[ 47' 1 



if you were to tell them to set apart any considerable portion 

 of their land which they now use for growing rice, or kalai im 

 or jute, for the Cassava plants, they will jump to the conclu- 

 sion that you have some ulterior motive of your own to serve 

 and you are merely using them as a cat's paw. 



751. It should be noted that there are two varieties of 

 Cassava, both used in America for extracting tapioca, though 

 one of them, viz., the Minihot Utilissima, is poisonous. The 

 Manihot Aipi or the sweet Cassava, the roots of which can be 

 eaten raw, is the safest variety to grow. There is a consi- 

 derable proportion of prussic acid in the bit- ter Cassava, 

 which, however, is dissipated by the action of heat in the 

 process of manufacture of tapioca. 



752. The sweet Cassava, variously called Himelalu (or 

 Simul-alu), from the resemblance of the leaves of this plant to 

 those of the tree cotton or Simul> gach alu (or tree potatoes), 

 ruti-alu (or bread potatoes) and Sarkar-kanda (or sugar- root) 

 was first introduced into Western India, from America pro- 

 bably by the Portuguese. In the Bombay Presidency it is not 

 utilized for food, but in Southern India, in Cuttack, in Burmah 

 and in Assam and in some parts of Bengal also, the roots are 

 eaten either raw or boiled, or curried. The art of making 

 flour out of the roots is not practised any where in India. As 

 a garden plant or an ornamental hedge-plant, Cassava is met 

 with in many parts of India. One can taste the root and find 

 out for oneself whether a particular plant is sweet Cassava or 

 bitter Cassava, before taking cuttings out of it. 



753. We will now describe the process adopted at the 

 Sibpur Farm in manufacture of tapioca meal, and Cassava 

 flour, out of the roots dug out of nine Cassava plants, all 

 one year old. The leaves of these nine plants and the root 

 barks were given to cattle, who ate them with relish, and 

 all stems and branches were used for making cuttings. 

 So no portion of the plants was wasted. If you do 

 not want to use all the stems for making cuttings you can 



