ot (_Maranta_
_arundinacea_) 5 6 6.71
The full-grown but unripe fruit of the banana
(_Musa sapientum_) 0 0 0.00

This table exhibits, no doubt, very unexpected results, since it
places the sweet cassava at the very top, and the banana at the lowest
place in the list, while the bitter cassava, which seems to be little
more than a variety of the sweet, notwithstanding its being the staple
material of West Indian bread, occupies two places lower down, and is
followed by the plantain. The sweet potato and the yam, both of which
are considered to be less nutritious than the arrowroot, rank above it
in the centesimal proportion of their amylaceous produce. Upon what,
then, do the nutritive properties of these various substances depend?
Is it upon a gluten which was overlooked by Mr. Harris, in his
experiments, or, if not, may we not suspect some inaccuracy in the
proportion of starch assigned by him to each? It is to be wished that
similar experiments were repeated with care in different quarters, and
the list extended to other tropical products applicable to human
sustenance, especially the roots which yield the farinaceous starch of
the South Sea islanders, to the achira of Choco, &c.

I shall extract largely from a very valuable report drawn up by Dr.
John Shier, agricultural chemist, of Demerara, and submitted to the
Governor of that colony in 1847, on the starch-producing plants, which
is deserving of more widely extended publicity than the merely local
circulation it has received. The remarks and results of experiments
are worthy of deep consideration; and although they were meant to
apply specially to British Guiana, they are equally pertinent to the
West India colonies generally, our African and Australian settlements,
and many other of our foreign possessions.

For many reasons it is desirable that the number of the staples of
cultivation and export of our colonies should be increased. It is the
general experience of British agriculturists, that the mixed system of
agriculture is more profitable to the farmer and safer for the land,
than the continued cultivation of any single crop, or indeed of
nearly allied crops; and although fewer valid objections can be urged
against the continued cultivation of the sugar cane, when properly
conducted, than against that of grain crops, it is nevertheless
certain that a well-arranged alte