+ rer sa a 9 6 6 a ha on et + od oh ot hh ah hah ap 7 ty y sity 4 rs it if bi The growth and yield of a grapevine is a miracle repeated each year ISTRATED Pe ON EM MORK _GROSSET & DUNLAP io!) PUBLISHERS / ¢ bs Mt palin Bi ff pai lenebead | including the ‘Scandinavian THE LIVELY TRIO, [, DAN, AND MARY ELIZABETH, | BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY = t DO INSCRIBED, 010). Suit i : “The growing of a plant, ie seed to ed sa wonderful experience. The wheat that makes | a ath horn ie contended hee a —. Grains and other plants that have us ns ae he race have Sieg resting Meena wonderful future les before each one. We, 7.) ‘need but an introduction. Their stories grip our é Boys ‘and se are learning to know. and to. _ The New Agriculture has a place To be mesa they must To help oe. to Man RA Wie? athe | TABLE OF CONTENTS 3READ PLANTS PAGE RICE UE RN hae hae! Ph MCNaNT Ma ings Sigil Me 3 a ei ih a ee eh ie CM ER ca ly wl ee yw)! 27 en gS fel as wl on secur Wedneiwee wale Wks ae Sy alg ga Re MUGEN SONOS Ce ei a ER IEMA Ried 5 THE WONDERFUL MAIZE PLANT . ... . 46 Pe BO DURRA a a a he he RE ae Gah gl BN iiginieh gar gh hs «chee a a wal thet awe ry Re ee Bk a PL PRMOWROOET PLANTS 60 poe al ee wk 5G SAGO PALM Ep mia mM aa Ng kar lu WMO ie FORAGE PLANTS NE a a a ea ae «7: I re alii ali cyl (Sikh ies nt ey EY RS I me AN Ma ANU SUGAR PLANTS BOAR gel a uke Seat elle all ti ay a ani my a ie Vel om hee ce oem BOAR PES ce ke) Cieila Cal ee Neca | Gey SA AAPA ee ve ee cae a Oe PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT I Ur Nh age EE AEG EN TMC Seo Aa eR 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT —Continued LENTILS 2 je ee ah ne PEANUTS. 0 600 (a0) ALMONDS (2 0 0 a AMERICAN WALNUTS 930000000 S023 ENGLISH WALNUTS we cee HICKORIES 3.0. ka ee CHESTNUTS.) 00 we we eS BEECHES. 300 oy fee oe OTHER NUTS OF COMMERCE §: 3.0 9 003) 2a PLANTS WHOSE LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT LETTUCE 6 ei he a tis Gs SA oe ENDIVE, F006 DANDELION 0630 a A GLOBE ARTICHOKE oe A oe SPINACH eee OP ORS ne CL Na eee ASPARAGUS (oe Sn SWISS CHARD 20h 0 2 CRESSES 6 he) CBLERY 20000 0 GVO RY PARSLEY 0) be Or SEA-KALE a Ole ah Nel han een at sane FENNEL) oo ea CHERVIE 0 So DILL @ e e e e e e e e @ @ e@ e I4f ‘ THE WILD CABBAGE AND ITS CHILDREN Pero vient THE, ONION | PAMIDWQ ye te le Nn RHUBARB, OR PIE-PLANT e © ry e ° )@ e 154 PLANTS WHOSE ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT THE GARDEN BEET AND ITS KIN. . . .,.. 156 RADISHES’ .00 wl es ks a ee HORSE: RADISH). fo ge TURNIPS OM CEM PEPIN UR EE Gis). CHICORY sO) a OC nnd M oe ‘ORANGE AND ITS KIN GRAPES . . (CORE ‘FRUITS e * _ CHERRIES | Ae CANE FRUITS ap BUSH PROIIS ss, io FINE WILD BERRIES _ STRAWBERRIES — ue PINEAPPLES . : es e", _ BANANAS» Pans Pi a oavab ia mt “ SQUASHES AND PUMPKINS _ OLIVES — ie ‘TOMATOES _ EGG-PLANTS | TABLE OF CONTENTS BEVERAGE PLANTS CACAQ i TEA 8 SO el COFFEE ya cat | MATE, OR PARAGUAY TEA! . (00). ee PULQUE PMH Vg h Se NARCOTIC PLANTS TOBACCO. 8 eh POPPY 0 UN a Ne BETEL-NUT 00 ee ie 8 1 COCA a ye tt A FIBRE PLANTS BLAM el a COTTON. 2 ae BENE OS ON OTHER CORDAGE FIBRES, .. 0. 0. Ge BROOM COBN, 0°50 2 a PLANTS THAT SERVE MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES BAMBOOS 00 ka PAEMS OE CS tie ae Ne HOPS ee a BARE ea FULLER'S TEASEL 200600800 Co RUBBER PLANTS (6) 8 ee ei ee GUTTA PERCHA. B00. 8) ee MUSHROOMS § oe in ee wl ee ILLUSTRATIONS : ; the Giowkh ne Yield of a Ghapevine | is a Miracle Re- peated Fach Year | : | . Frontisprece - FACING PAGE A Good Variety of Beardless Wheat | Sir a in _ Kiushiu Rice. | it Honduras and Carolina Varieties af Rice goal nt Oats e e e se ee el cnn by Machinery i in thie Sey. ‘ ‘Enlarging the Holes to Strengthen the Flow of Sap from the Maple Trees | Garden Pee ih A Thrifty Peanut Field in 1 North Gist A Single Peanut Plant and Its Nur hans Asparagus i Bundles oye ie The Savoy Cabbage . . . wie ke ay aaiiower, the Most Delicate Vegetable i in H tKE Gab. bage Family De tienen in | - Kohlrabi, the Turnip-like Vegetable, Related to ‘the Wentage 2). | A Line of Samples ae a i aoatioy? § ‘Heme Garden Com, Parsley, Carrots, Wax and Lima Beans, Cucum- bers, and Tomatoes. . . . o Fine Hill of Sweet Potatoes Garden Beets _ eA At La) cole te Le ONAL CA iy hak 7d ay ¥e Fh AY (03. i tet KG ae ty ’ ‘ YO th ft ; a ) 1 bY ; cm oer alli Ald ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE A Great Variety of Delicious Dishes are Made Out of the Homely Squash ov: The Growth and Yield of a Granevines is a Miracle Re- peated Each Year (0.0/0) 00) Blackcap Raspberries...) 3) ee The: Banana Plant ofp 470. Bea ee ving et Lil Nobody is Unhappy Here But the Doe Weare tive) it Thanksgiving Day. is Almost Herel (0°10) 0 aie Olives are Bitter as Gall. Until Pickled: jae Opening the Pods to Take Out the Cocoa Beans The Sweet Water of This Century Plant is Good ‘6 Dns Ha wl VES Ge Tobacco is a Stately and Bean ‘Plabe Ee he: Harvest Time in the Cotton Fields. . . . . . ‘Fhe Oriental: Bamboo 03.0072) /0) (0) California-grown Dates . STP ae Cisco ks cc A) Young “Rubber Aree li. By Be ante) The Pink-gilled Meadow Mashcoone Bee Oe aul RIV 17 208 ab9 224 225 256 257 272 273 320 321 336 337 352 be A ail POW, Aion Nae i 4 an, CHAPTER I RICE ik We arvest, sometimes twice a year, in ie warm : The rice plant is a grass, with long, narrow leaves, and wiry stems from two to five feet high. ‘In India and Australia wild rice is found growing i to-day on the edges of marshy sloughs and along Me . From these wild grasses the natives gathered the seeds with care thousands of years BO, and, gradually, to the wild supply was added | e harvest of patches sown with the gathered 3 seed and improved by cultivation. Other i regions. | ‘. got the seed, and so the crop spread eastward ~ through what is now the great Chinese Empire, Japan, Siam, and the islands between India and — Australia. 3 The culture of rice in the valley of the Euphistes? was described by historians who wrote centuries before the Christian Era. Rice is mentioned in the Talmud. The Moors established it in Spain. It was grown on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea; with especial success in Italy. The boy Columbus might have seen thousands of acres of rice growing in the marshy lands about Genoa > and Pisa, as he wandered about, dreaming of that far-off India he hoped to reach by a new route. His expeditions opened the way for the rice industry in Mexico and Central America. In 1647 the English attempted to grow rice in the swamps owned by the Virginia Colony, but that was out of its natural habitat— too far north. The introduction of rice into the South was — an accident, though it must surely have come. ‘a Cay b Bi “a In 1694 a sailing vessel, bound for England from 2 Madagascar, encountered a gale off the coast of Vi South Carolina and was obliged to put SN, the ne port of Phoroaen in repay He Dias their Gentine a visits a bag of rice was on a piece of swampy land he owned. The crop was a good one, and the planters of the neighbour- hood went enthusiastically into rice culture. A dozen years later seventeen shiploads of rice left the port for England — the pesieniog of our ‘export trade in this grain. Mexico ship rice to American markets. The spread of rice culture was rapid under the slavery ‘system in the South, but the Civil War almost ruined it. Slowly and steadily it has revived, and now is a great and pene agricultural in- ah The centuries oe cultivation have developed many kinds of rice adapted to different soils, different regions, different modes of culture. _ Over two thousand varieties are listed. No other grain has as many. If no other record existéd to prove the antiquity of the domestication of the wild species, the multitude of varieties would be proof enough. Most of them must be grown on level fields that can be flooded. But there are _ varieties that need the same treatment as wheat. a WOR AZ he ety brought ashore, and the Governor had it sown’ - The Carolinas, Louisiana, and (lately) Texas, are the rice-growing states. Japan, Hawaii, and. 4 i | b. Mian THE BOOK OF “USEFUL Dincic). i These are called ‘‘ upland,” or “hill” rice. The» “wet” rice includes all the varieties that aar 4 have water about the roots, or they die of thirst. The famous ‘Carolina gold’? variety was de- ie veloped by a planter who went into his fields at oe harvest time and selected for seed the best heads ie with the longest kernels he could find. Year after ee year he persevered. The variety was thus “fixed.” net Many great plantations of the Far East send Ve to the Carolinas for seed, rather than grow the e short-grained native sorts, for the Carolina rice i greatly increases the yield. Japan has a famous — i | rice called Kiushiu, in great demand for seed in ae other countries. Its kernel is short and broad, — Mv and does not break in the mill as does the long- grained rice. _ The Chinese Empire has a tiene popu- > lation, but few large cities. The people are - thickly distributed over the country, where they _ live on what can be raised on little farms — we ~ would call them mere patches of land. The failure of crops means famine. Rice is the princi- — pal crop. No wonder the wise Emperor, Chin- nong, in the year 2800 B.C., established the annual ceremonial of the sowing of the “five holy | plants,” that the people should keep in mind that 4 these stood always between them and famine. _ ri paleg at EP Webine 3 is Gareeds into seek condition in anticipation of the ceremony. The ‘Son of Heaven,” as the Emperor is called, plows four furrows, with a wonderfully ornamented plow, — _ kept in the temple for this purpose. Then the _ princes, the high dignitaries, and the court atten- _ dants, down the scale of rank, take turns at the Me plow. Forty laborers, deserving of the honor, are allowed to finish the task of preparation. _ Then the Emperor sows the rice, himself; princes sow” millet, wheat, barley and beans. These _ grains are tended with especial care as they grow, i harvested ey officials of high rank. The ' 4 Pied on by Seiciad occasions in making offerings to 4 the spirits of the dead ancestors of the ruling 4 eneror ” | __ Viceroys in the outlying provinces of the Empire D icae the same ceremony, so the people are all reached by its influence. ! - China’s population of 400,000,000 is more than five times that of the United States. In spite of all efforts, the people cannot raise all the rice they _ need. The exportation of this grain has for a centuries been forbidden. Little Japan, with x 50,000,000 population, exports quantities yearly. “THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS a ‘The United Sie uses twice as mute” rice e each | year as it produces. RICE FARMING Rice culture in the United States is usually - carried on in the most up-to-date manner, with improved, labor-saving machinery. The fields _ must be level, the soil a clay loam, with stiff clay under it to hold the water, and later to support the heavy harvester. Reclaimed swamps and oa the flats subject to floods along river courses were — ve the first rice lands of the South. The fields must — be surrounded by levees, or dykes, to regulate a: the water supply. After the grain is drilled in and | has sprouted, the water is let in by raising the _ gates, and kept rising as the stems lengthen. The grass and weeds are mostly drowned out, but the water is drained off to allow the plants to get one good hoeing. After this, the water is admitted again, and it keeps rising until flowering time. The rice plant heads like oats, in a branching cluster of single flowers. Theone grain ina spike- let, is enclosed in two tight glumes, one carry- ing the long awn, if it is a bearded variety. Ex- ‘ amine any bag of rice, and’ you can ion a grain i oan BREAD PLANTS , 9 The water supply is often many feet lower than _ the rice field. Pumps are used to bring it up, or it may be elevated by the principle of the siphon, a method that saves power generated by engines. Deep wells supply water to the irrigating ditches _ in some rice-growing sections of the Southwest. _ This allows tracts far removed from river courses to come under this form of agriculture. a Before the field turns yellow, the land is drained, | a. and the reapers and binders cut and bind the ne grain, which is shocked, then stacked for later threshing. The use of machinery greatly reduces the need of hand labor, which is far more ex- __ pensive in this country than in the Tropics and the Far East. | _ The methods of growing rice have changed hee little since the beginning of its cultivation in re China and India. The plow is most primitive, a often little more than a crooked pole, withitsnose in the mud, dragged along by a stupid water o buffalo. | | ae: The preparation of the field is often only the Ae stirring up of the mud at the bottom of a shallow | swamp, obstructed by tree roots and rubbish. _ The seed bed is a level patch, better prepared. _ The seed is sown broadcast, often sprouted before- hand. When the shoots are three inches high the | bed j is flooded daily to saturate the veda bs Ma - the water is allowed todrain off. Whenthe plants reach six inches in height they are transplanted — into the mud of the field, thirty times the size 08): am the seed bed. The work is done very rapidly, __ oftenest by women, the plants being set vp | distance of six inches apart in rows about eight inches apart. The plants are kept under water until hey ate about fifteen inches high. Then they are drained and weeded, or hoed. The water is then let in — again, and remains until the harvest is almostdue. ‘The heads droop with the weight of the kernels, and if they ripen before being gathered, much © grain is lost. a The harvester goes to his work with a reaping hook in his hand, lays the handfuls on the stubble to dry. Later the grain is threshed by the slow \ and wasteful method of treading it out by driving oxen over the straw, spread on a smooth piece of ground, or on a barn floor. Men tread it out often. Much is lost and cones by this clumsy. method. Sometimes handfuls of bia are whipped over | a sharp stone, or drawn through narrow slits, to comb off the kernels. This is slow, but it saves the rice in good condition. In its snug yellow — a“ Ttis ead ey i Loup milling process, or to be stbeea for months, _ or shipped to near or distant markets. _ _ There are various simple methods of pounding the paddy to get the hull off of the white grain. Stone mortars and pestles are used in different countries, and a vast amount of muscular energy expended in pounding large or small quantities, ‘until all the hulls are off. The’ Chinese family has a daily job of pounding just enough paddy i for the day’s use. Children often do this work, i Hane mallets of wood. | | 3 Then comes the winnowing process. ie _ grain is lifted high and poured out of shovel-like _ baskets.. The heavy grain drops to the ground. e The light chaff drifts away a little distance as it falls. _ It is easy to find rice imported from Japan i in any large city market. It comes in bags woven of rice straw, that resembles tea matting. Rice is deficient in oils and proteid matter, but rich in starch. It needs eggs or meat to make a balanced diet for us. ‘That is because we are not vegetarians, as the average oriental is. He thrives on rice, with beans to supply the elements - we get from meat. But he eats the whole rice, and so gets the richest part of the grain, which SE a i te a ene ge ta 2c SO eae polished grain. | In the American mills, rice is first rebate as paddy from the threshing. It is cleaned of weed seed, then hulled, then winnowed, then ground to remove the bran, and rubbed between sheep- skin buffers to polish the grain. Now the sift a ing process takes out the broken grains and ~ _ the starchy dust, and the grain is graded for market. | Our rice is white, but tasteless when cooked. “Brown rice”’ is rich in flavor, and has a creamy color. Those who taste rice in Japan, or cooked in the Japanese way here, do not wonder that the little brown men were able to defeat men and arm- ies much larger than their own, and to keep well and strong on a diet of rice. Some American grocers carry a limited quan- | tity of “brown rice,” the e's with hulls re- moved. Fermented rice is the basis of the national beverage, called sake, which the Japanese drink hot out of tiny porcelain cups at the beginning of a meal. At weddings a good deal of saké is drunk, and as it contains a high percentage of | Ri nbiiean rice mills sacrifice in order to get a white, pee. alcohol, the people may become intoxicated. a 4 The Chinese and the natives of different East aor %\ BREAD PLANTS. _ Indian islands have their own beverages made of © fermented rice. _* Europe imports great quantities of rice for a food, and for the manufacture of starch. Calicoes : are stiffened with a paste of rice powder. Broken _ rice, the dust from rice mills, and the straw and hulls all make good food for cattle. The straw is used in making bags, hats, shoes, and other 7 wearing apparel. Plowed under, the stubble en- riches the soil. Not only is rice the greatest grain crop ‘ofthe __world; it is one of the most beautiful of cereals as it grows on hillsides in Japan. The brooks _ that flow down the mountainsides are tapped by side channels that lead the water onto wonderful flat terraces, all planted to rice. Step by step _ the water trickles down, each little patch watered, __and giving the water again tothe level next below it. Constantly the supply is renewed from above. : _ The trees form lovely frames for the pictures as the grain turns from green to gold, and the widen- ing brook finally pours its waters into the marsh that is a broad, level sea of rice, ready for the sickle. In September the golden ricelands are as beautiful as the orchards and gardens that burst into bloom in cherry blossom time, the month of . THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS _ WHEAT My Let us look first at a single grain of wheat, out ‘i | of the bagful the farmer is about to sow, or the | 4 miller is about to pour into the hopper, to grind into flour. It is an oval body with a deep crease running lengthwise on one side, a tuft of fine hairs at the tip, and the chit, or embryo, at the base, and directly opposite to the groove. From this chit the wheat plant rises. Stored under the protect-_ ing coats of the grain are the food elements that _ are to nourish the little plant until its own leaves and roots are able to support it independently. _ The baby plant and its lunch basket are wrapped up in the grain we are looking at. | Without a microscope it will be difficult for us to make out the various coats that wrap the store i of starch that forms 93 per cent. of the kernel’s ‘bulk. Six per cent. of it is the embryo, with its | shield that protects and absorbs food for the minute plantlet, whose root and stem are visible ae when the grain is soaked. The seed wrappings form the remaining I per cent. of the whole. | A thin skin, the epidermis, covers the grain. Four coats under the skin compose the bran, the ae third from the outside being the coloring matter He which gives the brown tinge to whole wheat flour. | eh, Sane BREAD PLANTS 0) DR, men sic the ean layers is a aver of Siar, that - envelops the central body of starch and the chit, _and weighs 8 per cent. of the grain. This is the _ part that i is sticky; because of its presence in wheat flour we are able to have spongy bread, “‘risen” with yeast. “Light” bread that is also white bread, 1s so commonly used by nations of the highest civiliza- tion that an American must travel widely in order to realize that in many countries it is a luxury enjoyed by few. Other grains form the staff of life, and bread is not white. One of the distinc- tions of the United States is the fact that it raises more wheat than any other country, and the poor- est families eat white bread as regularly as their rich neighbors. WHEAT FARMING The farmer sows his wheat broadcast, by hand, if he is old-fashioned and skilful, and has a small field; otherwise with some kind of drill, or seeder, that plants a large area more evenly and more quickly that can be done by hand. The ground must be a deep, well-drained, rich, clay _ loam, mellow and free from weeds, if a good crop _is to follow, Next to the sowing comes the har- rowing, unless the seeding is done by a press drill, ‘a that puts the grains underground at least an inch. — The harrow kills weeds, breaks up the surface — crust and covers the seed. The newest tool, the press drill, does all these operations at once: seed- ing, covering, and smoothing the bare ground over the seed. | a7 If weather is fair and warm, the wheat field ‘shows its green spears at the end of the second week after sowing. Soon the bare ground has turned green as a lawn. One long leaf at each joint of the stem is the rule with the wheat plant, and that leaf in’ two sections: the lower half clasps the stalk; the upper half extends outward, expos- ing its flat surface to the sun. This is the part that waves in the breezes. Many people would overlook the tubular part that strengthens the stalk, and only serves its leaf function by exposing the green under surface to the sun. When wind lashes the standing grain the leaves swing around without breaking, because the basal half of each | is tough-fibred and takes a spiral twist around the ~ stem. This saves the leaves in many a storm from a being whipped off. ee 4 The swollen joints, too, save the whieae that gets “lodged” by wind. Strangely enough, the | swelling of the base of the leat shoe on the wie é: * , Honduras and Carolina varie- ties of rice have long kernels Iciushiu rice has short kernels that do not break badly in milling BREAD PLANTS _ es | that has bent over lifts the stem toward the erect position. All the leaf bases help, and the plant soon stands vertical again. These bases remain soft even when the leaf is getting yellow. . The effort to lift fallen grain is not so successful, after the stalks are ripe. One of the peculiar habits of the wheat plant is “tillering.” The stem that first comes up from ’ each grain of seed that sprouts is quickly joined _ by shoots that rise from joints underground. _ Three main roots strike downward from the chit as the plumule, or stem, shoots upward toward the light. But the “crown” of the wheat _ plant is higher than the seed, which is not lifted up in sprouting, as beans are. A group of much _ stronger roots strike down from the first joints of _ the parent stem, and the “tillers,” or secondary stems, rise around their parent, forming a “stool.” _ The thinner the sowing, the better chance for these _ side shoots to multiply; and the deeper the grain is planted, the more joints of the original stem _ will be covered with soil and able to “‘stool,” _ sending roots down and stems up. _.. The best wheat plant is the one with the greatest number of strong stalks. In the average field _ the number of stalks from a single seed is from six _ totwelve. Exceptional plants have three to four 18 dozen stalks. The plants from fact eee may have but two or three feeble stalks. So the farmer who sows poor seed is wasting time and labor. When the wheat stalks are full stone they blossom in long spikes or heads, made up of “‘spike- lets” (side branches), each with a few flowers, and enclosed in papery coverings, called outer glumes. These glumes are set alternately upon the stem. Each pair of glumes opens at flowering time, — exposing one to four pairs of smaller, more delicate glumes each one a wheat blossom in the bud. The smaller glume is the palet; it lies next to the stem. The larger one may have a long, rough spine that protrudes an inch or more. Such wheat is a “bearded” variety. Between the palet and this outer flowering glume is the ovary, containing the plump ovule, with two plume-like branches of the stigma held above it. On the sides stand the three stamens, that hang out their large anthers on slender filaments when the glumes part for the — wind to do its'work of carrying pollen from open- ing anthers to waiting stigmas. ‘To some extent, ‘ wheat flowers are pollenated within the bud. — = Sasi = ” wes - - J Cr a —— 2 i Sg i ay en ee — = =, : But the wind does the cross-pollenating, which i makes more vigorous, larger grains than self- me pollenation. ; ing have ie to Rueuey cpieetei filled out, add a few that failed and dried away. Each spikelet oe had from one to four flowers; so two or three grains of wheat may be the average in each spikelet. a Counting them all, the head may yield thirty to fifty grains of wheat. Now count the heads. _ borne by the single plant, and how many grains are the harvest of a single seed sowed? Three or four hundred grains are possible, but not — usual. | Five pecks to an acre is the average amount of wheat sown in the United States. ‘In ten years, one grain of North Dakota wheat produced 300,000 bushels.” The average yield per acre _ in the United States is about thirteen bushels. In the Northwest, sixty and seventy bushels an acre are not uncommon. A thousand-acre field _ that yielded 51,000 bushels holds the record for a field of that size. Germany and England average more than twice the yield of American wheat fields. Older fields, but better tillage and more fertilizers put upon the land, make _ the difference. Better farming is increasing the 7 yield of crops, but wheat farming has been one of the worst robbers of the virgin soil of our | country. THE WHEAT HARVEST / When wheat begins to turn yellow, the time of harvest is near. The farmer dents a kernel with ~ his thumb nail. If it does not burst, it is ready for the sickle. The best flour is made from wheat that is dead ripe when harvested. But it is not _ possible to get a large field cut at just the best time. So it is usual to begin the reaping before the grain is quite ripe, trusting to the after care to offset the disadvantages of cutting it under-ripe. If over- ripe the standing grain is attacked by birds, the wind breaks the brittle stalks, and shells out the loose grain. Rainy weather fades the color of the kernels and sets them to sprouting. A few days’ delay at harvest time may lose the farmer half the value of his entire wheat crop. In regions of — little or no summer rain, the harvest hurry is not so great. _ The first harvesting tool was the hoaa sickle, | some. form of knife that gathered and cut off a a bundle of straws as they grew. Before the sickle _ was invented, the wheat was pulled up in handfuls as flax is pulled to-day. After the sickle came | 99 scythes, and then the “cradle,” swung by both > “a hands, and followed by a man who bound the a grain. Expert cradlers cut three and four acres BREAD PLANTS | of wheat a day. Then came a procession of im- proved machinery aimed to replace human muscle _ with some other power, used by a machine that _ does its work quicker and better than the man with the cradle. | i Headers pushed through the grain, stripping _ the heads by means of a coarse comb set on the edge of a cart, were used in Gaul at the beginning of the Christian Era. The power was furnished _ by an ox hitched between shafts at the back of the ne ae aS - a cart. The driver raked the heads off of the knives into the cart. This machine was in use for cen- _ turies. Then it was abandoned and forgotten for centuries more. 4 _ The publishing of an account of this machine, a described by Pliny in 70 A. D., led to the inven- a tion of the reaper with revolving reel; and finally - came the combined reaper and harvester, based / on the principles first employed in the crude . = Gallic header. Gradually the inventive genius of this country has improved the machinery de- vised in England until now the wheat on the great farms is cut, threshed, and flung on the ground in tiers of sacks, ready for shipment, the grain not having been handled by men during the ious _ process. One of these great “‘portable factories, - ss ” used °. ‘is to cut, thresh, and sack the wheat from 120 acres. It takes eight men to operate this combina- tion harvester, at a cost of but thirty to fifty cents _ per acre. Since the price is about $7,500, these big harvesting outfits belong to | Wheat-raising on a mammoth scale. The self-binder, drawn by several horses driven by one man, is seen harvesting small wheat fields. ‘It is followed by helpers who shock the grain, to dry it before it is stacked. Threshing comes later, and the grain may wait for months before it leaves the granary for the mills. The harvest of wheat in our own country has been described above. America is by no means the only wheat-growing country, though it is ahead of all others in the world. Russia is its - greatest rival. The smaller countries of Europe all grow wheat, many of them more than they need for home markets. India, Siberia, North and in California wheat fields, cuts a ieee sa swath, a 4 is drawn by a traction engine, and its day’s work me, han x Jatt Hi Vi W a) a i) Vie 4 { } J ys a: ay > 4 f » if ¥ ny a a Sig A — wie ee Sa ES South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are all wheat-growing coun- — tries. Most of the wheat is raised in the northern — hemisphere, and much is shipped thither from the - . southern wheat regions. Canada is becosiig: one of the greatest wheat countries of the world. _ “BREAD PLANTS THE KINDS OF WHEAT _ Between two and three hundred varieties of wheat were selected from a thousand varieties tested by the United States Department of _ Agriculture, as best adapted to conditions in differ- ent parts of this country. The vast number of Ae _ varieties grown the world over prove that wheat is one of the oldest plants in cultivation. History - tells the same thing. In the accounts of the - childhood of many nations, the growing of wheat _ Switzerland. Wheat was the staple crop of the ancients in _ Egypt and Palestine. The Chinese raised it for 4 more than three thousand years. No wonder that — the botanists have given up hope of finding the wild species from which the cultivated forms have ; sprung. In all probability, it is no longer growing . _wild anywhere. However, it is believed that the | original home of the wild wheat was in the valley is fully dwelt upon, and the making of white bread a from the ground grain. 4 The Lake-dwellers, of the early Stone Age, " left behind them in their strange, prehistoric pe habitations, grains of wheat half the size of modern varieties. Researches have found four different 7 _ species represented by the stores uncovered in it spread in all directions, and has become the principal food plant of civilized nations. | Four distinct species of wheat are recognized : as parents of the cultivated varieties: 1. Com- mon wheat (Triticum vulgare) bearded and beard- less, white and red, winter and spring — an ancient type. 2. Poulard wheat (T. turgidum) ‘called Egyptian wheat, and “wheat of miracle,” because its spikes break into fruitful branches. Not an old type. 3. Hard wheat (7. durum) probably derived from common wheat. 4. Polish wheat (7. polonicum) the German gummer, a large plant, with small heads, much grown in Spain. Related to wheat proper are the spelts, one- grained species, with a husk around each kernel, and the two-grained, or starch wheat, called em- mer. ‘These are comparatively primitive and un- important grains. How does a variety originate? ‘This is one way. Mr. Abraham Fultz was walking though his wheat field one day, and he happened to see a plant that bore three heads of beardless wheat, in a field that was bearded. He gathered the heads, which were large, and the kernels good. He — planted them the next year, and the plants pro- duced were so fruitful that he decided to save all Se Be gee tt Reg TBR AE PA Ss Se etn Pale pe Be : = = ee Sree = fe aero a cS A a ee a eR ee eS Ee en See of the Tigris and Puphiretes rivers, and ioe Ricca. = \ : LS eee = —- en RO aes eee BREAD PLANTS ae hee grain, and grow it for a number of years. In | a sutprisingly short time he has “fixed” the char- acteristics of a fine new variety. He distributed seed and now the “Fultz wheat” is the leading . soft winter wheat in this country, and is established in many foreign countries. It originated in 1862. Another way of originating a variety is to choose _ only the best seed for planting, and only the best again out of each planting of the selected seeds. Gradually the plants improve in size and quality _ and an improved variety is achieved, whose yield is several bushels per acre better than before the ___ selection of seed was started. A third way to get a new and better variety is to cross artificially two varieties whose characters ‘it is desirable to join. A sturdy straw, bearing full, large heads may result from crossing a variety with one of these traits and another with the other trait. So two varieties, each with bad faults may _ _becombined to make a very good one. Cross-fertilization is a_ delicate, but simple operation, that must be begun while the flowers are in bud, the stamens removed to prevent self- fertilization in the flowers that set seed for the q _ new strain. Pollen is carried by a camel’s-hair a brush to the ripe stigmas, which are protected before and after this pollenation by tissue paper, et 26 | THE BOOK OF USEFUL ‘PLANTS ay ‘ securely wrapped and tied above and below the oi My A a head. Is such work as making new varieties worth while? Mr. Burbank sayss Tie new wheat | were bred that would yield only one grain more to — each head, Nature would produce annually, with- out effort or cost for man, 15,000,000 extra bushels of wheat in the United States alone.” THE WHEAT DISTRICTS The soft wheat district is along our North > a Atlantic coast. The semt1-hard district is south of the Great Lakes. Hard spring wheat culture centres in the Red River Valley. Kansas is the centre of the hard winter wheat district. The. durum wheat area centres in northern Texas. White wheat grows on the Pacific coast. Red - _ wheat grows from Kansas to the Red River Valley. White wheats are starchy. Wheats rich in gluten make the best bread. Such are the varieties > grown on the northern and central plains of the United States, Canada, southern Argentina, and — eastern and southern Russia. Macaroni wheat, rich in gluten, grows in the Mediterranean _ countries. Durum wheat grows well on alkali soils, and in semi-arid regions. It is a sturdy ns new — Qh bar BREAD PLANTS “group of deonghe-restitant, rust-resistant varieties; that has made wheat-growing possible in regions where, a few years ago, no known varieties would have any chance at all. Our millers are learning to mix it with other kinds in flour. It is a fine . macaroni wheat. | Strength of the straw of some wheats make it a valuable by-product of the harvest. Leghorn | hats are woven of the wiry stems of an Italian wheat, a Tuscan, bearded variety. Roofs are a thatched, chairs seated, mattresses stuffed, bee- i. _ hives and baskets woven of wheat straw. It is a good fodder for cattle, green or dry. Twisted | into hard ropes it often furnishes fuel for the engines that run the great harvesters. Pressed __ into bales, and these built into temporary walls, hy _ the straw often holds thousands of bushels of wheat in storage until time for shipment comes. Usedas —S_ _ bedding in stables, straw finally returns to the soil with the stable manure, adding vegetable a fibre that loosens heavy clay, and makes of it _ good loam for the growing of wheat. _ OREN Bree | ont | | ees Mt , ( PN Wheat, rye, and barley are members of one subdivision of the great Grass Family. They all dar their seeds in spikes, bald or beards ‘Owts we ; stand alone, the grain with a loose, branched head, a made of separate kernels. Each kernel has an outside papery husk and an inner hull that is ground up in making oatmeal, or removed in some forms of the cereal. Oatmeal feeds thou- sands of people every morning of the year. : Botanists, curious to find growing the wild parent of cultivated oats, are constantly being deceived by patches of oats, wild enough, but only run- aways from fields. The seeds are often carried by birds, often by other chance rides. Oats are able to get on very well in wild land, where they come up year after year, and spread over wider areas by self-seeding. It is not likely that any one will ever find the aboriginal species of oats, and feel sure enough to satisfy himself. Yet it seems probable that this grain was first cultivated in the temperate and colder parts of eastern Europe and western Asia. Its culture has extended into the United States and Canada, and eastward into China and Siberia, until to-day the oat crop is greater in bulk than in other | grain iar Oats, “the grain of hardiness,” divide hon- sf ors with wheat, barley, and rye, in fields that / stretch up north almost to the Arctic Circle. BREAD PLANTS | y ‘In a Pik climate of northern Scotland, this is ‘the staple food crop. So it is in Iceland, in _ Alaska, in Russia, and Siberia. Rye and oats furnished the bread of Europe in the Middle Ages, and wheat bread has replaced the coarser loaves and cakes but partially. The reason oats are so extensively used as human food is because they lead all the grains in muscle-forming elements. They contain a large _ proportion of oily and nitrogenous materials, and a low percentage of starch. Oatmeal porridge is given the credit for producing the brain and brawn of the Scotch and other hardy European races. England raises oats, but oatmeal porridge is not -anational dish. The famous dialogue contains both a clever retort and a plain fact. An English- man, with a party of friends, met on the road a Highlander carrying a bag of oats. Pointing to it he said: “That is oats—the grain that in England is fed to horses; in Scotland it is fed to men!” ‘The Scotchman was not so stolid as he looked, for his reply came promptly: ‘Tris _ enough; and that is the reason why in England you grow such fine horses, and in Scotland we Brow ‘such fine men!”’ | Oats grow best in cold regions; they do poorly | 1n countries around the Mediterranean, because THE BOOK OF USEFUL PI ANTS — the climate is too warm. The. same is nee in’ parts of the United States. In some regions — where the heads do not fill out well the grain ae profitably sown for forage and pasture. ‘The succulent stems are rich in nutriment, they dry quickly and make excellent hay. Plowed under, they enrich the soil. | | } Oat straw is used extensively for paper-making, for packing, stuffing mattresses, and for bedding for stock in barns. Smut is a fungous disease that appears when the oat plants should be setting seed. Instead, the heads become masses of loose, black powder. The particles of dust are the spores of the destroy- ing smut. ‘They are scattered by the wind, and lodge in the spreading bracts, the green “‘chaff”’ of sound oats. When these oats are sown next spring the spores sprout with the sprouting of the grain. ‘The fungus grows into thread-like meshes that penetrate the tissues of the young oat plant, robbing it of the food that theleaves prepare,and _ finally replacing the seeds entirely with the black, slimy masses that ripen into the black powder. + a Only oats that carry the spores into the ground = with them will produce smut bodies in the place of kernels. This fact enables the farmer to prevent the disease. He simply soaks his sped oats isi a i ay a ina weak solution of formalin, a cheap drug “black bread,” of Europe. BREAD ‘PLANTS that destroys the smut spores hid in the hulls, and > does not injure the kernel at all. Spores that fly about the oat field cannot injure the plants they lodge on, but next year’s plants are endangered. The formalin bath saves the farmers of the United States millions of dollars annually in the oat crop. , t RYE causes it grows on soil too poor and arid for | other grains, rye is called “the grain of poverty.” Rye meal makes the bread of peasants in European - countries, over a vast area of the poorest, and so the cheapest, land. The extremes of heat and cold are suffered by these people, whose agriculture is of a hopelessly primitive sort. They scratch in the grain, drag or harrow it, and gather the harvest with hand sickles, as their parents have done for generations without number. In Russia more rye is grown than in any other country. It is a great crop in Scandinavia and northern Germany, where everybody eats rye bread and likes it. The German “pumpernickel” is a bread that many Americans like. Not all of them know that they are eating the rye loaf, the The liking for this New England ancestry, for he brow ‘bread! Niel 1 ee , accompanied the baked beans was “half rye and m half Indian meal.”? That loaf was and is desery- a edly popular. Lae Rye is a grain used extensively in ‘the cuca ‘ of whiskey. It is more for this purpose than for) 4 any other that the crop is raised in the United - Ni States. Poor land i is often sowed to rye for its . improvement; the green crop is turned under or pastured, the roots left to form humus. Baik Rye straw is wiry and long, on good land, avid though too fibrous to make good forage for cattle when ripe it is the best for making paper and paste-_ board, for straw hats,and bedding stables for horses. The longest straw is used by gardeners _ : to wrap tender trees and shrubs that must stay 4 outdoors all winter. It is used as packing ma- terial by manufacturers of all kinds of fragile a wares. The straw often pays better the the, 4 grain. are | De Rye is unoinn in very few varieties, and is 7 probably not one of the oldest cultivated grains, Its parent form, botanists say, grew on the moun- — ‘tainous, dry regions from southern ae caste ie ward to Central Asia. ce The “head” of a stalk of rye is. like that of ~ This boy grew 239 bushels of corn on an acre of his father’s farm in South Carolina | JYSYIM} IY} UL ssoUTfAo] JO UvaIp B SI WOO|q UI yayYMyYN Jo PPYy V Bai BREAD PLANTS 33 bearded wheat; the prickly, needle-like beard makes the handling of the grain at harvest time very hard on the hands of those who bind and stack the grain. The flower of rye is similar to to the flower of wheat. The grain contains more bran than wheat, and less starch, but more sugar. Rye bread is dark in color and sweet, with a flavor that is pleasantly aromatic and slightly sour. It spoils the flour to grind rye fine and discard its bran, for sai hean the characteristic taste is found. Rye is particularly susceptible to attack by a | fungus called ergot, whose black or purplish body develops at the expense of the kernel. The destruction of a part of the grain crop is not all © the harm this disease does to the farmer. Cattle fed on hay and grain infected with the fungus are gradually poisoned; they develop loathsome sores, -and may lose hoofs, tail, ears, and horns as the disease progresses. To prevent the spread of ergot in grain fields and pastures, infected plants must be cut and destroyed. Farmers who understand that the spores are carried by wind to fields in bloom are careful to have roadside grasses cut. They also dip their seed grain in a fungicide, like diluted formalin. BARLEY Barley is the hardiest and one of the oldest q grains in cultivation. It will grow much farther north than wheat; it is a staple crop in Norway, Russia, and Siberia, where it grows right up to the © Arctic Circle. This is a grain from which the — bread of peasants is made; and people who scorn to eat barley, drink it in the form of ale and beer. — The coarse, unleavened barley cakes of Scotland are nutritious, but the grain is lacking in gluten, | : a very important food element. Barley flour will ~ not make “risen bread” any more than cornmeal will. But it has the whole nutritious grain, minus only the hard cuticle. ‘“‘Pearl barley” has lost some valuable substance by the processes that 4 grind the kernel to a smooth, polished ball. Itis — chiefly used in soups and gruels. The great demand for barley comes from the a brewers, who use it in the making of beer. Thisis — the reason it is preferred to other grains: it is quickest to sprout. The sprouting process changes the starch of the kernels into a kind of Wace called maltose. The grain is first cleaned, then soaked and ~ spread out in a warm place to sprout. When the little root is two-thirds the length of the grain, the BREAD PLANTS transformation of starch to sugar has been com- pleted. The grain is now heated, to kill the grow- ing parts and dry the kernels. ‘The process just _ ended is called the “‘malting” of the grain. The dry malt may be stored or shipped. Before being _ used further it is ground into meal, then mixed with water, which soaks out the sugar. The liquid is now strained, and yeast is added to it, to set up _ fermentation. Alcohol and carbonic acid gas are two substances into which the sugar is trans- _ formed. In the casks, the gas is confined, so that when the beverage is drawn, it is liberated in the bubbles that rise in foam at the top of the mug or glass. The hops used keep the beer from souring. By the same general process ale and porter are made. Gin and whiskey are made by distilling the alcohol from the light beverages. Beer con- tains but 2 per cent. alcohol. : co fact that makes barley “the brewer’s grain,” par excellence, is this: it grows in warm as well as cold countries. Turkey and France and California raise a great acreage of this grain for the breweries. ‘“Chevelier,” the best variety _ for brewing, is grown to perfection in the valley land of the Coast Range. Wild barley has been found growing in western Asia, but whether it escaped from cultivation, or Bee ag ea’ pee cag nat eae 36 . THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS _ represents a race that never came under the hand of man, it is not possible to decide. It has two rows of kernels in the head —a type that was found in the remains of the civilization of the Lake- dwellers, who represent man in the early Stone Age. With it has been found the six-rowed species, which the earliest Egyptian monuments also preserved. A strange fact is that the common four-rowed species is not represented among the barleys grown by these primitive peoples, though both of the more productive species must have originated from the scanty, two-rowed kind. People who eat barley bread are becoming fewer as the conditions of hfe are eased. Immigrants from the north of Europe to Minnesota grow barley, first for themselves, but soon for their cattle, only. It is a good ‘green forage and pas- ture after an early crop is taken off the land. As -a catch crop; it is sowed in summer and plowed — under. This “green manure” adds to heavy land the fibre that converts it into a mellow loam, easy to work, able to hold moisture, and richer by the addition of plant foods the soil neces CORN The biggest thing in this country is our corn crop. And the most wonderful thing about itis Se ee ee ee aes Sy tae a 2 Se a ae ES ee eg ee that each year the crop is bigger,— the miracle is repeated, more granaries are filled each time the autumn rolls around. Let us look at a few figures, and try to grasp theirmeaning. In 1910 ourcorn crop was worth over $1,500,000,000! Four times as much corn as was raised in all the cornfields of all the other continents. A procession of farmers’ wagons, each loaded with fifty bushels of corn, and drawn by the farmer’s team, would be long enough to reach nine times around the earth. For when a girdle is complete, there would be left in cribs and elevators eight times as much corn as was in that single line of wagons, twenty-five thousand miles long. he great corn states are Illinois, lowa, Missouri, and Nebraska. In 1910, Illinois raised 414 mil- lion bushels, almost one third of the crop in the whole country. lLarge-eared dent corn is grown in the great “corn belt”? of the central states. The yield per acre averages but twenty-seven bushels. Many farmers raise three times that quantity. The northeastern states, that raise the round-grained flint corn, do not have a large acre- age, but the average yield is high, despite their wornout land. Down South the average crop is much lower than in the corn belt, partly due to careless, unenlightened farming. BREAD PLANTS a7. countries as grain and meal. We feed the rest to cattle and hogs, and ship the meat. ‘This brings the farmer much more money, and returns to the land much of the best fertilizing elements in the manure from the yards where stock is fattened. The man who sells his corn from the crib robs his - land, year after year. He must fertilize it, and ~ buying commercial fertilizers is a costly method. Better corn and more of it result from careful selecting of seed, and sorting and testing it before — planting time. This is an important step in the great forward movement in farming to-day. THE RACES OF CORN We find in New England cornfields, sweet corn and flint corn; in the Corn Belt of the Central States, chiefly the vellow denis; in the South, white dent varieties. Dent corns have their starchy content extended to the top of the grain, and ~ shrinking at maturity, thus forming the dent, or — depression. Flint corn is not so, for the starchy centre is overlaid with the layer of hard, aise a material that does not shrink. Of the eigen. corn crops Vasa in vo’ q United States only 4 per cent. goes to other Pop corn is small, and its grains explode i into a a ge BREAD PLANTS |. oie _ Tight cottony mass when heated. Sweet corn is rich in sugar and protein. Its kernels shrink and wrinkle in drying. Pod corn, called also “coyote corn,” is a Mexican race that has each kernel, as well as the ear, enclosed in a elie husk. Pop corn may have originated from a primitive pod corn. In the mummy b cases of Peruvian tombs grains of another type i V4 eae 7 { were first found by scientists. It is called soft corn, because the horny part is wanting in the grain. It is now grown in Mexico and parts of ~ South America. Darwin thought that all the ‘agricultural _ species’’ of corn are descendants of the pod corn _ of Mexico. The best authorities now hold that _the aboriginal ancestor of corn is probably extinct. _ The corn-like plant, teosinte, that grows wild in es is believed to be one parent of corn, but — the other is unknown. ‘Wild corn has never been - found. | | ie the form of the original wild species, | there have sprung from it the six races named above: pod, pop, sweet, flint, soft, and dent. Sweet corn was in cultivation by the Susque- hanna Indians in 1779, when its qualities were q _ first discovered by white settlers. No history of by the species is known behind that date, though i ae f --°40 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS many varieties have been developed since. The i great industry of canning corn is supplied by fields of this green crop. It is an important vegetable in American gardens throughout the growing season. The seventy-day corn of the colder parts of the country, that makes a dwarf stalk, and attends strictly to the business of maturing the ears before frost comes, illustrates the changes that adapt a plant to itsenvironment. The 20-foot stalksin a Southern field, that take six months to produce a crop, illustrate the same fact. Varieties have “strains” adapted to difficult conditions of climate and soil. | | The native country of the maize plant is probably Mexico. We cannot be sure. It was unknown in Europe when the Spaniards under — Columbus found the Indians on the Island of : Haiti growing fields of a strange plant they called “mahiz.” In a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus says of his brother: “During a i: journey into the interior he found a dense popu- i lation, entirely agricultural, and at one place ~ passed through eighteen miles of cornfields.” De Soto wrote home about the Indian villages, where corn and meal were stored in large quan- tities, and miles upon miles of growing grain Pee BREAD PLANTS | 4t _ surrounded them. Cortez was amazed at the | flourishing fields of corn growing in Mexico, and oe the stores of this grain gathered as tribute by the a ruler. The Puritans were saved from starvation ae _ during those first terrible winters by corn brought them by the friendly Indians. Fifty years later the same Puritans, or their sons, in the King Philip’s war, ‘‘took possession of one thousand acres of corn, which was harvested by the English, ae and disposed of according to their direction.” , | _ The Six Nations, the best-organized confederation | of American Indians, had cultivated:apple orchards ae and cornfields that the white settlers could not a _ match, in central New York. In the middle part ae of the country other tribes raised corn for their food supply. Indian mounds, of uncertain but ancient date, contain corn, as did the tombs of - the Incas in Peru, where the maize plant was wor- | shipped as a divinity that had the life of the people in its hand. Far back to the earliest times goes _ this reverence for the plant that feeds the race. : No wild plant that looks at all like corn has been found in foreign countries, though a thorough search has been made in all likely places by scien- tists, The best authorities agree that-if the plant had been grown in Europe or Asia before it was - taken there from America it would have been 5 gE aN yas San ee ee a 420 A Ca BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS - a in known and written about. So it must be Ameri- 4 can in origin. | : i The corn kernel is a little vie wrapped up _ with the provision that is to sustain it through the @ period between its sprouting in the ground, and oC the appearance of root and leaf blade, capable of supporting the plant independently. All these 4 possibilities and good promises are wrapped up in a tough, waterproof skin, the hull of the grain. — The clear, horny portion under the hull is rich in protein, the muscle-making part. The germ, -or embryo corn plant, is rich in oil. The white — filling of the kernel is starch, the solid, granular portion that was soft and sweet when the corn was ‘fin the milk.” It is quite possible in corn to separate the parts bearing oil, protein and starch, at a glance, for the germ has a distinct shape and > a outline, and the dark proteid matter contrasts in color with the white starch. | ‘CORN PRODUCTS What a good all-around food the maize is! Do a we use it as it deserves? Nothing tastes better — when one is hungry than corn muffins, or a loaf of ‘“Johnny-cake.” The corn flavor is unex-— celled when good cooking brings it out. What . | ‘BREAD PLANTS ielse bat ‘this rich flavor makes the epicure take - real delight in the “hoecakes”’ of themountaineers? om a ‘These are nothing but fresh meal mixed i in water to form a smooth batter, which is baked on a hoe - oron stones in an open fire. The Indians origi- _ nated the “‘corn pone,” baked in the ashes, still 4 one of the most delicious foods made of corn meal. | a Hominy and grits are cracked corn, which are boiled into a porridge. Samp is hulled corn, of which Roger Williams wrote: “The Indian corne, beaten and boiled, and eaten hot or cold with q milke or butter, is a dish exceeding wholesome for be English bodies.” Succotash is the Indian mix- _ ture of green corn with beans, which they called 4 ‘“‘msickquatash.” -Sweet corn on the cob is q delicious. So are green corn puddings, and the i. same corn, canned or dried for winter use. | | Patched corn was a staple food of the Indian tribes. (No doubt parched corn led up to pop corn.) On their long journeys the Indians carried little bags of parched corn, which they ate with water, and it sustained them in times of war, and on i hunting expeditions. It was no inconvenience to carry enough for several igre & in the wilder- ness. | Glucose is made from the saree in the corn Formerly the glucose mills discarded the 44 | THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS germ and the horny portion, both rich in food. elements. Now the germs are ground and pressed to extract the oil, which is exported to European countries where it is considered one of the best lubricants. It is used also in soap-making, and for cooking. A process of vulcanizing converts it into a substitute for rubber. Dextrine, a valuable gum, is a by-product of the starch and glucose factories. Alcohol and whiskey are made from the fermentation of the whole grain. Ground fine, the flour and meal of corn are among the best cereal foods, though the abundant oil is likely to become rancid in a short time. Corncobs are’ an. excellent fuel. 9 Ehey pare burned in the engines that drive corn threshers and other farm machinery. Corncob pipes are made of quantities of them. The stalks, leaves, and husks yield fibre suitable for use in making papers and varnishes. Nothing is so good as corn- stalk pith to pack the water-tight compartments behind the armor plates of battleships. Corn silks are used in making filters. The husks have long been woven into door mats and stuffed into mattresses. Dry stalks make winter pasture for cattle and horses. Green corn is put into silos to feed dairy cattle in winter. Cut up, it makes part — oe : of a balanced ration for stock and poultry, espe- 4 BREAD PLANTS ‘AS 4 cially when mixed with the cake from which corn oil has been pressed. POP CORN The Tom Thumb race of corn has in the starchy part of the grain sufficient moisture to explode it when heated. This “‘popping” of corn turns the grain wrong side out, dries it and makes it twenty times as large as it was before. Because it has an excess of protein, pop corn is very nutritious. Combined with syrup, it is a confection that children enjoy, and wise parents are glad to give them. It makes a delicious, easily digested, and wholesome food. ‘The only trouble is that factory- _ made pop corn balls and bricks are often stale, and “not sweetened with pure sugar. Home-made _ things are usually best. | _ In various parts of Towa and neighboring states _ quantities of pop corn are raised by farmers that give their time to this crop. They sell it to the _ wholesaler, who supplies the manufacturer. Asa rule, the crop is kept till the second year. It is too moist to pop well before that time, unless -kiln-dried. Two races of pop corn are grown: the rice type, | with clear, horny grains sharply beaked at the ae 46 mi _ place where the sith was attachen de ihe pearl type, with grains rounded on top, like the flint corn — of the fields, or flat-topped. Red, blue, and white are the colors of the grains, solid or mixed on the | cob. The pop corn field is easily recognized by the slim stalks and small ears, though the stalks — are often tall. It is a special kind of farming to oe the crop matured before frost; then it must stand to let the © frost harden the ears before the stalks are cut and © shocked to dry, then husked by hand for storage — or immediate shipment. One little town in Iowa _ is the point from which hundreds: of carloads of — pop corn go each autumn to the wholesale dealer. | THE WONDERFUL MAIZE PLANT __A sprouting grain of corn sends a pointed leaf, — rolled into a close tube, up to the light, while a — tapering root goes downward, and branches into | fibrous feeding roots along its sides. Out of the | tip of the leaf tube a slenderer tube rises, and carries the plant higher, while the first leaf spreads _ out flat. As the leaf arches its blade, the second © one loosens, and the third appears. Each leaf | holds its younger brother in a close protecting em: brace until it is able to endure the hot sun, wh - this one becomes in turn the nurse of another. SSR ‘ Mh ‘ The stalk is hidden by the sheaths of the several leaves, until at last the tassel appears, and leaf- -makingisatanend. In the angle of certain leaves the stem sends out short branches. These are clothed with crowded leaves, and topped with a bunch of long silks. Tassels and the miniature ears are the flower clusters of the corn plant. _ The leaf of the corn plant. — All the food the yoots gather is carried to the leaves for chem- ical transformation into nutritious sap. Crude materials gathered from the soil and absorbed _ from the air, assemble in the leaf laboratories, where the energy of sunlight is used to convert raw materials into rich, starchy food, which flows _ back to supply the growing parts of the plant. > ashe arch of a corn léaf is graceful, indeed. What is far more important to the plant is the fact that the greatest possible amount of leaf surface is exposed to the direct raysofthe sun. When the air is moist, “you can see corn grow” in mid- summer. The starch factories are working at great pressure. Farmers say “‘you can hear it grow” by night. A multitude of snapping noises are heard, suggesting the lengthening of fibres. d Quantities of water are exhaled as invisible vapor _ from pores located chiefly on the upper surface of nS) lg ai iy i 48 THE BOOK OF USEFUL) PLANTS 91) | each leaf. When the dry winds rob the soil of moisture, the roots go deeper. ‘The leaves roll their edges inward and sometimes overlap, in order to reduce the amount of surface exposed to sun and wind. The pores are thus closed to save the water supply. When rains come, the normal con- ditions are restored, and food-making becomes the chief business of the plant. Notice how the corn- husks, even, spread out into leaves, to do their share of this work while their bases protect the ear. Even the stalk is green, and able to join in the labors of the leaves. How is it that the corn plant can carry so much sail, and yet not have its leaves whipped into strings by the winds? Test for yourselves the flexibility and strength of the midrib of a leaf, the fibres in the leaf margins, and in the tubular leaf base that sheathes the stalk. Notice the frilling of the leaf blade, especially near its joining with the sheath. Swing the whole leaf as far as possible, to find out what amount of play the leaf — sheath allows by its own flexibility. What part of a circle is this play? Now hold the sheath — tightly against the stalk, and find out the use of the frilling of the leaf blade. Pull the tip to left or right until the frill is straight. Reverse the 4 direction, until the opposite frill is taken up. — BREAD PLANTS _ 49 : How much play has the blade independent of the swinging sheath? What amount of play has the _ whole leaf? The leaf. has a spiral twist in its midrib that enables it to avoid the full force of the wind. The frills enable the midrib to turn to left or right, almost as easily as if it were hinged. By swinging round the stalk, and getting out of the way as much as possible, the leaves avoid the slitting they would get if they were flat and rigidly inserted on the stalk. Much protection is afforded by stalks standing in close ranks in the field. The rain-guard is one of the neatest devices a corn plant can show. It prevents water from - getting down between leaf-sheath and -stalk. Dirt accumulating there would cause the base of the leaf to rot off. Dirt would injure the ear by getting down between the tender green husks. The guards prevent this. Rain flows down the leaf trough. ‘The stream parts at the guard, runs down the swollen joint of the stalk, and trickles down the outside of the sheath. From one leaf to another it leaps, and waters the roots. Loosen a number of leaves, and study the rain-guard. Study them on the outer husks. Pour or spray an imitation shower on the top of a corn plant, and see the course of the streams as they descend to ‘ipl: aS Ae my ie ay ih Poway it Cereb Reet gee Ae Pod i Ue eS A AG MG SSDS Rk Ot \ , PS eae “i Ab AR cit te 50 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS the roots. See the accumulation of rubbish — behind each rain-guard. Note the close fit of this — process to the swollen joint of the stem. — a Compare a green plant with one that is ripe and yellowing. Is the guard still doing duty? What — effect have the surface hairs on the water? Does ‘ it collect in drops, < as on an ous surface, or does | it spread? : The stalk.—The swollen a are the nodes of — ‘ 3 the stalk. The lengths between are the internodes. ‘ a The word joint is used for both, so is ambiguous. i | | The strength of the stalk is in the short, strong } internodes near the bottom. ‘The slenderer, longer a ones are toward the top, where flexibility is re- — quired rather than strength. Below each node © the fibres are most rigid, but they are found © more tender toward the bottom of the internode. ~ In this tender substance growth takesi place; and — all the internodes of the stalk are able to grow at — the same time. This explains the remarkable © speed of the plant’s growth, when the roots are _ established in rich mellow soil. Each “joint” — adds to its own length. | Corn goes down, sometimes, before a severe q wind that loosens its roothold. ‘The chief work of erecting the prostrate stalk is done by the stout lower internodes, which have power to bend, andi ue 5 ; ie aN oi soi sais Mint a vn ie ue ip ule te anal me WaT aS 1a of : BREAD PLANTS 51 pe thus lift the stalk. Have you seen corn, “lodged” 4 by wind, rise again in a short time! _ The corn plant’s feeding roots are fibrous and _ shallow in rich soil. In pulling up a plant we tear - them loose, and leave in the earth the delicate root-hairs. Above ground a set of special roots ‘spring from one or more nodes of the stalk. ‘These are brace roots, stiff and tough, provided to hold the stalk in the ground, and to brace it. They act as anchors as well as props, resisting the pull and push of the wind. How many sets of brace roots can you find on a single plant? _ The farmer tries to hill the soil around the corn _ plants with his cultivator when he gives the last plowing. He knows that neither system of roots | can do its work without a good grip on the soil. | ne The deeper the roots are, the firmer the plant _ a ue stands, and the better its chances to get food and hee : foe a ae a water in abundance. Cee KAFIR AND DURRA | a Two sorghum varieties that are not sugar- producers have come to be extensively grown in the semi-arid regions of what was once our Great Plains. The merit of these canes is that they thrive in spite of drought, and they don’t seem to : = ee - > —~ 2 y = ae me? A pe ; 52 THE BOOK OF’ USEFUL PLANTS mind hot winds that shrivel the corn. The Kafir has its head erect; the Durra hangs its head. Thus, when one sees a field of stocky canes, like dwarf species of corn, the close, oval heads loaded with seeds, it is easy to tell if it is Kafir or Durra, the bold or the ai one, the South African or othe Hoyptian corm.” The seeds of these giant grasses are rich in starch, and in the Dark Continent are used ag human food, as well as fodder, pasture, and dry grain for cattle. It was a shrewd traveller who brought the seeds to farmers on our western fron- | tier where each soon proved itself a patient grass in a trying situation. Instead of succumbing to the drought and heat, the immigrant rolls its leaves up into the smallest compass, and calls a halt on all.activities. When the spell of weather passes, and rain falls, the leaves unroll, and growth goes forward, just as if there had been no check. Kafir has a reputation as poultry food, and ground into meal is a valuable part of the ration of fattening stock. The “‘yellow milo,” a dwarf durra, is a great fodder crop in California and the hot, dry Southwest. If planted thinly, the stalks — will “‘stool”’ like wheat, thus multiplying the crop \q by increasing the number of stalks. A half-grown crop of durra or kafir makes good — BREAD PLANTS 53 pasture, but the full-grown stalks, even when stripped of seed, haVe more value as fodder. White-seeded durra is called ‘‘ Jerusalem corn.” “Kafir corn” and “ African millet” are the same thing. The color of the seed glumes, or hulls, give the names to different varieties of kafir. During any check in growth the leaves of sor- ghums contain a poison, hydrocyanic acid, that _may kill cattle that eat the plant during this time. When the fodder is dry, the danger of poisoning has passed. | MILLETS . In India, millet takes the place of rice in the dry regions of that vast country. A great abundance of small seed is borne in the thick spikes of certain robust grasses of several different kinds. In several oriental countries the food of the people is made, to a considerable extent, of millet seed. We know nothing about how it tastes and looks, for the millets here are raised entirely for feeding to cattle, or as a catch crop to plow under, for the enrichment and lightening of heavy soils. Millets are ancient grains, the first that man gathered in the wild, and sowed seed of to get a better harvest on better ground. The seed is prepared in various ways: in porridge by boiling eV IRB ON ee, 1 rn We Ye Hh neve ‘ , Me elas i f tf ott 54 | the grain whole, or first ground into meal. Some- times it is eaten raw; sometimes parched and eaten dry, or boiled in milk. Hungarian grass, a fox-tail millet, is a pond example of the group whose seeds are borne in compound spikes, each full as a heavy bunch of © grapes, and crowded on the central stem, forming : a long head that the stalk cannot hold erect. Pearl or cat-tail millet holds up its stiff, bearded — spike, six to fourteen inches long, on a stalk that lye towers to a height of from six to fifteen feet. Such a plant can produce a wonderful amount of forage, — and it may be cut three times a year in temperate climates. Its succulence prevents its quick curing as hay, and the quick development of tough fibres spoils it for hay if left till ripe. So farmers | test the new plants to find out which ones are best _ for their needs. Millets may be the great Amer- — ican silage crop of the future. They promise well ‘ for pastures, and for green manure to sow aftera — grain crop has failed. The mixed bird seed sold é for canaries contains some millet. ; 4 | Poultry foods are enriched by an addition if 3 jl Hungarian and Proso millets, both large-grained — a and as rich in protein as wheat. ‘The Prosos are ~ a group with better seed, but poorer as a forage 5 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS __ ie hosed a / Fi he | Bre, ae vi Re Ad ob Hates Ra ay HE i i ne ene is “BREAD PLANTS _ f BUCKWHEAT ( 4 ig ie i, 4 a k) The most interesting hs about buckwheat _ is that it is not wheat, nor even a grain or grass. _ It is the seed of a plant of the Smartweed Family. We all know this pink-flowered smartweed that grows in swampy ground, and the knot-grass that creeps around the back door. The dock, sorrel, and pieplant belong to the same family. Buck- _ wheat is an annual with slender, branching stem two feet high, bearing white flowers and a three- cornered, starchy “nut” in a brown hull. Because the seed looks like a beech nut, the Old English “buck”? (meaning beech), is combined - with wheat, which originally meant white, in the | name. | _ The triangular kernel is white and rich in starch, _ though deficient in other elements, and therefore : lower in food value than the true grains. Yet it is _ grown -extensively in many countries of Europe and Asia, ground into coarse meal, and made into porridge or cakes. The buckwheat cakes of _ winter mornings in the northern states consume _ most of the crop raised in this country. Several ‘ millions of bushels are thus used annually to make our “‘flapjacks.” | The wild buckwheat grows on the banks of the 56 “THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS Amur River in Manchuria, whence it was carried into Europe five hundred years ago. The peas- ants of Russia raise five million acres of it each year. It has the advantage of hardiness, and ability to grow on very poor soil. Its season is short. Sowed after oats are harvested, it makes a crop, in some seasons. It is often put mas catch crop to plow under in the late: talk i ripens in the latitude of Sitka, Alaska, even. Buckwheat hulls are sold as eo for bulbs and such things. BREADFRUIT | It is almost too much to believe — the story of bread that grows on trees! But people who travel in tropical countries have seen and eaten this won- derful fruit, and they tell us that the story is not a fable, but a simple, everyday fact. The natives go out and pick loaves of bread and bake them whole among the hot embers of outdoor or indoor fires. Then they open the crust and find the crumb part a rich, starchy mass that tastes to foreigners like mashed potato made rich by the addition of plenty of cream. 3 The breadfruit tree now grows in southern Florida, and bears its fruit there. So it is not BREAD PLANTS 57 unlikely that we can all see the plant and taste the loaves that hang like melons, as large as one’s head, from the axils of the huge, glossy leaves. They are like the big, green oranges that hang on the osage orange trees,-and like the mulberries, _ which are made of a great number of tiny fruits, all grown together. These three fruits I mention for the reason that the plants that bear them are all near relatives in a big botanical family. The breadfruit tree grows to be thirty or forty feet high in its home in the South Sea Islands. Its blossoms, like those of many other plants, are borne separately, the fertile ones clustered in globular heads, the sterile ones in club-shaped ' catkins. When the fruit ripens its surface is rough still, for the huge mass is covered with the aggregate tips of all the fertile flowers. The cultivated breadfruits have become, like the bananas, practically seedless. The soft pulp is fibrous only at the centre. So its food value has been increased, at the expense of the seed- making function of the plant. One of the romantic chapters of horticulture is the adventure of Lieutenant Bligh, who was commissioned by the British Government to go to Tahiti and get young plants of the breadfruit tree and take them to planters on the West Indian 58 THE BOOK OF USEFUL. anak |. | “Islands, in ‘hopes that this valuable species could 4 become established. | m The good ship Bounty got the cargo of planes loaded, and sailed away, but the lieutenant was seized in mid-ocean by his mutinous crew, who put him into a small boat and set him adrift, with - a sailor or two, who remained faithful, for hiscompany. Back the Bounty sailed and reached the port from which it put to sea, and the crew made a settlement on Pitcairn’s Island. But — the plucky Lieutenant Bligh lived to reach Eng- ( land, and to head another expedition, which — i succeeded in carrying the breadfruit tree into the _ Me British West Indies, where it succeeded, and ~ to-day is one of the most valuable of tropical fruits grown there. | ay | i It is one of the trees that grow best rok cut- tings made from new shoots. Unfortunately the @ fruit does not stand shipping as well as the cuttings and young trees, by which the species has been distributed very generally in the tropics of all countries. et Some trees feed and house and clothe people. — Certain palm trees have this threefold value to © | the human race. The breadfruit tree is another. 