| While the potato is of great importance in the United | | | | people confuse a quite different thing arrowroot-with |
| States, it is in northern and central Europe that it is | | | | tapioca. Arrowroot belongs to a different family, and is |
| often the chief starchy food of the common people. In | | | | cultivated for its fleshy rootstocks, rich in starch. It is |
| addition to its use as food for man and beast, the | | | | probably a native of Brazil, and was cultivated in |
| manufacture of industrial alcohol and of starch is of | | | | prehistoric time in both Brazil and the West Indies. At |
| much importance. Normally, the greatest total and per | | | | an early date it was carried to almost all warm |
| acre yield is in Germany, Poland and Russia ranking | | | | countries, becoming generally naturalized and |
| next in production and utilization of potatoes. Cassava, | | | | spontaneous. Arrowroot is grown commercially in |
| the root of several species of Manihot has been | | | | South Africa, Queensland, Bermuda, the East Indies, |
| cultivated since prehistoric times in the humid tropical | | | | India, and Fiji. The starch is used in making crackers, |
| lowlands of Brazil, the Guianas, and similar regions in | | | | wafers, and cakes, and in prepared foods for infants |
| South America. Even today it is the chief bread food | | | | and invalids. |
| of the inhabitants of those same regions. | | | | The sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, a member of the |
| Manihot utillissima has a poisonous juice, which must be | | | | morning glory family, is the original potato, but by a |
| removed before the root is safe for human food. The | | | | curious twist its name was applied to the very |
| large fleshy roots are rich in starch and may be | | | | different plant that we know as the common potato. |
| cooked and eaten in various ways. One of the | | | | The sweet potato is a native of the American tropics |
| commonest is the preparation of tapioca. Cassava | | | | unknown in a wild state. This indicates its cultivation |
| spread rapidly, especially to regions where neither rice | | | | since remote times. In pre-Columbian times it was an |
| nor corn grow well. Slave traders carried it from Brazil | | | | important crop in the West Indies, Yucatan, Honduras, |
| to the west coast of Africa, where it became the | | | | tropical Mexico, and Peru, and perhaps other parts of |
| main food of Angola. It went with Aztec soldiers to the | | | | tropical America. The kamotl, or sweet potato, went |
| Philippines, and spread rapidly over the island world. It is | | | | with the Aztecs to the Philippines, where it became the |
| now grown in all warm countries. | | | | kamotl of the Filipinos, and spread rapidly all over the |
| In Queensland, Australia, Java, and the Philippines, great | | | | islands, and soon it was cultivated by many tribes that |
| plantations are devoted to the culture of cassava for | | | | had never seen a white man or an Aztec. |
| making starch, which is used in various industries. Many | | | | |