ontains
a poisonous substance which is entirely destroyed by cooking. There is
no danger of animals eating the bitter kind in a raw state, for no stock
will touch it, while the sweet kind is eagerly eaten in the raw state by
pigs, horses, cows, etc. The tubers are prepared for human food by
grating them. The juice is then expelled by pressure, and the residue
pounded into a coarse meal, which is made into thin cakes. It is an
excellent food, and said to be much more digestible than bread and other
foods made from wheat. Pigs can be very cheaply raised on the sweet
variety of this plant. A field of the plant being ready to gather, a
portion is fenced off, and the pigs turned into it. They will continue
to feed until every vestige of the tubers is eaten, leaving the ground
in a fine condition for replanting. The tubers never spoil in the
ground, in fact the soil is the very best storehouse for them. However
if left for two or three years the tubers grow very large and tough.

Bananas, in great variety, are grown in all parts of the Islands where
there is sufficient moisture. Any land that will grow coffee will grow
bananas. The yield of fruit from this remarkable plant is something
astonishing. It commences to bear fruit in a little over one year from
the time of planting. The stem decays after the formation of a bunch
of fruit; this will weigh from 50 to 100 pounds and upwards. Numerous
suckers spring up from around the decaying stem and bear fruit in
their turn. One-half an acre planted with bananas would not only
furnish a large family with an abundance of delicious and nutritious
fruit, but would also yield a large supply of feed for pigs, chickens
and other stock.

The tea plant (Camellia Thea) grows well in this country and yields
a tea of good quality. It is hardly likely that it will become an
article of export from this country, as we cannot compete with the
very low prices paid for labor in the great tea countries, India,
Ceylon, and China. But it can be grown for home consumption, and
there is no reason why every coffee planter should not have a patch
of tea growing on his land. An eighth of an acre, planted out in tea
plants, would yield more tea than could be consumed by a large family;
the work of cultivation and preparation is light and easy and could be
done by women and children.

The coffee lands are situated in forested tracts in which there is
little or no pasturage for animals. Every coffee planter