4 The inner fibre of the bark of young trees is made | 4 into cloth used for garments. The Wy is of the a SO ee a rt Se ee ea aes BREAD PLANTS RO trank i is used in canoe and house building. ‘Seams _ of boats are closed with a glue made of the sticky, milky j juice that exudes from wounds in the bark. The fruit is often piled into pits, where it be- comes a soft, ill-smelling mass. But it still is a nutritious food when baked. The better way to preserve the fruit for future use is to dry thin slices. These slices may be baked as they are, and eaten, or first ground into meal and made into _ puddings and other dishes. Vow ARROWROOT PLANTS The starch that physicians prescribe for children and invalids with certain forms of indigestion is called arrowroot. It is fine-grained, and has the _ peculiar characteristic of gathering into little balls when a pinch of it is rubbed between the thumb and finger. Stirred in boiling water, it forms a clear, odorless jelly, palatable and easily digested, if unadulterated in manufacture. Under the _ microscope the small grains are distinctly seen, and it is very easy to see the larger grains of potato starch with which the more expensive arrowroot is so often mixed. Bermuda arrowroot is made from the fleshy _ rootstocks of a many-stemmed, reed-like plant 60 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS — five feet high. Maranta is its name. It grows wild in Guiana, but it is cultivated in most tropical — countries now, to Bose) the demand for this form of starch. | Maranta is a great crop in Bermuda, where the best grade of arrowroot is made. ‘There is but one factory, and here each step of the process of manu- facture is watched, to ensure absolute cleanliness. The tubers are scrubbed clean, then the skin is removed, and the white flesh grated and washed in many waters. The damp air prevents dust, and the water used is caught from rains that fall - on the white roofs of coral limestone that cover all Bermuda houses. ‘The more washings, the finer and whiter the starch that settles below the float- ing fibres of the roots. About 15 per cent. of the pulp washed is recovered as pure starch. 'This is dried under white gauze, in shallow pans. An average crop yields 14,000 pounds of tubers per acre, and the arrowroot sells for about 50 cents a pound in the open market, ten times the price of © the same article made carelessly in St. Vincent, West Indies, and grown on soil not so good for the © purpose as the coral rock meal of Bermuda, which produces the best possible tubers. Neither the pointed rootstocks nor the ‘dart. shaped leaves give the name of arrowroot to E 4 4 + Be A a 4 2 v \ BREAD PLANTS | 61 Maranta. When the roving botanist first saw the root, a Mexican Indian, wounded with a poisoned arrow, dug up a plant, cut into a tuber, and applied the oozing sap to the spot where the arrow pierced the flesh. He did as all Indians did in that region, and knew no other use of the plant than to furnish this antidote for poison. It is strange that the German name for this plant, when translated, is the same. Ifa German travel- ler carried home the plant and the name, nobody remembers who he was, and when it happened. _ The Maranta, grown in all tropical countries, _ produces arrowroot that is known in commerce by the name of the country that produced it. _ Hence, you can buy Australian, Natal, or Bermuda _ arrowroot, and sO On. One of the important recent discoveries is that arrowroot of excellent quality is made from the tubers of the various species of canna — our common garden and park ornamental plant. Manihot arrowroot comes from the fleshy roots — of a South American plant with a milky, poisonous juice. When this starch is separated from the fibrous tissues, it is dried and becomes a white powder. If baked on hot plates as it dries, it becomes a cake, which is broken into small bits, and these rounded by friction on each other, as 62 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS © 7 bits of hardened clay are made into dacbless We ] know this arrowroot as tapioca, a nutritious food, very good for babies and invalids. Cassava is the common name of this tapioca arrowroot plant. Manihot rene (‘most useful’? Manihot) is its - botanical name. ‘“‘Manioc,” and “mandioca,” are © two names by which the plant is known in South America, its native country. It looks like the castor-oil plant as it grows, its stem gi.ing off branches in threes. The fleshy roots, like sweet potatoes, are often six to eight feet long. | They are poisonous, if eaten fresh, but the poison is driven out by heat and pressure. SE a eS a aS ere Ew Se = est 2 = Sliced and dried, then rasped or ground, they | furnish the ‘“‘cassava meal,’ out of which the cassava cakes of the tropical countries are made. Cassava bread is the same. Mixed with molasses ~ and fermented, the meal is a part of an intoxicat- ing drink. SAGO PALM wre B Na eo ai 5 eee ¥ 4 MP th it iY + Pearl sago is a form of starch much like tapioca, © used for puddings, and various foods for conva- © lescents and children, because it is a form of starch a that is easy of digestion. It does not come from — roots nor tubers, as much starch does, nor from BREAD PLANTS _ SNCs - grains. It is obtained from a number of palms, _ particularly from one species. | _ The sago palm grows in the East Indies, in swampy ground near thecoasts. For fifteen years it grows without flowering, the stem topped by a crown of feathery leaves. ‘The pith of the stout . trunk is surrounded by a thick rind, and when the time of maturity arrives, it is simply bursting _ with rich, starchy material. This is the tree’s a seserve, laid up for use in sending up the flower eluster and ripening the fruit. Let the tree keep to its natural function, and the rind will stand, a hollow shell, the leaves dead and the ripe fruits fallen, at the end of the year of blossom. It is the _ tree’s time to die. | ___ The sago palm is too valuable a tree to be left to round out its own career by going to seed. Just when the stem is loaded with starchy pith _ the sago hunter has it cut down. Systematically _ the trunk is sectioned and then split, and the rind _ scraped of all the pith, which is grated to a pulp. Next, the pulp is worked with the hands in troughs full of water, until all the starch has settled to the ‘bottom, and only dry fibre remains. Separate w washings rid the starch of impurities, and it is e dried. Now it is ready for use in the cakes and _ soups upon which the natives live. | _ Sago in commerce is in the coda of small pelle The native prepares the floury starch for export _ by working it up in a paste with water. Then he _ forces the paste through a sort of colander or sieve, | and it dries in small bits. Different sizes have | different trade names, but all sago is the same substance, a valuable starchy food. Mes 4 an y CHAPTER II GRASSES ae AL LARGE part of the Sninial creation is made up \ aa grass-eaters. ,Carnivorous creatures live upon | he grass-eaters. So the saying: “All flesh is ae ras,” is literally true, in the long run. The | ee ommonest plant in the world is grass. It covers’ ae “s the bare earth, even when trees and other larger ‘plants make a shade over it. Grass fills in the chinks, and makes the earth green and beautitaly: ina i except i in desert places. - oe i. The Grass Family embraces all the cultivated ey grains, whose seeds make flour for bread of many ee: ae , kinds. It covers the pasture grasses that are made ae into hay to feed stock in cold winter climates. ie The blue-grass, that makes Kentucky famous, and | ‘ae is the favorite lawn grass in all our cities, is a : i, wild species. Its nutritious leaves and stems make ee ee ; the richest kind of pasture and hay for stock. : a - Timothy and red-top, European wild grasses, ec _ we cultivate for hay and pasture. Each country __ has developed its own types of forage plants. 68 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS The stems of grasses are round. ‘Three-cornered stems belong to the sedges, which are more near to the rushes, that grow in wet ground. Sedges are woven into matting by the Japanese. Rush matting is made in many countries. A reed called Papyrus, that used to be cultivated in the Delta of the Nile, was more important in the early ages of civilization than it is now. Sheets made of thin, overlapping strips of the pith formed the first paper used for the manuscript records. Other materials have quite superseded Papyrus in the manufacture of paper, but its name is preserved for all time in our English word, paper. - We see the plant occasionally in water gardens, and in pools where goldfish live outdoors. CLOVERS Grasses include the cereals, the bread plants of the world. Because they furnish rich food in both forage and grain, these plants are great soil rob- bers. They give back little or nothing. The farmer must constantly fertilize his fields, or the yield of grain falls off deplorably. Nitrogen is the most needed element. It can be bought in chemi- cal form and spread on the land, plowed or allowed to wash in, and the crop will reward the j Wy a ey th FORAGE PLANTS 69 farmer by increased yield. But this form of nitro- gen is expensive. It averages 15 cents a pound — a high price to pay. By planting some nitrogen-gathering plant in rotation with his grain crops, the farmer puts nitrogen back into the soil at a merely nominal cost. Clover is one of the best soil restorers. It is a ‘nutritious pasture, or hay crop. Its roots go deep and pulverize the soil. They gather nitrogen and store it in nodules along their fibrous branches. When growth ceases, the hay is cut and put into the barn; those nitrogen-laden roots are left to decay and enrich the soil for future crops. The ‘surface crop is worth much, for its nitrogenous - content is high, and when animals fatten on it, _ much of its value is twice saved by careful spread- ing of the stable manure on the fields. Four fifths of the air is nitrogen. Clover plants | have power to gather this element and store it in the nodules on their roots. Long before farmers had ever seen the tubercles on the roots of legumes (pod-bearing plants) they knew that clover was the best means of renewing worn-out land and enriching any soil. Fortu- nately, experience was their guide, though, until very recently, they followed blindly. One of nature’s best ‘gifts to agriculture is this group of } plants that constantly renews the soil’s fer- tility. hee | Two hundred species of the clover are known to botanists. The hairy, red clover,we know as a hay and seed crop, that may be cut early for hay and late for seed the same season. In pasture it ‘runs out” in two or three years. The mammoth red is an improved kind. ‘This is not a bee pasture, as the white clover is, because the tubes of the little flowers are too deep THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS for the honey-bee’s tongue to reach the sweets. — The bumble-bee has a longer tongue, and by this insect the pollen is carried that insures a heavy yield of seed. The bumble-bees are very scarce in June, when the red clover comes into bloom. In late summer the clover fields swarm with these insects. Hence, the farmer makes hay in his clover field in June, cutting the succulent stems when they are in the right condition to make the best hay, which is too early for any seed to be ripe. In late summer he sacrifices the quality of the forage to get his clover seed at the time that is ripe. He owes this heavy crop to the bees, though he may not know this, any more than they do. Alsike, or Swedish clover, grows wellon land too Siege ce wet for the red clovers, and makes superfine hay, — FORAGE PLANTS © hae os A pasture, ae honey. Its small heads are white, be - with a tinge of rose. Its stalks are slender and — v branched. The honey-bees have no trouble in getting the nectar. _ White clover creeps into pastures of grass, and A lifts its small, white heads on long, unbranched | a ‘stems. It is wild all over this northern half of the is _ United States, and nobody pays much attention a _ toit,asa rule. : iH q The most beautiful speciesis pel crimson clover, i ‘| with long, crimson heads on slender, tall plants. iH It is used as a cover crop in orchards, and as forage, _ but is not a heavy crop. So it is less frequently sown than other kinds. It grows wild in parts of ig southern Europe, and is a staple forage crop in | parts of Italy. . Berseem, the yellow-flowered clover of Egypt, is _ one of the plants recently introduced that promises. _ well as a forage crop for dry Ss, and unprom- ising alkali soils. _ Clovers will not thrive on sour soils, Such must be sweetened with applications of lime. a There must be phosphorus and potash added. 4 Then the roots pasture greedily, plow the soil, _ unlock the mineral foods the earthy particles hold, _ and make the soil swarm with nitrogen-gathering bacteria, so that it is literally alive.” 5 oe THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ALFALFA “Lucerne” is another name by which this won- derful clover-like plant is called in Europe, but in America we call it by the Arabic name, “‘alfalfa,” which means “the best fodder.” That name describes it exactly, for no other plant yields as— much and as good hay. All the western half of the United States grows alfalfa. The plant has brought under cultivation land supposed to be too dry to grow any farm crop. No matter if the region has scant rainfall. The farmer cultivates the land carefully, prepara-_ tory to seeding. He may scatter soil from another alfalfa field on his own to inoculate the soil. He will scatter plaster on the land to sweeten any sour patches. Then he sows the alfalfa, and may mow ~ it when the plants are several inches high to get rid of the weeds and to induce the alfalfa plants to “stool.” They send up a good many supple- mentary branches, which choke out weeds, and cover the ground, producing an abundance of leaves. | | The root does the most wonderful thing. Itisa strong tap root, and it goes down for water. Its many branches penetrate the soil, loosening it, and making it spongy, and able to hold the 1 esti evo al Pet PEI LIA AS RE ge FORAGE PLANTS 173 - moisture it receives whenever rain falls. It is not unusual for single plants of alfalfa to have roots ; Piftecn to twenty-five feet long, burrowing down to stores of moisture that no shallow-rooted plant could get at. Alfalfa is one of those Aegan vatican plants, - extracting the most precious of all the elements of plant food from the air, and storing it in nodules on the roots. When a plant dies its root decays, and the soil is enriched by the nitrogen the nodules set free. The fibre of the roots makes humus. The roots have mellowed the deeper subsoil, and brought up plant food to enrich the surface soil for other plants. If the plant is left to rot, it, too, adds fertilizer. But usually it is taken off in the formofhay. The alfalfa plant gives back valuable elements to the soil, and leaves it in better condi- _ tion for the growing of such exacting crops as corn and wheat. Another wonderful fact about alfalfa is ant it is perennial: once established, it continues to grow in the same field, without “‘running out,” for ten to thirty years. And each year two to seven cuttings of hay are made from the same field. An average cutting yields between one and two tons of dry hay. The average yearly yield is four or five tons of dry alfalfa hay per acre. In all ue! THE BOOK OF veer sae US ade Aa i, 0 regions it goes far ahead of grass. In southern ‘ California some irrigated fields yield ten tons to 4 the acre, where grass, with the same care, yields 4 two to four tons only. qi Nothing is more beautiful than a field of alfalfa ready for cutting. The plants stand less than two a feet high, covering the ground with a velvet carpet — - of dark green, tinged with the deep blue or purple a of the dense flower clusters, just beginning to show their color. The plants branch thickly, and the a abundant foliage is made of clover-like, three- — branched leaves. A single flower is like a pea — blossom, and each ripens; if it gets a chance, an@ interesting flat pod that coils itself as tight as a : watch spring. } Alfalfa hay is cut when the flowers bud, and — before fibre hardens the succulent leaves. Care- — fully dried, the leaves make hay that is at its best. _ The leaves are very rich in protein, the nitrogenous _ element that builds flesh. The stems and flower © clusters.are nutritious, too, but at haying time it is ' the leaves, which shed badly if not properly dried, that the farmer is most concerned about. © f Alfalfa fields make rich pastures, but hungry cattle eat too much and get sick, if they have their — 4 : own way. Cattle-raisers feed the hay ground up > and added to corn and bran. ie a balanced 4 FORAGE PLANTS | 75 ration is an exact way of feeding, which is most satisfactory. Bags of this alfalfa meal are _ shipped more economically than the same hay # baled. q I have eaten very palatable tedad and cakes _ made of alfalfa flour— the ground seed. It is “nutritious, but too dark colored to be popular. Records show that alfalfa was brought into Greece from Persia in 480 B. C. It reached Italy during the first century, and slowly spread over . Europe. From Spain it was carried to Mexico _ and thence spread north and south during the six- teenth century. New England got seed from Eng- - land about the same time. But the plants died _ out the second season, and culture of the new plant was generally ignored by farmers. Only recently _ has it been restored to a place among agricultural ‘crops in the East by the discovery that soil inocu- lation establishes the plant, and it becomes one of the best crops for forage, and for building up ; peed farm land. / In the West, alfalfa is the great ne crop, as * itisin southern Europe. Drought-resistant vari- ( eties brought from Turkestan are grown in the semi-arid regions of the Great Plains, and the _ desert places become gardens. Hardier varieties _ have.extended the range of the plant farther north. ) Sand lucern is proving just che “age for ice sandy soilin the north central states. 82 The growing popularity of alfalfa i in Kansas i is shown by the fact that in 1891 the crop measured 34,000 acres. In 1907 it was 743,000 ace) | The = prejudice of farmers is strong against a “new thing.”” Buteven prejudice must. surrender when the new plant multiplies the farm income, and at the same time improves the land. 3s 4 Aine Sugar Plants ) ea 4 CHAPTER III ‘ SUGAR-CANE | -Tauest and most valuable of all grasses is the feet, in the most favorable situations, and furnishes e of the most important of human foods. Its pal ‘sweet; and it is the adjective part of the ields more or less sugar. ) The cane is very much like maize in general 4 _ appearance, except that the “‘joints’’ are shorter and the leaves narrower. When the time of flowering arrives, the stalk is topped by a full, oval plume, like that of pampas grass. ‘The sections _ of the stem are covered by a tough rind, and filled ith soft pith, strung with thread-like fibres, and turated with the sweet sap. The time when _ the percentage and the condition of sugar is best is just at the fading of the flowers. After that the plant draws upon the store of rich sap to ma- _ture the seeds. 79 80 ' THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS The grower is little interested in seed-produc- tion. When the stalk is cut, new shoots come up | from the roots — the “‘ratoons,’’ from which the new crop comes — sometimes for a long period of years. Another means of getting new fields planted is setting out cuttings. Any joint is likely — to root, if. planted, and it may send up a number of canes. The top of the cane is always deficient in sugar, and best for making cuttings. This fortunate combination of facts enables the grower to send the best of his crop to the sugar mill, and keep back the part of the canes that insures the best crop next year in the new field. ‘Two joints to a cutting, and the cuttings set out in a horizon- tal position, are the usual methods on the up-to- date plantations. Only in the tropics does the cane flower at all freely. Many of the varieties grown do not flower at all. This condition has arisen from the con- tinued propagation of new plants 4 means of cuttings and ratoons. A plant that is commercially grown in all tropical and sub-tropical countries of the globe, © by peoples ranging from civilization down to — savagery, receives varied treatment, before and after completing its period of growth. In- general, ae we can speak of the cultivation : f y i i The loaf that hangs on the bread-fruit tree is as large as a man’s head | yynos oy} ur Arouryoeur Aq suvd-resns SuryeAr}[ND hs S SUGAR PLANTS | SI and harvest. of cane, and the manufacture of "sugar. - During the ten months between the planting and harvesting of sugar-cane it is kept free from i weeds, and the soil mellow to retain moisture. The _ fields must be irrigated if good crops are demanded in regions of insufficient rainfall. The lower leaves are often stripped to let in the sun, and > make the canes stand up better. When tests indicate that the time for cutting has arrived, the _ men go into the harvest with machetes, or other stout knives. The stalks are cut near the ground, for otherwise much sugar would be lost. The _ part of the field earliest to get a start in spring is the one earliest ready for the knife. This is fortu- nate, for the canes cut must be crushed in the mill _ soon afterward, or they will quickly deteriorate. _ The growth in the cane brake is tremendously heavy, and for this reason the most enlightened planters take advantage of inventions that carry the canes to the mill. Barges, if water is near, trolleys, lines of railroad with open cars, even _flumes, are means of transportation made use of _ to save expense in time and human muscle. | The improvement of machinery from the puny _ wooden wheel crushers, driven by mule or buffalo _ power, that left a large percentage of the sugar in 2 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLAN the stalks, to the power mills that get. sioeee a . has done much to create, as well as supply, the increased demand in the world for sugar of the highest quality. In the cane mill and on through | the sugar factory we see skilled men controlling } the machinery that converts cane sap into sugar. | j Few processes require human labor, such as is put into the business in countries where more primi- tive methods are still in use. The improvements have been made by men who have gone into warm — countries from the North, and taken vigorous hold of the business. ‘Teaching the easy-going - inhabitants the use of machinery has been a chore, | The sap of the cane must be extracted by crush- | ing and rolling, then condensed by evaporating - the water it contains, then clarified and de lized into the sugar of commerce. Lien 3 The best mills get 95 per cent. of the SUCTOSE (sugary content) of the cane. This process begins with the carrier that brings a continuous supply of cane to the shredding knives. The torn fibres | go to the crushing rollers, a series of them, that 3 finally leave the dry fibre, called “bagasse” in America. This is burned in the furnaces for fuel or saturated with the sweet residue of the sugar ' vats, and sold as a cattle food under the trade name, ‘‘molascuit. 99 A recent use for the fibre yea - ul 2) My 5 if: ry Bos When crystals begin to form in the pan, the process goes forward rapidly, and the mass quickly cooled, and the crystallized sugar, in a arators, with fine metal gauze in their linings. ese vessels revolve at high speed, and the unulated part of the sugar remains behind. Itis t as we see it in the markets. . If the molasses not all thrown off, we have a moist sugar, in- ad of the granulated, dry kind. eee ature that cad oh much of the sucrose into ‘ i So sweet and rich 1 is s the syrup that it has all amount of liquid, is let out into centrifugal | lasses flies out through the screens, while the Molasses is made by heating the cane juice to a ‘invert sugar,” a form that will not crystal-. NSAP PST a (on re ah CELai Cine AM anne aU UC airs a va ‘4 84 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS — alcohol fit only for industrial uses. The rich : molasses, diluted with water and fermented, pro- ‘ duces rum. | j SORGHUM By the name, Sorghum, we in America mean the a sugar-bearing variety of the species, sorghum, q which is big enough to include the broom corn and ~ the kafir and durra, inaccurately called corn and © millet. | : 7 The hard times that kept farmers poor in the — West thirty or forty years ago, made sugar a _ luxury that they could not afford. The plant ~ upon which a good deal depended in those times — was the “amber sorghum,” from which sorghum — molasses was made. Every farmer planted a small patch of cane, and when the slender stalks 4 had ripened their feathery panicles of flowers, they — were stripped where they stood. Then they were — topped, after being cut down, and the part that { contained the soft pith, saturated with sugar, was hauled to the mill. This was a crude affair, i installed by a neighbor who ground and boiled for ~ the community, if he could spare the time. A ~ crusher consisted of steel cylinders between which q the canes were fed, while a horse went round and © round to furnish the power. The sap was i caught below the crusher, and conducted to a \. a SUGAR PLANTS 85 reservoir, or directly to the evaporating pan, under which a fire burned, while the man attending it skimmed the boiling liquid to get rid of the im- ‘purities in it. Eight gallons of juice made one of heavy syrup. The strong taste was partly due to the leaf fragments and other foreign matter * that made 25 per cent. of the crude sap. the molasses of frontier memory. But they are not so honest as the darker, heavier molasses. The gingerbread and molasses cookies of our grandmothers’ day cannot be equalled by any present-day treacles. ‘The farmer affords sugar ‘now, and therefore the manufacture of molasses has fallen off in country districts, and the crushers rust in the junk heap. © + it also from China, to be tried as a fodder plant in eee ttticken regions of the Southwest. Here i. "grown canes are pastured and made into bee vit out-crops the best varieties of fodder corn, 4 ; SUGAR BEETS _A number of vegetables contain a noticeable a amount of sugar. The onion is one of these. _ To-day, cheap glucose syrups have replaced _ This sorghum came originally from Africa by oe _way of Egypt, and an importation of seeds brought | 6 THE BOOK OF ‘USEFUL. “PLANTS _ Peas and corn are sweet. Stalks of corn yield sugar. Fruits of many kinds have a high per- a centage of sugar. Grains and root vegetables _ “d must also be counted, and the sap of many species — of trees. But the world’s supply of sugar depend ‘frou the beginning of civilization, and probably on before, upon the sugar-cane of the Tropics. It is not strange that the more progressive peoples of temperate regions came to feel a fear that this 7 important foodstuff might fail, in time, to supply, the growing demand. Tropical agriculture is not scientific. Coolie labor produces the crop of cane, and the overseers are not men who would direct a — q fight against a new disease or insect enemy of the a cane as men of colder regions would. What would | | a sugar famine mean? ee q The question confronting the scientist and the a commercial world was this: Isn’t there a sugar 4 plant of the Temperate Zones to take the place of 4 the cane? Nobody could name one. The next — question was: Cannot a sugar-producing plant q be bred up to fill the great need? a * Germany and France furnished the trained scientists Were, patience and skill solved the problem. Vegetables of various sorts were tested for sugar. Beets were found that tested as high 1S f SUGAR PLANTS per cent. sugar. It was decided to work for he improvement of the beet as a sugar plant. i Seed of the plants that gave the highest sugar test were saved and planted. The new crop was carefully examined, and only those saved to pro- duce seed which had most promise. Again and again the process of seed selection was repeated, and very gradually the sugar content rose. The a establishing of beet-sugar mills and the perfecting 7 of processes of extracting and refining the product : did. not interfere with the work of improving the strains of sugar beets. It is still practised. _ Every beet seed grower with enterprise is at this _ work, bringing the strain he sells to a higher sugar content. The average per cent. has doubled in he past hundred years. Individual beets have ested as high as 25 per cent. That means one juarter of the beet’s weight is sugar. Fields lave averaged I4 per cent. _ Beets are furnishing to-day a large part of the ugar of the world. .The amount of sugar con- umed has greatly increased within fifty years, O it is fortunate that a second source of the raw é ae. eo oT a i Hpi ‘ fu ry oak te Ce ei EP ee } nea Teta , o a) au in 4 Niue i ah ey Biya ¢ : i on buy rh eas \e Ay ly i ' " ‘ F } a _ hand work is required to cut off the tops with the g requires elaborate machinery. It is no simple © and driven into the holes as they were bored Na BAY Ph el Re tee th ae pea ai PSTD parva UR hay MORAL, tk 88 “THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS biti tages of a mild climate with plenty of funshines give California the advantage. ‘The beets contain a higher percentage of sugar than those of any other country. The season lasts practically throughout the year, which keeps the mills busy, q and a vast army of workers continuously em-— The beets are planted in rows with a drill, andl carefully tilled. They are dug by machines, but leaves attached. Slicing by machinery follows. — g The pulp left after the sugar has been extracted j is put down in silos, or fed fresh to cattle. The molasses is converted into alcohol. 4 SUGAR MAPLES The making of sugar from cane and beets home industry. But anybody who has a few — sugar maple trees, and a fair amount of patience, ; can make maple sugar as good as any. The rich, sugary sap begins to flow early in the year. Holes q : are bored into the saturated wood to lead it out into buckets. ‘The hollow drainpipes first used were “‘spiles,”’ made of the large-pithed elder-bush, ~ ee N RY ; aL EAPRDS Neo eye LN Yes YOR TAL A uh by Se , PAGE) Mate REO oe ogee Ee eS ere Nea VN Pa on shy 2 AS - Ve tole ae OT SUVs area SUGAR PLANTS | 89 ‘ Now spouts of tin or galvanized iron are used. 4 - Drip, drip, falls the sap into the buckets, and every _ day it is gathered for boiling. The trees may run _ for some weeks. : Maple sugar has a peculiarly delicate flavor, that adapts it for use in the making of fancy _ desserts and confectionery. In the markets it - commands a price far higher than cane or beet ‘sugar, even when dark in color and strong in flavor. Constant boiling of the syrup, and faithful skim- ming produces the best quality of sugar, and the lightest color. Much of the year’s crop is sold as _ syrup, canned before it reaches the density re- _ quired for crystallization. : A delightful variation from the gritty brick _ sugar and the syrup is maple cream, a smooth, fine-grained, almost white paste, made by stirring __ heavy syrup with a wooden paddle. _. The hard or sugar maple, and a closely related species, or variety, called the black maple, are the two principal sources of maple sugar. It is, therefore, an American product, bound to dwindle ‘in amount from year to year by reason of the cutting off of the forests in the northern tier of states. Vermont and Ohio are perhaps the largest producers now. The maintenance of hard maple groves will always interest a few people who supply hs ate e an n> "good deal of niger sugar ati: " It is interesting to note “thaw ie savag ‘ peathern woods supplied themselves wit é sugar, just as the tropical savages get this n , food from palm trees ‘and sugar-cane. Cay t i eT ye — Soft maples yield sugar, but not in quant ties that pay for the hard work of evaporating ‘their thin sap. a a ia As IS a a aI a i ca er na sip reel Bae 8 = cae ees TS cages Sis nse hgee Wienges Hho ak a : a pe ee oF sae Soe % 5 - . er b = ch 3 ot RS ae - a ee CHAPTER IV BEANS ‘THe person who ‘“‘doesn’t know beans” is counted a stupid one. You and I know the little white dry beans that began to be grown as a field _ crop to supply our army during the Civil War. This is the bean that supplies our navy, too, and one name of it is, ‘‘Navy bean.” Boston bakes this bean, and it is a staple food ao man and beast. We know the garden beans whose pods we eat —snap and butter beans—beans that grow in bush form and others that climb poles. All these kinds are sprung from one species, probably native to South America, and spread to India, © Egypt, Asia Minor, and Europe, following the Spanish invasion of Peru. The general name, kidney bean, is applied to this group, varieties of which are the food that substitutes for meat in warm countries, swarming with a great population. We know Lima beans, the broad-podded, flat i kind, bigger than the kidney. It is a separate 93 94 species, called Junatus, the moonaanen toe ‘ ; credited to South America, and named for the city of Lima, the Peruvian capital. It has bush 4 and pole varieties, and some especially delicate — dwarf kinds have been derived from the original large-seeded species. ‘The scarlet runner is a distinct species, grown chiefly as an ornamental vine, that covers trel- — lises and porches with its abundant flower- clustered tendrils, vigorous, bright foliage, and wholesome seeds, that are good to eat, in the green pods or dry. In this oy they” are’ # rarely used for food. We in America do not know the ica bed of Europe and Asia, unless we live in Canada, where — this rich vegetable is grown to mix with fodder corn in making ensilage. The whole plant is rich in nitrogen, and it goes into the silo, leaving © the roots with their store of nitrogen in the tuber- cles, to fertilize the soil. The dry beans are used — in the old countries as cattle food. Usually they are ground into meal and mixed with coarser, less concentrated food. Housewives put down pod > b: Lae ae .. ae ee ae - i = Ste ee ee . ix . rs a She. eas a eo Pe ey ie bf. ee = en oe ee ~ et een, ss Sa Taem beans of different sorts in brine for winter use. — The custom is an old one in England, Germany, and the Low Countries. Though a coarse vege- table ies beans are almost one fourth Pro or ao ~ Sy eat 5 A ‘ ee sna ae Si at Dene a oe ae: ” 5 ees ee Fe eg EE ee ee ER Re a ge ee ae a Ge eee ne ou * x eet — Snes ae = ~ ee = -muscle-making food. They also contain oil, which is a heat-producing food, suited for people who work outdoors in cold weather. | We are beginning to know the strange Soy, or Soja, bean from Japan and China, a native of these countries, and cultivated there and in India _ for centuries unnumbered, as a food for man. It is more like a pea than a bean; the seed and the whole plant are rich in nitrogen. . They are used for stock food, and plowed under to enrich the _ soil. Cowpeas are very like Soy beans, and put to the same uses. In Mexico and farther south the little dark beans, s called frijoles, are a common food of the people, as the horse beans are in the warm countries of a. Europe. PEAS Fully as ancient as the bean, as human food, is the pea, records of whose cultivation are found in the lake dwellings of Switzerland and Savoy, and in the early classic writings. No mention of peas is made in the records of early times in India or Egypt. So the fact that wild peas still - flourish in Mediterranean countries is taken by | _ botanists to mean that this region is the ancestral _ home from which one of the most valuable garden 96 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS and field crops of the world has spread through the temperate regions, everywhere. Field peas are grown as a green and a dry on for stock, as pasture, ensilage and as green manure. Foreigners are not above eating them, but we feel squeamish about it, though as split peas we do consume in soups field peas without knowing it. _ Garden peas are more delicate and sweet, and we consider these, in a multitude of varieties, among the choicest and most nutritious of all vegetables. Quantities are canned commer- cially, the smallest being the most expensive, the petit pois, of French cookery. We must believe that the sifting out of imperfect, undeveloped seeds of standard canning varieties supply a product that is inferior, and yet this grade often poses as the imported article from France. A tremendous acreage is planted to peas as a market garden crop. The gardeners of all coun- tries grow them for home use. They are a great crop for soil renovation, and for green manure in young orchards. The sugar peas have sweet, edible pods, and are used as snap beans are. Among the numer- ous varieties, those that have wrinkled seeds are sweeter and have less starch than those that are— globular when dry. saoi} o[dew ay} Woy des jo Mop ay} UayASttaIj]s 0} sofoy sy} SuisiepUq arden peas are a hardy and prolific race PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT 97 Sweet peas are a race developed for their blos- soms alone. | LENTILS One of the oldest food plants that supplies in satisfying quantities the muscle-building ele- ments is the lentil, a puzzle to the botanist, but cultivated by men as far back as the Bronze Age. We are familiar, perhaps, with the little, dark, flattened seed, that the grocer keeps chiefly for his customers of the Latin races. They have no prejudices against foods that are dark-colored and have a strong taste. We can buy canned lentils, ready to eat, and learn what they taste like, or make.soup of the dry seeds that act and look like small, dark split peas. Any vegetable that has saved the race from famine, and came with the Aryan civilization into Europe, and on to this country, is one worth know- ing, from a historical standpoint, if from no other. There are so many legumes far more useful, how- ever, that it will be surprising if the lentils should not decline with the advance of civilization in the years to come. _ The lupines and veal. pod-bearing plants once important as food for cattle, have value, but better forage plants will surely beat them in the A RY PRO RATES NCUA © SURUBEG LEAL Ty MIR Shor AAW MY DMA AAS RP cn EFOSC Aan j SA REA uty Nea gee Ais * Ay hie ig aa We vis ; yr hy A ‘ Pi teat) Koa i, WRN IM Mela Nyt TAR ARE es ae He ita x ' Tape h | ne ir 2 6.0) Ae RINK ages ie . | 98 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS race. Some species may fit peculiar situations, - and be improved for this purpose. But only the fittest plants survive in the new, intelligent agri- culture that is coming on. PEANUTS The young gardener who plants, just