part of tropical America and yield an abundance of wholesome and nutritious food 

 the poison of the bitter kind being got rid of during the process of preparation it 

 undergoes. The poisonous, expressed juice, if allowed to settle, deposits a large 

 quantity of starch known as Brazilian arrowroot or tapioca meal, from which the 

 tapioca of the. shops is prepared by simply torrefying the moist, starch upon hot 

 plates, the heat causing the starch grains to swell and burst and become agglutinated 

 together. A sauce called cassareep, used for flavoring soups and other dishes, partic- 

 ularly the West Indian dish known as pepper pot, is also prepared from this juice by 

 concentrating and rendering it harmless by boiling. Another of the products of 

 cassava is an intoxicating beverage called piwarrie, but the manner of preparing it 

 is not calculated to render it tempting to Europeans. It is made by the women who 

 chew cassava cakes and throw the masticated materials into a wooden bowl, where 

 it is allowed to ferment for some days, and then boiled. It is said to have an agree- 

 able taste. 



CASSAVA AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD. 



The attention of the Division of Chemistry was first called to the 

 cassava plant as an article of food and a possible source of starch, in 

 1888, in a letter received from Mr. K. H. Burr, of Bartow, Fla. Mr. 

 Burr also sent a package of cassava roots. He described the plant 

 and its uses in the following words: 



The roots do not last long after digging, drying up, or rotting. Since this variety 

 of cassava is not the bitter or poisonous kind, it is generally known in Florida as 

 the sweet cassava. The roots are fed to all kinds of stock in a fresh state, and are 

 greatly relished. It has been sufficiently tested here to show its great value as a 

 stock food. The yield under favorable conditions is astonishing. I have recently 

 dug one plant of one year's growth which weighed 50 pounds, being at the rate of 

 more than 1.500 bushels to the acre. Eight hundred to 1,000 bushels per acre can be 

 confidently reckoned on. 



The roots received by us were long and slender and of various sizes ; 

 some of them were quite 2 feet long, and weighed several pounds. The 

 analysis of the sample, exclusive of the bark, calculated to dry sub- 

 stance, is given in the following table : 



Serial.number '. 5547 



Ash per cent.. 1.94 



Oil (petroleum ether extract) ..do.. .. 1. 27 



Ether extract (resins, alkaloids, organic acids, etc. ) do 74 



Alcohol extract (aniids, sugars, glucosids, etc.) do 17. 43 



Crude fiber do 4. 03 



Starch do.... 71.85 



Albuminoids (calculated from nitrogen) do 3. 47 



100.73 



In regard to the method of analy k sis little need be said ; it was carried 

 on in accordance with the well-established rules of plant analysis, as 

 laid down by Dragendorff. The first -extraction of petroleum ether 

 gave 'the. fat or oil alone, and the subsequent extraction with sulphuric 

 ether gave the resins, alkaloids, and organic acids. That portion of 

 nitrogen existing as amids was estimated in the alcoholic extract. 

 The total nitrogen was also estimated and entered as- albuminoids ; a 



