The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 53

The starch of the root of the manioc is prepared in the following manner, as described by Dr. Ure:--" The roots are washed and reduced to a pulp by means of a rasp or grater. The pulp is put into coa.r.s.e strong canvas bags, and thus submitted to the action of a powerful press, by which it parts with most of its noxious juice. As the active principle of this juice is volatile, it is easily dissipated by baking the squeezed cakes of pulp upon a plate of hot iron. The pulp thus dried concretes into lumps, which become hard and friable as they cool. They are then broken into pieces, and laid out in the sun to dry. In this state they are a wholesome nutriment. These cakes const.i.tute the only provisions laid in by the natives, in their voyages upon the Amazon. Boiled in water, with a little beef or mutton, they form a kind of soup similar to that of rice.

The ca.s.sava cakes sent to Europe are composed almost entirely of starch, along with a few fibres of the ligneous matter. It may be purified by diffusion in warm water, pa.s.sing the milky mixture through a linen cloth, evaporating the straining liquid over the fire, with constant agitation. The starch, dissolved by the heat, thickens as the water evaporates, but on being stirred it becomes granulated, and must be finally dried in a proper stove.

2. Bitter ca.s.sava (_Janipha Manihot_, of Kunth; _Jatropha Manihot_, of Linnaeus; and _Manihot utilissima_, Pohl).--This species has a knotty root, black externally, which is occasionally 30 lbs. in weight. In the root there is much starchy matter deposited, usually along with a poisonous narcotic substance, which is said to be hydrocyanic acid.

The juice of the plant, when distilled, affords as a first product a liquor which, in the dose of thirty drops, will cause the death of a man in six minutes. It is doubted whether this acid pre-exists in the plant; some suppose it to be generated after it is grated down into a pulp. It can be driven off by roasting, and then the starch is used in the form of ca.s.sava bread. It is princ.i.p.ally from the starch of the bitter ca.s.sava that tapioca is prepared by elutriation and granulating on hot plates. This serves to agglutinate it into the form of concretions, const.i.tuting the tapioca of commerce. This being starch very nearly pure, is often prescribed by physicians as an aliment of easy digestion. A tolerably good imitation of it is made by beating, stirring, and drying potato starch in a similar way.

The grated starch of the roots, floated in water, is spontaneously deposited, and when repeatedly washed and dried in the sun, forms ca.s.sava flour, called "Moussache" by the French.

The juice of the bitter ca.s.sava, mixed with mola.s.ses and fermented, has been made into an intoxicating liquor, which is much relished by the negroes and Indians.

The concentrated juice of the bitter ca.s.sava, under the name of ca.s.sareep, forms the basis of the West India dish, "pepper pot." One of its most remarkable properties is its highly antiseptic power, preserving meat that has been boiled in it for a much longer period than can be done by any other culinary process. Ca.s.sareep was originally an Indian preparation.

The manioc or ca.s.sava is cultivated in America, on both sides of the equator, to about lat.i.tude 30 degrees north and south. Among the mountains of intertropical America, it reaches to an elevation of 3,200 feet. It is cultivated also in great abundance on the island of Zanzibar, and among the negro tribes of Eastern Africa to the Monomoesy, inclusive; on the west coast of Africa, in Congo and Guinea. It appears not to have been introduced into Asia. The farina of the manioc is almost the only kind of meal used in Brazil, at least in the north, near the equator. An acre of manioc is said to yield as much nutriment as six acres of wheat. Meyen states, "It is not possible sufficiently to praise the beautiful manioc plant." The Indians find in this a compensation for the rice and other cerealia of the Old World. It has been carried from Brazil to the Mauritius and Madagascar.

The following quant.i.ties of Brazilian arrowroot, or tapioca, were imported in the undermentioned years:--

Cwts.

1833 942 1834 888 1835 1,663 1836 3,735 1837 2,142 1838 462 1839 402 1840 983 1841 1,870 1843 2,325

St. Lucia grows a considerable quant.i.ty of manioc; it exported of ca.s.sava flour in--

Barrels.

