The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

P >> P. L. Simmonds >> The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90

Few persons are probably aware of the quantity of potatoes used in
England, America and the Continent, in the manufacture of starch,
arrowroot, and tapioca, &c., A starch manufactory in Mercer, Maine,
United States, grinds from 16,000 to 24,000 bushels annually of
potatoes, and makes 140,000 to 240,000 lbs. of starch, which finds a
ready market at Boston, at four dollars the hundred pounds. The New
England manufacturers prefer it to Poland starch. Another starch
manufacturer, in Hampden, America, consumes 2,500 bushels per day. In
a single district in Bavaria, in Germany, 400,000 lbs. of sago and
starch are manufactured from potatoes; 100 lbs. of potatoes are said
to yield 12 lbs. of starch. From experiments made in America, with
three varieties of potatoes, the long reds, Philadelphia, and
pink-eyes, it was found that the former yielded the most starch, viz.,
about 6 lbs. to the bushel. A bushel of potatoes weighs about 64 lbs.
The following table from Accum, gives the rate of starch and component
parts per cent. in different varieties:--

+-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+------+
| Sort. |Fibrine.|Starch.|Vegetable| Gum. |Acids and|Water.|
| | | | Albumen.| | Salts. | |
+-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+-------
|Red potatoes | 7.0 | 15.0 | 1.4 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 75.0 |
|Ditto germinated | 6.8 | 12.2 | 1.3 | 3.7 | | 73.0 |
|Potato sprouts | 2.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 3.3 | | 93.0 |
|Kidney potatoes | 8.8 | 9.1 | 0.8 | | | 81.3 |
|Large red ditto | 6.0 | 12.9 | 0.7 | | | 78.0 |
|Sweet ditto | 8.2 | 15.1 | 0.8 | | 74.3 |
|Potato of Peru | 5.2 | 15.0 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 76.0 |
|Ditto of England | 6.8 | 12.9 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 77.5 |
|Onion potato | 8.4 | 18.7 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 70.3 |
|Voigtland | 7.1 | 15.4 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 74.3 |
|Cultivated in the | | | | | |
| environs of Paris| 6.8 | 13.3 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 73.1 |
+-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+------+

The first six varieties were analysed by Einhoff, the next four by
Lamped, and the last named by Henry.

YAMS.

The different species of yams have a wide range. In the West Indies
there are several varieties, having distinctive names, according to
quality, color, &c., as the white yam, the red yam, the negro yam, the
creole yam, the afoo yam, the buck yam (_Dioscorea triphylla_), which
is found wild in Java and the East; the Guinea yam, the Portuguese
yam, the water yam, and the Indian yam, &c. The last is considered the
most farinaceous and delicate in its texture, resembling in size the
potato; most of the other sorts are coarse, but still very nutritive
and useful. The common yam (_Dioscorea sativa_) is indigenous to the
Eastern Islands and West Indies. The Guinea yam (_D. aculeata_) is a
native of the East. The Barbados or winged yam (_D. alata_?) has a
widely extended range, being common to India, Java, Brazil, and
Western Africa. The yam species are climbing plants, with handsome
foliage, of the simplest culture, which succeed well in any light,
rich, or sandy soil, and are readily increased by dividing the
tuberous roots. The Indian, Barbados, and red yams are planted in the
West Indies early in May, and dug early in the January following. If
not bruised, they will keep well packed in ashes, the first nine, and
the second and last twelvemonths. The Portuguese and Guinea yams are
planted early in January and dug in September. Creole yams and Tanias
are dug in January. Sweet potatoes from January to March. In most of
our colonies large crops of the finest descriptions of yams, cocos,
&c., could be obtained, but the planting of ground provisions is too
much neglected by all classes. From the tubers of yams of all sorts,
and particularly the buck yam, starch is easily prepared, and of
excellent quality. Some varieties of the buck yam are purple-fleshed,
often of a very deep tint, approaching to black, and although this is
an objection, because it renders more washing necessary, yet even from
these the starch is at last obtained perfectly white.

As an edible root the buck yam, especially when grown in a light soil,
is equal to the potato, if not superior to it. It does not, however,
keep for any length of time, and therefore could not be exported to
Europe, unless the roots were sliced and dried.

