| 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 quantity of manioc; it exported of cassava flour in—
| Barrels. | |
| 1827 | 8 |
| 1828 | 814 |
| 1829 | 279 |
| 1830 | 99 |
| 1831 | 59 |
| 1834 | 713 |
The cassava 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 cassava 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 cassava, has already shipped the article in considerable quantities 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 quantity (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 cassava 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 cassava will give one-fifth its weight of starch. If this be the case the return per acre would, under favorable circumstances, when the land is properly worked, be enormous. On an estate at Essequibo, a short time ago, an acre of cassava, grown in fine permeable soil, was lifted and weighed; it yielded 25 tons of green cassava. 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 substitute for the potato.
NEW TUBEROUS PLANTS RECOMMENDED AS SUBSTITUTES 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 substitute for the potato, admits of no doubt. It appears to me, moreover, that when the way is once opened up, even under ordinary circumstances, the tropical colonies of Great Britain, without diminishing the quantity 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 class 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.