APPEHDIX. 307 



On my return from the pepper-plantation, I stopped at a 

 large "pearl tapioca" manufactory. Here were some 2,000 acres 

 in a plantation, owned by a Chinese planter named Tan-Ah-Seng. 

 Tapioca itself, is a tuber or bulb, from which springs a tender, 

 woody shoot, attaining,' at the age of sixteen months, when it is 

 ready for harvest, a height of five or six feet, the only leaves 

 being three or four at the top. The tubers or roots, from which 

 the tapioca is made, are dug very much as potatoes are, and some 

 of them very much resemble in appearance our American sweet 

 potatoes ; but the meat is whiter and contains large quantities of a 

 starchy flour, which separates from the fibrous matter wheii 

 ground, and it is this flour from which tapioca is made. The roots 

 are first washed, and after having the outer skin removed, are 

 ground up in a machine. A stream of water is turned upon the 

 pulp, which carries the flour off into vats, where it settles. It re- 

 mains in these vats twenty-four hours, and is then run off into 

 large tubs, where it remains for about eight days,' the water being 

 changed each day, and thoroughly agitated, so as to mix with the 

 flour. After the last water is drawn off it leaves a deposit of 

 beautifully white flour, which is taken out in cakes and conveyed 

 to the drying-house. Here it is broken up into small particles ; 

 indeed, I may say pulverized. A portion of it is then placed in a 

 machine called a " yulong," which looks more like a small, canvas 

 boat, suspended by strings from the ceiling at each end, than any- 

 thing else, and by giving this a peculiar motion, which is half 

 backward and forward and half rotary, the floury particles adhere 

 to each other and are shaped into smaJl, round balls, about the 

 size of a No. 4 shot. The tapioca is then placed upon drying-" 

 pans, under which a steady and gentle heat is maintained for 

 about half an hour, when it is sufficiently dry for packing and 

 transportation. In fine weather it is sometimes dried in the sun, 

 a process which usually occupies about a day to accomplish the 

 result attained with the fiirnace in a half-hour. The tapioca 

 flour can be made at will, either into small or large-sized " pearl " 

 tapioca, or into " flake ; " but the flake tapioca from this part of 

 the globe does not possess as much gluten as that produced in 

 Brazil, and, although beautifully white, is not as free from dust as 

 the Brazilian tapioca. 



