The Lancet recently stated that, on a microscopical analysis of 50 samples of arrowroot, purchased indiscriminately of various London tradesmen, 22 were found to be adulterated.  In 16 cases this adulteration consisted in the addition of a single inferior product much cheaper in price, such as potato flour, sago meal, or tapioca starch, while in other instances there was a combination of these articles, potato flour being usually preponderant.  Ten of the mixtures contained scarcely a particle of the genuine Maranta or West India arrowroot, for which they were sold.  One consisted almost wholly of sago meal; two of potato flour and sago meal; two of potato flour, sago meal, and tapioca starch; one of tapioca starch; and four of potato arrowroot, or starch entirely.  The worst specimens were those which were done up in canisters especially marked as “Genuine West India arrowroot,” or as being “warranted free from adulteration;” and one, which contained a considerable quantity of potato flour, was particularly recommended to invalids, and certified as the finest quality ever imported into this country.  The profits to the vendors of the inferior compounds are to be estimated from the fact that the price of sago meal and potato starch is about 4d. per lb., while the genuine Maranta arrowroot is from 1s. to 3s. 6d. per lb.

The arrowroot of Bermuda has long borne a high reputation, being manufactured on a better principle and being therefore of superior quality to that produced in Antigua, St. Vincent, and other West Indian islands.  The process is tedious and requires a good deal of labor.  There is no doubt, however, that the quality of the water has a great deal of influence on the fecula.  Bermuda arrowroot is necessarily made from rain water collected in tanks or reservoirs, and the lime and the deposit from houses, &c., may alter its properties.  After the root is taken from the ground it is placed in a mill, and is thereby cleansed of its exterior excrescences; it is then thoroughly washed, when it is ready for the large machine, the principle of which is similar to the “treadmill.”  A horse is placed on something like a platform, and as he prances up and down, the machinery is set in play.  A person stands at the end, and places the root in the wheel of the machine, which, after being ground, falls into a trough of water.  After going through this process, it is rewashed and then placed in vessels to dry in the sun.  It is packed in boxes lined with blue paper or tin, and sent to the markets in England and America, where it generally meets with ready sale.

At a meeting of the Agricultural Society of Bermuda, held in May, 1840, Mr. W.M.  Cox submitted a new arrowroot strainer which he had invented.  It consists of two cloth strainers fixed to hoops from 15 to 20 inches in diameter.  The strainers working one within the other, are kept in motion by a lever, moved by hand.  The whole apparatus is not an expensive one, and is well adapted for aiding the manufacture of arrowroot upon an expeditious and economical plan.