Yams and sweet potatoes thrive well in the northern parts of
Australia; indeed the former are indigenous there, and constitute the
chief article of vegetable food used by the natives. The yam was
introduced into Sweden, where it succeeded well, and bread, starch,
and brandy were made from it, but it prefers a warmer climate.

Yams are occasionally brought to this country. When cooked, either by
roasting or boiling, the root is even more nutritious than the potato,
nor is it possessed of any unpalatable flavor, the pecularity being
between that of rice and the potato. Dressed in milk, or mashed, they
are absolutely a delicacy; and from the abundance in which they are
cultivated in the West Indies and other parts, they promise to become
a most economical and nutritious substitute for the potato.

The yam frequently grows to the enormous size of forty or fifty pounds
weight, but in this large state it is coarse-flavored and fibrous.

An acre of land is capable of producing 41/2 tons of yams, and the same
quantity of sweet potatoes, within the twelve months, or nine tons per
acre for both, being nearly as much as the return obtained at home in
the cultivation of potatoes; and I have the authority of all
analytical chemists for saying that in point of value, as an article
of food, the superiority is as two to one in favor of the tropical
roots.

The kidney-rooted yam (_D. pentaphylla_), is indigenous to the
Polynesian islands, and is sometimes cultivated for its roots. It is
called _kawaii_ in the Feejee islands. _D. bulbifera_, a native of the
East, is also abundantly naturalised in the Polynesian islands, but is
not considered edible.

There are seven or eight kinds of yams grown in India. Two are of a
remarkably fine flavor, one weighing as much as eighteen pounds, the
other three pounds. These are found in the Tartar country.

COCOS OR EDDOES

_Arum esculentum_.--This root has not hitherto been considered of
sufficient importance to demand particular care in its cultivation,
except by those who are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and derive
their subsistence from the production of the soil. But though the
cultivation of the root is almost unknown to the higher classes in
society, and little regarded by planters in the colonies, it is a most
valuable article of consumption. Amongst the laboring population it is
the principal dependence for a supply of food. Long droughts may
disappoint the hopes of the yam crop, storms and blight may destroy
the plantain walks, but neither dry or wet weather materially injure
the coco; it will always make some return, and though it may not
afford a plentiful crop, it will yield a sufficiency until a supply
can be had from other sources. For this reason the laborer in the West
Indies always takes care to put in a good plant of cocos to his
provision ground as a stand by, and knowing their value, is perhaps
the only person who bestows any degree of care or attention upon them.
Previous to their emancipation, whole families of negroes lived upon
the produce of one provision ground, and the coco formed the main
article of their support. Where the soil is congenial to the white and
black Bourbon coco, the labor of one industrious person once a
fortnight will raise a supply sufficient for the consumption of a
family of six or seven persons. The coco begins to bear after the
first year, and with common care and cultivation the same plant ought
to give annually two or three returns for several years. In Jamaica, a
disease something similar to that affecting the potato, has been found
injurious to the coco root. This disease, which has baffled all
inquiry as to its origin, affects the plants in and after the second
year of their being planted. The first indication of it is the change
in the leaves, which gradually turn to a yellow hue, have a sickly
appearance, and at length drop off at the surface of the earth. The
stock or "coco head," as it is called, below ground, having become
rotten, nothing but a soft pulpy mass remains. In some fields every
third or fourth root is thus affected, in others much greater numbers
are destroyed, so much so that the field requires to be almost
entirely replanted, by which not only an expense is entailed, but a
heavy loss sustained, from the field being thrown out of its regular
bearing. The black coco seems to suffer less than the white.

Another species, the Taro (_Arum Colocasia_, _Colocasia esculenta_ and
_macrorhizon_), is an important esculent root in the Polynesian
islands. In the dry method of culture practised on the mountains of
Hawaii, the roots are protected by a covering of fern leaves. The
cultivation of taro is hardly a process of multiplication, for the
crown of the root is perpetually replanted. As the plant endures for a
series of years, the tuberous roots serve at some of the rocky groups
as a security against famine. It is also extensively cultivated in
Madeira and Zanzibar, and has even withstood the climate of New
Zealand. It is grown also in Egypt, Syria, and some of the adjacent
countries, for its esculent roots. A species is cultivated in the
Deccan, for the sake of the leaves, which form a substitute for
spinach. Farina is obtained from the root of _Arum Rumphii_ in
Polynesia.

