Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-08-29
will not well yield on the same ground

=
two successive crops. The mode OF
planting is from cuttings, and little
moisture is needed by the plant at its
first growth. There are nine different
species enumerated by botanists, but
two only of which are cultivated for hu-
man food they are known as the bitter
cassava and the sweet cassava. The
roots are very similar, the first by far
the most poisonous, the only percepti-
BILE difference between the two roots
being a tough ligneous cord running
through the center of the sweet cassava
root, which the bitter variety is wholly
without.
Bread is made of both kinds, which
is palatable and wholesome. In Guiana
the mode of preparation is as follows /:
The root is rasped in large tins or
wooden graters fixed on benches, be-
hind which the women employed in
making it stand in rows. A sufficient
quantity being rasped for one time (for
the surplus would ferment and spoil,
it is put in long circular baskets of
plated rushes, about ten feet long and
nine inches in diameter, called maugue-
ras. These are hung up with weights
attached to the lower end, which draw
the plated work tight together, thus
squeezing out the juice. When all the
fiuid is extracted, the maugueras are
emptied of their contents on raw hides
laid out i'll the sun, where the coarse
flour soon dries. 1t is then baked on
smooth plates made of dry clay, with
slow fire beneath. This is the most
difficult part of the process. The coarse
flour laid perfectly dry on the hot
plates, when the women, with dex-
terity only to be acquired by practice,
spread it out i'm round and very thin
layer, nearly the size of the plate it is
laid on. This they do merely with a
piece of calabash, which they keep in
constant motion. pressing gently every
part of the surface until the heat has
united the meal into a cake, without in
the least altering the color or scorching
it. Their method of turning a cassava
cake of that size is like sleight of hand,
for they effect it with two pieces of split
cane without breaking it, though
scarcely as thick as dollar, and, as vet,
only half cemented together, and of
substance always brittle, especially
when warmed.
This cake is very nOurishing and will
melt to jelly in liquid. This cake af-
ter becoming cold, is broken up and is
the tapioca of commerce, but ii is dan
gerous if eaten in any large quantity
when dry, as it swells, on being
moistened, to many times its original
bulk. 1t will keep good for any length
of time if kept in dry place. The
Eastern tapioca is generally packed in
bags of about one hundred pounds each
but that of South America, and COM
mercially known as Rio tapioca, is
generally packed in barrels of about
two hundred pounds weight, and is
considered far superior in quality; con-
sequently it commands a much higher
price. The Indians oftentimes eat the
simple root after having roasted il in
hot ashes without any subsequent pre-
paration; the leaves are also boiled and
eaten by the Indians. Such is the pro-
of the cassava plant that it
has been calculated that one acre of it
will yield nourishment to more human
beings than six acres of wheat.-Amerj-
can Grocer.