Besides this, there is also a beautifully fine and white powder made from the mandioca by a process similar to that of preparing starch; and it is used for diet under the same circumstances that arrow-root is employed with us.
The mandioca grows well upon this land, and yields without culture, but should be allowed to remain in the ground from eighteen months to two years to attain maturity.
One stalk, which was torn out of the ground this morning for me to examine the roots, had twenty developments resembling sweet potatoes, and the whole would have filled a peck measure, thus affording a most abundant yield. It is propagated by cuttings from the limbs of the growing plants, and these are planted so that the trees cover the entire land densely and uniformly.
After breakfasting, the extensive new ground (roça) was visited. One hundred and sixty (160) acres planted in cotton and twenty acres in corn and rice present quite a promising prospect, though as yet nothing definite can be determined as to the result. The cotton is all young, but the most advanced looks well, notwithstanding there is in some parts a considerable admixture of fern and poke-stalks, calling for the hoe, and the dead trees are lying promiscuously over the ground. There has been an attempt to plant in rows, but they are very irregular; and the stand of cotton is in many places deficient, though it does not seem to be the result of destruction by the ant as in other places.
All the work here is done with the hoe; and the planting is effected by digging a hoeful of dirt, dropping five or six seed, and then covering, at intervals of two feet, more or less.
This land is elevated and the soil dark gray, with an admixture of sand, presenting very favorable conditions for cotton if the culture was properly conducted.
The corn was yet young but flourishing, and is expected to yield without farther work.
The rice is planted in the flats between the more elevated grounds, and evidently will give an excellent yield.
Pine-apples were found growing promiscuously in different parts of this plantation, and I had the opportunity of eating this most delicious fruit to my complete satisfaction; and we started back with our canoe well stocked with large, yellow, sweet-scented cones.
In returning I observed the settlements more than in descending, as it was no longer raining, and there was a large number of dwellings on the margin of the Ribeiro, having in many instances a rice-mill connected with the establishment. These mills are moved usually by small streams of water coming into the river from either side; and a prime object in locating a residence is to be near one of these streams.