1827 8 1828 814 1829 279 1830 99 1831 59 1834 713

The ca.s.sava root grows abundantly in most of the West India islands and tropical America; the trouble of planting is inconsiderable, and the profit arising from its manufacture, even by the common process of hand-grating, is immense. I should be glad if I could induce the enterprising of our colonial settlers to give this a fair trial, as well as encourage the present growers to increase their crops and improve the quality of the article, so as to render it suitable for the English market. The manufacture of starch will one of these days become a productive source of colonial wealth. Since ca.s.sava was first grown in the West, its capabilities as a starch-producer have, to a certain extent, been known, and for that purpose it has been in limited use.

Mr. James Glen, of Haagsbosch plantation, Demerara, has recently 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 ca.s.sava, has already shipped the article in considerable quant.i.ties to Europe, 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 quant.i.ty (like that already shipped) can command 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 known; 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 1841, 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 disturbed 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 ca.s.sava 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 ca.s.sava will give one-fifth its weight of starch. If this be the case the return per acre would, under favorable circ.u.mstances, when the land is properly worked, be enormous. On an estate at Essequibo, a short time ago, an acre of ca.s.sava, grown in fine permeable soil, was lifted and weighed; it yielded 25 tons of green ca.s.sava. 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 subst.i.tute for the potato.

NEW TUBEROUS PLANTS RECOMMENDED AS SUBSt.i.tUTES FOR 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 subst.i.tute for the potato, admits of no doubt. It appears to me, moreover, that when the way is once opened up, even under ordinary circ.u.mstances, the tropical colonies of Great Britain, without diminishing the quant.i.ty of sugar and coffee they produce, could advantageously supply the British market with the purest starches, and possibly also with various other articles of farinaceous food.

Anything that will lead the planters to a more varied cultivation than the present uniform and persistent one, will be advantageous to our colonies; and the growth of farinaceous root crops for exportation, cannot fail to produce most beneficial effects on that cla.s.s of the peasantry in the British possessions, who are owners of small lots of land, which at present they either totally neglect, or cultivate most imperfectly.

In 1846, Dr. A. Gesner, one of my correspondents, called attention, in my "Colonial Magazine," to two indigenous roots of North America, which he thought deserving special attention. These were _Apios tuberosa_, and _Claytonia acutiflora_, _or Virginiana_.

1. _A. tuberosa_ (Boerhave), or _Glycine Apios_.--This plant is common throughout the Northern and Southern States of America, and is also met with in the lower British North American Provinces. It is known under the native name of _Saa-ga-ban_ by the Micmac Indians, by whom the pear-shaped roots are used as an article of food. Like the _Arachis hypogaea_, it belongs to the Leguminosae family. The fruit and flower resemble those of the wood vetch. It is thus described in Professor Eaton's "Manual of Botany for North America," published in 1836:--"Color of corolla, blue and purple; time of flowering, July (and August in Nova Scotia), perennial; stem, twining; leaves, pinnate, with seven lance-ovate leaflets; racemes shorter than the leaves, axillary; root, tuberous. Root very nutritive; ought to be generally cultivated."

The average size of the tubers is that of cherries, but a few are found of much larger dimensions. In their appearance they resemble the common potato, having apparently the peculiar indentations called eyes. The skin of the tuber is of a rusty or blackish brown color. The interior is very white, and the root has the taste and odor of the common potato. The Indians state that the roots, if kept either in a dry or moist state, will not suffer any decay for a lengthened period.

They are very farinaceous, and contain a large per centage of starch, which resembles that of wheat; by being dried the tuber shrinks a little, but it immediately expands on being thrown into warm water. It contains much nutritive matter, is wholesome, and I have no doubt, if properly cultivated, it will prove to be very prolific. The tubers are situated a few inches below the surface of the soil, and are strung together like beads by a strong ligament.

A similar kind of earth-nut, or tuberous root, probably the _Glycine subterranea_ of Linnaeus, the Voandzou of Madagascar, is extensively cultivated in various parts of Africa.

