370 



EOOT CEOPS. 



Mr. James Grlen, of Haagsbosch plantation, Demerara, has re- 

 cently tested its value as an article of export, and added it to the 

 other industrial resources of that colony. 



This gentleman, by erecting machinery on his plantation for 

 grinding the root and preparing the starch of the bitter cassava, 

 has abeady shipped the article in considerable quantities to 

 Eui'ope, and it has been sold at a price which puts the profit upon 

 sugar cultivation completely to the blush. His agent in Glasgow 

 writes, that any quantity (Kke that already shipped) can com- 

 mand a ready sale at 9d. per lb. Its use is co-extensive, or 

 nearly so, with that of sugar. The productive capabilities of the 

 soil are not perhaps generally kuovm ; nor is it necessary that, to 

 pay the grower there, it should bring even half that price. A 

 sample of a ton, which was prepared at Haagsbosch in 18-il, was 

 submitted for examination to Dr. Shier, at the colonial laboratory, 

 Georgetown, who admitted it to be a beautiful specimen of starch, 

 although it had undergone but one washing. The root from 

 which it was made, was planted eight or nine months previously, 

 upon an acre of soil, which had never undergone any preparation 

 of ploughing, or been broken and turned up in any way. The 

 plants were never weeded after they had begun to spring, nor 

 were they tended or distui'bed until they were ripe and pulled up. 

 The expense of planting the acre was five dollars, and reaping 

 this crop would, I suppose, amount to as much more, say £2 in 

 all. The green cassava was never weighed, but the acre yielded 

 fully a ton of starch — equal, at 9d. per lb., to £84. 



The experimental researches of Dr. Shier have led him to believe 

 that the green bitter cassava will give one-fifth its weight of starch. 

 If this be the case the return per acre would, under favorable cir- 

 cumstances, when the land is properly worked, be enoiinous. On 

 an estate at Essequibo, a short time ago, an acre of cassava, grown 

 in fine permeable soil, was lifted and weighed ; it yielded 25 tons 

 of green cassava. Such a return as this per acre would enable our 

 West India colonies to inundate Great Britain with food, and at 

 a rate which would make flour to be considered a luxury. Dr. 

 Shier is convinced that, in thorough drained land, where the roots 

 could penetrate the soil, and where its permeability would permit 

 of their indefinite expansion, a return of 25 tons an acre might 

 uniformly be calculated upon. What a blessing, not only for those 

 colonies, but for the world, would the introduction be of this cheap 

 and nutritious substitute for the potato, 



NEW TUBEEOUS PLA^s^TS EECOMMEXDED AS SUB- 

 STITUTES EOE THE POTATO. 



In the present disturbed state of the grain markets of Europe, the 

 advantage of cultivating plants which directly or indirectly can 

 form a substitute for the potato, admits of no doubt. It appears 

 to me, moreover, that when the way is once opened up, even under 



