Show LIViNG IN TROPICS TROPICS' Millions of People Subsist on Five Cents a Day Ton and a Half of Aroids Harvested In South Carolina Last Year Year Will Will Stand Shipment to Other Parts of Country Los Angeles Cal When When Americans learn to eat the food of ot the tropics I they may live on five cents a day That men may live JIve at this cost and maintain health and vigor is proven by the fact that millions are doing it today That one of ot the cheap foods upon which they thrive may be grown throughout the southern half of the United States is among the new revelations revelations revelations reve reve- lations of the department of ture That it will stand shipment to the balance of the coun country try is also shown A ton and a half of this food was last year harvested from a sixth of an acre in South Carolina It will this year be widely propagated and next year there will wilt be plants for distribution distribution distribution tion to a wide circle of ot menters The plants that make this cheap living living living liv liv- ing possible in the tropics are the aroids one representative of which I is the elephants ear with which Americans are familiar as an ornamental ornamental ornamental orna orna- mental plant It is one of these aroids which yields the pol poi of the Hawaiians Ha- Ha the of the Cubans and th the oto of the dasheens and various other plants I somewhat widely known belong to the same family which is called by A hundred different names In various parts of the world Roughly they are all aroids They grow in abundance in Central America America America Amer Amer- ica South America the West Indies equatorial Africa Malaysia l the Hawaiian Ha Ha- islands Japan and China In all these countries the natives plant them crudely in damp places and reap abundant harvests They prepare them for eating in a hundred ways They are toothsome nourishing eco eco- They far surpass many of the expensive foods of this country and have much that recommends them to the entire world The aroids are root crops They I Iare are more nearly comparable with potatoes potatoes po po- than with anything else we know The tubers grow in clusters on the roots of the plant The They are often larger than ones one's fist and are covered with a somewhat rough skin This may however easily be removed or It may be left on until after cooking The tubers may be baked or of boiled or fried Baking is probably the best method of cooking them They may maybe maybe maybe be mas mashed ed and prepared with butter or milk or eggs There are great numbers of ways of preparing them the detail of which is unnecessary until they aro arc able They are boiled or fried and baked on the plantations of the tropics tropics trop trope ics and no meal is complete without them These aroids will grow wherever the elephants elephant's ear flourishes but too far north will not como come to maturity There are many varieties a and ld some of them flourish much farther further north than others The aroids are wet land plants They thrive on lowlands that are much flooded provided the water does docs not notI stagnate on them Their favorite conditions conditions con con- I are those under which potatoes pota pots I toes would not thrive Some varieties grow well wen under conditions suitable for rice There are in the south millions of ot acres that are lying idle because they are too wet and some of at these great areas would be ideal lands upon which to grow the aroids They require little lit tle tie cultivation as compared with other crops It Is because of this small la la- labor labor bor demand that the crop has always been so to popular In tho the tropics where I men are not given to overexertion |