SKMI-TROPICAL CROPS. 97 



in which a sort of knot is formed. On seeing this, open 

 the part with a knife, and pick out the grub ; when this 

 is removed the plant thrives again. Grasshoppers are, 

 perhaps, the greatest pests of any, for though cleared off 

 one day, a fresh lot may come on the next. Paris green 

 and copper sulphate sprays are the remedies for the insects 

 that eat. Magpies or seagulls are useful, and turkeys, 

 clucks and fowls generally prevent insects from increasing. 

 Young fowls or turkeys do the best services when let in 

 just before roosting time, and turned out again as soon as 

 they fill up with the grubs they love. 



ARROWROOT. This is amongst the safest of semi- 

 tropical crops, and one which, with the machinery that the 

 white man brings to his aid, enables him to compete 

 successfully with Malays, Indians, negroes, and others, who 

 until late years had the monopoly of arrowroot culture. 

 The article of commerce so extensively used in preparing 

 food for the sick, and for the finer kinds of cookery, is 

 a pure white flour or starch. This flour is obtained from 

 two bulbous plants, the Maranta arundinacae and Cana 

 edulis. To growers they are known as white and purple 

 arrowroot respectively. In habit there is but little differ- 

 ence in the plants, and the flour obtained from them is 

 almost identical ; but there is a vast difference in the 

 yield, which is fully one-half heavier in the purple sort, 

 which is grown over an area of country stretching from 

 Sydney northwards. For this crop, the preparation of land 

 recommended for corn and sugar cane is about right. It 

 does best in rich soil, but not where freshly manured. It 

 comes in as a very good rotation after a heavy crop 

 of corn, and being light upon the soil (although yielding 

 from 10 to 15 tons of bulbs per acre), it can be grown 

 several seasons in succession. The bulbs vary in size from 

 six inches to twelve inches in circumference, and may, for 

 all practical purposes, be likened to large potatoes in 

 appearance. 



Cultivation. The smaller bulbs are used for plants. 

 Wide furrows, about six inches deep, are run outalxmt four 

 feet apart ; into the furrows the seed bulbs are dropped, 

 and covered by the plough or hoe. The soil must 



