The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1879-05-21
The Sage Palm.
This will grow in Florlda.)

ly monsoon Is boiSterouS and rainy.
1t is most abundant in the islands dis
tinguished for the production of the
Glove and nutmeg, and is to be found
IN its wild state in immense forests.
OF all the plants which afford sup
ply Of nutritious farins for human
food the sage is at once the most OBJ.
vionsly easy, and abundant. The
mass OF nutritious matter which q
single tree yields is certainly prodig.
ious. Five and six hundred pounds
weight, it appears, is not an unusual
produce for one tree.
Allowing for destroyed, barren,
and unproductive trees, the average
rate of produce may be assumed at
800 lbs. avoirdupois.
Forrest states the average produce
of Molucca tree to be 1876 lbs, but
Rnmphius makes it from 600 to 500
lbs; and according to writer in a
Singapore paper, good Sumatra trees
yield from 100 lbs. to $50 lbs, and
the very worst ATS lbs. Perhaps,
therefore, 700 lbs. may be assumed
as an average for the Sumatra trees,
which, at ten feet apart, (the distance
stated by Forrest and followed by
Crawfurd) would give 100000 lbs.
for the harvest from one acre; and
allowing that the harvests are fifteen
years apart, and not seven as Forrest
assumes, this will give an annual av-
erage produce of 10000 lbs. l be.
lieve, however, that five or six feet is
about the average distance of the
large stems in the Sumatra forests.
When plantation has once arrived
at maturity there will be constant
harvest, because the natural growth
secures a CO. slant succession of new
plants from the time those first plant
ed have begun to extend their roots,
and the succession can be regulated
by the knife in any way the planter
desires
There is no regular, fixed season
for extracting the pith, which is TAX
en- as occasion requires and as the in.
dividual tree becomes ripe. The Pc
Rod of maturity depends upon the
nature of the soil on which the palm
grows. Fifteen years may be reck.
oned an average time tor the tree to
come to maturity. 1t is not, how
ever, by a calculation of the trees
age, but by its appearance, or by an
actual experiment on the pith, that
the period of maturity is determined.
The inhabitants of the Moluccas
mark six stages in the progress of the
ripening process of the medullary
substance, the first of which is known
by the appearance of a mealy eff1ores.
cence on the branches, and the last
by the commencement of fructiica-
ton. The pith may be extracted at
any OF these stages; and sometimes
the natives, trusting to their expe.
rience, proceed to the harvest from
the mere appearance which the tree
presents. More frequently however,
hole is bored in the trunk, and
small quantity of the pith extracted
for the purpose of ascertaining the
degree of its maturity. When the
pith is ascertainedt to be ripe, the tree
is cut down near the root and the
trunk subdivided into portions of six
or seven feet long, each of which is
split into two parts; from these last
pieces the medullary substance is ex.
traeted and at once reduced to a
powder-like sawdust with an instru-
ment of bamboo or hard wood. The
process of separating the tarina from
the accompanying bran and filaments
is simple and obvious, and consists
merely in mixing the powdered pith
with water, and passing the water
charged with the tarina through a
sieve at one end of the trough in
which the mixture is made. This
water is again passed into second
vessel, where the farina settles down
to the bottom, and. after two or more
washings, is fit for use. This sub.
stance is the raw sage meal, which
keeps without further preparation for
mouth. For further use, the meal
is made into cakes, which remain
sweet fora long time. But for ex.
portaton, the finest sage meal is
mixed with water, and the paste is
rubbed into small grains of the size
and shape of coriander seeds.
Each tree yields about so pounds
of flour; and considering that after
cutting down the tree, new suckers
are sent out from the root, which in
their turn render harvest, and that