for fun, a peanut or two, to see what the plant looks like, realizes, when it comes into bloom, that he has something that might easily be mistaken for a bushy bean or pea plant, with lower branches that creep along the ground in all directions. The : familiar pea blossoms settle the question of the family before the seed shows. The plant is a pod-bearer. Its fruit is not a true nut at all. Another discovery that pleases the average boy and girl is this: the peanut will grow almost any- where in this country, and produce plenty of nwt. and dimes! For who goes out for a holiday with- out patronizing the peanut man, whose neat little pushcart whistles cheerily on the street corner? | children comforted with a bag of .warm, fresh- roasted peanuts on the ride home, than with What a tremendous saving of nickels Mothers would much rather have their hungry HN sweets that are made of she knows not what. iM ’ The peanuts are wholesome food, nourishing, as _ well as tasty, and they are shelled as eaten, which means that they have not been crawled over by a flies. They are easily handled and do not mess one’s clothes and hands. Grown-up people are as fond of peanuts as. children, and frankly buy and eat them even in Be cuiblic places, if they feel so inclined. The more particular people will take them home where they can enjoy them with the rest of the family. _ A more recent use of the nuts — roasting them in butter or oil— makes an appetizing dish. Peanut butter is a comparative novelty, made > B by. grinding the roasted nut to a paste. It will not supersede butter made from cream, though a -many people use less of the latter since they have g learned to like peanut butter on bread. i Peanut oil is extracted from the nuts and used ] in cooking, and as a salad oil. At first the taste of the peanut was in it, but refining has taken that away. The great mill at Marseilles, supplied from the fields of Spain, India, and North Africa, at ; _ nut oil, but now mills are being established in 4 _ peanut-growing states. & We eat cottonseed oil that has travelled to _ Europe and comes back labelled “olive oil.” No od was long the chief manufacturing plant for pea- 100 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS doubt much ‘“‘pure Lucca oil’ we buy, and pay very high prices for, is made chiefly of peanuts and other things not so good. The sooner we are willing to take our honest products, the oil of cottonseed and peanut, on their own merits, the less we will have to pay for these foodstufis. Then we shall cease to pay tribute to pirates who call by the name, olive oil, a table oil that is not genuine, but adulterated. It is time we laughed at them: so long have they laughed at our boast that.we will have nothing but the genuine article, and that we are able to detect the first attempt to cheat us by substitutions. ' Let us take a long look backward to see how it came about that the peanut is the principal nut used in America to-day. We do not have so long a way to go to find a day when people out- side of a small section of Virginia knew nothing about the “‘goober pea,” so well liked by the people around Norfolk, where the light, sandy soil was commonly planted to this crop. In the early sixties, when the northern armies were in — Virginia, the boys in blue from many sections of — the country fell in love with the nuts that werea food as well as a kind of dainty, and lent pleasant variety to the hard fare of the soldier life. They could keep a supply on hand, and even on the © PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT. IOI march found a pocketful no burden, and often a great boon. It was the soldier mustered out at the end of the war that sent back to Virginia for seed, and he planted peanuts on his farm to let the home folks taste that ‘‘goober’’ he had talked so much about. So the northern peanut appetite was a by- product of the War of the Rebellion. The centre of peanut culture is still near its starting point, Virginia. North Carolina and Virginia each raise over four million bushels a year. Georgia raises half as many. Thirty- _ eight states can grow goobers. The crop brings over ten million dollars a year. We Americans eat all the nuts we raise, and import quantities beside from Spain, and from China and Japan! We certainly have the peanut habit! There will come a day, perhaps, when we grow all our peanuts at home. - It is expensive to bring them from abroad. The Pacific coast has begun to grow great crops in the sandy soil of the Great Valley of California. Home-grown nuts will soon supply the market on this side of the mountains. Texas is growing stupendous crops of Spanish varieties, which yield three times as much as the Carolina and Virginia fields average, by the easy-going methods of culture in use. ‘Tennessee is another of the eight states which grow peanuts _ 1 YS Oe EAS 102 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS seriously as a big money crop. The botanist has gone farther than we have in — tracing the peanut to its original home. How ~ did it come into Virginia, and when? ‘The records _ say it was the chief food supplied on “‘slavers” to the natives of Africa on their way to America, and the auction block where they were offered for sale. So the peanut and the negro came together from Africa in early colonial days. We have already mentioned India, Africa, and Spain as countries that export the nuts. Brazil is con- sidered the original home of the peanut, because a half dozen species of the genus grow wild in that great region. ‘Taking the botanist’s word for it, we recognize in the humble “‘ground-nut,” a cos- mopolite, whose travels have satisfied it that North America is a good country to settle in. _ The most interesting thing about the peanut plant is the way the blossoms look and act. The foliage is thick, but the leaves do not conceal the — showy, yellow flowers that fade, one after another, — and do not bear a single seed! The flowers that | ‘mean business” are almost too small to see at all. They do not open, and have no showy color. — As soon as they are fully grown they tuck their — pointed tips into the ground, and work out of 4 Ha A ‘PLANTS WHOSE TeEOe WE EAT 103 Deight: Unless they do this the nuts will not de- velop and ripen. When the autumn comes, the plant is still flowering, and the grower hates to pull up a plant that has not finished bearing. But he does it. The late flowers form small nuts at best, and it is dangerous to take chances of an early frost that will damage the vines and interfere with the cur- ing of the nuts. A furrow is plowed to throw the earth away from the row on each side, and the plants are then lifted with forks, and the dirt shaken off the : clustered nuts massed among the roots. Long -windrows of the loaded plants are gathered up by - gangs of harvesters, and shocked around poles set - firmly in the ground. The nuts are faced inward, ‘so that they are protected by the tops, and a cap of grass roofs them from the rain. When dried the nuts are picked by hand or threshed out by ‘machinery, cleaned of sand and rubbish, bleached, if they are discolored, and sent to market. The chemist has told farmers some startling things about the peanut. They are full of meaning and interest to us all. It would pay to grow pea- nuts even if we never harvested the nuts, because the plant is one of those nitrogen-gatherers, which 4 | absorbs that most valuable of all plant foods, oe ook a at Ke ite | PBS AR ey Ae 104 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS nitrogen, from the air that is in the soil, and stores — it in nodules on the roots, and in the stems and leaves. Plowing under such a crop adds to the soil the best possible green manure. After the nuts are taken off the dry plants are as rich stock food as clover hay. The hulls of the nuts are better than coarse hay. The cake left after press- ing the oil out of the nuts is as good for fattening stock as cottonseed meal and linseed meal. It has three times the richness of corn. All kinds_of stock like the taste of peanuts, and thrive on the food, green or dry. The farmer has every reason to bless the slave trader who imported the peanut, for it brings mill- ions of dollars to his pocket every year, and the refuse feeds his stock, which makes it, indirectly, a money crop. The elements of nitrogen, phos- phoric acid, and potash, in which the plant is rich, finally go back to the soil in the barnyard manure, thus saving money which would otherwise have to be spent for other fertilizers. | ALMONDS Strangest of all the stone fruits is the almond, for its flesh dries away into a leathery husk that cracks open when ripe to free the pit. We do not throw away the pit of the almond as we do that of PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT 105 other stone fruits, for it is good to eat. Almonds are among our most wholesome and most delicious nuts. | : -'Two kinds of almonds are grown, the sweet and the bitter. The first is the edible one; the second yields a flavoring extract used in cookery and in perfumes. The pits are ground and mixed with water. The oil that contains the peculiar flavor is then steam-distilled, and afterward freed of its poison, hydrocyanic acid. The paper-shelled sweet almond is the one the market demands, so it is the principal kind raised. It has been produced by careful selection from the stubborn, hard-shelled kinds first derived from the wild almond of the Mediterranean countries. Sweet almond oil is an article obtainable in drug | Stores... | | | The flower of the almond trees is like that of the peach, and for this reason the tree has been planted as an ornamental wherever it is hardy. The trees bear fruit only in warm climates. In this coun- try the greatest areas devoted to the cultivation of the sweet almond are in the high coast valleys of central California. The bulk of the trade is still supplied from the old almond-growing coun- tries of Europe: Spain, France,‘and Italy lead- ing. Morocco ranks with them. ay ip i ab y rst h we Py i ALAS BE AH NEY ‘ Nora N 106 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS. Bali ab Aven the nite ate ripe, the husks split nen: | Then the branches are shaken or beaten, the fruit ae dropping on canvas spread under the tree. The | almonds are hulled by machinery, and then dried, and bleached by sulphur fumes. This process is foolish in the extreme, as it may spoil theflavor of the nuts if any miscalculation is made. The shell easily discolors if it stays on the tree later than the time the husk breaks. Since shell dis- coloration hurts the sale, bleaching is resorted to. | The Public pays the price of this extra process, because it imagines that almonds are not first class unless they have bright yellow shells! AMERICAN WALNUTS A dozen different kinds of valuable trees belong in the family of the walnuts and hickories. They are fruit trees, for most of them bear edible nuts — _ pecans, English walnuts, and shagbark hickory nuts, for examples. They are noble shade and valuable lumber trees. So they have been | planted and highly esteemed from the time that ss men first began to use the fruit and the wood oe of trees. The Black Walnut bears globular nuts, wrapped — smooth and green, like little — in spongy husks, ny Moonta oe is abies hie ou ey | ice: x Wine i ih 4 AE iy _ PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT 107 oranges, clustered on the ends of twigs, and sur- rounded by whorls of the long, compound leaves. In fall these fruits drop and the husks soften and break, but the hard sculptured nut shells defend the kernels from the enemies that may destroy them. Squirrels must gnaw, and small boys must hammer to get through that solid, wooden wall. The planter always cracks the shell, to help the seed to get out when it sprouts in spring. y The second American walnut, also an eastern Ce ' _ species, is ‘the White Walnut, commonly called, ‘ _ from its oily kernel, the Butternut. ‘The fruit is a Jong, pointed nut, dark-colored, and deeply : sculptured. The fuzzy, clammy, green husk kin leaks an aromatic juice that stains the hands of the | nut-gatherer scandalously, if he doesn’t take care. Pe This fluid made the dye the housewife used in old ‘i times to color homespun woolens to the butternut ‘ browns, common in men’s suits. The green nuts Ae __ were rubbed free from their furry coverings, and _ pickled. They make a fine sauce with meats. ‘The nuts are rich, but they soon become rancid. L This takes them out of the list of commercial nuts, but they will always be a treat for country baie and girls to eat with roasted apples and cider, ‘ - around the open fire. ! ee er > rat Cees It eS ee Fa Tae a —) a SS SS ee ee > - gh ‘thy i AY 108 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS: ENGLISH WALNUTS Names have interesting histories. The English Walnut came to the Boston and New York markets from English shipping houses, before commerce had established more direct lines of steamships - between the United States and the southern ports of Europe, and before California began to supply the country with home-grown nuts of the same kinds. English walnuts, indeed! Not a ~ nut ever ripens on the fine walnut trees that are planted on the “snug little island,’ because the season is.not long enough nor warm enough to complete the job the tree undertakes. Accept- ing the fact, the English growers harvest the wal- nuts when the shells are soft enough to thrust a knitting needle through with ease. Then the housewives pickle the fruit, husks and all, and make catsup of them. Both are fine as relishes with cold meats. : “Persian walnut” is the most accurate name for the tree we are discussing, for its native home is on the hillsides of Persia and Asia Minor. ‘The tree in the woods bore nuts that savage men har- vested in the early times, before history was writ- ten at all. This tree was among the first to be cultivated. ‘The nuts were gathered and planted PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT IO9Q ‘ in countries to the west. Classical literature tells of Juglans, ‘‘the acorn of Jove,” that kings sent as presents to other kings in countries where this rich delicacy was not grown. So the nut, Juglans © regia, “fit for kings,’’ made its way into France, where most of the horticultural work of im- provement was accomplished. Large nuts, with rich flavor and thin shells, were grown centuries ago. The herballist and botanist, Parkinson, wrote in 1640 about a kind of ‘‘French wallnuts, which are the greatest of any, within whose shell are often put a paireof fine gloves, neatly foulded up together.” He astonished his English readers further by describing another variety ‘whose shell is so tender that it may easily be broken be- tween one’s fingers, and the nut itself is very sweete.” No wonder the English gardeners were _ keen to grow these “wallnuts,”’ and grieve to this day that they cannot ripen the nuts. Southern California raises walnuts equal to those of the south of Europe. ‘The climate, near the coast, is mild and equable, and the air moist. Irrigation, with good drainage, and garden till- age, complete the list of the tree’s requirements, and it flourishes like the biblical green bay tree. Twenty years of growth have produced trees THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS — a ¥ ’ V4 oh ie , ? ey PRS sixty feet in height and spread, that yield six to eight hundred pounds of nuts per tree. Compute the market value of that crop at the retail price your grocer charges. Charge half — to cost of raising the crop and getting it to the wholesaler. ‘Then you can understand why wal- nut growing is an industry that is spreading rapidly into new territory, I think it must add to a walnut farmer’s satis- faction to look back along the trail that brought this tree from the wild woods of Persia to the garden-orchards of his San Fernando Valley, behind Los Angeles, and to know that it is more > than ever before a tree that bears nuts “fit for kings’ tables.”” No longer is it what the name walnut means, ‘‘a nut from a far country,” but a home-grown product of American orchards, and cheap enough so that the people can use it as an everyday food, more wholesome and better in all ways than meat. The wood of the English walnut is beautiful and valuable, the best in the world for gunstocks. Once there was a craze for walnut furniture in Europe that lasted until mahogany, from Central — American forests, set fashion chasing after the ~ newest thing. The wars between European ~ nations exhausted the marketable walnut lumber, _ EME A Se ‘“ )) ‘s Rien) ve tote “PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT sIItil and the threatened famine in material for gun- — ‘es 'stocks led to the passing of a law in several coun- | ~ tries, during the seventeenth century, that before a certificate of marriage could be obtained, the young man applying must show a certificate setting forth that he had planted the required number of walnut trees. These plantations, made no doubt under protest, in many cases, brought _ wealth to their owners, in nuts and then lumber, ‘in the years that followed. It is a pity that to- day Italy, whose walnut lumber ranked highest in quality, should not cover her bare hillsides with _ the same trees, and so restore the waste land to productiveness and beauty. EE ae ge ee” earn HICKORIES Two species of the hickory genus produce nuts _ of fine quality in the woods, and are beginning to be improved by cultivation and seed selection. They are the shagbark, or shellbark, of the north- ern states, and the pecan of the South. Both are handsome shade trees and produce exceptionally _ good lumber. © nik _ The Indians used the nuts of these trees as a _ food, collecting stores of them for winter each autumn, despite the protests of the squirrels. RN SOR SORES a aS Ea vee Sabah) beth ioctl Se 4s (Ae 4 ; \ cy } + ‘ pi tara Nis mys ang a ’ Me Ais. 112 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS | The early Virginians, imitating the patient squaws, pounded the nuts, shells, and kernels together, in a mortar, then strained out, after boiling in plenty of water, the rich “hickory milk,” to which they added cornmeal, and then baked, on hot stones or in ovens, cakes fit for a king. Oil pressed from the kernels they found the equal of olive oil, a luxury seldom seen in the New World then. The pecan is a long, pointed nut, with a much- crumpled kernel in an astringent, corky, red wrapping, under a thin, smooth shell. Improve- ment by selection is reducing the thickness of both coverings, increasing the size and plumpness of the kernel, and the productiveness of the tree. Though many plantations of pecans have been made, and the crop is certainly a paying one, the great bulk of the pecans are still gathered in the woods. ‘The meats sell at sixty to sexta cents per pound. CHESTNUTS © Famous old chestnut trees, supposed to be near two thousand years old, and most picturesque in their decrepitude, are venerated in different sec- SE ee tions of southern Europe. ‘They divide honors q with the ruins of temples built with hands, Far — more attractive, to my mind, are the sturdy trees J - PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT 113 of middle age, burdened in October with the fruit, that falls out of the prickly, opening burs, much as our own chestnuts do in late fall. ‘They are much bigger fruit than ours, but not so sweet and rich in flavor. These chestnuts are starchy, and nutritious, furnishing a staple food comparable to the potato, though sometimes made into sweets. The American nut is not usually cooked, but eaten raw when mature, which is about Christmas time. The shells are thin and tough, but the meats are rich in flavor and very sweet. Roasting cracks the shell and makes the nuts mealy. _ The timber of chestnut trees is especially valu- able for railroad ties, as the wood does not readily decay in contact with the soil. So the lumber business was vitally concerned when, a few years ago, the chestnut trees in the neighborhood of New York City mysteriously died. ‘The swollen twigs of the smitten trees were studded with yellow pellets, or crumbs — the fruiting bodies of the fungous disease that had developed unseen under the bark. Out of these pellets the “blight” dis- charged the spores that were carried away, by wind, and possibly by birds, to spread the infec- tion to healthy trees. The baffling thing is the fact that no spray of Bordeaux mixture, or other fungicide, can be applied to this deadly blight, for II4 “THE BOOK ala USEFUL PLANTS» it works in the dark—in the tree’s bei haee, the cambium, that lies hidden by the outer bark. Much money has been spent in the effort to conquer this disease and to check its onward prog- ress. ‘The problem is understood, but its solution has not yet been reached, and the outlook for the future of chestnut forests is most discouraging. _ Chestnut trees introduced from Japan promise us a home-grown nut equal to the best European varieties. ‘These oriental chestnuts are large and fine in flavor when cooked. ‘The trees are hand- some, and they bear at a very early age. These traits in a hardy species assure its popularity over a large territory. Chinquapins are small chestnuts, the fruit of a dwarf species, .that grows on barren, broken ground from the Middle States south and west. The husk contains a single nut, which is sweet and rich, but rarely seen in markets, because the gathering is slow and difficult work. But pigs enjoy themselves in the woods when the chin- quapins are opening their spiny little burs. BEECHES | \ The small, triangular nut that is borne in pairs * = C3 _— — = Pee ~ ee aS in the prickly, four-parted husk of the beech tree _ PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT IIS has small claim to the attention of the’dealer in commercial nuts. But you and I know that it is sweet and rich, once you get it out of its shell. Its chief limitation is its diminutive size. In a good year, the crop will furnish the best of past- urage for fattening pigs. In the old days, the settlers counted on turning their swine into the woods to get into condition for the finest bacon and hams. This fact gives significance to a pop- ular trademark. Beechnuts in Europe have, from ancient times, been used as an article of human food. Beech- nut oil, refined, is as sweet as olive oil. It is used as a cooking oil, and in crude form for illumi- nation. | The botanical name of the tree, Fagus, comes from a Greek word that means, “good to eat.”’ The foliage of beech trees, silky and beautiful as it turns to yellow in the fall, serves a number of useful purposes. In Switzerland the stable lofts are stuffed with the leaves of beech and linden, © which cattle eat as winter fodder. Mattresses are stuffed with the fragrant leaves which are credited with sleep-inducing powers. The wood of beech is one of the important hardwoods of Europe. It has the distinction of being used for the leaves of the first books made. 116 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS The word book goes back to the same root as beech. ‘The smoothest bark in the woods was naturally chosen when tribal chiefs sent the first . messages, written in crude hieroglyphics, to each other. Unfortunately the tendency to carve on ‘beech bark persists. It is impossible to find a well-grown tree in park or near a high road that has not been scarred with jack-knife monograms, and meaningless symbols. OTHER NUTS OF COMMERCE Hazelnuts are small and hard-shelled but . delicious nuts, that grow on small bushes in the American woods, and come to market locally and in very small quantities. The clearing away of forests has exterminated them in many regions, and thereby we lose a charming shrub. | The filbert,or cob nut, is the large hazelnut of Europe. It is imported in considerable quantities but is not grown here for market. | | Brazil nuts are grown on large trees in the for- ests of South America. They are rich in oil which is extracted for the use of watchmakers and artists. The port of Para ships most of the nuts to other countries, where they are eaten with relish by those who do not object to the oily, white meats. Para-nuts and “‘nigger-toes” are names PLANTS WHOSE SEEDS WE EAT Bay commonly in use. Several triangular nuts grow — in a solid woody case as big as.a man’s head. Pistachio-nuts are the seeds of a sumach tree, native to Asia Minor. The pale green kernels are enclosed in a thin, two-parted shell, which is easily opened when the nuts are dried. ‘They are oily and have an agreeable flavor. Quantities of the nuts are consumed by the people of India. Americans use them in confectionery and for flavoring and coloring ice creams and other fancy desserts. ‘They are also used as salted nuts. A related sumach yields the lacquer of Japanese boxes, an unexcelled varnish, shiny and black, made from the sap of the trees. The leaves of another yield tanning material, used in making the finest of leathers. Wax is another useful product of the sap of certain sumach species. | Cashew-nuts are queer, kidney-shaped, or U- shaped nuts, in hard shells, each borne as a small appendage below the fleshy-colored stalk, that might be mistaken for the fruit. The trees which are large, and look like walnuts, are chiefly West Indian and tropical American species. ‘The nuts. are exported to other tropical countries, and are coming to be used now in the United States, where they are roasted in oil and salted like almonds, Cocoanuts are described under Palms. Fi, VEY, ep OH a Rad ; 4f aE CHAPTER V | LETTUCE | Tue wild prickly lettuce grows as a tall, ragged- looking weed along our roadsides, and springs up in fields whenever they lie fallow, or are not care- fully cultivated. We call it the “compass plant,” because its narrow, opposite leaves hold true to the points of the compass. The blades avoid the full force of the sun by turning edgewise to its rays. Break off a spray of the narrow-necked, daisy-like flowers, and the family name, Com- posite, is plain. The Latin name of the lettuce, Lactuca, refers to the milky juice. It has medic- inal properties that soothe and sometimes induce sleep. A lettuce salad and a combination of lettuce and celery are good for tired nerves. The wild lettuce looks over the garden fence, or the frame of the hotbed, at rows of green heads of cabbage lettuce, solid yet tender, the crumpled outer leaves covering the blanched heart —a sight the gardeners gloats over — the most popular _ salad plant in the world! 121 ‘ HER, Mey AV Dita Hy } ; Ne i) Ant 2 FY ‘ rh any iat) i ba mM ee pay Sy 122 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS Thousands of years separate the wild Garant plant from its domesticated offspring. But the relationship is established without a doubt. Cen- turies before Christ the Persian kings were served with salads made of the leaves of wild lettuces. The parent species grows in Europe and has come — as an immigrant to America, but the original home — was Central Asia. Let the garden lettuce stand a few days after it reaches prime condition for the. table and it bolts to seed. The flowers and dande- lion-like head of seeds are like those of the wild species. The leaves have been broadened and the © stem shortened through the centuries of cultivation. © Most of us remember the lettuce bed in the garden, crowded with plants from seeds sown. broadcast. We picked the leaves, one by one. The individual plants were not considered. The later method is to transplant the seedlings, and let each one form a head. Ne Three lines of development have been followed in the improvement of the wild lettuce, with the understanding that succulence of the leaves, and delicacy of flavor are striven for first of all. The first aims at a rosette of crowded, flaring leaves; the second, at a close, self-blanching head; the © third at a long, moderately close head of fleshy a leaves, with particularly fondes toe” _ LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 124 As to cultivation, three classes of lettuces have _ been developed: (1) Quick-growing spring varie- ties; (2) large, heat-resisting summer varieties; (3) hardy winter varieties. The Boston. head lettuce, with its crumpled, -plain-marginned leaves, tender and rich in flavor, from the green outside to the white centre, is the favorite in this country. It is grown the year round in the open, in hotbeds, in cold frames, for home use and for city markets. | The English people, at home and in Canada. are devoted to the Cos lettuces, with the long head of spoon-shaped leaves, tender and rich in flavor, with midribs thick and white, almost like those of Swiss chard. ‘These leaves are eaten like celery, dipped in salt, as well asin salads. Ameri- cans are learning to grow these excellent varieties. The cool, damp climate of England is admir- ably adapted to lettuce culture. Many of the hundred cultivated varieties have originated in English experimental grounds. Loose, rich soil and good culture keep the plants growing rapidly, which is the main aim in the production of any Jeaf crop. _ Since growth takes place in daylight, and the plants rest by night, experiments to test the effects of artificial light have been made. Lettuce 124 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS is one of the crops most benefited. Plants that received the light from electric arc lamps half the night are ready for market a week or two weeks sooner than the normal crop. Gardeners that make a specialty of forcing lettuce find that it pays to use the light in their houses; the quicker the heads mature, the higher their quality. ENDIVE When lettuces, languishing under the summer heat, bolt to seed in the garden rows, instead of making the fine heads we expect, we must be re- signed, and turn our attention to the late-sown endive for our autumn salads. So many people do not know the plant, whose thick rosette of narrow, frizzled leaves shade so beautifully from dark green to the creamy-white centre. Tied loosely at the top, for a week or ten days after it reaches full growth, the plant blanches. Blanch- ing modifies the tang of dandelion in the leaves; as they whiten and acquire an extremely delicate flavor. No salad is prettier in the bowl than endive; and none is more wholesome as a food and tonic combined.. It was the foreigners that put endive on the ~ benches of American greengrocer shops, and thus — LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 125 taught us to eat what we cannot resist buying | because it is so pretty. Europeans use it as a pot herb, and the gardeners have so far improved the varieties that it is in market the year round. There are self-blanching kinds, that head like cabbages when partly grown. A broad-leaved kind is called Escarolle. When the:blossoms appear, they are blue and closely resemble the ray-flowered chicory, a near relative, in the Composite Family. = DANDELION The teeth of a lion form a jagged line, just like the toothed margin of the leaf of this familiar dooryard plant, the dandelion. ‘Dent-de-lion” is the French name. Can you read the meaning into it? : | Dandelions grow wild and rampant over the Temperate Zones of the northern and southern hemispheres, and are always invading new terri- tory. The acrid juice has a considerable reputa- tion in home remedies concocted by old wives, versed in herbs and simples. Dried roots of dan- delion are among the druggist’s stock, too. The _ earliest shoots have a tonic effect on the sluggish system of one who has kept indoors all winter. 126 Te | RES BOOK OF USEFUL ‘PLANTS Boiled as greens, these young dandelion rosettes are just what the hungry man craves and enjoys in April. The constant demand for wild dandelion greens _ in the Paris markets led the gardeners to bring in the wild plants, select the best for seed, and thus to improve the species, and make of it a garden pot herb. The wild plant is stringy, and bitter in flavor compared with the crisp, half-blanched, mossy-fringed leaves of cultivated varieties. The improvement is accounted for by good culture in fertile soil. Blanched dandelion salad in early spring is like the endive that comes in fall. GLOBE ARTICHOKE The French people are particularly fond of a vegetable which is the flower head of a robust plant belonging to the same family as the daisy and sun- flower. All such plants bear numerous small flowers, on a flat, circular disk, surrounded and protected by green scales, called bracts, that over- i J lap, in rows, concealing the flowers oe opening i time. The edible parts of the globe artichoke are the ; tender bases of the bracts, and the succulent disk itself, after the flowers are removed. This is — ‘LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 127 ¥ done after ce heads are boiled tender. The bracts are easily removed as eaten. We dip the tender white end into melted butter, and finally eating the white “‘bottom” with the same season- ings | Dressed with oil and vinegar, the tender por- tions of boiled artichokes make a delicious salad. Many more ways of cooking and serving this high-quality vegetable will be hunted up by all who like it. | The artichokes grown so extensively for market ? ° i and for home use in France can be grown here but we have not: got at it yet. The plant is very justy, even as it grows wild in Barbary and southern Europe. In the garden it grows easily ‘to a height of three or four feet, and its hand- some cut leaves are a yard or more in length. It deserves to be raised, if only as an ornamental plant. The numerous varieties of artichoke grown in the gardens of rich and poor in France are all reg- ularly propagated by suckers rather than by seeds. These new shoots start from the main stem _ just underground. ‘They are cut off, each with a _ bit of the old stem as a “heel.” One or more suckers are left to make a new top on the old plant, which outlives its usefulness in three years. ery eee lea | 128 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS —— Though it would go on bearing, the size and quality of the heads decline. Each sucker set out soon grows into a vigorous new plant with two or three years of abundant productivity before it, if the gardener does his duty. SPINACH | For greens there is no plant that compares in popularity and merit with spinach. It is a mem- ber of the Goosefoot Family, that produces a great many weeds in America, but no plants of — any value. The gardens of Europe have produced many early, late, and midsummer varieties. In warm regions spinach grows all the year round. California gardeners need never be without it. Even in New York state, the plants will live over, if protected by a mulch, and in many places without. Thus, a crop sown in October gets a good start before winter, and is up and ready for cutting early in spring. New Zealand spinach belongs to a different family, botanically, but from the gardeners’ standpoint it is close to the other species. Its fleshy leaves are able to withstand the hottest weather, and furnish the table with a most acceptable pot herb when others fail utterly. A thrifty peanut field in North Carolina A single peanut plant and its nuts shaken free from dirt WN eB) —s ae S = 2 ed) > ee oO 9) an a) ~ fa S os — oO 4 _ 5 e) — ~ es op SS S oO ww WN =) fo! 8) ay oe a) oF op) a} Chey o = oO = © oN — > oy NM WY Oo O oO 3 op oO G — LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 129 ~ Common spinach is a cool weather crop, and needs moist air and soil. The summer plantings in hot climates soon run to seed, instead of producing the broad, crumpled leaves ogy in all cultivated varieties. ASPARAGUS Asparagus is a member of the Lily F amily, as _ the tiny, bell-shaped flowers, and the fleshy ber- ries declare, but the narrow leaves, and the needle- branched plant, when it reaches four feet in height, suggest any other family than the lily. I think the species, which stands alone, must have originated by the sea (or risen like Venus from the waves). You may pour brine on your aspara- gus bed, or scatter dry salt on the soil until the weeds lie down and die. The asparagus shoots come up refreshed and invigorated By the salt bath furnished their roots. | _ The edible parts of this vegetable are the fleshy) | shoots rising from vigorous crowns, that have been storing for some years the reserve food to produce the crop. The French gardeners have been very successful in producing choice vari- etiesfil! They like best those whose stalks are thick, short, and rosy at the tip. In Holland and Bel. gium, a perfectly blanched stalk is the ideal. In American gardens, green stalks, if thee are tended ee. are counted better in flavor than the blanched : ones. | ol The shoots are continuously cut frond the un- 1 covering of the bed in April until new peas appear in the markets, and are ready in the gardens. Then the asparagus has a chance to grow unmo-; lested. The bed is soon covered with a dense bramble of plants that bear their seeds, and thus - i seed the ground under them. ‘The full develop-§ ment of the leafy tops stores the roots and crowns © with reserve food, which is drawn upon to maki the cutting good in the asparagus season that fol- i lows the rest period of winter. a California produces a tremendous asparagus crop, that goes fresh to local markets, ¢ or is canned : for shipment to eastern cities. F SWISS CHARD _ Arace of beets is known to gardeners aioe the name Swiss chard. Like the ornamental beet, its root is small and tough, and the leaves are the part for which the plants are grown. Thicg PPP UNI NS We had LaF ate A Pe are NS On Fated DMS HAP hrm Lee oats CARA rig et, pi JPOP AAR Sea a SL MOR Te Pee Ne he j PONS RH AOC UIT am aan arte i 7A RR 1 Se Aine Mi iC Ae ryt ‘ Paki Shh Cab ate ‘LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT EAT and heures together as a pot herb when less than fully grown. Some strip the stalks, boil them in convenient lengths, and serve like asparagus. ‘Sometimes the leaf blades are boiled as a separate _dish, or served cold in a salad. ‘The stalks are _ white in most species. _ If the roots are undisturbed, and only the outer leavés taken off, chard plants will continue indefi- nitely to form new leaves. When other vege- tables take the place of chard, or the family tires of pot herbs, the wisest course is to keep the plants and harvest the leaves for the chickens. Little and big, they all eat the succulent food eagerly, _ and thrive on it as a green ration with their dry _ grain foods. | i no CRESSES | The pungent watery juice of the cress group, _and their cross-bearing flowers at time of bloom, prove that the Mustard Family embraces them all. There is a strong family likeness, especially when one nibbles first one and then another of _ these related plants. _ The leaves of cresses are the principal edible _ parts, though tender stems are good, too. They are eaten as a salad or minced in soup, or merely garnish meats on the platters. “Small salads”’ 4 , A dade 132 | THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS are made‘of the first or seed leaves of newly sown cress, or white mustard. Frequent sowings keep up the supply throughout the season. Water cress is a most wholesome and delicate salad plant. It is best raised in a clear, small, running brook. Next best is the margin of a pond. Last, it grows in ordinary garden soil, ifit be kept moist through good culture, and freely treated to water. : Along roadsides one often. sees brooks choked with a luxuriant growth of cress. The tempta- tion to gather a lot of it is almost irresistible. The only question is: ‘‘Is the water polluted with a sewage?” Typhoid fever is certainly carried by water cress from impure streams. So we usually drive on, if we are well-informed as to the danger. To get cresses started in our own brook we must sow the seed in a box, and as the little plants come on, transplant them into the sand where the flow is scarcely perceptible, and the water barely | covers the sand. When they are established thin them by taking up and throwing into deeper water, the ones the thinning removes. They will catch root and multiply. | Another way is to buy a bunch of water cress, take out the fresh, new shoots and plant them, as we would young ones from the seedbox. : It is ROK gt ee - StS ee : 7 Soa ss ee + “LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT, __ 133 but a short time until they take to root and become established. Then cutting merely makes more luxurious growth, till winter stops it. Indeed, the way to keep cress from freezing is to flood the bed, so that ice roofs it. Next spring the supply will be as abundant as ever. _ When old plants begin to fail they should be pulled out and a new bed started. There is nothing quite so good with roast fowls as plenty of fresh, tender cress. 