94 EDITOEIAL. 



olitained per acre. The record of yields for this plant found in the 

 literature runs from 4 to 200 tons per acre. In the Philippines the plant 

 has never been raised on a large scale, although several companies are now 

 jDlanting it quite extensively. Plants abount a year old, selected at 

 random from the district in the neighborhood of Zamboanga, Mindanao, 

 averaged 25 jDoiinds of roots each, which, planting 1 meter each way, 

 would give a yield of 50 tons jjer acre. If 10 tons per acre can be 

 obtained in the Southern States of America, with a possible growing 

 period of from eight to nine months, it would seem to be perfectly safe 

 to figure as much for virgin Philippine soils, with a growing period of 

 twelve months. One acre of ground in the United States will produce on 

 an average 40 bushels of corn containing 1,500 pounds of extractable 

 starch. One acre of cassava in the Philippines will produce at least 

 10 tons of roots containing 5,000 pounds of extractable starch. If the 

 fermentable matter is converted into alcohol, the comparison becomes 

 even more favorable to the cassava, as the roots contain in addition 

 to the starch, about 4 to 6 per cent of fermentable sugar, so that from 

 the crop of 1 acre of this plant, over 400 gallons of 95 per cent alcohol 

 could be manufactured. .Alcohol can be made from cassava for about 

 the same price as from corn and its manufacture from this substance 

 costs in Peoria, Illinois, $0,032, gold per gallon. One can easily figure 

 the price at which cassava alcohol can be sold and still leave a profit. 



The cost of manufacturing starch from cassava is also essentiallj^ the 

 same as from the potato, and it has been described in a pajDer soon to 

 app)ear in the Philippine Agricultural Eeview by Dr. E. B. Copeland and 

 myself. I shall not treat of it here. If a factory for manufacturing starch 

 from the roots is not available, these may be ground up, dried and sifted, 

 the cassava flour resulting ha^^ng a starch content of 60 to 75 per cent. 

 Some cassava meal, so prepared by pounding up the roots in a rice mortar 

 and sun drying, has been kept in an open bottle in this laboratory for 

 two years and shows no signs of decay. Dr. H. W. Wiley, of the Bureau 

 of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture, quotes a price 

 of 1-J cents, gold, per pound for such crrule cassava meal. First-class 

 cassava starch will proliably average o\'er 3 cents, gold, per i.iound, and 

 pearl tapiiic;i jirepared from it, alioui one-half cciit higher. 



Heating, or vei'v thorouglily washing, is necessary in preparing cassava 

 starch products so as thoroughly to eliminate all the hydrocyanic acid. 

 This acid is apparently present, combined with other substances, in the 

 form of a glucoside, as we liave many times noted that cassava roots which 

 had stood imtil there was a slight decay, had a very powerful odor of 

 this acid, while no such odor may be detected in the fresh root; hence I 

 would recommend to agriciTlturists of these Islands that in feeding to 

 hogs, the roots should be ground up and either washed many times -sWth 

 water, or better boiled with water into a starch paste. 