2. _Claytonia acutiflora_ or _Virginiana_, the Musquash of the Micmac Indians, is found throughout the Northern and Southern States of North America. It is thus described by Prof. Eaton, "Man. Bot. N.A."--"Color of corolla, white and red; situation, alpine, perennial; leaves, linear, lance-ovate; petals, obovate, retuse; leaves of the calyx, somewhat acute; root, tuberous. It blossoms in May. The seed is ripe in June, when the plant disappears."

These roots may be collected along the sea coasts and princ.i.p.al lakes and rivers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward's Island, although they are not plentiful, for they are greedily devoured by some of the wild animals, and wherever swine have been permitted to run at large they have been destroyed.

Dr. Gesner shipped several bushels of the saa-ga-ban to the princ.i.p.al agricultural societies in Great Britain, also to Halifax, and Nova Scotia. The ordinary potato of this country does not yield more than 14 per cent. of starch, and it contains 76 per cent. of water. From the best saa-ga-ban Dr. Gesner obtained 21 per cent. of starch, and the quant.i.ty of water is reduced to 50 per cent. It also contains vegetable alb.u.men, gum, and sugar. From these facts it is evident that the saa-ga-ban is much more nutritive than the potato, and the weight of the tubers, in their wild state, compared with the weight of the slender vine in the best samples, is equal in proportion to the common cultivated potato in its ordinary growth. The starch is very white, and closely resembles that made from the arrowroot. It is not improbable that the quant.i.ty of water in the tuber will be increased by cultivation; yet the fibrous parenchyma will be reduced, and taken altogether, the nutritive properties will be increased; if the plant improve as much by cultivation as the potato and many others have done, its success is certain.

The North American Indians have several wild roots which they dig up for sustenance when other food is exhausted. Among these are--1st, the mendo, or wild sweet potato; 2nd, the tip-sin-ah, or wild prairie turnip; 3rd, the omen-e-chah, or wild bean. The first is found throughout the valleys of the Mississippi and St. Peter's, about the basis of bluffs, in rather moist but soft and rich ground. The plant resembles the sweet potato, and the root is similar in taste and growth. It does not grow so large or long as the cultivated sweet potato, but I should have thought it the same, were it not that the wild potato is not affected by the frost. A woman will dig from a peck to half a bushel a day.

The Indians eat them, simply boiled in water, but prefer them cooked with fat meat.

The wild potato, of the north-west of America, is a general article of food; it is called by them wabessepin; it resembles the common potato, is mealy when boiled, and grows only in wet clay ground, about one and a half feet deep. The crane potato, called sitchauc-wabessepin, is of the same kind, but inferior in quality. The Indians use these for food as well as the memomine, and another long and slender root called watappinee. Probably it is the first of these that is referred to by Nicollet, as the prairie potato. "All the high prairies (he says) abound with the silver-leafed _Psoralia_, which is the prairie turnip of the Americans, the _pomme des prairies_ of the Canadians, and furnishes an invaluable food to the Indians." There are several species of _Psoralia_, viz., _esculenta_, _argophylla_, _cuspidata_, and _lanceolata_.

The prairie turnip grows on the high dry prairies, one or two together, in size from that of a small hen's egg to that of a goose egg, and of the same form. They have a thick black or brown bark, but are nearly pure white inside, with very little moisture. They are met with four to eight inches below the surface, and are dug by the women with a long pointed stick, forced into the ground and used as a lever.

They are eaten boiled and mashed like a turnip, or are split open and dried for future use. In this state they resemble pieces of chalk. It is said that when thus dried they may be ground into flour, and that they make a very palatable and nutritious bread. M. Lamare Picot, a French naturalist, has lately incurred a very considerable expense to obtain the seed, which he has carried to France, believing that it is capable of cultivation, and may form a subst.i.tute both for potato and wheat.

