Miscellaneous. 



874 



[October, 1908. 



of disseminating among its readers important 

 experimental results obtained at the stations. 

 It should be up to date, thoroughly practical, 

 and should deal with the immediate needs 

 and interests of the cultivator. It should 

 contain popular statements of the work of 

 of the station, with directions to enable culti- 

 vators to apply them in their practical work 

 on the farms. Purely scientific articles should 

 never find a place in its pages, for the culti- 

 vator does not understand them. In editing 

 such a paper for distribution among cultiva- 

 tors, the translation from English to the 

 vernacular requires to be carefully made. 

 If the work is left to a man who has not been 

 brought \\p on the land, he often fails to give 

 the meaning of the information of which 

 you wish to convey, and, being ignorant of 

 local agricultural terms, he gets over the 

 difficulty to his own satisfaction by a free use 

 of Sanskrit which is unintelligible to the 

 villager. The language must be that of the 

 people and not of the court. Such a paper 

 can also be made a most useful medium 

 for advertising improved strains of seed, 

 agricultural machinery and other things for 

 sale at the stations, while by introducing a 

 "query and answer" column the readers are 

 encouraged to ask the department for 

 advice which, when given in this way, often 

 saves the trouble of having to reply in the 

 same strain to several different individuals. 

 The Agricultural Gazette published monthly 

 in Hindi, Marathi and English in these Pro- 

 vinces, has been a decided success. There 

 are already 2,500 subscribers, but this is no 

 measure of the circulation of its contents as, 

 in villages in which only one Gazette is 

 received, it is the common practice for the 

 Pandit of the same to read it out to his 

 fellows. With the increasing number of 

 persons taught to read and write, there is a 

 great dearth of reading matter in the village, 

 so that a monthly magazine is a real boon to 

 many. 



These in brief are the steps that are being 

 taken to get the results of the stations' work 

 incorporated into the general farm practice 

 of the cultivator. What is required at pre- 

 sent is steady work in these lines, perfecting 

 them from time to time in accordance with 

 the dictates of a fuller experience. The 

 work is yet in its infancy, and the diffi- 

 culties in the way of rapid progress are 

 great owing to the paucity and inefficiency 

 of most of the existing agricultural assist- 

 ants. The better prospects that are now 

 offered to men entering the department 

 should attract men of the right type who, 

 having been brought up on the land, under- 

 stand the need of the cultivator and how to 

 meet them ; and who, moreover, inherit as 

 by instinct a sense of the dignity of labour. — 

 Agricultural Journal of India, Vol. III., 

 Part II., April, 1908. 



CASSAVA. MANIOCA OR TAPIOCA, 



By J. C. Willis. 



Cassava is the produce of a South. 

 American species of Manihot (the genus 

 that includes the Ceara rubber). It is 

 a matter of dispute whether it is of 

 two species, M. utilissima the bitter, 

 and if. aipi the sweet, cassava, or 

 whether the latter is only a variety 

 of the former. The former has the 

 fruit capsule winged, the latter not. 

 Most of that grown in Ceylon, to 

 which it was introduced from Mauritius 

 by the Dutch Governor Van der Graaf 

 in 1786, is apparently the sweet kind. 

 There are numerous varieties known 

 in South America, but comparatively 

 few in the East, though the plant is 

 now grown everywhere and is forming 

 a more and more important article of 

 food. In many parts of South America, 

 cassava takes the place held by potatoes 

 in Ireland. 



Though everywhere cultivated in the 

 tropics for local use, it is grown for 

 export purposes mainly in Brazil and 

 the Straits Settlements, both countries 

 exporting tapioca, and Brazil also 

 cassava meal (Brazilian arrowroot). 



The plant requires a good soil, not 

 too heavy, preferably a sandy loam, 

 well tilled to some depth. The climate 

 should be a damp and fairly uniform 

 one, with a mean temperature of at least 

 77° for the bitter variety, though the 

 sweet will stand a lower temperature. 

 In a very dry climate, the roots tend 

 to get woody. The plant does best on 

 the whole within reasonable distance 

 of the sea. Rain is wanted for at 

 least the first two months of the 

 growth, but after that is not necessary, 

 especially if the soil be kept tilled. 

 In the Straits Settlements, enormous 

 areas of land have been spoiled by 

 clearing forest for this crop, and then 

 abandoning the land after a few years, 

 when it has grown up in illuk grass 

 Imperata). This is no longer permitted, 

 and more permanent crops have to be 

 put on the ground with the tapioca. 

 If the plant were made to take the 

 place of the " roots" in a rotation, there 

 need be no fear of exhausting the soil. 



If the soil is not virgin, manure is 

 usually applied in South America, and 

 sometimes the land is green manured. 

 Catch crops, such as maize or hill paddy, 

 are ofteu grown, or the cassava is grown 

 among plantains, coconuts, or other 

 more permanent crops. 



The plant is put out about [3 to 4 feet 

 apart as stem cuttings about a foot long, 