3 Garden cress has long been in cultivation from Portugal to India. In every country it has a distinct common name. It grows as easily as weeds in the gardens of rich and poor alike. Any soil, any season, suits it. Abuse does not keep it from abundant growth. And it is as wholesome a salad, when picked in the tender stage, as one © can find. | CELERY In its wild state, celery is a rather fleshy- rooted weed, on waste land in parts of Europe, with a top of cut leaves, and flower clusters of the umbrella type. It belongs in the same family with parsley, carrots, parsnips, and fennel. No one would think of tasting either root or leaf 134 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS stalk, for the sap is poisonous and bitter. But. out 4 | of that unpromising weed has come by cultiva- hee 4 tion a vegetable that is as wholesome as it is’ me _ delicate in flavor and handsome in appearance. Ragen It is universally popular with all classes of people. - | Improvement in celery culture has ofodverds ‘ self-blanching varieties, and developed from a — winter vegetable varieties for all seasons. Theold © method of growing celery in trenches has been — replaced by the easy method of growing it on the ' garden level, and hilling up the rows, when the i time comes, to blanch thestems. Froma special — crop, that only market gardeners could raise — successfully, celery has become a common crop, ; in anybody’s and everybody's garden, es or a small. | e Nearest to the wild celery, that grows in wet 5 ground near the sea, is the soup celery of European cottage gardens, a many-stemmed, green plant — whose mild leaves lack the poisonous qualities — of the wild celery, and have the nutty flavor of H the blanched varieties. The leaves are cut ae a needed, and minced like parsley to flavor soups and salads. New leaves come on, so ss plant al ; A productive for months. | i In England a red-stemmed au is sia Pop y “LEAVES: AND lap WE EAT 135 P tar. But he ideal variety in America has stalks solid, tender, and white to the leaves. The richest moist loam, like pond muck, is the best celery soil. From the seed bed the little plants are set out, and given cultivation that _ keeps the soil mellow and clean, and keeps them / growing. Gradually the earth is banked higher on each side of ‘the row, till only a tuft of top leaves stick out. Now the stalks have been blanched, and the crop is ready for market. Each plant is trimmed free from its outer, rough _ leaves, the root shortened to a V, and the top docked. Sometimes celery is banked between parallel boards, close to the row, and filled with earth. Rarely a celery bed is filled with earth about the plants, and a board wall placed around the whole plot. Self-blanching varieties are early, and re- quire little help from the gardener to prepare them for market, which comes in summer time. The principal use of celery is to be eaten raw with salt. It is served with the meat courses at dinner. Next in importance comes its use cut up in salads usually with nuts, fruits or other vegetables. More rarely it is boiled as a vege- table, and dressed with butter or a cream sauce. 136 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS It is much used as a seasoning for soups and stews. The roots are good for this purpose, and eaten raw are more nutty and sweet than the leaves. So they should never be discarded. Celery seeds are very good in salads and for seasoning. ‘They are sold by grocers for this purpose. They are so light and small that it takes about 50,000 of them to weigh an ounce. -Celeriac, or turnip-rooted celery, is a variety that is useful as a root vegetable and as seasoning, when sliced or gratedinto soups. The stems of this variety are tough and hollow and short. Development has gone in quite a different direc- tion from that which produced the white, succu- lent stalks of the ordinary celery on our tables. Celeriac is not so commonly raised in our gardens as it deserves. ‘Those who grow it say that it is easy of culture. It adds to the winter store in the root cellar another wholesome vegetable. Celery has valuable medicinal properties, that act favorably upon the general system of those who eat it freely. Its value is recognized by makers of patent medicines. But sensible people will prefer to take their celery as it comes to the table, from the garden, rather than in liquid form, out of a bottle. LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 137 PARSLEY Wherever we go, the parsley plant is there to - welcome us, as we sit down, hungry as a bear, to a good, square meal. ‘The soup and the fish are seasoned with a sprinkle of minced pars- ley. Its curly leaves garnish the steak or the omelette, and the salad is seasoned and adorned by the same fern-like leaves. And we do not tire of it, morning, noon, and night. It is known to everybody and it has real food value; it is not merely an accessory to the essential foods. | It is a pity that parsley is not grown in every garden for we need more green food than most of us eat, and the commonest dishes are improved by it. The reason may be that people get dis- couraged waiting for the seeds to sprout, or forget where they were planted. It takes a month to six weeks for the little plants to show themselves _ and they are feeble until they have attained some size. If the soil is kept loose and free from weeds, a few plants will soon furnish all the parsley the cook can ask, and the bed will be a beautiful green pillow until frost comes. The fore-handed gardener pots some little plants, and when winter comes has parsley to 138 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS brighten the kitchen windows et to ee leaves for cutting throughout the cold weather. Sardinia is the original home of wild parsley, but to-day it grows in most European countries, run wild from gardens, and gone back to the plain ~ leaves that mark the parent form. Selection for more ornamental leaves has developed the double- curled varieties with leaves, marvellously fluted and frayed and multiplied in their subdivisions. In sharp contrast with the wiry-rooted, bushy- topped varieties, is the turnip-rooted parsley, with almost no leaves at all. The fleshy roots are cut up and used as a vegetable, or as soup flavoring. This plant is like celeriac, the flesh- rooted celery, in flavor and use. SEA-KALE A robust member of the Mustard Family grows on the west coasts of Europe, right down on the dunes, to the line the tide reaches. In other countries it is considered a weed, but along the English Channel the people who live near the beach claim the sea-kale that grows in front of their ground. When the cold weather comesand the tops die down, the natives go out with shovels and heap sand and gravel a foot deep or more _ LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 139 on the stumps. This keeps the kale from being _- trampled, and when the new shoots spring up in _ March, it keeps them from turning green. For three weeks or more the harvest of the sea-kale __ is sent to city markets, where the long, fleshy and : _ perfectly blanched stalks supply a delicately : flavored vegetable, at a season when fresh vege- - tables are scarce. Copying the methods of the ere people of Hampshire, gardeners grow sea-kale from seed and from root cuttings, and year after year cover the tops and cut the blanched leaves as they reach proper size. The bitter of green mustard leaves is dissipated by the bleaching, and the broad leaf stalks, with just a hint of the blades starting, are delicious when boiled until tender and served as asparagus is. The flavor of hazel- nuts is very marked. Americans who taste this vegetable, properly cooked, wish to grow it at home. The same culture as that given rhubarb is right. It is easy of culture where rhubarb will grow. ‘The plants live several years. FENNEL A bitter-sweet aromatic odor and flavor are strong in the fennel group of the umbrella- flowered family, which includes parnsips and car- 140 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS rots, and a dozen more garden vegetables familiar to us all. The peculiar odor is found in the oil that pervades all parts of the plant, particularly the seeds, which are used in making liqueurs, and in certain medicines. Mh Cultivated fennels are not far removed from — their wild ancestors, which range as robust weeds 4 over southern Europe and parts of England, and : run wild from gardens in places, in this country _ and abroad. For centuries fennels have been _ used but they have not been long under cultiva- tion. The wild plants furnished the supply i” needed. The common fennel grows four feet high. Its leaves are boiled and served with different kinds _ of fish, or minced raw to season a sauce for salmon _ or mackerel. This species is grown in gardens. : The Florence fennel has at base a bulk-like | enlargment, due to the swollen condition of the bases of the leaves. The tops of the plant and the root are cut off, and the blanched leaves boiled till tender. They taste like celery. Often they are eaten raw. | a Naples has a famous fennel that grows no- ~ ‘where else. The fleshy flower stalks, enclosed ; in the broad leaf bases, are served raw, under the J name, “Carosella.” ‘This delicacy is to be eon q LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT I4t all the year, thanks to the pride and skill of the Neapolitan market gardeners. The fennel of India is used as medicine and for _ seasoning some curries. A South African fennel yields a thick, aromatic, edible root. The giant fennel of southern Europe is so rank that nothing but buffaloes of Apulia can eat it. _ The pith is used for tinder in Sicily. CHERVIL The “fine herbs”? of the French cooks is a seasoning mixture of leaves, chiefly of the plant called chervil. It is'a biennial of the fennel, car- rot and parsnip family, its flowers borne in the umbrella-like clusters that are the recognition sign for this family. | Six weeks after the seeds are sown the gardener may begin to cut the aromatic leaves. Some varieties are fringe-leaved, and these are favorite kinds, used to garnish other dishes, and them- selves in salads. ‘Turnip-rooted varieties are grown as a winter root vegetable. The meaning of “chervil’’ is “joy-leaf.”’ | DILL _ Dill pickles make us acquainted with a rather rare flavor used by German and Italian cooks as 142 THE BOOK OF ‘USEFUL. PLANTS seasoning in preserves and pickiaas | ‘Tt strikes ‘ the American palate as a blend of fennel and mint. The seeds and sometimes the thread-like leaves ~ of the tall, wild parsnip-like plant are used. The umbrella cluster of flowers and seeds assign the dill to the same family as the fennel. In gardens it grows easily, even if in a colder climate than its native range, southern Europe, if given a warm situation, and well-drained soil. THE WILD CABBAGE AND ITS CHILDREN Outside of the pretty coast villages that look out on the English Channel, beyond the thrifty fields and market gardens, lie stretches of land so rocky and uneven that it is unfit for cultivation. Tufts of weedy growth soften the bleakness of these desert places. Among the native plants that get a living from the scant soil is the wild cabbage, a lusty weed that attracted the atten- tion of our savage forefathers, thousands of years ago, because its leaves were (and are to-day) succulent and pungent to the taste. So the leaves are in the big mustard family, to which all cab- bages and their kindred plants belong. All the way from the British Isles to Siberia / - (Ze at +e the wild cabbage may be seen on untilled land > y ‘LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT © 143 usually as a small plant on a spindling stem, its blue-green, fleshy leaves spreading in a flat rosette or closing at the top to form a loose ball. In soil of greater depth the stem lifts its head higher, year by year, and strengthens itself by woody fibres, the side shoots, short and of softer texture, bearing the leaves. Stems three feet high may be found in favorable locations on the Irish and English coasts but on the Channel Islands a wild cabbage might be mistaken for a tree of some sort. Darwin saw on the island of Jersey a cabbage stalk sixteen feet high! He said that twelve feet in height was often attained by these plants, whose woody stalks were used for rafters by island builders. Much smaller plants have stems three or four inches in diameter. Walking sticks are made of still smaller ones. : A spike of yellow flowers crowns ae top of the wild cabbage plant, just like the flowers borne by garden cabbages to-day. Leave a solid head in the row after the crop is cut for market, and what happens? ‘The head bursts open; the stem, hidden by overlapping leaves, keeps on growing. It forces its way out of prison, runs up a foot or two, and opens its yellow flowers, that fade and are followed by pods full of seeds. Again we see the relationship of this vegetable to the mustards. on 144 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS The pods and seeds look and taste like those of — all mustard plants. : 1 We can imagine how the savage hunter, return- ing to his cave at evening, nibbled a fleshy leaf of wild cabbage to quench his thirst. The pungent, watery juice was not unpleasant to the taste, and the inner leaves of the end rosette were tender and almost white. When the sons of those wild hunters went with their fathers they learned the berries and other wild fruits good to eat, and knew how to pick out the largest, tenderest heads of the wild cabbage plants. The next step may have come centuries later — a kind of gardening. I can fancy the women of the cave-dwellers gathering little cabbages for food, and two neighbors claiming a particularly good patch of the plants, and fight- ing over it. The next step was to throw up some sort of wall around it, to help the selfish victor to defend his claim. Then we can believe that, while the men were off and the women on watch, the ~ best plants were favored by a little digging of the hard earth around their roots, and maybe watered, if they suffered for a drink. Step by step, slow as the passing of the centuries, came the saving of seed of plants with the biggest, tender heads, and weeding and tending of the young cabbages with primitive tools. The best plants helped to pay o So. Ve, _ eS ee ee ans an 2 ee = & Pee ae ss I OC Ih HS ef EB = | LEAVES AND STEMS WE. EAT 149 No vegetable responds more quickly to good treatment than the children of the wild cabbage. Rich soil, moist and fine and free from weeds, produces the finest specimen plants. Quick growth, uninterrupted by drought or neglect of other sort, makes the biggest, tenderest leaves and stalks, and they have the most delicate flavor. The cool, moist climate of England makes it the best place in the world to grow the whole cabbage group. If the gardener neglects his cabbages they grow tough and rank in taste, do not head solidly, and | finally burst open and ‘“‘bolt to seed.’”’ Plant the seeds of such neglected heads, and do not | tend them. The next crop is uglier than the last. Save seed of these plants to sow, and let alone. In a few generations what are our cab- bages like? ‘They have gone back to the old wild cabbage form of the British coast. The gardener says: ‘‘These plants revert to the original wild type.” Y Just so your kohl-rabi and turnip-rooted cab- bages will lose the plumpness and tenderness and delicacy of flavor, unless fed and tended. So will the cauliflowers and the kales, proving that their ancestors were the same as those of the headed cabbages, which alone keep the family name. THE ONION FAMILY _ The onion is a native of Western and Central Asia, from which territory it came into cultivation, and spread, in various forms, through Europe, and eastward to China. In America, Gray de- scribed six native species of wild onion, and one species brought from Europe. Dairymen dread the appearance of these weeds in pasture land, for if cows crop the stringy leaves, milk and butter are tainted with the peculiar onion flavor, What looks like a patch of tender © grass in open woods in early spring often turns out to be wild onion. Once established, the colony is hard to keep from spreading in gardens and fields. Improvement in this species has made the bulb bigger, more tender and more delicate in flavor. A “‘scullion” is an onion whose bulb is small, and stem thick, an individual that reverts to the early wild type. Nobody wants it, if he can get a fat onion with a slim neck. : The biggest onions, often a pound in weight or more, grown in Mediterranean countries, are the mild, white Spanish variety. The Island of _ Bermuda grows the mild Bermuda varieties, a almost the equal of the Spanish in delicacy and ) a, oD = = 4 . —— a > ——* pe = Fatal Pn = os Sa — Sg eS ae > = te a oe eS — ee Re Se eS ae TES. pies se wp Er me a7 pee LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT ISt sweetness. California grows both kinds in the Imperial Valley. The “potato onion” is a form that substitutes for the single bulb a number of irregular and smaller bulbs. No flowers, seeds nor “sets”? are formed. The compound bulb is separated into its divisions, each of which, if planted, produces -acluster. These onions are fine in flavor, but not so convenient to prepare as the single, large : ones. | | i | Shallots are onions of the compound bulb ‘group, a different species, however, from the com- mon onion, which we know in so many varieties. _ From early times this vegetable has been used for seasoning, its flavor being more delicate than any _ old-fashioned varieties of onions. The bulbs keep the year round. : Garlic is another udatuted onion, native to southern Europe, and much esteemed there as a _ flavor, copiously added to stews and other dishes. _ When grown in northern gardens it is stronger _ and more burning than in Italy. Soa rub of the _ salad bowl with the fresh-cut surface of a single “clove” (little bulb) of garlic is usually quite enough of this pungent flavor to suit our taste. When fully grown, the garlic is pulled, and the dried stalks braided together, this long rope 152 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS — loaded with the bulbs is displayed in grocers’ doorways. Chives are tiny onions that grow tufted together by the interlacing of their fine roots, the narrow leaves, like grass blades, making the clump look like a patch of fresh, green turf. The bulbs are about the size of grains of corn. The part we eat is the leaf, which is a delicate seasoning for soups and salads. The usual plan is to buy a pot of chives at the greengrocer’s, and keep it to shear as needed. ‘The cutting off of the tops induces a thick growth of more, and the pot lasts indefi- nitely. Outdoors, chives make a pretty bordcr planting for any flower bed. The tuft may be separated, and the single bulbs set. Each soon makes a cluster of new bulbs, and the top spreads. Leeks are onions whose leaf-bases form long cylinders of white, tender flesh, rather ,than globular bulbs. The] parts are blanched and delicate in flavor. Like other onions, they are boiled, as a rule, and often served with a cream sauce. Distinct as are these species of Allium, yet they are joined by intermediate forms that puzzle the botanists to name them. 'The devotee of the onion merely counts them all on his ten fingers, LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 153 and is glad that there is not one less, for among the cultivated vegetables there is not another _ tribe of more wholesome foods than these. The seed of the onion has, within its outer coat, a mass of starch, enclosing the bent embryo, shaped like a pencil. The tip pushes out of the shell, after the moisture and warmth in the soil _ Start it to growing. From a certain point in the tiny shoot the growth is made in opposite direc- tions. Downward goes the root: upward goes the stem. But this is the end attached to the seed, and that is lodged in the warm earth. The seed is not lifted out of the ground, as peas and beans are. Instead, the growing stem of the onion forms a loop which comes out of the soil looking like a very white hairpin, sticking straight up! Out of the bend there comes a leaf that rises from the place where the root struck off toward China. By the time this leaf is ready to do its duty, the seed has withered, and its connection with the hump of the stem dwindles to a thread. This attenuated whip-lash breaks, and the stem straightens, and one by one, other leaves form. The peculiarity of onion leaves is that they are narrowly tubular above ground, and fleshy and spreading, colorless, and still tubular just below ground, and above the bunch of fibrous roots. 154 | miadsbik vi | alae The effect .of such growth is to make a bulb-like. of food in bulbs. So the onion rests over winter, a vegetable out of the concentric leaf bases. Count ~~ the leaves and you know how many layers aan | :. are in the onion. 4 One season’s growth is needed to lay up store and if left where it grew, starts on its second spring to use the store of fleshy leaf-bases to feed one or more flower stalks which rise higher than any leaves of the former season. These stalks are hollow, green and swollen, but tapering to the dense rounded cluster of lavender, or white flowers. _ These are followed by seeds. After the seeds ripen, the bulb is withered, the plant dead. oo Sometimes little fleshy bulbs appear instead of flowers. ‘These are constant in ‘some varieties, occasional in others. These are called “onion sets.” The flowers have been transformed into bulblets from which full-grown onions grow the following season. RHUBARB OR PIE-PLANT The druggist sells a bitter tonic extracted from 4 the rootstocks of a wild plant called rhubarb, — that grows in Thibet and northwestern Chinas The acid ot the sorrels is in the whole plant, which h 4 | LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 15s has come into cultivation for its fleshy leaf stalks which are eaten in the spring. Heart-shaped leaves a foot or more across the blades, stalks two inches in diameter, and more than a foot long, are common enough in kitchen gardens, in England and the United States. The wild plant would probably be very disappointing in the role of “‘pie-plant.” It has taken many years of cultivation and selection to get the huge stalks, thin-skinned, free from coarse fibres, rich in flavor and color. Only the richest, finest, and deepest soil produces such choice quality. | Special demand for rhubarb comes in early spring. The growers keep up the cutting of the leaves until the early berries come to market, and people are tired of pie-plant pie, and turn gladly to strawberry short-cake. With the approach of hot weather the stalks become more corky and lose flavor. The earliest pie-plant is raised by the gardener who protects the crown, and stimulates growth by _. spreading stable litter, or other heating, ferment- ing fertilizer, about the plant. A half barrel set over the plant is an admirable plan for the small garden. This covered wind guard conserves heat, and moisture, and the darkness makes the leaves f VA 16 °° THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANT stretch up for light. These conditions ‘produce long, blanched, tender stalks. 4 a After the rosette of leaves is fully developed the a rhubarb plant sends up a jointed stalk crowned _ -) with a series of axillary flower clusters, that pro- 1 ) claim the plant’s relationship with buckwheat, sorrels, docks, and smartweed. © The way to make new plants is to ede ae crown and roots. About four years is as long as one plant should be allowed to grow. After this 4 the crowding of the roots: makes inferior leaves. a ¥T) Ni t ; " ‘ Ae, sots and Tubers We Eat tt nee i ek ‘ on Yu, CHAPTER VI THE GARDEN BEET AND Its KIN s Have you ever gone out into your garden and pulled a good panful of little beets, to thin the crowding globular roots, and incidentally to have for dinner a dish of beets, boiled, tops and all, and dressed with a little vinegar to temper their sweetness? Or have you bought from market, or. from your favorite vegetable man at the back door, red beets, none bigger than a hen’s egg, smooth, fine-grained in flesh, that came to the table sliced and sizzling in their ruddy juice, seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar, and butter? Another thrill of the same sort comes when mother opens, as a special treat, a can of those tender little beets she put away in spiced vinegar. Can you name a vegetable that matches young beets in delicacy of flavor, or in beauty of color when served on the table? | | | | All the year round beets are to be had in market, for they are kept in root cellars all winter, and there are spring, summer, and fall varieties that ) 159 160 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS any one with a garden can raise for himself. Some are red, some white, some banded red and white, when cut across. Some are yellow, some banded yellow and red. To avoid the stringiness ‘that one sometimes finds in beets, the gardener plants his seed in rich, deep soil, and keeps his plants growing rapidly. By weeding and hoeing, he keeps the soil in good condition, and saves the moisture in it. Water- ing is necessary in dry weather. Then he must not forget to thin them as the plants become crowded, and to pull them when they are in the best © condition —not to leave them past their tender - Stage. The common ways of eicline beets are boiling and baking. More commonly we boil them for later use in salads, and pickled. Baked beets have a deeper color, and firmer texture than boiled ones. In no case should the skin be broken. The stubs of the leaves should be left on, the beets scrubbed with a brush and rinsed. ‘Then no loss of sugar, flavor or color will be suffered in cooking, and skin and leaf stubs will slip off easily before the slicing. | Besides the garden beets, a race of coarse-fleshed but very nutritious beets, called mangel-wurzels, are grown as a field crop to feed to stock. They uspies suoy S,Aoq[ooyss ev Woy saydures jo aul, V S90} VUI0} pue SiaquINONd ‘suvoq PUNT pue xem ‘sjo1Ie9 ‘AaTsred ‘uI0D | ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 161 have very large leaves, and the roots often rise partly out of the ground. } | One race of beets has been developed as orna- mental plants, the foliage beets, used in Europe for ‘carpet bedding and borders of flower gardens. The ribs and veins of the leaves are high-colored, and the varieties differ in form and coloring. Even the garden beets are second in importance to the sugar beets, a race that furnishes the sugar grown in temperate climates. Sugar beets are usually small varieties, with small tops, the flesh white or yellow. ‘The taper- ing root goes deep and drinks in the soil moisture, which is the raw material out of which the leaves manufacture the sugar. ‘That is stored away in the fleshy root, and later extracted by machinery. To understand how the beet was made a sugar- producing plant we must know its way of making seed. It is biennial. That means it takes two years to complete its growth. The first year is consumed in producing a leafy top and a fleshy root. Then the top dies and the plant rests. Next spring the top sends up a flower stem, and the flesh of the root is absorbed by the flowers and seed pod as they form. When the seeds are ripe the root and stem are withered and dead. They have done their work. Each wrinkled seed case, 162 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS the size of a pea, contains several small, brown, kidney-shaped seeds. We mistake the pod for a seed, unless we open one and explore it. ‘The wild parent of all the beets is a weed that grows on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, and also on the Canary Islands, and inland in Eurasia as far as Persia and Babylon. It is found in muddy shore soil in England and parts of Scot- land and Ireland. | | _ We know that the wild beet has been in process __ of cultivation a little over two thousand years. ; This makes the family line of these vegetables very short compared with that of cabbages, which have been grown from ancient times, possibly six thousand years. RADISHES ie A familiar and very popular member of the Mustard Family is the radish, grown wherever we see a garden as large as a handkerchief. One of the quickest seeds to sprout, and the earliest vegetable ready for the table is this radish, grown in many varieties, to suit different climates, seasons, and personal preferences. All come from a wild ancestor, probably native to Europe, though that ‘matter is in doubt. The cultivated forms some- - ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 163 times escape from gardens, and give the farmer trouble enough as a flourishing weed. When this happens, the plants make more head than root, and “go back” to the’: ancestral form. ‘The early spring radishes are little, and mature quickly. In salads, the leaves are often used, as _ well as the fleshy root, when the earliest crop comes on. Red or white, globular, olive-shaped or long, the early radishes are known in many varieties. Summer radishes, varieties that best withstand _ the heat and drought, and winter radishes, big and solid, that take months to grow, furnish valua- ble food supply throughout the year. Winter varieties keep without sprouting or becoming hollow or withered until time for the aout spring ‘crop. Radishes from China and tooks have been introduced. They are very large, but tender and mild, and very easy to grow. The seed pods of radishes, sivhaasd when still crisp and tender, are a fine addition to home-made mixed pickles. The half-formed seeds are em- bedded in the pulp of the pod; seeds and all have the flavor of mustard, without any of the strong, bitter taste, or stringy fibre that is later found. We have learned the use of the pods from Euro- pean gardeners who grow one stringy-rooted spe- ‘? 164 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS cies, the rat-tailed radish, exclusively for its succu- lent, twisted, pencil-like pods, often a foot long. These are eaten raw when fresh, or pickled for winter. Warm countries of the Old World use radish pods vervcommonly. Weare just learning to do So. HORSE RADISH The white, fibrous root of the horse radish 1s grated, seasoned with salt and sugar in vinegar, and served as a condiment, with meats, especially roast beef. It is used also for sauces served with fish and meats. The plant i is a root ened Hie! growing wild in Europe, and much improved in size and quality by garden culture. As/it 1s a perennial, sage people let it occupy a corner, uncultivated and undisturbed, year after year. When they go to the bed and dig roots in spring, they complain because of the crooked, stringy ones they find. To get good, straight ones, care is needed. — Rich, deep soil, in mellow condition is planted with root cuttings of the plant, laid horizontally or slanting toward the noonday sun, not more than two inches below the surface of the soil. They should be set in rows a foot or more apart, and three feet between the rows, for best culture, ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 165 and best specimens. After a whole season of growth, roots may be dug that are fine in quality and form. Better leave them till they have made a second season’s growth. The name, radish, comes from the Latin, radix, meaning root. Horse, as prefixed to plant names, means coarse, big, unfit for human food, though possibly relished by horses. Any one who has tried to eat fresh horse radish knows that ‘‘a very little of it goes a great way!” Grating the cleaned roots is a tearful occupation, much like peeling onions. The reason that the prepared horse radish one buys is so mild is that it is adulterated copiously with grated turnip, a poor relation that costs less than the genuine, and is harmless, though a cheat when so used. If one does not raise the plants, it is best to Bey the roots and do the grating at home. TURNIPS If they had been turned at a/lathe they would scarcely be more smooth and evenly rounded — the turnips we see harvested in the fall for market, or to be stored for winter use. ‘The name, turnip, means “turned.”? ‘They are flattened, or long and tapering, or globular, but all are round. They would roll over and over, in one direction. ,' yORy \ EST AEG ieee eC Uae a DIN Le AH HY AP Seer Pn Gea rs 1%} } : ¥ HF ti Dt Plea i. 166 ‘THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 9) Turnips are first cousins to the cabbages, as the flowers and seeds plainly show. The flavor, too, calls attention to the kinship.. Wild turnips were cultivated thousands of years ago to make their roots larger and more tender. The different shapes were later in being developed. White and © E yellow turnips are the two colors grown. This refers only to the flesh. ‘The skin may be of these : colors, or red, gray, or black. Varieties grown for 4 human food are sweet and tender, if they are not i checked in growth by drought or lack of tilling. - { Field turnips, raised for cattle, are usually coarser, not so well-flavored, nor so tender. But all have a a higher food value than potatoes, because they _ i have less starch and more flesh-forming elements. The turnip is not a fleshy root, like the sweet potato, nor a fleshy stem, like kohlrabi, but a combination of root and stem. Notice the clus- tered leaves at the top. ‘They are attached to the shortened stem of the plant, which is called the ‘crown.’ This stands at the surface of the ground and performs all the stem duties, the part below ground doing duty as the root of the plant. _ The English farmer sets more store by his turnip crop than the American farmer, and it 1s rather — 4 hard to understand why. The Cornell Experi-~ ment Station raised 25 tons an acre of cattle a <—— ~ SS cultivated. This crop was harvested four months Y ‘turnips in 1904. The soil was a good loam, well after the seed was sown, and the ground was clear > for another crop. This is certainly a satisfactory return for the investment of money, time, and labor. | _ Often farmers prefer to leave the turnips in the ground for stock to crop through the open, mild winter, or even to dig through snow. The whole- — : oe some green food is so craved by cattle toward _ spring. Sheep are especially fond of turnips, and : they like to dig for them, too. | __In digging turnips to store for the winter, farm- ers have the leafy tops chopped off before the roots ‘are buried in sand or boxed in the airy root cellar. Delicious “turnip salad” is made of the tender sprouting tops of stored roots, late in winter. Young turnips are also used, tops and all, as a pot herb. Nobody knows’ when the wild turnip came ate: cultivation. But we do know that the Spanish explorers brought them across the sea and estab- lished them in Mexico in 1586. ‘They came, too, with the earliest settlers of New England and Virginia. Some early observer wrote that the - Jamestown colony raised better turnips than were raised in England, whose gray skies and moist, 168 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS cool atmosphere are especially adapted to this crop. | There is not much better treatment of the patient British soil, that has borne crops con- tinuously for hundreds of years than the “‘ Norfolk rotation,” by which turnips, barley, clover, and wheat are the crops that follow each other in order. The crop that most robs the soil, wheat, is pre- ceded by clover, the crop that takes nitrogen from the air, and gives it back to the soil. | CHICORY A ragged, sprawling weed has caught the eyes of every boy or girl who tramps along country | roads, for it opens its blue flowers early in the — i morning, and closes them about noon. ‘The result : is that the plant is lovely in the morning, and ugly the rest of the day. This chicory, or succory, is called ‘‘wild bache- lor’s button.” It is scattered as a wild plant over Europe and America, in many places escaped from cultivation. It belongs to the Composite Family with the dandelions and the lettuces and the sun- flowers. Its bitter juice has medicinal properties. In many communities it still is the standard home remedy for jaundice and other liver complaints. _ We do not hear of chicory as a commercial crop ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 169 in this country, but we shall in time. In Europe it is grown extensively for the roots. ‘These fleshy tubers are used as a substitute, or adulterant, for coffee. The roots are cleaned by washing, then trimmed, sliced and dried in kilns, roasted until dark brown, and then ground. This prepares it for mixing with ground coffee. As chicory costs one fifth as much as coffee, the more there 1s added to the latter, the greater the profit. Calling the mix- ture coffee constitutes a deception, of course, even though the more chicory used, the better some | people like the drink. Indeed, chicory is some-— times used alone as a beverage. It has a bitter, aromatic flavor, and considerable more body and color than an equal amount of ground coffee. If you are prejudiced. against chicory, and sus- pect adulteration of your coffee, nothing is easier _ than to detect the fraud. Pour a teaspoonful of the ground “coffee” into a tumbler of water. Stir it. In a short time the chicory will become softened, color the water, and sink to the bottom. The coffee will remain hard, and float on the sur- face for a long time. : Since the public demands chicory, and we know it lacks the harmful properties of coffee, it is a crop no one needs be ashamed to raise. It is a staple 170 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS __ product of farms in many agricultural sections of — Europe, and recently is becoming established on a — profitable basis in this country. A factory is always the centre of a chicory-growing com- munity. | _ The farmer who grows chicory near a factory can get about $7 a ton for the crop. The average yield is ten tons to the acre. Allowing half of the gross returns for cost, which is enough, he has a profit of $30 per acre clear. This estimate, based — upon averages carefully made from actual experi- ments by farmers, should encourage timid folk to embark in the new enterprise, if opportunity comes their way. Certain turnip-rooted varieties of chicory are grown as a table vegetable, to be baked or boiled like turnips. Another group of varieties de- veloped from wild chicory have succulent stalks and tender, finely cut leaves, used for salads. One must like the tang of young dandelion leaves to enjoy chicory as a salad or a pot herb. Boiled and served with vinegar and other seasoning, it is delightful in early spring. The turnip-rooted varieties are used for producing winter salads. “Barbe de Capucin,” and ‘‘Witloof,” are two chicory salads one finds all winter in any good market in American cities. We have recently — Teh , = # = Na an See nn ee 5 Sarai ee SS OR ka * 7 a), ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 171 ~ learned from our foreign heimhbors to appreciate these two new things. The methods the gardeners use to get them are interesting, and also very | simple. | | ‘i Any plant which grows a turnip-like root ex- ae pects to use the food stored up in this fleshy portion to send up a flower stalk next season, and : mature a crop of seeds. See how the gardener . \ thwarts the chicory’s plan for perpetuating its é ‘race. He wants leaves, not seeds. So he begins in summer, when the tops are flourishing and the - roots swelling. He cuts off the top, a little above _ the ground. The root hastens to send up a stock - _ of small leaves to do the work of those that are gone. In autumn the largest leaves are again a docked, the roots shortened, and the plants taken up, and set close together in boxes of rich soil. _ When frost comes, watering ceases, and the boxes are covered. As needed they are taken into a _ dark, warm’ cellar where each root is able in a short time to produce a head of crisp, blanched - leaves. These are the barbe de Capucin salads, the particular delight of the French. Each root will produce two crops of ae six inches long. . | 4 “Witloof,” the favorite winter salad of the Belgians, is grown in a different way. ‘The roots - a = Sais See! 172 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS are buried in trenches filled with layers of manure. _ Each one produces a long head of leaves that con- | sist largely of blanched blades, with just a frill of — webbing near the top. A second crop follows the first cutting. If the roots are brought out of the trenches, and kept in the dark, warm cellar, the second head resembles barbe de Capucin. | American gardeners have acquired the knack of growing these salads, and Americans are learn- ing to like both of them. SALSIFY One of the root vegetables that keeps company with the parsnip by staying in the ground all winter, and being none the worse for the freezing it gets, is salsify, called from its flavor, the vegeta- ble oyster plant. The crown above the slender roots bears a bunch of narrow leaves, like blades of coarse grass. The English housewife takes the tender, inner leaves and uses them for salads. We use only the fleshy roots, first scraping off the thin, grayish skin, then boiling them, sliced, with seasoning of butter, pepper, and salt. We add, perhaps, a dash of onion juice, for an extra flavor. Although salsify is not grown by the average gardener in this country, it is found in any good igi yarn » mie 2 SE Te Ee nee oe IS et ae ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 174 market, and those who are acquainted with it con- sider it one of the most delicate and wholesome of winter root vegetables. : The salsify plant surprises us by starting growth early in the second spring, and sending up a flower stalk two or three feet high. This stalk is crowned with a loose head of purple flowers, like daisies or little asters, followed by numerous seeds, winged for flight. | _ The wild salsify still grows in meadows and > pastures along the Mediterranean. A _ yellow- = Sop eee 2 ee ee ee ee wax ise 5 Data Ses si ea ae Fates q flowered species, native to parts of Asia, is some- : times seenin gardens. The seeds blow away from _ cultivated plants and come up in neglected land. _ These plants have stunted roots not much better _ than those of wild ones. The fact that salsify goes back”? so quickly to the wild form, when it escapes from gardens, is a sign that it has not long been in cultivation. 4 In warm countries salsify does poorly, and may _ become a serious pest if allowed to scatter its seeds _ broadcast. In colder countries it does best. The gray, damp climate of England exactly suits it, and the English gardeners grow it to perfection. _ There is little freezing weather there, so it is easy to dig the roots from the soil as they are needed to cook. They are best buried in sand in root cellars, PM Wap 174 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLaNTS a if the ground freezes hard as it does in our north- ern states. JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE ~The American Indians learned — who knows how long ago? —that a certain wild sunflower produces rootstocks like those of the dahlia, and the sweet potato, underground. ‘The interesting thing about these tubers is that, roasted or boiled, they are good to eat. When the white men came they learned from friendly Indians to dig up the nourishing wild roots and cook them as they did potatoes. I donot know when or where the plant came to be called the “Jerusalem artichoke.” It is not very close, botanically speaking, to the globe artichoke, and the edible parts of the two plants set them still farther apart than do their composite flowers. | It seems a pity that we Americans take so little 4 . A we a ny = lng es ; A Se > — eWVectaseee-ers tae: pains to get acquainted with vegetables that are af not as familiar already as beans. We have. no patience to like a new kind with a strange flavor. We compare this artichoke with the potato, and declare it inferior. So it may be, but why compare it with that highly improved q species? The French cook will roast or boil these a ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 175 tubers, or make a salad of fine quality, and _ different from all others. If you persevere, you will come to enjoy the new flavor, and your table has gained a wholesome and distinct vege- table. ) The Jerusalem artichoke is used to taking care of itself. It thrives on gravelly soil, too dry for other crops, and in shady places. The quality of tubers produced under such conditions is not the best. Good tillage in mellow soil wonder- fully improves the quality and quantity of the crop. Quick growth produces sweeter, tenderer tubers. We should judge the vegetable by its best samples. It is more productive, more easily grown and more easily harvested than the potato aay _ Almost any farm has some land on it not good. for much but these artichokes. Turn the pigs ‘into the patch and they root out and fatten on the roots, They are excellent green food for other stock in winter. Chickens thrive on them, ground > fine and mixed with their grain. ‘The tubers are not harmed by leaving them in the ground all winter, | | The new crop is raised by planting cuttings of tubers, each with an eye, just as we do with potatoes, when spring comes again. 176 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS PARSNIPS The wild parent of garden parsnips has a long, slim root that tapers above ground into a long, leaf-bearing neck. It is one of the oldest root vegetables to be cultivated. Various writings of ancient times make frequent mention of the plant and its uses. The improvement of the species was in the size and succulence of the root, toward a shorter, thicker neck and body. The yield increased and the fleshy roots were more ten- der and easier to get out of the ground. The richer and mellower the soil, the quicker the growth, and the bigger the crop. When the English colonists established them- selves on the eastern coast of this country they brought with them seeds of garden vegetables, including the parsnip. ‘They were surprised to find that the Indians were already growing this vegetable, and could not remember when it was introduced among them. It is known that it was brought to the West Indies and later established in Mexico by the early Spanish explorers. Possi- bly the Indians got it from this source during the hundred years between the coming of Columbus and the landing of the Pilgrims. | The eee gardener has more foresight, I _— oa Sasi eae a i = Se ae a aes Es Ae quvjd suo jo ynpoid oy ¢ $90}e}0d JoIMS Jo Ao Xs Garden beets are among the chef’s most decorative vegetables | homely squash : ia & a4 ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 177 think, and more patience than the American. -He knows that the sowing of parsnips in spring, and the cultivation of the plants will bring a crop of tender, sweet roots, in prime condition, at a time when most fresh foods for man and beast are gone. What if he has no stock to feed, and there are more parsnips than his family needs? His neighbors will be eager to buy, as the late winter brings them to the end of their supply of root vegetables. The owners of cattle, pigs, and horses appreciate achance _ to get parsnips for them. Poultry, too, thrives on these roots. | | Parsnip seeds are grown for a drug they yield, f and some gardeners grow their own supply for next planting. The second year is seed time for all plants that form fleshy roots in the first. Set out a pars- nip in good soil and watch the top send up among _ the leaves the branching stem with its crowding umbrellas of little, greenish flowers, much like the white ones for its cousin, the wild carrot. ‘The seeds are flat and round with a thin frill on each that enables it to fly. CARROTS The wild parent of garden and field varieties of carrots is a rampant weed in most parts of ai gitiaht Europe, and has invaded Avene via "Eodaad’ a No greater nuisance distresses the farmer than > a ie this plant, for it takes possession of pasture and ie meadow land, and runs out the grass and clover. in Only the plow and hoe keeps it from over-running field and garden, for its seeds are abundant, and. the wind sows them. Have you seen the roadside and hillside white in late summer with the lace umbrellas of the wild carrot? You have called them “Queen Anne’s — lace.” The cluster is made up of hundreds of ~ small, white flowers, in a flat-topped cluster, the big umbrella made of numerous little ones. Each arm of the much-branched stalk bears flowers. ~ After blossoming, the umbrella turns wrong-side- out, forming a tight ball while the seeds are ripen- e. ing. Each seed is ridged and roughened by ~ prickly hooks, by which it is able to catch a ride on a cow’s tail, for instance, if one brushes near by. The stems are brittle; so the heads are blown about : i by the wind, and the seeds gradually sown wher- ever they travel. The vitality of the seeds lasts 4 : for years. If they do not germinate the first year, a : they may later on. No wonder the wild meek No wonder it is hated coeaialy by farmers, and 1 i considered one of their n most dangerous fe a F the phat, eae. root of ie roadside weed be- a more fleshy. Save seed of this favored F rench horticulturist, got a very creditable garden carrot in the third generation. Just as surprising is the change that comes to neglected plants of the best varieties: three generations of running wild will reduce the fleshy-rooted, tender carrot to the . stringy, strong-flavored type of its wild original 8 species. It reverts promptly. _ Carrots have two distinct layers of flesh under the thin skin. The outer layer is richer in food _ elements and less fibrous than the inner one, which a gardeners call the core. ‘The effort to reduce this inferior middle portion and increase the nutritious outer flesh has succeeded in developing a coreless group of varieties. In shape, and colors, carrots offer considerable range for our choice. White ones are grown for cattle. For the table, carrots << ~ _roots they range to round, turnip shapes. Some of the choicest kinds are small and shaped like a i! ; vegetables for storage in root eae or in pits. Roos AND TUBERS WE EAT ay ae come from ‘this send Vilmorin, a great are red, orange,or yellow. From long, tapering _ frankfurter. There are early, medium, and late © varieties; the last are among the best winter 180 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS _ The Greeks cultivated the wild carrots over two thousand years ago. Their writers talk about it. In France and England, improvement has gone on nearly as long, until carrots are as common vegetables as potatoes. ‘They are constantly used in stews and soups for flavoring, and boiled to be served alone or with other vegetables in salads. The very best way to cook tender young carrots is tosteam them in their skins, removing these before serving with arich white sauce. An abundant supply of early, half-grown carrots come north from truck farms of Florida, while it is yet winter. ‘These are among the most attrac- tive things in market to those who have learned to enjoy the carrot flavor at its best. Carrot seeds contain an aromatic oil, used for flavoring liqueurs. The red juice of highly colored varieties is used to color butter and sometimes as a dye. POTATOES A family of plants is a group of different kinds which bears certain general resemblances to each other. The flowers are often the parts that exhibit these family characteristics, when other features are so modified that the members seem very far apart. The fruits of closely related ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT 181 _ plants may be so changed by cultivation that they ; are scarcely recognizable as relatives of their wild parents, even. called Solanacee. In it are seventy genera, and these include fifteen hundred species. The genus Solanum covers the potatoes, the egg plants, the _ nightshades, and the bittersweet. The genus s Capsicum ‘includes the red peppers. Lycopersi- cum is the tomato genus. Nicotiana is tobacco. 4 _ Datura is the Jamestown weed —or ‘“‘Jimson weed.” A genus includes petunias. Another, the ground cherries. leaves, regular, five-parted flowers, with a single pistil, two-celled, maturing into a capsule or a berry, with numerous seeds. The potato plant grows to maturity in one sea- son and produces clusters of pale purplish or white, wheel-shaped flowers, followed by soft, green ber- ries filled with very bitter pulp, that surrounds the little seeds. ) Underground, the potato has a good supply of fibrous roots. Certain strong branches of the roots eh SP. te es ee el : < Ree eC pr po : Fe Be a i os dug must i be counted out. It is water. To get the very best out of a fine potato, one should cook it in its jacket. Scrub it with a brush, rinse away all dirt, and bake it. Or steam it, by placing it in a colander over a kettle of boiling water. If one must peel potatoes, let it be the thinnest possible paring thatis removed. Under MTOM Estee UM TINY Chl | mW 4 a, { ‘a ty 4 rm Wut i] 188 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS the skin, that slips off so easily from new potatoes, lie the most nutritious elements. A thick paring throws away these, and sends the inner mass, chiefly starch, to the table. | Peeled potatoes should be plunged into nee water, so that the albumen coagulates and seals up all the contents when cooking begins. One gets by this method all the flavor and the value of the tubers. The common, wasteful method is to peel away the part in which the best of the pota- to lies, soak them in water, then put them on to boil in cold water. ‘The water drained off when potatoes are “‘done” contains certain acids, be- sides other undesirable elements. For this reason, it has no food value, and should never be saved. SWEET POTATO The Spanish name, Patata, comes from the Peruvian, Papa, name of a wild morning-glory, native to tropical South America, and China. The Spaniards learned to eat the sweet tubers that _ the Incas cultivated on the west slopes of the Andes. They are now grown in the warm parts of all countries, including the East and West Indies. China cultivated the vegetable some centuries before the Christian Era, so we can \ neon eC apa Ae ene Gretta Souci ‘ 44 saa ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT. 189 hardly claim it exclusively as an American plant. _ It is one of those cosmopolitan “‘weeds,”’ whose a value was independently discovered on both sides : of the globe, by hungry, primitive men, who nib- bled any fleshy root that tasted good, and laid it on the fire to soften it by roasting or parching. _ The next step was to cultivate it. So the size _ of the tubers has been increased and improved by selection and better tillage, until we have almost one hundred varieties to choose from, and tubers _ weighing from one to twelve pounds are produced. _ The range of this tropical plant has been ex- _ ,tended until any region that has a growing season of four months free from raw winds and frost, : “canraise the crop. The best soil is a loose, sandy loam, well-drained. Growth must proceed with- . out interruption. The sweet potato plant is a creeping vine, related to the bindweed, dodder, cypress vine, and morn- ing-glory, as its coiling stems and trumpet-shaped flowers prove. ‘The seeds are borne in dry, two- celled capsules, more familiar to us in the morning- glory and moon-flower. Underground, the sweet potato forms the tubers, which are true roots, not stems, as in the “Irish” potato. No eyes are _ seen on the sides or ends of the sweet potato, but _ fibrous roots instead. The grower puts the tubers 190 ae into a bed of sand to sprout fully aan that | buds will be formed, and stems rise. This pecul. aM iarity of a root tuber, the formation cf buds, i is not commonly met with. It is found in raapberey i and apple and other fruits. Plant a bit of root, and a shoot rises to form a new plant. Cut down and try to destroy some trees, and leafy shoots rise from the tips of roots left in the ground. All such plants arise from buds that are called adven- | titious, and occur without definite order. They _ are abnormal and unusual. The sweet potato has — come to be propagated By this method of root- _ cuttings. | The sweet potato is rich in starch and sugar | and has a distinctive flavor that makes it a favorite 3 root vegetable in many lands. The Northerner — likes it to come to the table mealy and dry; the Southerner likes it waxy, or even sticky. A ae ite Southern mode of cooking serves the “yam” _ inasyrup. Up North, butter and salt season it to qi taste. So the Southern grower is disappointed, if — a he sends any but dry, mealy varieties to Northern a markets. | | Quantities of sweet potatoes are canned. Some : are evaporated. Sweet potato reals glucose and © ie even alcohol are commercial products. ‘The vines a are or and fed as hay. ‘Small and damage 3 a > en et Ae oe = ‘te ar Be. Sie oe gp ea a a et ee pe Ge age Se es Sa soe a a * = oe Sree ae ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT i EON : ~ tubers are fed to stock. Bruising and cutting must be carefully guarded against in digging the i crop, “for the soil is full of fungous germs, and decay is quickly started in a tuber with skin broken. We are fortunate to have this vegetable as a staple crop. In England it is not grown; a few varieties are hardy around Paris. The Europeans who have learned to like them must depend on imported potatoes. Of our great crop, a small - part is sent abroad. The North African states send their surplus to European cities. 3 “Yam” is a Southern name, applied locally to — some yellow-fleshed varieties of sweet potato. _ “Potato” is the name used in the West Indies. “Trish,” or “white” potatoes, the true potato is called to distinguish it. The true yam is a root tuber, like our sweet potato in composition and mode of growth, but belonging to an entirely different family. It originated in China, and from there has been introduced into Europe. It is hardy and whole- some. Its fault seems to be that the tubers go _ sodeep that they are difficult to lift when mature. _ They are not yet a market vegetable in the United States, though a few amateurs grow them. per x A Ki if 4 fat J MA a raat Da ig ¥ \, Tessels We Eat — oe ae while it also seh westward into Mediter- | CHAPTER VII Tue Orance anv Its Kin nect with oil glands, and yield a pungent, aromatic fragrance, ' is a family trait always recognized. he pulp that surrounds the seeds is enclosed in apery divisions that part easily, making the fruit easy to handle after the skin is slipped off. The trees are evergreen, not large, but very productive; the foliage glossy, and peculiar in being compound, with but one leaflet. The flowers, waxy and white, and very fragrant, appear while the fruit is ripening. First in this great family 5} semi-tropical fruits 4 stand the orange. Native of Asia, the wild orange eB ‘was cultivated early, and carried into India and. China with the drift of emigration that set east- 196 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS mild climate of Italy, Spain, and the south of France. Then came the spread of orange culture in the West Indies, Florida, and Mexico. And last, but greatest, the establishment of the orange as a commercial crop in California, an industry | which has made a profound impression or orange market of Europe and America. The remarkable thing about the orange “ee southern California is that the fruit is picked ripe from the tree, packed with the utmost care, shipped in special refrigerator cars, or compart- ments in vessels, and delivered to the consumer in distant countries without change or deteriora- tion in quality. It may be picked through a long season, so as to supply the market at almost any season of the year. The growers in this great new orange region of the world are people of high intelligence, who have founded their industry on the best knowledge obtainable. The experience of Old World growers has helped methods in use; | but their prejudices and traditions have not ham- pered the progress of the new horticulture. Just as good horticultural intelligence developed the orange industry in Florida. The advantage of nearness to the great seaboard cities of the East, and cheaper transportation by sea, gave a great stimulus to the planting of orchards, and in 1894 Ho) de ak) Ay a . oe es Bi Si SLI PaNyatee prety Sn ie if : oie ree SO SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 197 six millions boxes went to market. Then came the freeze in December, and another in February, and orchards north of the middle of the state were ruined or badly damaged. Large plantings in southern Louisiana were utterly destroyed. This sad lesson taught growers the limits within which _ orange culture can safely be pursued, and it left the way clear for California to supply the déf- - ciency, by ever greater production. The demand for oranges is large in the United States. California supplies 80 per cent. of it. The importation of Mediterranean oranges has largely given place to West Indian, and Ameri- can fruit. England uses an ever-increasing quan- tity of California oranges of the finest grades. The Washington Navel is the great commercial orange. It is seedless, with a funny little wrinkled orange, no bigger than a berry, tucked into the blossom end. ‘The divisions of the fruit are many, the walls thin, and the flesh sweet and fine- flavored. The trees are small, but well-shaped and very prolific, beginning to bear early. In 1870, a resident of Bahia, Brazil, sent to the Department of Agriculture in Washington three cuttings of the seedless orange, the principal vari- ety of that country, grown for a century or more, but not especially good, and unknown in this country, because it is not a ae fruit for ‘ship- : ping. The cuttings were overlooked for some time, then sent to a grower at Riverside. Twoof the scions lived when grafted on an orange tree. Upon this new fruit the orange industry rests. The parent tree of the Washington Navel orange © is now growing and bearing fruit in front of the a = * =k ete poo Glenwood Inn, while trees by thousands represent _ the offspring of cuttings it has yielded in years past. Strangely enough, the soil and climate of south- ern California makes of this variety a different ; fruit from the South American form. One of the chief merits of the Washington Navel is its keeping qualities i in overland transit. The harvest of oranges in California begins in time to supply the Christmas trade. Navels are picked and shipped from November till May. — Valencias, a European, seeded variety, the best and most popular late orange, from June to Sep- eae GE ap ee eS a th Si nl eS = 7 tember. Malta Blood, a red-fleshed, small fruit — of excellent quality, from March to June. — Mediterranean Sweets, of good size and few seeds, 4 fine in flavor and texture, from April to July. a St. Michaels, fine, j juicy fruit with very thin rind, May to July. ‘These are the standard varieties _ grown for market. Tangerines and Mandarin oranges are loose from . spilling any juice. they are sweet abd | Kumquats are ili olive-shaped ¢ oranges, an nch long, thick-skinned, with scant room for pulp. They are eaten, skins and all, or made into con- serves. They are a dwarf species from Japan. bitter orange, an Arabian variety, taken into Spain in is candied for export to England and other tthern countries. Quantities of the fresh fruit are used in English homes and factories, for the te preserved in Sicily, Corsica, italy; Soi, and aga Bowe also in the West Indies and Brazil. : nated; in ae or China, if tradition is to be be- i oe It has followed the orange over the world, leasantly aromatic, Mali chiefly for local de- The marmalade of commerce is made of the y the Moors in the ninth century, and cultivated iefly in the neighborhood of Seville. The dark Englishman must have orange marmalade wher- 200 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ~ useful fruits is distinct, and lemon-growing is an important industry in Florida and southern Cali- fornia. England gets lemons chiefly from the Mediterranean citrous districts and the West Indies. ane Lemons lose quality by hakeite on the trees after they reach fair size. They are picked green, and from that moment ‘‘must be handled as care- fully aseggs.”” In dark, but well-ventilated store- houses the fruit is slowly cured and attains its ‘yellow color. The next step is the washing that removes dirt that the oily surfaces accumulate. From the washing machines, the fruit is dried, and then shipped or stored. ‘There is no reason for hurrying lemons to market. Fruit picked in December will keep till July, if properly stored in airy boxes. The Lime is a small green lemon with sour juice that furnishes a most refreshing beverage. The home of the species is northern India, whence it has been carried into the West Indies and Mexico, in this country, and widely scattered in Asia and Europe. England imports a great deal of lime juice. The varieties come true from seed. ‘The plants are dwarfs, and are often planted as hedges. — 99 The Pomelo, called “‘grape-fruit,” because of the grape-like fruit clusters, is the largest of all 201 - citrous fruits, and its popularity grows apace. It is an improved form of the shaddock, a native of the Malay Archipelago, and the South Sea Islands, coarse, bitter, and sour in flesh, and weigh- ing from ten to twenty pounds! The few years of selection and cultivation have developed a smooth-skinned pomelo, full of juice that is sprightly, but not bitter, and with a minimum of “‘rag,”’ the tough tissue that separates the compartments of pulp. Nothing can be more delicious than such a fruit, served with enough sugar to temper its tartness. Orange trees are _readily changed over to grape-fruit by budding or grafting, or vice versa. So any one in California or southern Florida who has overcome his first dis- taste for the new thing can supply his home table by converting two or three orange trees to the new fruit. It takes only a season or two to effect the transformation. GRAPES The oldest cultivated fruit is the grape, a plant related to the Virginia creeper. Six thousand years it has furnished the human race with food and drink. In the old countries, wine comes first among the important products of “‘the vine.”” ‘To @ us, grapes are important first ae fool. “We oe us them to eat fresh, out of hand, as a table dessert, and to cook. Dried, they are a valuable food called raisins and dried currants. Bottling the unfermented juice is a great industry in the United: States. Wine comes last, for, though California grows the wine grapes of Europe, and makes wine, Americans are not wine-drinkers, to any. great degree, and Europe counts the wines of other countries inferior to those of her southern coun- tries, where wines have been the most important product for centuries. It was natural that the early settlers of the Atlantic coast should bring the grapevines of Europe with them, and try to raise vineyards and make wine. They failed, and they could not guess why. Sothey turned their attention to the native © grapes, which grew in considerable abundance and variety in different regions. By selection, and tillage, some of the best grape varieties grown to- day have been developed from the wild, native kinds. The Concord, one of the richest-flavored, and most popular of eastern grapes, was discovered as a chance seedling on his grounds by Ephriam Bull, a resident of Concord, Massachusetts, in ‘1843. He recognized the merit Le fh Lhe ang prone a Te Age _ SEED-VESSELS WE EAT Ls ated this “sport” by cuttings. Now its range is extensive, and the fruit is shipped even to Cali-. fornia, whose markets are loaded with the richest dessert grapes, of the sorts that Europeans grow under glass. | The Concord is the parent of the Worden, _ Moore’s Early, and a number of other fine, but less famous varieties. But the original vine still _-years ago. | The Catawba, bnetlien fine grape, was found wild - . in the North Carolina woods a year earlier than 4 __ Ephriam Bull’s notable discovery in New England. - It has given rise to another famous seedling, the i Diana, which is more popular than its illustrious parent. ‘In the American woods nearly two dozen dis- tinct species of grape have been found. In e e e 4 / species have given, in the course of thousands of varieties. But the one species that is parent of the wine grapes is Vitis vinifera. No other country compares with American in wealth of species of native grapes. | | The soft, juicy native grapes contrast distinctly with the thick-meated grapes of Europe. ‘These flourishes where it was discovered seventy-five Europe, southern’ Asia and North Africa native years of culture, over a thousand distinct cultural } aS 204 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS — are in recent years quite common in the markets of all cities, being grown and shipped in refrigerator cars from California vineyards. The Flame Tokays, Cornichons, Mission, and Muscats are among these well-known and deservedly popular fruits. : Some of the finest varieties of cultivated grapes have been developed from crosses of native American species with the European vine. New kinds have been thus produced outright. The game of making hybrids is played by carrying the pollen of one species to the pistils of another, and preventing self-pollenation. ‘Then we plant the seed set as a result of this hand-work at crossing. It succeeds best with species that do not grow alongside of each other, naturally. The wine grape and the American fox grape have produced some of the most successful of these artificial crosses; and the crossing of a hybrid with a na- tive has produced still better varieties. Some of the good varieties are believed to be natural hy- brids, crosses produced by the agency-of insects or the wind, instead of the voluntary effort of experimenting horticulturists. The grape phylloxera is a plant louse that feeds upon the roots of the vines, causing the plant to die. It was the cause of death to the European — ? SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 205 ‘vines first brought over in colonial times. Intro- duced into Europe, it swept the vineyards away, and ruined the wine industry. No grape-growing country has escaped a visitation of this plague of the vine. | - But study of the ruined vines revealed the cause of trouble. No one could devise any means of killing an insect enemy that works underground. But the wild American vines, that showed ability to resist the attacks of the phylloxera, were taken to Europe and planted. Then the varieties that had been destroyed were grafted on the hardy roots. Thus the immune grape acted as nurse and guar- dian to the tender wine grapes, and the enemy was defeated. Rugged native species saved the _high-bred varieties from ruin. _ Wines are made by crushing the grapes and let- _ ting the juice ferment. The skins may be fer- mented in the juice and thus make red wines, that take their color from the pigment under the skin. Juice alone is used in making white wines. The acid in grapes gives the wine-keeping qualities. The sugar produces alcohol. During fermenta- tion, a grayish or reddish crust forms in the wine vat. This crystalline substance is “argol.” Refined, by dissolving and filtering processes, it becomes “cream of tartar,” used in medicine, 206 THE BOOK OF “USEFUL PLANTS Dace cht drinks, and in “baking: dowdere After being drawn from vats into barrels, the mK wines are kept for some years to ripen, if the best qualities are being made. oe older the wine, the i better it becomes. -Raisin-culture centres in Fresno County, Califor nia, where the fruit of certain fleshy, sweet vari- eties are dried in the sun, on large trays. Only regions of continuous sunshine can make raisins. Valencia and Malaga, cities in Spain, are cen- tres of great raisin-districts in Europe. Thefinest _ grades are produced by partially cutting the stem of each fine cluster, and then cutting away of all leaves, so that the sun hastens the drying, and the sap supply is partially cutoff. ‘Themoreusual — method is to cut the bunches and Hay them on — trays in the sun. Persia and neighboring countries produce quanti- ties of raisins for home use and for European markets. The Zante currants and Sultana seed- less raisins are both made of small sweet grapes of Greece and Asia minor. CORE FRUITS ee amily we find a number of : the most t important genera of trees, whose seed — 1 : ‘mee r mA ti si ‘ r ¢ . i} ‘ 4412 rn, ’ Rb LN | bts fleshy “pome,’ -SEED-VESSELS WE EAT | 207 envelopes man has developed by the arts of horti- culture into luscious and wholesome fruits. Be- side trees, the family embraces shrubs, herbs, and vines known for their fruits as useful and beautiful _ additions to the fruit and flower garden. The