SAGO

is the starch found in large quantities in the trunks of several varieties of tropical palms, from six hundred to eight hundred pounds being not infrequently obtained from a single tree. The palm is cut down just after it reaches maturity—when from ten to fifteen years old, according to the climate and other circumstances—and the pith is put through crushing and washing proce es; the sago thus freed being then dried by evaporation, pa ed through colanders and rubbed or granulated into the little pellets familiar to commerce. Sago is valuable as a food item, being both cheap and nutritious. It is especially pleasing prepared in the same way as rice pudding. [s. 545]