SWEET POTATOES.

The batatas, or camote of the Spanish colonies (_Convolvulus batatas_,
Linn; _Batatas edulis_, of Choisy, and the _Ipomaea Batatas_ of other
botanists), belongs to a family of plants which has been split into
several genera. It is a native of the East Indies, and of
intertropical America, and was the "potato" of the old English writers
in the early part of the fourteenth century. It was doubtless
introduced into Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia soon after their
settlement by the Europeans, being mentioned as one of the cultivated
products of those colonies as early as the year 1648. It grows in
excessive abundance throughout the Southern States of America, and as
far north as New Jersey, and the southern part of Michigan. The
varieties cultivated there are the purple, the red, the yellow, and
the white, the former of which is confined to the South.

The amount of sweet potatoes exported from South Carolina in 1747-48,
was 700 bushels; that of the common potato exported from the United
States, 1820-21, 90,889,000 bushels; in 1830-31, 112,875,000 bushels;
in 1840-41, 136,095,000 bushels; in 1850-51, 106,342,000 bushels.

The sweet potato is cultivated generally in all the intertropical
regions, for the sake of its roots, and as a legume in temperate
countries. In the Southern States of North America, the culture ceases
in Carolina under latitude 36 degs.; in Portugal and Spain it reaches
to latitude 40 and 42 deg.; and as a legume its cultivation is
attempted to the vicinity of Paris. In India it is a very common crop;
its tubers are very similar to the potato, but have a sweeter taste,
whence the common name; but it must not be confounded with the
topinambur (_Helianthus tuberosus_), a native of Brazil, which is less
cultivated. The root contains much saccharine and amylaceous matter.

Several marked varieties of the sweet potato are raised in the
Polynesian groups. In some islands it forms the principal object of
cultivation.

It is grown in the Northern districts of New Zealand, at Zanzibar,
Monomoisy, Bombay, and other parts of the East Indies. They are
raised on the bare surface of the rock in some parts of the Hawaiian
islands, and a sourish liquor is procured from them. It was early
cultivated on the Western Coast of Africa, for the Portuguese Pilot
(who set out on his voyages to the colony at St. Thomas, in the Gulf
of Guinea) speaks of this plant, and states that it is called "batata"
by the aboriginals of St. Domingo. They are abundant at Mocha and
Muscat. Sweet potatoes form a principal and important crop in the
Bermudas.

A valuable addition has lately been made to the votaries of the sweet
potato in Alabama, supposed to be from Peru. A letter describing it
says:--"It is altogether different and equally superior to any variety
of this root hitherto known. It is productive, and attains a
prodigious size, even upon the poorest sandy land, and the roots
remain without change from the time of taking them out of the ground
until the following May. The plant is singularly easy of cultivation,
growing equally well from the slip or vine, the top or vine of the
full-grown plant being remarkably small; the inside is as white as
snow. It is dry and mealy, and the saccharine principle contained
resembles in delicacy of flavor fine virgin honey."

There is in general a great error in cultivating this root, as most
people still plant in the old way, two or three sets in the hole,
which is a great deal too close.

When a piece of land is to be planted in sweet potatoes, it should be
top-dressed with some manure, to be dug or ploughed under a week or
two before it is to be planted. Drills should be made two feet apart,
and the potatoes placed in the drill about one foot asunder. From
eight to twelve to the pound are the best size for planting. The
"white upright" kind, when intended for sets, should be taken up early
in March, and kept about a month, so as to be quite dry before
planting. Abundant crops can rarely be raised from the stem of the
"uprights;" the old potato, however, grows to a large size. I have
planted a potato weighing about an ounce, and dug it up in August,
weighing over two pounds. The drills can be made with a small plough
to great advantage, when a person understands it.

The best manure for the sweet potato is anything green, such as fresh
seaweed, green oats, bushes, or anything of the kind, put in in
abundance.

Care should be taken to get early and good strong slips. A slip with
about six joints is quite long enough; three or four joints to be put
under ground, and the rest above. For slips, the land must be prepared
as already described for the potatoes; this should be done before the
slips are ready to cut.

