Edible Products. 



528 



[December, 1908. 



In the Philippines the pith is sometimes 

 carved or strung and used for curtains, 



Under existing trade conditions, the 

 most profitable use which can be made 

 of manioc on a large scale is the 

 manufacture of starch. This product is 

 known commercially as Brazilian arrow- 

 root, tapioca flour, or cassava or manioc 

 starch. The cheapest starch is corn 

 starch, whcse price is normally 3 to 3*5 

 centavos a pound. As a bushel of corn, 

 normally worth 80 centavos, weighs 

 56 pounds, and contains 63 per cent, of 

 starch, it will be seen that the manu- 

 factured starch sells for only about 1 

 centavos a pound more than it costs in 

 the grain. As will be seen later, it 

 would be possible to produce manioc 

 starch and sell it in competition with 

 corn starch, but this is fortunately 

 unnecessary. The other source of starch 

 is the potato. The price of potato starch 

 is ordinarily fully twice that of corn 

 starch. When used in laundry work or in 

 cloth manufacture, potato starch makes 

 a less stiff, more elastic finish, and enters 

 much better into thefabric or thread than 

 does corn starch. Before corn thread 

 can be woven, it is practically necessary 

 that it be starched or '-sized" to fasten 

 in the loose ends of the fibres. If corn 

 starch is used, the thread not only 

 becomes unduly stiff, but also, since 

 the starch does not enter into it well but 

 rather covers it, unduly thick. The 

 threads will therefore not lie as close 

 together, and the fabric woven from 

 them becomes loose and flimsy when 

 the starch used in sizing is washed out. 

 The finer the fabric to be made, the 

 more imperative is the demand for a 

 fine sizer. 



The consumption of starch by cloth 

 factories is very great. Besides using 

 practically all the home product of 

 potato starch, the American factories 

 are obliged to import it from Europe. 

 The United States production of potato 

 starch in 1899 was 15,500 tons. In 

 Germany the annual production is 

 nearly 800,000 tons. The average starch 

 content of potatoes used in strach 

 manufacture in Germany is 18'7 per 

 cent., or 11 '22 pounds per bushel, but by 

 no means all of this can be extracted. 

 In Wisconsin, where the manufacture 

 of potato starch is perhaps better 

 developed than elsewhere in the United 

 States, 8 pounds of staich from a bushel 

 of potatoes is regarded as a high yield. 

 Even though potato starch sells as high 

 as 8 centavos per pound, it is clear that 

 it can only be made from cheap pota- 

 toes, and that any profit, and indeed 

 the safety of the business, depends on 

 the most complete feasible extraction 

 of the starch. 



To appreciate the strong commercial 

 position of manioc starch it is only 

 necessary to appreciate the enormous 

 annual consumption of potato starch, 

 and to understand that the latter pro- 

 duct is now sold at so nearly the cost of 

 production, that it is only by the use of 

 expensive machinery for the most com- 

 plete extraction of the starch that the 

 business can now be conducted at a 

 profit. While potato strach is produced 

 at any profit at all, manioc starch on 

 the European market cannot fall below 

 8 centavos a pound, for, in every res- 

 pect in which potato starch is better 

 than corn starch, manioc starch is 

 better still. This is true for use as 

 food as well as for manufacturing pur- 

 poses. 



The manioc starch manufactured in 

 the United States is at present consum- 

 ed entirely in cloth factories, and none 

 of it appears on the open market. 



The manufacture of starch will be 

 described presently. 



Beside starch, manioc roots contain 

 some cane sugar, usually 4 to 6 per 

 cent. This is lost in the manufacture of 

 starch, but is utilized along with the 

 starch if the roots are used for the 

 manufacture of alcohol or glucose. The 

 manufacture of glucose in this part of 

 the world would not be likely to be 

 profitable, because of the low price of 

 cane sugar. Several papers have been 

 written which treat of the manufac- 

 ture of alcohol from manioc, but so far as 

 we knew no manioc is used commercially 

 in this way. The steps in the process 

 are the conversion of the starch into 

 sugar, fermentation, and distilling. 

 None of these require much time or 

 expensive machinery. 



Alcohol in the Philippines is almost all 

 produced by fermenting the bled sap of 

 nipa and other palms. It is rather 

 expensive, the cost to the manufac- 

 turer for a grade of 95 per cent, being 

 probably 85 centavos a gallon. The 

 total convertible and fermentable mat- 

 ter in rich manioc reaches 35 per cent., 

 half of which can be obtained as alco- 

 hol. With reasonably good work it 

 should be safe to count on a yield 

 of 16 per cent. Now : if the available 

 starcli in pounds of roots be reckoned 

 at 22 per cent., and its local value at 7 

 centavos, it is worth 54 ; the same 

 amount of roots should yield 16 pounds 

 or 2*8 gallons of alcohol, the value of 

 which, based on that assumed for the 

 starch, is 67 centavos a gallon. This 

 assumes the cost of plant and manufac- 

 turing to be equal, which is reasonable. 

 Alcohol at this price would find a ready 



