Mr. M. K. Lyman, of Lantana, Dade County, writes: 



I have no success with cassava. I have made several efforts to raise the plant and 

 have failed in every case. I have splendid success with tanyah. or taro. It makes 

 a substitute for the potato all the year, being an evergreen, yielding edible roots t 

 year around. 



Mr. William Fisher, of Clay County, says : 



Jdoubt very much if cassava ever supplants the sweet potato as human food, for the 

 Southerners like the sweetness of the potato and it can be cooked in one-third the 

 time required for cassava. But as stock feed I believe the cassava is well worth a 

 trial. In my judgment, the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of it would involve 

 less labor than the potato; the seed is as easily wintered; the crop can be left in the 

 ground all winter, and it yields more per acre than the potato and is apparently 

 equal to it in nutritive value. 



Mr. Stephen Powers, editor of the Florida Dispatch, says: 

 The planfis indigenous to the West Indies and to Africa. In the West Indies it 

 is known as cassava, while in South America it is commonly known as mandioca, or 

 manioca. The name yucca, which some people insist on giving it, is a clear mis- 

 nomer, since the yucca belongs to the Liliacece, or lily family, while the cassava 

 belongs to the Enpltorbiacca^ family. The plant was eaten by the South American 

 and Caribbean Indians centuries before this hemisphere was discovered by Euro- 

 peans. Son they says of it: " If Ceres deserved a place in the mythology of Greece, 

 far more might the deification of that person have been expected who instructed his 

 fellows in the nse of mandioca." In Brazil, in the form of coarse flour, a majority 

 of the population nse it the year round in lieu of bread. A mild intoxicant is also 

 distilled from it which is the universal drink of the lower classes. The South 

 American Indians use the following formula for manufacturing cassava beer: The 

 roots are sliced, boiled till soft, and cooled. They are then chewed mouthful by mouth- 

 ful, the masticated cuds being returned to the vessel. [This process, although not so 

 stated in the description, is evidently intended to transform the starch into sugar 

 by the act' on of the saliva.] The jar is then filled with water and boiled for several 

 hours with constant stirring. The liquid is then poured off into another jar, half 

 buried in the dirt floor of the hut in which the family lives, closely covered, and 

 allowed to ferment two or three days. When required for nse a fire is built around 

 it, and the beverage is served steaming hot. It is not as palatable for human food 

 as sweet potatoes, and to expect therefore to substitute cassava for either the sweet 

 or the Irish potato would be a step from a higher to a lower civilization, but as a 

 food for live stock it has a great superiority. It is worth at least 25 percent more 

 than sweet potatoes to produce milk or fat. With no more manure, and less culti 

 vation than is required for Indian corn, it will produce an amount of feed worth at 

 least four times as much for fattening animals and incomparably more for producing 

 milk. It is easier to plant and cultivate than sweet potatoes, but harder to dig, so 

 it may be called even on this score. With the same manuring it will yield 600 

 bushels per acre, while sweet potatoes will yield only 500. 



Mr. J. H. Moore, of Keuka, Fla., in a letter to the same paper of 

 November 24, 1887, describes some of the uses of cassava. From his 

 letter the following extract is made: 



Cut the stalks about 1 inch above the ground, just before frost; after cutting, the 

 stalks should be left to dry in a cool place a few weeks, and then placed in a trench 

 and covered until time for planting. Some save the stalks by keeping them in a dry, 

 cool place until February and then planting. The roots should be dug as used; they 

 will not keep in good condition out of the ground more than three or four days. It 

 is perhaps the best feed we can raise for hogs ; it is also a fine feed for poultry. We 

 often bake it like sweet potatoes, and also slice and fry it like Irish potatoes. 



:es 



, 



