ugh of
excellent quality, ranks lowest, for the flesh-colored tissue in which
the starch is embedded is somewhat denser than the starch, and settles
down under it, and it is not a little difficult to arrange the process
so as completely to separate the finer parts of this matter from the
starch, and hence its color is never perfectly white.

_Yield of starch-producing plants per acre_.--On this subject, as
already remarked, I do not at present possess sufficiently accurate
data.

In England ten tons of potatoes are not unfrequently produced per
acre; now assuming 15 the per centage of starch, there would be a
yield of one-and-a-half tons per acre, which, at the-lowest quotation,
28s. a cwt., would give L42 per acre; and were the starch to rank with
that prepared from wheat, it would produce L40 per ton, or L60 per
acre. In the thorough drained land of Demerara, and under a good
system of cultivation, I have no doubt that ten tons of cassava could
easily be grown, and if it yielded 25 per cent. of starch, it would be
a return of 21/2 tons, or of L62 10s. per acre, reckoned at the price of
potato starch.

Of the yield of the plantain we possess much more accurate
information. A new plantain walk in this colony (British Guiana) will
yield 450 bunches, of 50 lbs. each, of which, as nearly as possible,
50 per cent. will be of core, containing 17 per cent. of starch, thus
producing 17 cwt. of starch per acre. But an old plantain walk, even
when free from disease, could not be reckoned to yield more than half
this quantity, namely, 81/2 cwt. per acre. Considering the value that is
set on the plantain as an article of food, and the difficulties
incident to the process of making starch from it, it is by no means
probable that it will ever be used as a source from which to obtain
starch.

Of the quantity of arrowroot that can be grown per acre, I have been
able (continues Dr. Shier) to procure no information; but from the
price it commands in the market, the facility with which it can be
grown, and the ease with which the process of separating the starch
can be carried on, it deserves a fair trial here. To cultivate it to
advantage it ought to be done on thorough-drained and well-tilled
land, planted at the proper season, and not dug till ripe and in dry
weather.

Of the Tous les mois, I have only been able to procure a single plant,
for which I am indebted to the kindness of the Hon. John Croal. As the
root was immature,