The wild bean is found in all parts of the valleys where the land is moist and rich. It is of the size of a large white bean, with a rich and very pleasant flavor. When used in a stew, I have thought it superior to any garden vegetable I had ever tasted. The Indians are very fond of them, and pigeons get fat on them in spring. The plant is a slender vine, from two to four feet in height, with small pods two to three inches long, containing three to five small beans. The pod dries and opens, the beans fall to the ground, and in spring take root and grow again. The beans on the ground are gathered by the Indians, who sometimes find a peck at once, gathered by mice for their winter store.

There are also several kinds of edible roots growing in the ponds or small lakes, which are gathered by the Indians for food.

The _psui-cinh-chah_, or swamp potato, is found in mud and water, about three feet deep. The leaf is as large as the cabbage leaf. The stem has but one leaf, which has, as it were, two horns or points. The root is obtained by the Indian women; they wade into the water and loosen the root with their feet, which then floats, and is picked up and thrown into a canoe. It is of an oblong shape, of a whitish yellow, with four black rings around it, of a slightly pungent taste, and not disagreeable when eaten with salt or meat.

The _psui-chah_, with a stem and leaf similar to the last, has a root about the size of a large hickory-nut. They grow in deep water, and being smaller are much more difficult to get, but the Indians prefer them; they have an agreeable taste, and are harder and firmer when cooked. Both these roots are found in large quant.i.ties in the musk-rat lodges, stored by them for winter use.

The _ta-wah-pah_, with a stem, leaf, and yellow flower, like the pond-lily, is found in the lakes, in water and mud, from four to five feet deep. The Indian women dive for them, and frequently obtain as many as they are able to carry. The root is from one to two feet in height, very porous; there are as many as six or eight cells running the whole length of the root. It is very difficult to describe the flavor. It is slightly sweet and glutinous, and is generally boiled with wild fowl, but is occasionally roasted.

In his exploring expedition into the interior of Guiana, in the region of the Upper Essequibo, Sir E. Schomburgk notices the discovery of a variety of Leguminosae, whose tubers grow to an enormous size, fully equal to the largest yam. These roots were not, at the time he was there, in full perfection, but their taste was somewhat between the yam and the sweet potato. The Taruma Indians called them Cuyupa. The roots are considered fit for use when the herb above ground dies. Sir Robert brought a few of the seeds of the plant with him on his return to Demerara.

Two interesting productions have been recently introduced into the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, from the Ecuador, by M. Bourcier, formerly Consul-General of France in that country. One is the red and yellow _ocas_, which is of the form of a long potato, and has the taste of a chesnut; the other is the _milloco_, which has the taste and form of our best potatoes. These two roots, which are found in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Quito, grow readily in the poorest land. The _oca_ is cultivated in the fields of Mexico, but only succeeds in the warmer districts. From the bulbous roots of the cacomite, a species of _Tigridia_, a good flour is also prepared there.

Stevenson ("Travels in South America," vol. ii., p. 55) says, a root called the oca is cultivated in several of the colder provinces of Peru. "This plant," he states, "is of a moderate size, in appearance somewhat like the acetous trefoil; the roots yellow, each about five or six inches long, and two in circ.u.mference. They have many eyes, and the roots, several of which are yielded by one plant, are somewhat curved. When boiled it is much sweeter than the camote or batata; indeed it appears to contain more saccharine matter than any root I ever tasted; if eaten raw it is very much like the chesnut. The roots may be kept for many months in a dry place. The transplanting of the oca (he adds) to England, where I am persuaded it would prosper, would add another agreeable and useful esculent to our tables."

The Brussels paper, _L'Emanc.i.p.ation_, mentions that a root has been discovered by the Director of the Museum of Industry, in that place, destined to take the place of the potato. It is the _Lathyrus tuberosus_, called by the peasants the earth mouse, on account of its form, and the earth chesnut on account of its taste. This plant exists only in some localities of Lorraine and Burgundy. The Lathyrus has never been cultivated, and it is thought that it will attain, with cultivation, the size of the potato. The French peasants have a prejudice against cultivating it, because they say it walks under ground, and leaves the place it is planted in to go into the neighbouring field. The fact is, that it grows in a chaplet, of which the bulbs are arranged along a root running horizontally, of which the two extremities are very rarely found, so that on taking up the hinder tubercles it continues its growth in front, which gives rise to the saying that if the plant had only time enough, it would make the tour of the world.

