SAGO. 



261 



in slices, drying it in the sun, and then pounding 

 it. 



The facility with wliich the banana can be cul- 

 tivated, observesa recent writer, has doubtless con- 

 tributed to arrest the progress of improvement in 

 tropical regions. In the new continent civiliza- 

 tion first commenced on the mountains, in a soil 

 of inferior fertility. Necessity awakens industry, 

 and industry calls forth the intellectual powers of 

 the human race. When these are developed, man 

 does not sit in a cabin, gathering the fruits of his 

 little patch of banana, asking no greater lux- 

 uries, and proposing no higher ends of life than to 

 eat and to sleep. He subdues to his use all the 

 treasures of the earth by his labour and his skill; 

 and he carries his industry forward to its utmost 

 limits, by the consideration that he has active 

 duties to perform. The idleness of the poor Indian 

 keeps him, where he has been for ages, little ele- 

 vated above the inferior animal; the industry 

 of the European, under his colder skies, and 

 with a loss fertile soil, has surrounded him with 

 all the blessings of society, its comforts, its affec- 

 tions, its virtues, and its intellectual riches. 



In a very interesting and instructive paper by 

 Mr John Lindley, "on the Tropical Fruits likely 

 to be worth cultivating in England," it is stated, 

 upon the authority of Mr Crawford, that some 

 of the varieties of the banana possess an ex- 

 quisite flavour, surpassing the finest pear; and 

 that others in the East Indies have been com- 

 pared to an excellent rennet apple, after its 

 sweetness has been condensed by keeping through 

 the winter. Of these varieties there are so many, 

 that they would be as difficult to describe as the 

 sorts of apples and pears of Europe. The banana 

 has frequently produced its bunches of yellow 

 fruit in hot-houses in this kingdom; particularly 

 at Wynnstay, the seat of Sir W. W. Wynn ; 

 and at Messrs. Loddiges', at Hackney; and, ac- 

 cording to Mr Lindley, "it appears probable that 

 there will he as little difficulty in ripening the 

 fruit, as that of any tropical tree whatever." 



Sago, (sagus farinifera.) This and some 

 other species, all yielding the nutritious farina 

 called sago, are natives of the south-east of Asia, 

 and of the islands of the Indian ocean. The 

 sago, or, as it is called in the Molucca islands, 

 the libley tree, is of peculiar appearance. The 

 trunk, which is formed of the bases of the leaves, 

 grows at first very slowly, and is covered with 

 thorns; so soon, however, as the stem is formed, 

 the growth of the tree proceeds with great ra- 

 pidity, so that it speedily attains its full height 

 of thirty feet, with a circumference of five to 

 six feet, losing in this stage its thorny accom- 

 paniments. Like the cocoa nut palm, the s.igo 

 has no distinct bark tliat can be peeled off; but 

 the trunk consists of a long, hard, ligneous tube, 

 about two inches thick, the internal area of 

 which is filled with a kind of farinaceous pith. 



intermixed with numerous longitudinal fibres. 

 The maturity of the tree is known by the tran- 

 spiration of a kind of whitish dust through the 

 pores of the leaves, and when this appears, tha 

 trunk is felled near to the ground. Forrest, in 

 his account of the Molucca islands, thus details 

 the process of sago manufacture : " TIio tree 

 being felled, is cut into lengths of five or six 

 feet. A part of the hard wood is then sliced 

 off, and the workman coming lo the pith, cuts 

 across the longitudinal fibres and the pith to- 

 gether, leaving a part at each end uncut. So 

 that when it is excavated there remains a trough 

 into which the pulp is again put, mixed with 

 water, and beaten with a piece of wood. Then 

 the fibres separated from the pulp float at top, 

 and the flour subsides. After being cleared in 

 this manner by several waters, the pulp is put 

 into cylindrical baskets made of the leaves of the 

 tree; and if it is to be kept some time, those 

 baskets are generally sunk in fresh water to keep 

 it moist. One tree will produce from two to four 

 hundred weight of flour." We seldom see sago 

 in Europe but in a granulated state. To bring 

 it into this state from this flour, it must be first 

 moistened and passed through a seive into a very 

 shallow iron pot, held over a fire, which enables 

 it to assume a globular form. Thus all our 

 grained sago is half baked, and will keep long. 

 The pulp or powder of which this is made, will 

 also keep long if preserved from the air; but if 

 exposed, it presently turns sour. Loaves of 

 bread are sometimes made in the Molucca islands 

 of sago flour, and baked in small ovens, the floors 

 of which are divided, by means of partitions, 

 into cells about the size of an octavo volume. 



Sago has lately been used in this country, 

 mixed with wheaten flour, for bread. In certain 

 proportions it makes a very palatable bread; but 

 if used in excess, the farina, of which it entirely 

 consists, renders the bread heavy, and less di- 

 gestible than wheaten flour alone. The sago 

 palm affords a greater quantity of nourishing 

 matter than any other, except the banana. As it 

 grows spontaneously, and in great abundance in 

 the Asiatic islands, a means of subsistence is thus 

 afforded to the indolent natives, without much 

 toil or ingenuity. The single trunk of a tree 

 in its fifteenth year, sometimes furnishes six 

 hundred pounds of sago. Mr Crawford has cal- 

 culated in his History of the Indian Archipelago, 

 that a single acre of land will support four hun- 

 dred and thirty-five sago palms, which will an- 

 nually produce 120,500 lbs. of sago. 



The Ci/cas cincinalu, sometimes mentioned 

 as the only sago plant, yields a very Inferior 

 kind. 



The Mauritia Palm, which also yields sago, 

 grows in great abundance on the banks of tlie 

 Orinoco river, in South America. This whole 

 country is subject to inundations; and the fan- 



