Jan. 1, 1902.] 
THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
447 
of the biological treatment of sewage, we have a 
means of converting our city manure supply, witti- 
ont any nuisance at all, into a most valuable liquid 
manure, which may be run on the fields all rouna 
the town, and thus a material increase of plant 
food will be recovered from the hopeless wreckige 
which at present prevails. Bat this result will not 
be attained if we are ungenerous to our microsco- 
pical friend. He requires to be treated well, to 
have his home i.e , the particular part of the septic 
tank or filter which he has colonised, left i'aiiis- 
turbed, and, above all, if we are stingy with the 
allowance of water, he will be unable to serve 
us well— Indian Iwrester. 
THE CASSAVA-PLANT. 
The Cassava is, par excell-nce, the nutritive plant 
of the African races and of the indigenous popula- 
tions of the West Indian Islands, of Central 
America, and of equatorial South America. It will, 
therefore, be seen that it supports the life of a 
goodly part of the world's population. It is also 
very much made use of in Europe, and especially 
so in England, in the preparation of biscuits and 
of dietetic articles. Its principal product, tapioca, 
is known universally. 
The prevailing opinion in France is that tapioca 
and, especially, the good quality of tapioca, is ob- 
tained only in Brazil. Now it is a fact that 
cassava is cultivated in all French colonies, and 
the makeing of tapioca is one of the rare manufac- 
ing industries in the colonies, one of the most in- 
teresting of all colonial manufactures. Tapioca 
grown in the French colonies comes chiefly from 
the island of Reunion. 
There is sold, besides, enormous quantities of 
tapioca into the preparation of which not an atom 
of cassava enters, but which consists simply of 
potato-starch. This is a falsification which the 
consumer may readily recognise. The grains of 
European tapioca are, in fact, more regularly rounded 
and whiter than those of genuine tapioca. Besides 
which, however well purified it may be, the spurious 
tapioca always keeps, more or less strongly, the 
characteristic odour of potato-starch. 
The Cassava plant is a shrub with tuberous roots, 
which sensibly call to mind those of the dahlia. 
Two sorts are distinguished — sweet cassava and 
bitter cassava. The tubers of the la.tlbr—(ManiJiot 
utilissima)— the most useful, contain a poisonous 
principal (hydrocyanic acid) which makes their use 
dangerous in the raw state, but which in the pre- 
paration of starch is caused to disappear com- 
^' [H^'rocyanic acid being volatile, completely dis- 
appears on the application of heat, as in baking or 
boiling.^— Translator. . t u 
In preparing cassava the pulp of the tubers is 
rasped, and the material is soaked in water. The 
sediment which is formed at the bottom of the water, 
when collected and dried, is the cassava-starch of 
commerce. It is employed as a food-stuff, either 
as the pulp itself or as starch, properly so-called. 
The grated pulp, washed and dried, is known 
under the name of cassava-flour or farina when it 
has been heated and pounded. Oassava-farine re- 
places bread in the food of the natives. In Guade- 
loupe, but more especially so in Brazil, it is seen 
every day, by habit, fancy or necessity, on the table 
alike of the poorest and of the richest of the in- 
habitants of the country. 
When reduced into small lumps and only slightly 
heated, it is called conague, a native term. When 
simply grated and dried at the fire in the form of a 
pikelet or muffin [the torta or hunelo, of Spanish 
America] Tc— it is called cassava. It is generally 
consumed under this form in French Guiana. 
The starch dried in the open air is known as 
cispa or moussache. From this sweetened cakes are 
made, and other very agreeable dishes and pastry. 
When slightly damp and grilled upon plates of 
copper at the temperature of boiling water (KJOdeg. 
Centigrade) it constitutes tapioca. The dregs and 
residues from the operations of preparation are made 
vise of in producing alcohol. 
The cultivation of cassava should be encourasred 
in oar [French] colonies, for its pi'oduct are sura 
to find a sufficient market in France. Besides its 
uses as a food, which are very numerous in foim, 
and which we shall have frequently the opportunity 
to point out, cassava-starch can be employed ia 
many manufactures : — paper-making, soap-making, ia 
the making of glucose, or starch-sugar, and in 
making size and adhesive paste 
Let us say, in concluding, that we shall be glad 
to see the employment of tapioca from Reunion, 
which yields nothing to any foreign tapioca, and 
also to see the use of cassava-farine more general 
amongst us, the reason why their use is not more 
common being entirely due to simple ignorance of 
the delicious pastry and the exquisite dishes which 
can be prepired from these two forms. We shall 
deal with this subject in future special articles. 
Cassava-starch can be made use of in the pre- 
paration of all kinds of cakes, just as flour or the 
common starches. It gives them a particularly 
agreeable flavour, and greatly increase^ their liygienio 
aud nutritive properties. One of the best prepara- 
tions that has ever been made is wheat-cassava. 
[Translated for the "Journal" from the French 
journal ie.y Produits C'oloniaux dans V AUmcnta- 
tion. March 31, 1901, by Jamks Nmsh, M.D., Old 
H iibour.] 
N B. — The author of this interesting communica- 
tion appears to be a little antiquated in the matter 
of botanical nomenclature. The name now univer- 
sally applied by botanists is no longer Mani/tot, but 
Janiplia manihot, aud it applies equally to both 
varieties, the sweet sort aud the bitter. The old 
name utilissinia, applied to the bitter kind, was ia 
respect of its greater yield, not greater usefulness. 
-J.N. 
[The real Fariue is not powdered. It is simply the 
grated pulp of Bitter Cassava, with the juice 
pressed out ; the pulp being then spread on ao 
iron pan, not hot enough to burn it and make it 
stick to the bottom of the pan, but with enough 
heat to dry it ; and, as the mess is kept constantly 
stirred and turned over, it falls into various degrees 
of coarse and fine granules, like biscuits ground 
into a rough meal.]— Ed. 
Cassava. — Almost in every issue we endeavour to 
direct attention to Cassava and its preparations, more 
especially the dry meal we call here Fariue. In the 
further article on "Cassava" published in this issue, 
translated from the French by Dr. Neish, it is 
shown that Cassava and its products are much 
used in French colonies not only in the West 
Indies, but also those in the Indian ocean. The 
Cui-ator of the Botanical Station at Belize writes 
in the "Journal" for June, the Cassava is the chief 
food of the Carib Indians of British Honduras who 
are the hardiest, healthiest and strongest lot of 
people in the country. The Indians of Colombia 
who perform tremendous journeys among the moun- 
tains carrying immense weights, subsist largely ou 
Cassaya or Yucca as it is thare called ; so do the 
Indians of Guiana ; while the Meiidioca and Far- 
inha (Cassava and Fariue) are the chief support of the 
labouriug people along the river Amazon, whose 
strength and endurance, on scanty portions of far- 
inha and fish, and nothing else save pacovas or 
plantains have been the marvel of travellers ia 
these regions. Yet withal, Cassava and its pre- 
parations are much neglected as food in Jamaica. 
Notwithstanding the precarious state of poverty much 
of our population is ia at present (and the people 
