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we obtain a supply of them from overseas more easily than we 

 obtain a supply of greens : and therefore we are in a measure with 

 something corresponding to tarifE protection spread over the latter, 



Foremost of roots is the potato, a truly great plant, which 

 originated in the Andes of South America, and was only spread 

 thence by the help of European voyagers because they were the first 

 travellers from its temperate home who crossed the too hot tropics to 

 other suitable temperate parts of the world. I have spoken of the 

 difficulty of arousing an interest in maize as being in the cooking. The 

 potato, despite its excellence, suffered on its arrival in Europe from 

 the same disadvantage of unfamiliarity : and it was a century and a 

 half before it really displaced the wheat dumplings which were 

 the accompaniment to flesh when it first crossed the Atlantic. 

 After a time it was brought out to India, and in the north grown 

 as a cold weather crop, or in the hills in summer where it now 

 extends to 9,000 feet. It penetrated, at some date unknown to me, 

 to Java ; and it is grown now at 5,000 to 7,200 feet. It is in the 

 Philippine Islands, and has become a very important article of food 

 among the mountain tribes of Luzon : but it cannot be grown 

 satisfactorily at low elevations and particularly in tlie Southern 

 Islands : so that at 3,000 feet in Mindanao the State has thought 

 it desirable to make an attempt to i*aise enough for the Eui'opean 

 population. 



The races of potato in the East are several and they ripen some 

 in as little as 80 days and others in as long as 150 days. 



But even taking the quickest there appears to be no reasonable 

 hope of raising crops in the plains of Malaya, so that, as in Java, the 

 places from whence we could provide ourselves are on our hills : 

 and there would appear to be no difficulty in finding areas near 

 markets quite suitable. In 1896 a 70-day race was raised in Penang, 

 but was diseased. Excellent potatoes have been raised above Taiping. 



For the lowlands there are available several substitutes for the 

 potato — e.g., the greater yam, Dioscorea alata, the African yams, 

 the tapioca plant, the taro, Alocasia, Colocasia, Amorphophallus 

 and the yautias (Xanthosoma spp.). Most of them yield more 

 heavily than the potato, but they are on the ground for a much longer 

 time. The outturn of potatoes at five to six months in England is 

 about 8,000 lbs. per acre, and in a few extremely favoured localities 

 up to 13,000 lbs. The outturn of Colocasia after as long a period is 

 about 6,400 lbs., of Ahcasia somewhat more, of Amorphophallvs 

 8,000-16,000, of the Dioscoreas in nine to ten months 20,000 lbs., and 

 of tapioca up to 25,000 lbs. ; but the period of tapioca may run to 

 over a year. 



The Malays eat a good deal of tapioca, and grow it for the 

 pm^pose, so that the cultivation needs no advertising and the 

 Peninsula takes no imports. But I mention the plant here because, 

 to the best of my knowledge, the trial of only a very few of the veiy 