The best way to plant slips is to drill, the same way as for the
potatoes, only a little closer; then put the end of the slip in,
leaving about two joints out of ground, placing them one foot apart.
The drills can be made in dry weather, so as not to have any delay
when it rains; by this means a great many can be planted in a day.

The best land for sweet potatoes is the light sandy kind; a rich
friable black mould, or a rocky substratum; for hill sides, rocky
ravines, and places which would be called barren and unprofitable for
other crops, are found to yield a good return when planted with sweet
potatoes. The best time to plant slips to get stock from, is the
latter end of August or early in September, as the season may suit.

The sweet potato of Java, says Mr. Crawfurd, is the finest I ever met
with. Some are frequently of several pounds weight, and now and then
have been found of the enormous weight of 50 lbs. The sweetness is not
disagreeable to the palate, though considerable, and they contain a
large portion of farinaceous matter, being as mealy as the best of our
own potatoes. In Java it is cultivated in ordinary upland arable, or
in the dry season as a green crop in succession to rice.

A tuberous root (_Ocymum tuberosum_), an inhabitant of the hot plains,
is frequently cultivated in Java. It is small, round, and much
resembling in appearance the American potato, but has no great flavor.
Its local name is _kantang_.

CASSAVA OR MANIOC.

Of this plant, which is a shrub about six feet high, extensively grown
for its farinaceous root, there are several species, nearly all
natives of America, principally of Brazil, whence it derives one of
its common names of Manihot or Mandioc. Two species of Manihot have
been found indigenous in South Australia. The varieties commonly
cultivated for their roots, are the sweet and the bitter.

1. Sweet cassava (_Janiphi_ (or _Jatropha_,) _Loeflingii_, Kunth;
_Manihot Aipi_, of Pohl).--This species has a spindle-shaped root
brown externally, about six or seven ounces or more in weight, which
contains amylaceous matter, without any bitterness, and is used as
food, after being rasped and washed, so as to cleanse it from the
fibrous matter, in the same manner as arrowroot is prepared. It is
distinguished from the bitter cassava by a tough ligneous fibre, which
runs through the heart of the tuber. Manihot starch is sometimes
imported into Europe under the name of Brazilian arrowroot. The
cassava is known in Peru as _yucca_.

A dry mixed soil is best suited to its culture. So exhausting is this
crop, that it cannot be raised more than two or three times
successively on the same land. The roots arrive at maturity in eight
or nine months after planting, but may be kept in the ground a much
longer time without injury. Sweet cassava might be sliced, dried in
the sun, and sent to Europe in that state. In dry weather the process
succeeds remarkably well, and the dried slices keep for a considerable
time. Dr. Shier ascertained that when these sliced and dried roots
were first steeped and then boiled, they return to very nearly their
original condition, and make an excellent substitute for the potato.

The plant thrives on even the poorest soil; the mode of planting is
simple. It consists in laying cuttings a foot long in square pits a
foot deep, and covering them with mould, leaving the upper ends open.
From two to four pieces may be placed in each square. The planting
ought to be in the rainy season. The cuttings must be made from the
full-grown stem. A humid soil causes the root to decay, a dry soil is
therefore more adapted for its cultivation. As blossoms are
occasionally plucked from potato plants, so the manihot or cassava is
deprived of its buds to increase the size of its roots. The raw root
of the bitter species, when taken out of the ground, is poisonous--if
exposed, however, to the sun for a short time, it is innocuous, and
when boiled is quite wholesome.

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 coarse
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
constitute 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 cassava 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, passing 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 cassava (_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 cassava bread. It is principally from the starch of the
bitter cassava that tapioca is prepared by elutriation and granulating
on hot plates. This serves to agglutinate it into the form of
concretions, constituting 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
cassava flour, called "Moussache" by the French.

The juice of the bitter cassava, mixed with molasses and fermented,
has been made into an intoxicating liquor, which is much relished by
the negroes and Indians.

The concentrated juice of the bitter cassava, under the name of
cassareep, 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. Cassareep was
originally an Indian preparation.

The manioc or cassava is cultivated in America, on both sides of the
equator, to about latitude 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 quantities 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 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 L2 in all. The green cassava was
never weighed, but the acre yielded fully a ton of starch--equal, at
9d. per lb., to L84.