388 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1902. 
NOTES ON THE CASSAVA PLANT. 
By JAMES PINK. 
Very @ propos, Mr. James Pink kindly supplies us with the following 
notes on cassava, which will doubtless prove of great interest to farmers 
generally :— 
A report recently issued by the Jamaica Board of Agriculture on the 
products of Florida and Jamaica shows that the cassava possesses great 
capabilities both for manufacturing purposes and for the feeding of stock, 
especially in the raising of pork. 
The cassava is adapted for growing in our dry and sandy districts, as it 
does well in the arid districts as well as in the humid regions of India. Four- 
teen inches of rainfall will secure an abundant crop of tubers. 
There are nine species of cassava (Jatropha), two only of which are culti- 
vated for food—the bitter cassava (Jatropha manthot) and the sweet cassava 
(Jatropha Jonipha). Both of these are being grown in Queensland as 
ornamental plants. They make handsome shrubs from 5 feet to 10 feet 
high, with woody stems which are used as cuttings ; they strike root freely, and 
in the tropics can be planted at any time. Thetubers are formed at the roots, 
and are spindle-shaped—something like a parsnip—from which starch and 
tapioca are manufactured ; also, by a certain process, the pulp is converted into 
flour from which a very nourishing bread is made which forms the principal 
food in several of the South American States. 
Starch is being largely manufactured from cassava tubers in Florida, 
according to the Jamaica report. A great factory has been erected at Lake 
Mary for the manufacture of cassava starch. Over 1,000 acres of cassava 
are being cultivated to supply the factory, and its cultivation is being extended 
rapidly, the growers selling the tubers to the managers of the factory at $5 (£1) 
per ton. Ona very poor soil the average crop per acre is 9 tons; the yield of 
starch from the tubers is about 20 per cent. 
The manufacture of tapioca and dextrine from cassava is being taken up. 
The professor of the Florida Experimental Station says that, all things considered, 
cassava comes nearer furnishing the Florida farmers with a more profitable 
crop, and can be more cheaply converted into staple and finished products, and 
can be produced for a smaller part of its selling price, than any other crop. 
It is unquestionably true that cassava comes nearer supplying a perfect 
ration for farm stock than any other concentrated food produced upon a Florida 
farm, and the high yield of starch by the cassava places it before the manu- 
facturer as a probable new material for the great glucose industry, at present 
dependent on corn, The experiments in the feeding of stock at the Florida 
Experimental Farm prove cassava to be the best and cheapest ration which can 
be used for fattening purposes. The most astonishing fact, however, is the 
great difference demonstrated between the cost and the result of feeding corn 
and feeding cassava, the difference being almost two-thirds in favour of the 
latter. The cultivation of the cassava plant (says the Jamaica authority) is 
exceedingly simple ; it thrives under the most diverse conditions of climate, on 
dry plains, on rocky hillsides, as well as on the humid plains and hills, where- 
ever the soil is friable or gravelly. To obtain a large crop it should be planted 
annually by cuttings ; it may be planted twice a year in Jamaica. The tubers 
can be dried and stored to keep for some time, thereby reducing the weight for 
transport to the distant factory, and thus the factory can be kept going most 
of the year. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the great cassava 
industry in Jamaica. As a matter of fact, an acre of cassava is worth more 
than an acre of sugar-cane. 
Seeing then the great capabilities of the cassava plant both as a food 
product for stock and a producer of the raw material for certain manufacturing 
purposes, it cannot fail to become a factor in the commercial world. Seeing 
also the great benefit that has resulted from the culture and manufacture of 
cassava both in Florida and Jamaica, there is no reason that this plant should 
not prove a valuable addition to the products of the agriculture of Queensland. 
