[ 470 1 



any other crop, and it can be grown with little trouble in the 

 plains of Bengal. 



748. The roots of the Cassava are sold boiled in the 

 streets of Madras, and they taste very nice. In D.irjiling, 

 Bancoorah, Midnapore and in Eastern Bengal and Assam it 

 is eaten cooked into curries. Fresh roots do not keep long : 

 in the case of potatoes they rot away, and in the case of cassava 

 roots, they become like bits of wood from which it is not 

 easy extracting the farina. Cassava flour is easily manu- 

 factured from the fresh roots, and as such, the produce of this 

 crop keeps long, and it ean be utilized for food agreeable to 

 Indian taste. 



749. One great advantage of growing the Cassava plant 

 as a protection against famine lies in the fact that the roots 

 need not be dug up annually. If a cultivator has a hedge of 

 Cassava all round his fields he can lift the roots only when 

 his ordinary crops fail. In the interval he need not take any 

 notice of them. Properly grown after a few months the tuft of 

 leaves of each tree gets beyond the reach of cattle. The 

 roots go on increasing in number and in size, and they need 

 not be utilized until a year of partial or total failure of the 

 ordinary crops comes round. It should be mentioned how- 

 ever, that Cassava is not a suitable hedge plant as cattle are 

 very fond of its leaves. 



750. The most economical way of utilizing the roots, is 

 to lift them once in 10 to 12 months and to treat them as an 

 annual crop. The deposition of starch falls off after the first 

 year, that is, it does not go on quite so rapidly in old trees as 

 in one-year-old plants. In introducing the crop among culti- 

 vators, however, it is best to tell them to grow it along 

 hedges and odd corners of their homesteads, that there 

 may be no interference with their ordinary agricultural pur- 

 suits. In dealing with cultivators it is ofen necessary "by in- 

 direction to find direction out," to introduce improvements 

 tentatively and slowly. Poverty makes tViem suspicious, and 