core fruits are the apples, pears, quinces, the medlar, and loquat. The seeds are borne in a papery, five-celled ovary, surrounded by the > which we eat. The most im-— portant of these core fruits is the genus Malus, the apple. , 1 APPLES The parent of the apples of the orchard is a -scragely tree with sour, crabbed fruit enclosing the core and seeds. It grows wild in the southeastern parts of Europe, and the/neighboring countries of Asia Minor. From these parts it moved with the drift of population westward, and was gradually improved, until now it is grown throughout the North Temperate Zone, and is spreading in South America, Africa, and Australia. Along with civili- zation, the apple has marched for unnumbered cen- _ turies, the little nubbins found among the remains of the early Lake-dwellers greatly improved upon by the apples of classical literature. The varieties shown at a horticultural fair in any country to- 208 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ~ day are all lineal descendants of that first wild type. . | The method of multiplying a eaod variety has been by grafting (or budding) a scion of the desired | kind on a healthy apple tree whose fruit may not be counted so desirable. The scion unites with the stock, and through it a branch is produced that bears the fruit desired. On small trees, the top is made by the grafting process. One scion is set on top of the main stalk, and through this twig all growth is changed over to the new variety. The root and stem minister to the bearing top which is not their own, but a relative. by marriage! i To find out in the easiest way what take ancient parent apple was like, we must stop on the wayside and taste the fruit of a tree that has sprung from a chance seed of a core thrown away by some travel- ler who passed by, years ago. Gnarled is the tree and insipid the fruit! Plant an orchard with seeds of your favorite apples, and wait for them to bear. The wild apple of the wayside had quite as good fruit as that you will get. Seedling apples are un- certain for the orchardist. He makes his choice of varieties and plants trees grafted to these. The plant breeder may grow seedling apple trees in hope of discovering one in a thousand that bears The growth and yield of a grapevine is a miracle repeated each year SjMJJ Snosn] s1e sotiseqdsea dvo-yov[q Uspies poyesti ue UT ! oe SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 209 good fruit. He playsa game with Nature. Once ‘in a lifetime a fine seedling variety is discovered. Such is the Wealthy apple, discovered in a Minne- sota experimental orchard some years ago. The Fameuse, or Snow apple, comes true from seed. For centuries it has been passed along by seeds carried and sent into new territory, in Canada and the United States, from its home in France, until it is distributed across the country. The native wild apples of this country are to be found in the woods to-day; we call them wild crab- apples. The eastern species is the only one the early botanists saw. Later, another kind was found from New Jersey to Florida, and westward, _ — the narrow-leaved crab. In the central states the Iowa crab, and in the northwest the Oregon crab, make four species of wild apples in North America. Siberia has a wild crab, parent of the cultivated crabs we grow in gardens. ‘These little apples are distinct. We use them for jellies and sweet pickles. Notably good fruit has resulted from crossing different species of wild apples. Some natural crosses have furnished good kinds. The Indians used the wild apples for food, and were quick to adopt the varieties introduced by settlers. In. North and South America remnants of Indian Lea les FEN Re ee POUSDLAR G cee 2 AS ae 6 AN ae sunt v Poe Mai ida HN GR 210° apple orchards still persist, hele thoy cornfields | have been obliterated years ago. Apples grow far north, but they require a me summer to come to good size and color and fine flavor. The climate makes Nova Scotia one of the best apple countries in the world. | Canada is a great apple region. Vermont and northern New York, with their cold winters and deep snows, produce apples of the finest quality. Great apple regions in the Northwest and in Colorado, California, and other states are supply- ing an ever-increasing demand for the fruit in the states west of the Rocky Mountains. Some ofthe - finest apples in New York and London are grown | in the Northwest. PEARS We have no native species of pear, though we cultivate a number of varieties, imported from Europe, and some fine kirids have originated here. The original home of the wild pear was not far from that of the wild apple, but it has spread intwo _ directions until it is a common forest tree in France, and from the Chinese forests it reaches ~ north to Manchuria. Special success has attended the efforts of the a SEED-VESSELS WE EAT - Qir : “ French and Dutch horticulturists to improve this fruit. Choice varieties were developed by monks who trained the trees on walls so that the ripening a fruit should have full benefit of the sun’s heat, and _ defence against cold winds. ‘This method pro- duces fine pears in England, which has too cool a climate, and too little sun to ripen pears in any other way. Fa tE ae ae ae e eee = - = QUINCES In the gardens of New England you will find dwarf trees that blossom with lovely pink clusters. of flowers like wild roses, and bear golden apples inthe fall. Taste one, and its flesh is too hard to eat. This is the old-fashioned quince, cultivated from the earliest times, when it came into cultiva- tion from the wilds of North Africa, and southern _ Europe, and from the slopes of the Himalayas. ‘It was revered by the ancients: it is revered to-day by the housewife who inherits and tries to live up _ to the traditions of her mother and grandmothers. And who can do that unless she has in her fruit cellar stores of quince preserves and jelly? ‘‘Mar- i melo, ’’ is the Portuguese name for the quince; so 4 _ other fruits are masquerading in borrowed finery __ when they are preserved under the label, mar- a malade. The peculiar change of the white flesh Sear = rE ae ee Ne Sm rE : ee ea eae by M5) oy ‘ PP late! IAS EM Aue Mw ‘De 5 ees, \ " ( , uA me a, Si ” - . WD detitian 5 » hte + Aye Ik ay) ey ¥ Ne ‘ ‘ a ae - » » . q , cm) ond 212 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS of quince to deep red while cooking is shared by no other fruit I know. Quince trees grow slowly, and attain no great size. For this reason seedling quince trees are used as stocks on which to graft apple and pear scions, when dwarf trees are desired. The slow-growing stock checks the rate of growth in the top, and induces the habit of early fruiting. From Japan we have imported a species of quince that bursts into a flame of red blossoms before the leaves are fairly out in spring. It is an admirable hedge plant. The fruit is not edible, but is very fragrant, and is sometimes laid amongst linen in bureau drawers. The Chinese wild quince we rarely see in America. MEDLAR The medlar is a wild fruit tree from the woods of central Europe. It is soft-fleshed when ripe, but is indifferent in flavor, and is only occasion- ally grown as a curiosity. The core is exposed at the blossom end, as if there was not quite enough flesh to reach around the seeds. The only use made of the fruit is for preserves, or to nibble at when frost has softened the pulp. —— i —- a, SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 213 LOQUAT -. A small, pear-shaped fruit, scarcely as large as a plum, with yellow skin and a pleasantly acid taste, grows wild in China and Japan, and is called the loquat. Introduced into California, it is com- mon in the fruit stalls in Los Angeles. It thrives in southern Australia, and is one of the common market fruits in Sydney and other towns. STONE FRUITS Plums and cherries, peaches and apricots are stone fruits. The pulpy flesh encloses the single seed, which has a hard shell, like a nut. The _ trees have a resinous sap that flows out to heal wounds inthe bark. The drug, hydrocyanic acid, - gives the characteristic bitter taste to the sap and the pits of the fruit. It is poisonous, but does not affect the flesh. Stone fruits have been improved by cultivation until they represent one of the im- portant fruit groups of the Temperate Zones. PLUMS The European plums have come from ancestors that grow wild in the Caucasus and Asia Minor. The woolly-twigged varieties we see in New England gardens, and in better condition on the 214 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS, ae aa Pacific Slope, the Damsons and Green Gages, for 43 two examples, are from European nurseries, \.) originally. They do poorly in other sections of hs this country. | ity i For this reason, horticulturists early began the __ improvement of our own wild plums: the low beach plum of the Atlantic coast, the Canada, the Chickasaw, the wild red, and the sloes of the Southeast. Each represented a large section of _ the country, and in the centre the Wild Goose, a _ natural hybrid appeared, which is the parent of two fine groups of cultivated varieties: the Miner _ of northern orchards, and the Wayland in the © South. So this country is pee rich in plums. ie Prunes are dried plums. — The varieties suitable — for drying are sweet and firm-fleshed. The city ‘of Tours is the centre of the prune district) of France. California raises quantities of prunes. Japan has contributed some fine new varieties to the American plum orchards, some of the largest and finest being grown on the Pacific coast states. PEACHES First among the members of the stone fruits, by __ reason of size, lusciousness and flavor, stands the oa NA OT Ade AS NS bas ee | ¢ _ SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 215 peach, native of China, probably, but long in cultivation in Europe and all countries that touch the old highway through Persia to the Mediter- ranean. ‘The Chinese cultivated it at a remote period, and it was carried into Europe three cen- turies before the birth of Christ. The early colonists brought it to America; here it thrives in all sections that have a mild winter climate. A peculiarity of the peach is that the pit is very rough, while the pits of plums, apricots, and cher- ries are smooth. Another is that some varieties are clingstones, others freestones. The fuzzy skin of a peach is thick or thin, according to the - variety, red or yellow, the flesh yellow or white. - Occasionally smooth peaches occur with furry ones on the same tree. A tree that has borne peaches may produce a crop of fruits that are all smooth. Or half of the limbs may bear one sort, and the rest the other. Indeed, a single fruit may be half furry and half smooth. A smooth peach is called a nectarine. The seed of a nectarine will almost always produce a nec- tarine tree. Yet the peach is counted the par- ent and the nectarine a changeling child, a “‘sport,”’ illustrating the fact that in plants and animals there is no law so stable as the law that produces constant variations from the type. The offspring ates. b iA La Wa 34 i 4 ' AM wi IA Rind } 7 e re RAR Sk oe eT RS og ad Lee PP RRGV SME Wee Pam AN YS 5) Ty Ey tra) Rite 4 Vay 7 19 AP RAR a i, Mea TU Ce Ps AUN Th rea SS Ay A Re RR a a) , {eu + 216 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS most unlike the parent is often the one most able to survive. | The English gardener raises delicious peaches under glass, and trained on south walls where they can get all the sun possible. The. sunnier lands to the South grow the fruit to greatest perfection. America has large orchards of varieties that are solid enough to stand packing and shipping, as the dessert qualities could not do. The canneries take care of the surplus, so we get from market, fresh and canned, plenty of this wholesome fruit. But in order to know what excellence the peach can attain to, one must raise a few trees of the best French varieties in a greenhouse, and let the tree carry the fruit until it is soft under a gentle pressure of the ball of the thumb. APRICOTS The apricot is a woolly plum, or it may be more accurate to say that the plum is a smooth apricot. Botanists and horticulturists recognize the close relationship between the two groups of species. They both belong to the genus Prunus. From the woods of Armenia the apricot has been carried to all parts of the world. Apricots are in the markets of California and other warmer states in Australia A SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 217 and South Africa. Italian apricots are among the finest. There are many varieties. Dried apricots are an important export from northern India to Thibet and the provinces of western China. In the oases of upper Egypt a variety with sweet kernels is raised. Here the dried flesh, and the nuts are both articles of commerce, and staple foods of the people. The name of this fruit is “‘Musch-Musch.” CHERRIES _ Four wild species of cherry grow in the woods of America, and not one has yet shown any. disposi- tion to become large and sweet, like the cherries of our gardens and orchards. We grow sour cherries for pies, and sweet cherries that are delicious to eat fresh out of hand. The two types are distinct, and both originated in wild species that still grow in different parts of Asia Minor, Persia, and the north of Africa. It is strange, but true that European cherries grow well with us where European plums fail, and our native cherries fail to fill the breach, as our native plums have done. © The Japanese cherries are highly cultivated varieties, but the blossom, not the fruit, has been 218 “THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS. Me Mt the subject of improvement. Many varieties en not fruit at all, but have blossoms so wonderful that the whole nation turns out to view the gar- dens in May, the cherry-blossom month, one of _ the great national fétes of the year. _ THE CANE FRUITS Brambles, we call the long-armed plants of the genus Rubus, which cannot hold themselves erect, but sprawl on the ground, and make a thicket by sending up suckers or by striking root at the tips of the arching canes. .The difficulties of walking through or past such plants are increased by the prickles that turn their points — backward. | Ge io The raspberries of our gardens are descendants of wild brambles that are abundant in the wilds of North America, Europe, and Asia. The rough surface of the fruit suggested the name. Black, white, red, and yellow varieties are grown. The wild “black caps’’ are our native raspberries, often — very fine fruit in rich, woodland soil, ue usually the better for cultivation. Blackberries are a famous wild fruit in many parts of this country. The bush blackberry of the (AG eastern states has many cultivated forms, widely _ SEEDVESSELS WE EAT | 219 distributed. The dewberry is a trailing blackberry with sweet, large, fine-flavored fruit. It is known in several fine varieties. The loganberry is a wonderful large blackberry with the flavor of the red raspberry, and some of its color. It was a chance hybrid, produced in 1881, by crossing the wild blackberry of the Pacific Slope with one of the red raspberries cul- tivated in a California garden. The new form more and better and bigger berries than had been _ known on any cane fruit. 4 Judge Logan, of Santa Cruz, was honored for : his discovery. The loganberry is one of the great gifts to horticulture. It is grown in California most abundantly, but has been established in the east, and other countries will have it in course of r, time. | Next comes ‘“‘the Waited of Santa Rosa,” Luther Burbank, and crosses the native dewberry with a red raspberry. The result is a new fruit It is called the Phenomenal. The Primus is another Burbank triumph. It is a huge, fine _ raspberry, the size of a large thimble, but the centre is pulpy and sweet. The parents of this fruit are a blackberry and a raspberry. ‘a is splendidly vigorous in growth, and produces | __ that outdoes the loganberry in all its good points. TH TDi at alsa ek Ue t Dei A TO | 220 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS THE BUSH FRUITS Currants and gooseberries grow wild in both the Old and the New World, and are cultivated in a multitude of improved varieties. - These are tart, spicy fruits, fine for jelly and jams, and for stewing, green or ripe. The largest gooseberries are the size of plums, and sweet enough to eat out of hand. The cherry currants are equally fine as dessert fruit in the natural state, when fully ripe. We who have picked the small, but sprightly, green gooseberries of the woods, both the prickly and the smooth ones, know that no cultivated form, no matter how mild it is, can excel in rich flavor the sauce they make. It is worth while to grow wild gooseberries, in order to have them spiced for serving with roast fowl and game in winter. | FINE WILD BERRIES Cranberries grow in boggy land in various parts of North America, and Europe, and require to be flooded during the winter time to keep the plants from freezing and being heaved out of the ground. Flooding of the lower parts of the plants during growing time is practised; but with the approach ~ of autumn, which is the season of harvest, the . -SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 221 bogs are drained in order that the picking can be done. | | The oval red berries are less than an inch long, thin-skinned, with small seeds in a corky white pulp. They look very pretty on the branches of the evergreen bushes that stand close, a foot or so in height, and look like a level, green velvet Carpet. | The bog is laid off in strips by the stretching of ropes, and the pickers gather the berries by hand, or with rake scoops, that comb them off, wholesale. Cape Cod is the biggest cranberry region in the East. Wisconsin and Michigan have large areas from which this crop is marketed. Huckleberries, whortleberries, blueberries, and cranberries, all are names that call up memories of delightful berrying expeditions into the wilds, and delicious tarts, pies, and preserves made of the fruit at home. It is hard to believe that culti- vation can add to the value of these wild species. Some attempts have proved that great increase in size is to be expected, when the work is seriously taken in hand. The only way to improve them, we think, is to multiply the available supply, and bring them where everybody can have all -he wants. 222 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ~ STRAWBERRIES Babes in the woods, in the folklore of various countries, have eaten wild strawberries, and been covered over with strawberry leaves, when their rescuers were slow to find them. The scarlet, of Virginian strawberry was transplanted from the woods and fields into the gardens of the early colonists. In the Middle West, the pioneers found the lusty, wild Illinois variety. On the Pacific Slope two or three native kinds grow at different elevations. In Europe, the wild species are the wood, or alpine perpetual strawberry, the hauibois, or musk strawberry, and one or two beside. All these have been brought into cultiva- tion centuries back. The ease of transplanting or of raising them from seed left no excuse for omitting this delightful fruit from the poate gar- den. While the American horticulturist was strug- gling to tame the wild strawberry of the east coast, which repaid his efforts only by running to luxurious vines instead of to fruit, a wild species, taken to England by travellers in Chili, suddenly absorbed the attention of all horticulturists. It — became the parent of a remarkable line of garden _ \ varieties, through crosses with the wild and culti- — -SEED-VESSELS WE EAT - 223 _ vated strawberries of Europe and America. The garden strawberries of this country trace their r ; ancestry to this Chilean species. But the strange thing about it is that we cannot succeed with the Chilean plant when it is brought from our west coast, where it grows wild. It must come by way of European gardens. _ The flavor and color of our own wild straw- berries are deserving of perpetuation in gardens. But who can blame the discouraged gardener for dropping everything else, and grasping the new opportunities that opened to him when the Wilson | variety appeared! It suddenly became possible _ for every garden to have a bed of strawberries with big clusters of luscious fruit. Until the Wilson came, no strawberries wére seen in our city markets, and none were grown outside the special gardens of the rich. This wonderful dis- covery, that everybody could have all he pleased, came about 1854. | _A few people I have known were unable to eat strawberries. But it was not because they did not like them: they keenly felt the deprivation. We all think, as did Doctor Boteler in ‘‘The Com-— plete Angler”: ‘“‘Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but.doubtless God never did.” _ The name of the genus is Fragaria, meaning 224 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS fragrance, one of the delightful qualities of this delicious and beautiful fruit. ae Growing strawberries for market is hard and exacting work, requiring that the worker stoop continually in taking care of the plants and pick- ing the fruit. To get the berries to market in the. best condition requires that they be picked at just © the ripe state, and kept from being roughly handled in transit. The best way to have perfect berries is to grow them. This can be made a delightful pastime, free from too much hard work. Get plants of the best possible variety and grow them to perfection. That is a job that brings its own reward. To enjoy the growing of strawberries one must know the habits of the plants. From the crown a thick brush of fibrous roots go down, and a number of leaves go up. Among the leaves the flower stems rise, and fruit follows the flowers. After the fruiting season passes, the plant sends up long stems that creep out in all directions, and strike root at the joints. So these looping “‘run- ners”? set out new plants, wherever they get hold of the soil. The stems between the new and old plants die, in time, and a family of vigorous, and independent youngsters surround the parent. Another method of. producing new plants is JIWMIUINS I[SUIS B ST SUWIT}AFI] St ynq 4 JUvIS ® st juejd eueueq SURE ff dy pam ‘ok De sop ay} 3nq aiay Addeyun st Apoqon SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 226 scattering seeds. Birds eat the berries, and the seeds, scattered abroad, grow the next summer into full-sized plants. From seedlings some of the good varieties have originated. ‘The runners are ~ like the parent plant. The seedling is likely to differ, though some varieties ‘come true.” One of the discouraging facts about strawberry culture in the early stages, fifty years ago, was the failure of a bed to produce berries, even though it received the best care and blossomed profusely. A study of the flowers ‘solved that problem. ‘The blossom of a strawberry plant is like a white rose, with a single row of white petals - around a cone of pistils. The stamens, many or few, are set on the petals, and form a ring around the cone. ip Sometimes the stamens are so few or so weak that they do not furnish pollen to fertilize the pistils. ‘This results in the withering awav of the cone. The cone grows into the fleshy berry, when seeds are set. If the top of the cone, only, fails of fertilization, that part withers, and the berry fills out only in the portion next to the calyx, or. hull. Such a berry is called a “‘nubbin.”’ A variety that is unable to set fruit because its flowers produce insufficient amount of pollen must pe planted with one that produces copious supply, 226 and Blogcares at the same time. The y wind aid insect visitors scatter the vitalizing dust, and a 3 fine crop results. Experiments have found out what varieties are best suited to be planted to- gether. Before a bed is set out, a practical grower in the neighborhood should be consulted, and his — | advice followed. The way to get the best plants, and the cichaes crop from them, is to sink little pots of rich earth — under the best rooting joints of the runners, choosing the parent plants for their vigor and the quality of their berries. If started in July, a mass of roots will fill each pot before the end of August. These independent plants may be set out in the prepared bed in September, without disturbing the roots. By the time the threat of trosty. weather requires that they be covered with a pro- tecting mulch they will be well-grown, and will set lusty fruit-buds in the coming spring. Some amateurs tear up the bed after this first crop is — picked. Others think the second crop the best from pot-grown, fall-set plants. | 4 PINEAPPLES Once an irate commission merchant in a north- ern city wrote a letter to a pineapple grower in SEED-VESSELS WE EAT ees ‘southern Florida, charging him with sending second-rate fruit. The consignment contained (many imperfect specimens. He threatened dire ? - consequences if any more “‘windfall pineapples” oN came his way! The south half of Florida still ae laughs, though the joke is old. | we The largest pineapple orchard in the United _ States is near Fort Myers on the West Coast. This tropical fruit is sensitive to cold and dry air. ( It grows only in the lower part of Florida. Even e southern California has given up the attempt to raise it. | A field of pineapples tee to ade del not a : look like an orchard. 'The plants grow in rows and ) hills, like corn, and each bears its one fruit on the : ‘stout central stalk, about a foot above the ground. _ Around it arch the long, thickened, sword-like leaves, very prickly on the edges, and at the tip. It would be a hurricane, indeed, that produced any windfalls of this crop. | _ The negroes that gather the “‘pines’’ wrap their be legs up to the knees with the thickest cloth they -- can find. Strips of carpet are best. Then they put on mittens or gloves made of thick ‘canvas, and go into the field with short, hooked knives, and gunny sacks slung across the shoulder, and ca Me hanging open under one arm. Grasping the spiny o 228 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS — leaves at the top of the fruit, the harvester cuts off the stem at its base, and “chucks” the pine into his bag. The saw-like leaves scratch viciously at him as he passes on to cut the next ripe cone, and when he goes to empty his bag into the crates, distributed from wagons through the field. | Often I have seen the picker toss the fruits, as he picks them, to a man outside the rows, who catches them skilfully, and lays them uninjured in the crates. From the field, the filled crates go to the packing sheds, where each sound pine is put into a paper bag about its size, and closely packed in crates that are loaded onto cars or into vessels bound for distant cities. ‘The processes are very simple, and the solid fruit ripens in transit. | New plantations are set with suckers, or offsets, that spring out around the base of the pineapple, or the stalk below it. The wild plant has seeds, but cultivation has discouraged seed-production. The seed-vessels become the fleshy substance behind the “eyes.” In the best varieties, even the core is soft and luscious. There is no more refreshing fruit in the world than ripe pineapples. But we must eat themin the field, or at least close to the place in which they are grown, because fully ripe ones are not able to “yacainad les recat WE EAT : 229 evel: nd vee that are cut when less than ripe never attain perfection. | The native Floridian sits down to rest, and cuts the rough outside off of a big “‘sugar loaf,”’ as a Yankee would peel an apple. ‘Then he slices it across the bottom, and eats the slices, holding the uncut fruit by the leafy top. Does he eat a whole one? Bless you, he has only started in! One, two, or three are not too many to quench the thirst ofaman. The Northerner gasps to see fruit that at home would cost over a dollar disappearing down the throat of a loafer who has jogged out from town to see how the harvest is coming on.. _ Nobody chides him for coming. Quantities of pines go north from the West Indies, whose climate produces fine fruit. Brazil, the native place of the wild pineapple, raises a con- siderable supply for export. The cultivation of the fruit has spread to the Tropics of Africa and Asia. For a long time English gardeners have raised the finest kinds of this fruit in special hot- houses built for the purpose. The leaves of pineapple plants contain valuable fibre. We see it in the wonderful pifia-cloth, im- ported from the Philippines. The natives of the Islands of the Malay Archipelago also strip and wash out the fibre, using primitive comb-like tools ‘THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS | iy a. of bamboo, and taking infinite pains. “The aa 8 cS attempts to invent a machine for getting out the a fibre cheaply have failed, so far, in this country. © So the leaves are cleared off and destroyed, at some expense and great inconvenience, to get ready for the next year’s crop. _ FIGS (yt mae mc The rich, sugary, amber figs that lie packed tightly together in boxes shipped from faraway. Smyrna, in Asia Minor, should form a-part ofr every child’s Christmas. They are a delicious — f and wholesome sweet, both food and candy. Americans use them increasingly in desserts and cakes. Tons are imported every year from the warm countries to the east of the Mediterranean Sea — from Turkey in Europe and in Asia. Why not grow our own figs? That question - has been asked by people who see fig trees growing luxuriantly in various regions of the United States. 3 | Anybody who takes the trouble can raise fig trees _ : | from seed, and the trees are hardy as far north as — ¥ Philadelphia. tid i ‘a They grow thriftily ad fruit sbundanees in the. a warm states. One, two, and three crops a year, almost without attention — white figs, black figs, SEED-VESSELS WE EAT aay : Sve, and bohden — the trees produce. Splendid fruit for eating green or ripe, for preserves, for fattening hogs. But for drying, for taking the place in commerce of the Smyrna fig, practically worthless. Here was the rub. Trials without number were made with seeds of this imported fig. Time and again cuttings were brought from Smyrna and planted in Cali- fornia and in the South. Some of them grew and set fruit, but invariably it ails aay before | maturity. Now we shall have to stop, as the fig-growers did, and study the peculiarities of the fig tree, which in many of its ways will surprise us. The scientist came to the rescue of the fruit-growers, | and the result is that the best Smyrna figs on the market to-day are home-grown. But the industry was not born until the puzzling problem was solved by experts in the United States Department of Agriculture. This happened in 1899. : There is a general idea that fig trees do not blossom. Yet the fruit is full of seeds, and seeds follow flowers. You will see little green figs coming out between the leaf-stem and the twig, _ just where buds appear on other trees in late sum- mer. ‘These fat little buds never open; they just _ grow until they reach the size of a hen’s egg, then S/R ty i las Sad {iy ; : ‘ 3h is 3 ei Rhee Bras, ay ae ba nial ee PG i THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS soften and turn brown or reddish, or the green merely fades out. | To find the fig blossoms, one must cut open the green body of the fruit. There they are, hundreds of tiny flowers that stand close as the disk flowers on a head of sunflower or dandelion. Draw together the edges of a sunflower disk, and you make a bag, with the flowers lining it. The fig is like that: the fleshy receptacle forms the wall of the sac. One little opening leads from the outside world. A small dimple in the end opposite the stem shows you this door. It is important that you see it. . Under each little flower is a seed. Break open - a ripe fig, and the seeds are thick, under the pointed remnants of the many flowers. Mul- berries and figs are closely related. ‘The mulberry in flower has its receptacle covered with crowded, tiny flowers, each of which produces a soft berry, that is one of the many crowded together in a single mulberry fruit an inch long. If we can imagine a mulberry with its tiny berries on the inside it would be made like a fig. A fig turned inside out would be changed to the mulberry pattern. The likeness of the two is in having many flowers attached to the surface of a fleshy base. No matter what shape this base takes SEED-VESSELS WE EAT | 233) in growing. It is the part that is sweet and edible. | Now, the setting of seed depends upon the pollenating of the flowers. Some are self-pollen- ated. Some require cross-pollenating by wind or by insect assistance. The Smyrna fig is one that cannot set fruit by itself. That is why the little fruits fall. No use to form fruits with no seeds inthem. So the imported trees seem tothink. _ In the orchards of Turkey, wild figs, the Capri species, with plenty of pollen, but worthless fruit, are planted. So the investigators from America sent the wild species over to plant in California fig orchards, thinking that this would solve the difficulty. They also sent word that the Smyrna _ growers cut off the wild figs and hung them in the trees of the cultivated sorts, to make the setting of fruit sure. This was done in America. But the small figs kept on dropping. Is the pollen ripe just when the flowers are ready to be fertilized? How in the world does it get in through the narrow door of the fruit? How does it get scattered inside, so that hun- dreds of stigmas receive it? These questions put the scientist on the right track. He set a watch upon the Capri fig trees and the Smyrna trees in their own country. 254} THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ())) a answer: “‘Yes!’’ to the first question. He took pollen from the Capri figs and forced it into the - Smyrnas’ doorways, tagged the fruits thus treated, and waited for results. The tree dropped all the fruit but the ones that received the pollen he administered by hand. They swelled to full size, _ ripened, and had the fragrance, the flavor, and the sweetness of the Smyrna figs athome! This was in 1890. The missing link was now sought with all diligence, and found in the orchards of Turkey. A tiny wasp, so small as to be almost invisible to the naked eye, was seen to enter the “eye” of the Capri fig, and the same insect was found in the other figs at blossoming time. The magnifier discovered this hungry wasp searching each individual flower for its sac of nectar. Once identified, it was easy to recognize the fact that these midge-like insects were not at all scarce. The industry of fig-culture depended upon them! Without them, the whole world would go fig- hungry. How startled the nectar-loving little Blasto- phaga would have been to learn what a grave responsibility rested upon her — meso-thorax! (Insects do not have shoulders.) Is an insect ever ie Meanwhile, Mr. Roeding, up in his orchard in Fresno County, California, was able to get the © _ SEED-VESSELS WE EAT Lhe Bai conscious of the fact that it carries pollen from flower to flower? Never! She cannot avoid smearing her legs and body with sticky nectar, and . dragging over the powdery stamens and the waxy - §tigmas, all ready for the vitalizing dust that en- ables them to set seed. But the insect is all uncon- - scious of doing a work for the flowers, or the tree. She is selfishly gathering stolen sweets. Her own The grower “‘caprifies’’ his trees by hanging fruits of the wild Capri fig in the branches of the | orchard trees, and thus making the distance short __well-being and that of her erowing mati are her sole aim. 4 ' Turkey in Asia and California are many days’ a _ journey apart. Often captured Blastophagas __ were shipped to America, but they died on the . way. I suppose it is hard to give sufficient air in a package that contains insects small enough to go 4 easily through the meshes of ordinary cheesecloth! It is hard to supply them with proper lunch for 7 - twoorthree weeks. But the difficult undertaking , at last succeeded. And the immigrant wasps took up their abode in the Capri figs, and made them- a selves at home in the sunny climate of California. » The year 1899 saw our first crop of Smyrna figs 4 ripen on the ‘trees, as the result of the bringing in 4 of the Asiatic wasp that fertilizes the flowers. 