The bulb of _Gastrodia sesamoides_ (R. Brown), a curious herbaceous species of orchis, native of New Holland, is edible, and preferred by the aborigines to potatoes and other tuberous roots. Some of my accredited informants believe it might be turned to profitable account, but being a parasitic plant, it could scarcely be systematically cultivated. It flourishes in its wild state on loamy soil in low or sloping grounds. The first indication of its vegetation in the spring, is the appearance of a whitish bulb above the sward, of an hemispherical shape, and about the size of a small egg. The dusky white covering resembles a fine white net, and within it is a pellucid gelatinous substance. Again within this is a firm kernel, about as large as a Spanish nut, and from this a fine fibrous root descends into the soil. It is known in Van Diemen's Land, and other parts of Australia, by the common name of native bread. Captain Hunter, in his Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson on the first settlement of the Convict Colony, speaks of finding large quant.i.ties of "wild yams,"

on which the natives fed, but the roots were not bigger than a walnut; therefore it was probably this plant.

_Arracacha esculenta_, of Bancroft and Decandolle (_Conium Arracacha_).--This perennial herb is a native of South America, which, from its salubrious qualities, is extensively cultivated in the mountains of Venezuela and other parts of tropical and Southern America, for culinary purposes. It is propagated by planting pieces of the tuberous root, in each of which is an eye or shoot. The late Baron de Shack introduced it into Trinidad, from Caraccas, and it has thence been carried to the island of Grenada. It throve there remarkably well, but has been unaccountably neglected. He also sent roots of this valuable plant to London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Although it bears cold better than the potato, it requires a warmer and more equal temperature than most of the countries of Europe afford. It would, however, make an excellent addition to the culinary vegetables of many tropical countries, uniting the taste of the potato and parsnip, but being superior to both.

The arracacha has been introduced into the South of Europe, not as a subst.i.tute for, but as a provision against a failure of the potato crop. It is highly recommended by the Rev. J.M. Wilson, in the "Rural Encyclopaedia."

Stevenson ("Travels in South America," vol. ii., p. 383) says the yucas (ca.s.sava), camotes (sweet potatoes), and yams cultivated at Esmeraldas and that neighbourhood, were the finest he ever saw. "It is not uncommon for one of these roots to weigh upwards of twenty pounds.

At one place I saw a few plants of the yuca that had stood upwards of twenty years, the owner having frequently bared the bottom of the plants and taken the ripe roots, after which, throwing up the earth again, and allowing a sufficient time for new roots to grow, a continual succession of this excellent nutritious food was procured."

The Aipi grows in Brazil, and according to T. Ashe, may be eaten raw, and, when pressed, yields a pleasant juice for drink; or being insp.i.s.sated by the heat of the sun, is kept either to be boiled and eaten, or dissolved and drank. The tapinambar grows in Chili, and is used by the Indians.

The tapioca, or bay rash, a plant which grows about the out-islands of the Bahamas group, was found of great use as a food plant to the inhabitants of Long Island, during a scarcity of food occasioned by the drought in 1843. This root grows in the form of a large beet, and is from twelve to sixteen inches in length. It is entirely farinaceous, and, when properly ground and prepared, makes good bread.

It fetches there four to six cents a pound.

The root of the kooyah plant (_Valeriana edulis_) is much used by some of the North American Indians as food. The root is of a very bright yellow color, with a peculiar taste and odor, and hence is called "tobacco root." It is deprived of its strong poisonous qualities by being baked in the ground for about two days. A variety of other roots and tubers furnish them with food. Among these are kamas root (_Cama.s.sia esculenta_), which is highly esteemed; the bulb has a sweet pleasant flavor, somewhat of the taste of preserved quince. It is a strikingly handsome bulbous plant, with large beautiful purple flowers. Yampah root (_Anethum graveolens_) is a common article of food with the Indians of the Rocky Mountains.