Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1920 — HAS REGULAR THUE TO EAT [ARTICLE]

HAS REGULAR THUE TO EAT

VogetaM* Him In flouth PdcMc Wands Itomand* It* Ffod and fleam* to Apprsetato It. —a - ■ wpuHukN as the natives call IV* the most wohdatful rogetabte'plant tn th* world. ■ ’ It grow* op certain South Pacific tatante. aW'in appearance is i like a giant turnip, ’but blood-red to coldru To too fodte man M te a very tough and taetetea* vegetable.- To the nativna, 'howev*r, it la a main item of - thslr dfeb 3>ey cook it and mln it with their eecoout and breadfruit, for it to supposed to be very nourishing. They cultivate the plant in a rough sort of faridon tar large ditahes w awampa.-'"'' ‘ r| ’ Ito moat peculiar feature I* that it haa to be fed, and flor this purpose the, native children go> over the island coltectittg all decayed vegetable matter. Thi* to soekto in pteoty of salt water, and to thro taken in armfuls; to the plants’md pat in the center of-tho. leaf ( steen* **ro> the Short, 'thick stem from ' which the leaves spread out on every sid*. ; Slowly but surely the decayed matter dteappeare, -the leaves stiffen and ' spread > out erect—signs, apparently, j that the fount has dined' heartily, for? it really Is a case of feeding a -plant. There is no. opening jof . the stem or .th* leaves; the food Is.-slowly and gradually absorbed in a silent and wonderful