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we obtain a supply of them from overseas more easily than we 
obtain a supply of greens : and therefore we are in a measure with 
something corresponding to tariff protection- spread over the latter. 
Foremost of roots is the potato, a truly great plant, which 
originated in the Andes of South America, and was only spread 
thence by the help of European voyagers because they were the first 
travellers from its temperate home who crossed the too hot tropics to 
other suitable temperate parts of the world. I have spoken of the 
difficulty of arousing an interest in maize as being in the cooking. The 
potato, despite its excellence, suffered on its arrival in Europe from 
the same disadvantage of unfamiliarity: and it was a century and a 
half before it really displaced the "wheat dumplings which were 
the accompaniment to flesh when it first crossed the Atlantic. 
After a time it was brought out to India, and in the north grown 
as a cold weather crop, or in the hills in summer where it now 
extends to 9,000 feet. It penetrated, at some date unknown to me, 
to Java; and it is grown now at 5,000 to 7,200 feet. It is in the 
Philippine Islands, and has become a very important article of food 
among the mountain tribes of Luzon : but it cannot be grown 
satisfactorily at low elevations and particularly in the Southern 
Islands : so that at 3,000 feet in Mindanao the State has thought 
it desirable to make an attempt to raise enough for the European 
population. 
The races of potato in the East are several and they ripen some 
in as little as 80 days and others in as long as 150 days. 
But even taking the quickest there appears to be no reasonable 
hope of raising crops in the plains of Malaya, so that, as in Java, the 
places from whence we could provide ourselves are on our hills : 
and there would appear to be no difficulty in finding areas near 
markets quite suitable. In 1896 a 70-day race was raised in Penang, 
but was diseased. Excellent potatoes have been raised above Taiping. 
For the lowlands there are available several substitutes for the 
potato — e.g., the greater yam, Dioscorea alata, the African yams, 
the tapioca plant, the taro, Alocasia, Colocasia , Amorphophallus 
and the yautias ( Xanthosoma spp.). Most of them yield more 
heavily than the potato, but they are on the ground for a much longer 
time. The outturn of potatoes at fi ve to six months in England is 
about 8,000 lbs. per acre, and in a few extremely favoured localities 
up to 13,000 lbs. The outturn of Golocasia after as long a period is 
about 6,400 Ibs.^ of Alocasia somewhat more, of Amorphophallus 
8,000-16,000, of the Dioscoreas in nine to ten months 20,000 lbs., and 
of tapioca up to 25,000 lbs. ; but the period of tapioca may run to 
over a year. 
The Malays eat a good deal of tapioca, and grow it for the 
purpose, so that the cultivation needs no advertising and the 
Peninsula takes no imports. But I mention the plant here because, 
to the best of my knowledge, the trial of only a very few of the veiy 
