The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-04-27

Our beginning to plant cassava here
reminds me of my promise to give
your readers few of the important
facts concerning this crop which would
enable them to act intelligently in the
matter of it's cultivation, and to sat
isfactorily decide whether it was
adapted to their conditions.
The plant is a native of South
America and thrives only in tropical
or seni-tropical regions. 1t grows IN
all parts of Florida, but its present
northern limit of possible successful
production does not reach beyond the
latitude of Macon, Ca. 1t is perfectly
adapted to the long-leaf pine belt of
the Gulf States. 1t is a great crop
for the sandy "wire- grass" lands of
Georgia and south and west to the
Mississippi river.
Like sugar cane, it natures no seed
and is propagated by buds the stalks
being bedded through the winter for
this purpose. The eyes are very close
together, 50 that the stalks are cut
into sections about three inches long,
and these pieces are dropped in the
hill for seed, two pieces to the hill.
The hills are laid by running burrows
four feet apart at right angles. The
seed is dropped where the burrows
cross and is covered by hoe or double
stock. The plants thus stand in checks
and are worked both ways. They grow
to be branched shrubs six to ten feet
high. The crop should be planted be-
tween the middle of March and the
middle of April.
Cultivation should be shallow and
clean. Deep thorough preparation is
absolutely essential with cassava
Nine-tenths of all the failures report
ed have resulted from shiftIess prepar-
alton for the crop. Scratching the sur
face and breaking out the middles
when there is nothing else to do is the
ruin of this crop. Shallow subsequent
cultivation, beside it's other advan-
tages, tends to keep the tubers near
the surface and makes harvesting
easy.
The crop requires comparatively
light fertlizing. An application of
from $50 to 500 pounds of a fertilizer
containing about 8 per cent. phosphoric
acid, per cent. ammonia, and s per
cent. potash is most satisfactory.
Manure, strong ammoniatas and fer
tile bottom lands are not adapted 10
this crop, as they tend to make tweed"
instead of tubers. The crop should
be ready to lay-by by the middle of
July, but it will not be mature before
October. The tubers, which are the
crop, grow 10 an average diameter of
nearly three inches and often reach a
length of four to six feet Single hills
should average 10 to 20 pounds in
weight and the yield per acre should
average six to ten tons. Over 16 tons
of commercial tubers per acre for
whole crops of several acres have ac-
tually beer made on Florida sands.
and paid for by the starch factories
using them.
Before frost comes the tops. or
stalks, are cut off about six inches
above ground, a hoe doing the work
admirably. The tops are bedded for
seed. the roots remain in the ground till
needed. The butts of the stalks re-
naming make handles for pulling the
roots from the ground, as they can be
plowed out or harvested by machine.
The roots are the best of feed for all
classes of stock. Teams will work on
1t with little grain, cattle and hogs
fatten on it better than on anything
else, and COWS thrive on it, In feeding
value 1t us equal to one-half it's weight
in corn. 1t yields about six times as
much food as the same area of corn.
The cost of growing the crop is but
little greater than the cost of corn on
the same land. Actual cash accounts
kept by many careful farmers show
the average cost per acre, including
fertilizer to be between $14 and Sl5
per acre.
In Florida four large factories use
the root for starch making and pay
the farmers $3.50 to $500 per ton f. o.
b. With us the crop has become a sta
pie and the acreage is increasing year
by year.-H. e. Stockbridge