. A. ” Peabody stated, in the “Southern Plantation,” that, some 
twenty years previously, he had received five tubers from the Patent- 
Office, and bad raised them ever since, a single nut producing a quart of 
tubers in ordinary soil. On land that will produce 20 bushels of corn, 
100 bushels of chufas can easily be raised—the chufas being double the 
value of corn, as they require neither digging nor storing, and do not rot 
in the eround, being uninjured by cold or frost. Hogs will dig them as 
they want them, and fowls will soon learn to scratch them out of the 
ground, they growing sufficiently near the surface. He also says that 
poultry fattened on them excel in delicacy of flavor the celery-fed can- 
vas-back duck. 
According to Mr. Peabody, the chufa delights in a light sandy soil, 
and may be planted at any time (in the South) from December to April. 
He planted them in shallow furrows, two feet apart; single tubers one 
foot apart in the furrows, and “ covered with a board”—(probably during 
winter.) They vegetated the first warm weather, and when weeds 
appeared, required only ‘a sweep” to be run between the rows. The 
green spikes soon multiplied, and eventually met across the rows, each 
spire having a nut at the bottom. He found the roasted chufa superior 
to chocolate as a breakfast beverage. 
Mr. Peabody concludes his article thus: ‘“* When we take into consid- 
eration all its good qualities—its fattening properties, its easy culture, 
its hardiness, and the fact that hogs will dig them as they want them 
without wasting them—we wonder that they are not more extensively 
raised by our farmers. It is the most valuable seed the Patent-Office 
ever sent out, and is destined to prove a great boon to the South.” 
Another writer recommends that in the Middle States the chufa be 
planted in June or July, in hills two feet apart each way, ten or twelve 
tubers to each hill, and the tubers placed four to six inches apart. When 
the first shoots appear, if there is no rain the ground should be watered. 
No cultivation is needed except to keep them clear of weeds. They 
blossom in September, and the flowers may be pinched off to increase 
the size of the tubers, which mature about October, when they may be 
dug and stored. 
The chufa is not only a fattening food for swine and fowls, as it is 
much relished by them; but an excellent oil may be expressed from it, 
after which the cake will still be valuable for feeding animals, and will 
increase the quantity and richness of the milk of cows, if fed to them. 