236 . THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS that the insects have to go for their nectar supply. Of course it is imperative that the wild species be planted near by. Only a few are needed to supply many of the fruiting kinds with | pollen. Now the nurserymen who supply young trees’ for an orchard of figs send the necessary number of wild ones, and when the time of fruiting arrives, (and that is within three or four years of the setting of the trees) he sends a supply of the wasps to get them established in the orchards. Usually after the first supplies are received, the grower pays no more attention to the means by which his fruit is set. Nature has established an automatic system of reciprocity between the insect and the tree, and the owner has only to gather his figs and market them. mia The giant fig trees of California are the wonder of the visitor, used to the comparatively small orange and other orchard trees he has seen. One veteran, planted in 1856 on the Rancho Chico, spreads 150 feet, and its branches, by striking root, form pillars, like the banyan-tree of India. This reminds us that the fig and the banyan-tree and the India-rubber tree are first cousins — members of the same genus, Ficus. The sticky, milky )@ Cos juice of the fig, that gets on your fingers when you ~~ > a < SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 237 pull a ripe one from the tree, is not unlike the milky latex which hardens into rubber. BANANAS Thirty years ago few people outside the large cities had ever seen a banana—fewer by far were those who knew and liked the taste of the fruit. Surprising changes have been brought about by the growth of commerce between this country and the West Indies. ‘The poorest family in the small- est inland village can afford to eat this tropical fruit, for it is everywhere, and usually it is tie cheapest to be had. To see banana plants growing we may have to go no farther than the city park, even if we live in the region of cold winters. Started in green- houses, they make an interesting tropical feature of the mass-planting in the border, or the high centre of a round flower bed. Such plants remind one of huge corn stalks, though the leaves are . broad sheets of green that are soon slit into strings down to the strong midrib by flapping in the wind. In the southern states the season is so long that these plants blossom. The single huge bud turns down, and begins blossoming by lifting the purple bract that sheathes the oldest and uppermost 238 group of flowers. Gradual the seal dane the showy stamens fall away, and finger-like green fruits in the familiar “hand” of eight to fifteen bananas are seen. How near these come to ripen- ing depends upon the latitude and the season. Warmth and sun are supplied in a narrow belt - that crosses southern Florida. ‘This is the north- ern rim of the “‘banana belt’’ that covers the West Indies and Central America, and on around the globe. Southern Louisiana, Texas, Mexico, and southern California have paying banana planta- tions within a narrow area. The banana stalk grows in the Tropics to a height of thirty feet. This is its maximum, of course. In ordinary plantations no such giants are seen. Fancy harvesting the single clusters of fruit from such stalks! The rootstocks under- ground live on, sending up new shoots, which reach maturity and fruit within a year or eighteen months from the time they start. Immediately after fruiting the stalk dies. The planter’s job is to cut out these stalks as fast as he harvests the fruit clusters. | The fruit is cut green but fall ope and put directly into the hold of vessels that sail without delay for northern cities. ‘The jobbers have care 047 in waiting to distribute the 5 Fate to inland poles ie ey se 3473 vey, es Pal i it ews Wiss ‘a af VAN St te Y _SEED-VESSELS WE EAT — 239 ‘So, with the least possible delay and handling, the crop moves to the consumer. Cold storage is not for bananas. But in the cool atmosphere that suits them they gradually ripen, and hung in the grocer’s windows, turn from green to yellow. _ The big yellow Martinique is the most common variety we have. The crimson fruit of the Red Jamaica is occasionally shipped in, and is used in making up baskets of fancy fruits. We rarely see the kind called plantain, that is not sweet, but is cooked as a vegetable in all tropical countries. The fruit of one of these coarse plantains in East Africa is about the size and shape of a man’s arm! A traveller in the Far East describes the great golden bunches of bananas heaped by the tons in the market places of cities of Java, and cheap beyond belief. ‘“‘The Java pisang, or banana, however, is but a coarse plantain with pinkish- yellow, dry pulp, of a pumpkiny flavor that sadly disappoints the palate. Yet it is Nature’s greatest gift in the tropics. Every tiny village and almost every little native hut has its banana patch or its banana tree, which requires nothing of labor in cultivation, save the weeding away of the old stalks. Four thousand pounds of this food will - grow, without human aid, within the same space of ground required to raise ninety-nine pounds of 240 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS | potatoes or thirty-three pounds of wheat; both of these northern crops acquired, too, only by incessant sweat of the brow and muscular exertion. ye The pisang is the tropical staff of life for white as well as natives, as wholesome and necessary as bread, and an equivalent of the latter as a starchy food. It comes to one with the earliest breakfast cup, appears at every meal, arrives with the after- noon tea tray, and always ends the late dinner as the inevitable accompaniment of cheese.”’ The popularity of our yellow banana is partly due to the very convenient package it comes in; and to the fact that it is not sticky nor messy, nor does it need “fixing” before children can eat it. The tough skin keeps the soft inside clean, yet it parts easily enough. ‘The seeds have been dwarfed to mere remnants by generations of repro- duction by suckers. ' ) aoe Banana meal, made of the dried flesh of ripe or green fruit, and evaporated slices are on the mar- ket. In this form we may know what the fruit tastes like when it is not cut green. Newrecipes ~ for cooking bananas give us added pleasurein this nutritious food. It has come to be ranked one of the good salad fruits, when used before it is dead tipe. It is served with Mayonnaise or French dressing, alone or with nut meats. , SEED-VESSELS WE EAT. 241 Two members of the banana group have in- edible fruit, but are useful for the fibre they yield. Manila hemp is obtained from the leaf sheaths of the most important species. The leaf blades of others are tough enough for papers. Coarser ones are split and the dried strips woven into baskets, mats, and bags. Starch is made from the fleshy rootstocks of an African banana. MELONS The family of the cucurbits includes both vegetables and fruits. Here the squashes, pump- kins, and cucumbers hobnob with the watermelons and canteloupes. ll are fleshy seed-vessels, with abundant seeds, attached along three distinct areas of the wall of the cavity of hollow kinds, and similarly located when the flesh embeds the seeds. The name, pepo, is given by botanists to all such fruits. | | The watermelon grows wild in the hottest regions of Africa. Livingstone described the vines as covering vast areas, and the natives feast- ing on the abundant fruit, which, though small, was not bitter. Size, sweetness, and flavor have all been added by cultivation. Egypt first begun the improvement of the wild watermelon, and thence it has spread through all sunny, warm » 242 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS regions of the earth. It is able to thrive in Gert hi desert regions, furnishing a thirst-quenching fruit in summer where other fruits are scarce, and water ‘ Te a luxury. | : | 2 oe Watermelon culture in the United States ig ss great. commercial enterprise in Georgia, and neighboring states, which ship their crops to northern markets, and grow all they can eat at home. The negro’s natural affinity for “de wata- million smilin’ on de vine” is not hard to explain. © And his proclivities in the direction of raiding a patch by the light of the moon have been developed - against his will and disposition. Much rather would he help himself by day to the fruits that lie there, just as in the equatorial belt of the dark continent they lay to tempt the thirsty to take and eat. Why is Nature’s plain invitation to-day hedged about by restrictions? Private ownership makes all the trouble, and puts the taking of a. melon on the list of misdemeanors, if not crimes. In spite of this, the people of the sunny South, — black as well as white, have little to pay, in money or in labor, for all the watermelons they can eat through the long season. What’s more, they get _ the best, because the sweetest, thinnest-rinded, na _ best-flavored melons do not bear shipping. ay ao d _ Northern Barrens have a short-growing 8 season, tf _ §EED-VESSELS WE EAT _ but there are quick-growing varieties of water- ae melons suited to their needs. By starting the ie seeds in flower pots, or berry baskets, or planting — | _ them in inverted sods, the young plants are well : along when the time comes to set them in the B garden. A great saving of time is thus achieved. P Liquid manure or other quick fertilizer forces growth, and good culture does the rest. The best soil is a light, warm, sandy loam. a White-fleshed melons may be sweet and fine- _ flavored, so may the yellow-fleshed_ varicties. a But the American taste prefers a red-fleshed water- melon, with black seeds, and not too many of them | _ —all in a thin, but strong, protecting rind, pre- on _ ferably dark green. ie - California is a great state for sin ee He because of the i intense heat of some interior valleys, and the warm climate of all the lower half of the state. The earliest crop comes to market from inland in June. July and August have the 4 heaviest yield. An acre produces, on an average, a _acarload of marketable melons. This means one Be fm fundred dozen. They run) up to one hundred |.) pounds and over; a twenty-pound melon is con- : _ sidered the smallest size to sell. Smaller ones would grade the whole lot to their level, and that A doesn’t pay. i | Hie de 9 by” Oe a ed hy) a ae, Were al EV) 244 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS The record in size is held by a Georgia melon weighing 134 pounds. California boasts the next one, which weighed 1312 pounds. A hard-fleshed, globular watermelon with little sweetness is the so-called “‘citron,’’ whose thick flesh is used for making sweet pickles and other preserves. It has ‘no relation to the true citron we get in candied form. That is a near relative of the orange. ! The muskmelon, or canteloupe, grows ania on the coasts of Guinea, in Central Africa, and in southwestern Asia. ‘The fruit is tasteless, and does not exceed the average lemon in size. Who could see and taste that unpromising pepo, and dream of a Rocky Ford or an Emerald Gem! Every country with a hot climate, and light, but rich, sandy loam can grow this most delicious of garden products with little trouble. Northern states have a short season, but they grow the best melons and most of them. New Jersey produces one half of the crop grown in the United States. It supplies the great cities of the North — coast. | The two types of muskmelons grown in this country are the early, short-seasoned, nutmeg — melons (with a soft, netted rind), and the long- seasoned, hard-rinded, and furrowed canteloupe, SEED-VESSELS WE EAT __ 245 proper. The names are often used interchange- - ably. In California, which produces fine melons for home and eastern markets from May to December, the term “‘canteloupe” is the one in use for all varieties. The most famous variety in the United States, east and west, is the Rocky Ford, named for a town in Colorado, the centre of the district which _ produced and distributed this unequalled strain of the old “‘Netted Gem.” Something in the soil and situation of these Colorado melon fields especially fits them to grow the sweetest, richest melons yet placed on the market. The flesh is thick and green, and finely netted outside. One and a half pounds is the average size. This variety exceeds others in yield of marketable fruit in the wonderfully productive melon fields of Colorado and California. Michigan has a favorite strain of the same old variety. The Osage supplies near and distant markets in the central northern states. The Montreal Market, a Canadian strain, is a favorite f. an the Northeast, and is grown even in California. The Cassaba, or pineapple canteloupe, is a _ large, smooth-skinned, furrowed melon, with rich, creamy flesh, flavored somewhat like a pineapple. The chief distinction of this variety, and the sub- 6m it Bela PY GW I it Sh 246 THE BOOK OF USEFUL | PLANTS | varieties derived from it in the past few years, is that its season is late, and it bears after other melon crops are gone. The ripe fruit is stored for months and keeps well in transportation to eastern markets for the holiday trade. In Persia and Turkestan, and all Mediterranean — countries, north and south, melons have from the earliest times been a staple article of food for all classes of people. The improvement of the culti- vated varieties has produced far more forms than we know in American gardens and markets. The 8 ihe ts ike , eis , — i ee = a ae 4 H 7 : A = ay i ee ee ee pe Bale French horticulturists have led in the work of im- provement, and French gardeners excel in the production of dessert qualities, in hothouses, melon-pits, and in the field. England has too cool a climate for outdogr melon culture, but raises choice varieties to perfection under glass. SQUASHES AND PUMPKINS Professor Bailey, in his ‘Lessons with Plants,” tells us how to distinguish a pumpkin from a squash at a glance. Look at the stem. Does it flare at the point where it joins the fruit? Is it — i" a ridgéd and furrowed stem? ‘Then the fruit a bearsisa pumpkin. Is the stem soft, “spongy, and 4 cylindrical, 1 not enlarged at the junction wi the ee Ee a a Ee sig ag Sy TES a ee =a =e eee % + SS Ss Ps ‘SEED-VESSELS “WE EAT be eg fruit? fe cke are the demu ereriities a the stem - of a squash. Such stems have the Hubbard and turban varieties. The large cheese pumpkin, _ Japanese pumpkins, and the cushaws show this flare. But the sweet, summer pumpkin does not. Its hard, ridged stem is the tell-tale Sei ase trademark. The only disconcerting feature of this con- venient classification is the fact that the crook- ‘neck and patty-pan squashes line up among the pumpkins, and the big Chili pumpkins are Soauae Hie , | So when we make a pumpkin pie it may turn. out to be a squash pie, judged by strictly botanical standards. By any name it is good enough for hungry Americans in the middle of a hard day’s work, corn-husking in the fall of the year. On the Thanksgiving dinner table no distinction is made between pumpkin and squash pie. But the botanist has the best of the argument at last, because the group he calls pumpkins may. be planted alongside of squashes and they will not intercross, as do the. came within the two groups. “Gourd” is the European name for all the pepo fruits. “Pumpkin” is the name given to the huge varieties. The English ‘‘marrows” we know as 248 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS — summer squashes, the soft-fleshed, delicately flav-_ ored members of the group. | In California all kinds of squashes and pumpkins grow to large size. Single specimens have been exhibited that weighed over 300 pounds, and accredited yields have gone above thirty tons to the acre in an ordinary season. ’ Fifty feet a | vine and a wagonload of fruit will be the yield of a well-tilled vine. 7 Professor Wickson, dean of the State College of Agriculture, has published the following report © received from a farmer in Santa Barbara County, and thereby he vouches for the truth of the story: a ‘*] planted my squashes in May, and harvested them in October. Finding that they were un- usually large, I weighed ten of the largest and found that their aggregate weight was one ton and fifty odd pounds, the largest weighing 225 pounds. This squash was exhibited at the county fair, and received the first prize. On the fifteenth of October, which was my boy’s sixteenth birthday, I cut open one of the other squashes that weighed 210 pounds, and took out the seeds. My boy then got into it, and I put the piece in place, completely closing him in. I then persuaded my eighteen-year-old daughter to get — oes SEED-VESSELS WE EAT =—. 249 into it, and I closed her in, in the same manner. My daughter’s weight was 110 pounds. I next put my two seven-year-old boys in at once. I then put my three little girls in at once; they were aged respectively six, four, and two years, their united weight being 116 pounds. I placed the largest child in the bottom and the little ones on top, and then put on the lid. The squash was three feet four inches in length.” The seeds of all the melon tribe contain consider- able nutritious substance, but we must go to a far country before we find them used as human food. The Chinese dote upon them, as we do upon pea- nuts and salted almonds. In a Chinese theatre the stranger is soon conscious of a murmur made of little, crackling sounds. It is the snapping and crunching of dry melon seeds by the men and boys in the pit, whose pockets bulge with them. They would not enjoy the play without these seeds to nibble, as they watch events on the stage. OLIVES The pale green leaves and the gray bark of the olive trees blend with the ashy soil that lies on the slopes of Vesuvius and Attna. It is amazing that people have courage to plant again the groves that 250 an eenerion of the aeuens voleane may at is, | any moment destroy. It is a wonderful tree that ai will grow in soil made chiefly of ashes. The olive _ does this, and grows to huge size and astonishing ah age, if the fates permit. Native of Asia Minor, the olive is probably the oldest of all cultivated fruit trees. It is one of the earliest mentioned in the Bible and other ancient writings. The oil-producing plants were not so numerous as now, and oil was a staple product, 4 with many uses. | Oe The Mediterranean countries cultavaten the) olive tree when the Aryan peoples migrated west- __ ward. North Africa, Australia, and now the great Southwest in our own country are olive- growing regions that ship the oil and the fruit to parts of the world too cold for the trees to grow. France and Spain and Italy produce much of the oil sent to America, but no better oil is made than that which California sends to market. We need a few years more to learn this important fact, for _ we still cling to the idea that things “‘imported” — q are better than home products. Slowly we are : getting over this foolish notion. ae When the olives drop from a branch that is re shaken, it is time to pick them, even ‘though they | i : be hard and green, if pickled green olives are to be at a Se ee ee a “SEED-VESSELS WE EAT Ok eae If they are to be pickled ripe, or pressed _ for oil, they are left until ripe, but not so long that _ they turn black and soften. If picked too early, the oil tastes bitter; if too late, itis rancid. Sothe picking must be carefully timed. , Then, it must be done by hand, and the fruit cleaned of any spoiled or shrivelled specimens. The idea of eating fresh fruits off of the trees will do i in the case of oranges and erapefruit in California, but olives, green or ripe, are bitter and utterly distasteful in the natural state. | To pickle green olives, the workers soak them in weak lye to take out the bitter taste, then rinse and soak in brine, with certain aromatic flavorings.. The better method is to pickle the fruit ripe, but this process is far more difficult. The same proc- esses are necessary, but they take longer time, and the softening and discoloration of the fruit must be guarded against. The nutty flavor of the ripe olive, and its oily content, make it one of the most nutritious and agreeable of foods. The green olive is an appetizer, and that is about all _ one can claim for it. The extracting of oil from olives is simple. Any one with a cider press can doit. In this way families supply themselves with oil for salads and for cooking, in various olive-growing communities. Se aoe Z Saar, ght nee ee See 252 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS But for commercial oil production, mills are estab- lished that handle the yield of entire sections, thus making the crop more profitable for all con- cerned. The olives are dried slightly in the sun, or by artificial heat, to make handling easier. Then they are crushed, pits and flesh, to break the cells that contain the oil. Next, the “pomace”’ is formed into blocks a yard square and three inches thick, called “cheeses,” between folds of thick linén crash. ‘Ten ‘cheeses, separated by frames made of wooden slats, are piled one upon another, and a gentle pressure starts the oil to flowing. This ‘is the best. It is called “virgin oil) ae generally goes in with the next grade, making the most expensive quality sold. Before the third pressing, the cakes are broken up in water, cold or hot. The last pressing gets only inferior oil, used for lighting or soap-making. From the presses the oil flows into settling vats. It is dark in color, and contains impurities that form a sediment. From one vat to another the oil is drawn, until, at the end of four or five months, it is clear yellow, and ready for sealing in bottles or tins. | The Padres brought the olive trees from Spain _ into Mexico, and California. The ‘‘Mission”’ SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 253 olive, planted around the old Franciscan missions, is the variety best known and best liked in Cali- fornia. Wherever the climate is hot and the air dry, olives grow on irrigated land. But a humid climate will not do. So the olive is not a fruit of the Tropics. | TOMATOES Your grandmother has told you that in her childhood people grew for mere curiosity a plant that bore red fruits called “love apples.” They brought them in when ripe, and set them on the mantelpiece to admire, until a break in the skin, or a soft spot warned of approaching decay. To eat one of these fruits was not thought of. Couldn’t one tell by the rank smell of the sappy stems that the plant is poisonous? If any one had dared to taste one of these little red “‘apples,’? he would have found it tasteless, full of seeds and thick, green partitions, one or more, separating the interior into compartments. The botanist who named the wild tomato plant must have tasted the fruit, and found it bad enough, for he gave it the Latin name, Lycoper- sicum, which means “‘wolf-peach’’? — a peach fit only for the meanest of wild beasts, the dread of mankind. He knew the plant belongs to the 254 to the taste. The beauty of its red berries brave the tomato ic he into gardens. Selection of the biggest berries for seed led to the gradual improvement of the species, and the modification of the typical fruit. in form, in size, and incolor. The earliest toma- toes were the cherry, currant, and pear; small- fruited varieties resembling the edible fruits for ' which they were named. Two hundred years ago yellow forms were grown. About the beginning of the nineteenth century certain horticulturists began the improvement of the tomato as a garden vegetable, and through their efforts the host of fine varieties has been developed. ee The little cherry variety is worth growing as an ornamental plant, and the cluster-fruited currant tomatoes will cover an unsightly rubbish heap, and make it a thing of beauty along the road. But over the garden wall see the great, smooth “love apples!”? The ridged partitions are firm, juicy a flesh, and the seeds are scarce and negligible undef the thin skin of the best salad fruit in the world 7 | Nightshade F ie all poisonous, as sell as bitter iii If you like variety, there are white tomatoes, 4 yellow ones, pink-cheeked ones, as delicately tinted — as any peach. If red is the only color for you, there are the scarlet and the crimson varieties, |. SEED-VESSELS WE EAT ae and the deep, purplish ones. The Po yicas weigh two and three pounds, and measure near twenty inches in circumference. Higher quality is found in varieties of smaller size. Early, mid- season, and late varieties cover the growing season, furnishing material for the canneries, the pickle factories, and the table. Besides salads, which use the tomatoes raw, either whole or sliced, there are ‘soups, stews, and various made dishes that use them. Stewed or baked tomatoes are delicious. ‘The small varieties are used whole in preserves and marmalades. Ketchups and relishes of other sorts are made for winter use from ripe tomatoes. | Green ones are made into similar piquant sauces to serve with meats. The best tomato region has a long-growing season, warm soil, and abundance of sunshine. The soil needs not be very rich, but it must be moist and well-drained. The stems are flexible, and need staking as soon as they begin to bear fruit. The flowers appear early, in clusters at the joints, the little yellow bells soon followed by the berries, that weigh the branches down, and cause the whole plant to thoy on the ground unless it _ 4s tied up to a stiff support. Tons of tomatoes are grown in fields of the Sauth for shipment to northern markets before loca! OE EN i ER C'S Sh EAA Ci en a a nie iat : Me rit eh met 256 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS __ market gardeners can supply the demand. The price of fresh tomatoes in winter and early spring is high, but gradually goes down as spring brings in the crop from the Carolinas, Virginia, Delaware, and New Jersey, to the New York markets. In the gardens and fields of warm parts of the world, the tomato plants are practically ever-bearing. In colder sections they are sensitive to frost, amd are grown as annuals. ‘Tomatoes for Thanks- giving Day salads may be had in the North by pulling up the plants and hanging them in the cellar loaded with their green fruits. These will ripen gradually, and so furnish the fruit long after frost has killed the plants outdoors. EGG-PLANTS The botanist defines a berry as a fleshy pericarp with many seeds. This is not what the horti- culturist means, for a berry to him means a little, soft, sweet fruit, without reference to its struct- ure. Botanically speaking, the egg-plant, is a giant berry. With it ranks the potato ball, and the tomato, as well as currants and gooseberries. And blackberries and raspberries are not seis but aggregate fruits. _ | The egg-plant i is one of the nightshade group, ja19y SOUP ST Aeq Sutlatssyueyy, _ popyord jun ‘Tes se a}j1q ore ‘odt1 Jo useis — SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 257 - a member of the same genus with the potato. Native of India, it has spread widely in warm countries, and hardy varieties have made possible its culture in regions where the climate is moder- ately cold, and the growing season short. The little plants are well grown under glass, until the soil is warm enough to insure quick and continuous growth in the garden. The fruit furnishes a most acceptable vegetable food to people who live in desert and semi-arid regions. The purple, smooth egg-plants grow larger than a man’s head, oval, as a rule, though some vari- eties are elongated to resemble cucumbers. The _ flesh is white, and waxy, but firm, and darkens on exposure to air. It is usual to slice the fruit after peeling it, and sprinkle salt between the layers; then place a weight upon them to press out the water. Drained of this accumulation of undesir- able liquid, the slices are ready, in an hour, to be dipped in egg, then in cracker crumbs, then fried in butter, peppered lightly, and served hot as may be. Stuffed with a mixture of chopped meat and breadcrumbs, rather highly seasoned, the — whole egg-plant is often baked in its skin. The filling seasons the rather insipid flesh, and absorbs its excess moisture. One plant yields a dozen fruits in the South. 258. THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS s) ‘ wal bf \ hes In the North, half that number will be a fair wick . before frost cuts short the season. The little fruits are edible, but rather peppery, compared with large ones. The market sizes range about as — muskmelons do. . | The egg-plant produces its fruit even though failure of the blossoms to be pollenated results in seedless forms. From the cook’s sana this improves the vegetable. | RED PEPPERS The big, green “bell peppers”’ are now as com- mon as any vegetable, and mild enough to make a most agreeable addition to salads. But their ancestors, and some of their near relatives, are hot as fire, due to a bitter juice that is especially strong in the seeds and the tissues to which they are attached. Cutting out the white “cores” re- moves the burning parts, and the walls of the pods are ready to eat, rawor cooked. They ‘‘go with” tomatoes particularly well, each adding a good flavor to the other when stewed together. When ripened, the bell peppers are red and hotter in taste than before, but they are milder still than the little _ varieties. Peppers seem to be hottest in the smallest kinds. Strangely, it would seem, people : 259 7 of ot conntiies tile peppery foods. A hot - stomach may act as a counter-irritant to the hot _ SEED-VESSELS WE EAT : climate. : | | a The tiny, slim peppers of Tabasco sauce are the 4 hottest of the hot, cylindrical peppers. One of these furnishes the Cayenne pepper of commerce. | ‘The thin, red shell is ground when dry, and used _. sparingly asacondiment. It is much more whole- some than black pepper. | . Chillies, or Chiles, are group names applied to the little, hot peppers so universally used in hot countries to season’stews and other savory dishes. _ One sees strings of these little red fingers hang- ing up to dry over the entrances to houses and shops in Mexico and the south of Europe. The fiery temperament of the Latin races may q demand fiery condiments; or it may be the result of such appetite. We Northerners would not like to spare the dash of red pepper in P. our salads, the piquant flavor of the fresh red __ peppers in mixed pickles, nor the mild vegetable " developed by plant breeders as large as an apple, - and enjoyable eaten out of the hand, like an a, apple. 4 Paprika is a red powder made of the dry pods a of mild, sweet peppers. It can be used far more ae freely than the pungent Cayenne. Bic ty aang dy Na ies yours) sh 260 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS _ CUCUMBERS The balsam apple and the burr cucumber, that wind their branching tendrils over the shrubby growth of neglected fence rows, along the river banks, and hang their spiny fruits where all can see, are the wild representatives we have of a great | botanical family, that has furnished us many use- ful garden vegetables and fruits. In the Order Cucurbitacez, belong melons, pumpkins, squashes, gourds, and cucumbers. Any one would class them together, for all have the distinct form and seed arrangement that the botanists call a pepo. The English gardener classes pumpkin and squash and vegetable marrow under the group name, gourd. This is not the American way. We group all under the name, cucurbits. The members prove their tropical origin by being sensitive to cold, requiring, in northern gardens, to be started in warm quarters, and set in the ground when the weather is warm. They have another peculiarity: they get a severe check in growth if the roots are disturbed by transplanting. The practice is to start the seeds in bricks of inverted sod, or in soil packed in flower pots or berry boxes. The sod or box can be set in the ground without disturbing the little SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 261 plant at all. The earth in the pot, too, can be slipped out and planted. OR ‘The cucumber is a native of the East Indies, and has been cultivated in China for three thousand years. One of the staple foods of the peoples of the Far East is boiled cucumbers. Europeans boil them, and also make them into pickles and preserves. The flowers appear in the axils of the leaves, staminate and pistillate separate, but borne on the same plant. The pistillate flowers -wither, and the little button under the greenish- yellow corolla develops into the elongated fruit. _ The rough “gherkin” type of cucumber, grown _. for pickles, is cut before the faded flower drops _ from the tip. The choicest sweet pickles, by our standards, are scarcely two inches long, though more commonly we let them grow to twice that length before cutting. ‘The vines go on bearing all summer. Forsalads, cucumbers are grown almost to mature size. | Ripe cucumbers are indigestible, when eaten raw, and their seeds are hard. The flesh is used for sweet pickles and preserves, as the white inner rind of watermelon is, with lemon peel and spices to give it added flavor. } Cucumber vines spread six or eight feet from the hill, so they must be given enough room, or neighbors’ territory. They must have the sun and air. Then they bear tremendously, unless the | een. they hinder each other s. overrunning there a Me ground gets too dry, and the vines burn under af the combined heat of sun and winds. Unusual forms or cucumbers are grown for — curiosity. The snake or serpent species is more a — melon than a cucumber. It grows three or four feet long, twisting its slender body in and out among the foliage, and finally turning yellow as it ripens. The oldest varieties were three-angled, indicating the fact that the seeds are arranged in long ridges, as we see when slicing aie cu- cumber crosswise. _ Lemon cucumbers are globular or lintel, oval, : and about the size and color of alemon. In flesh © and flavor they are very delicate. 'The California gardener brings them to your door, and they grow — to perfection in gardens outside of New York City. So they may be had by us in most any warm tem- perate region. They lend a pleasant variety to garden cucumbers, and, having so little green in. the skins, they lack the bitter taste that ordinary cucumbers have. We must believe that they are | more digestible than the green ones. As a salad vegetable this variety is especially welcomed by all who are devoted to cucumbers, but must. eat a t | is a name applied bipane to any a Be eis « cucumber. The en ehrkin Dia CHAPTER VIII Cacao ~ [F a census could be taken of all hungry chil- _ dren to-day, and they could have “just what they want’ to cure what ails them, the order for choco- s late would be bigger than for any other on the list. Here is a candy that is a nutritious food, too. It has not the objectionable features of most candies, if good grades are bought. A generation oe ago, children had never heard of chocolate, and very little came to America. To illustrate how suddenly chocolate and cocoa have come in: the - - imports increased 70 per cent. between 1901 and 1905, amounting to 70,000,000 pounds annually at the time of the last census. European coun- tries are quite as fond of chocolate as the _ United States. Hamburg is the greatest port _ and distributing centre for this article. Havre is second. The Dutch are great chocolate and cocoa manufacturers and consumers. So are : the Swiss. Much of our importation is from these countries, as the labels tell us. The raw 267 RA a iad we ee x NTE See 268 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS materials for our own factories come chiefly from Trinidad. : | The cacao is a small tropical tree whose hard seeds furnish the cocoa and chocolate of com- merce. ‘‘Cocoa’’ is merely a misspelling of the Spanish name of the tree. When the botanist, Linneus, was called upon to give the tree a scientific name, he sampled its fruit in the form of a cup of hot chocolate. So happy it made the great man to know that any tree could produce so delicious a beverage, he did not hesitate a moment. He called it “Theobroma,” which means ‘‘food of the gods.” By that name botanists all call the cacao trees. | Off in the river bottoms of parts of Central and South America, the Theobroma grows wild. The trees are also found in rank forests in British Guiana, under Dutch rule called Demarara. When the Spanish explorers came to Mexico first they found the natives growing plantations of cacao trees they had transplanted from the wilds. From that day the cultivation of the tree has spread to the tropics of all countries. The traveller who visits the cacao plantations notes with surprise that the cultivated trees do not differ from the wild ones; that new orchards are grown from seed, or from little trees dug out Ne of the woods. The idea of improving the stock BEVERAGE PLANTS 269 by selection, and multiplying varieties by grafting and budding in nurseries, has not yet been put into practice. The cacao industry is waiting for - northern scientific minds to work out these prob- lems. The most important fact so far discovered by ‘growers of the tree is that, though it is almost universal to see the plantations on moist ground, the trees do far better on upland soil. It re- quires care to make-the little trees comfortable _ when first transplanted. ‘ They must be watered and shaded by taller plants for a time. The native planters learned long ago that pod- bearing plants are best as “‘nurse trees” to the cacaos. They did not know why. We know that only the plants of the pod-bearing family __ gather nitrogen from the air and store it in nodules on the roots. When the tops die, the stored ni- trogen is given to the soil by the slow decay of the roots. So the leguminous nurse trees first protect the cacaos from sun and wind, but afterward they | feed them. | The cacao grows to thirty feet in height, and reaches the end of its bearing period at about thirty-six years. Four-year-old trees begin to bear. The fruit is a rough, red, . yellow, or brown - So a Ae Ee ya The beans while roasting lose their bitter taste, ca ial pod, six inches toa bat fon: taped al one oT " Inside the rind is a pulpy mass in which are em- bedded twenty to thirty-five hard seeds, clustered somewhat as watermelon seeds are, at the centre of the pod. The seeds are the useful parts. Gathering the cacao pods is particular business, _ and must be done by hand. They grow out of the main trunk, and out of the big branches, a very strange arrangement it seems to those who > are used to seeing oranges and apples borne on the slender branches of the trees. In cutting the pods from the trunk one must avoid cutting the ~ encircling buds that are set close to the stem of © each. New pods come from these buds. A single fruit follows each cluster of blossoms. The best way to proceed is to open the pods at once after they are gathered, and put the beans in a box that slowly revolves, so as to give them uniform treatment, without loss of heat during the days they ferment, and lose their bitter plans A week usually suffices. | | The seeds are washed clean, then pitied by sizes for even roasting in rotating, heated drums. their starch is converted into dextrin, and the fa- _ miliar aroma of cocoa is developed. Next, the thin — hulls are easily loosened by a gentle, rolling press- BEVERAGE PLANTS beet ure, for on has made eth brittle. A winnow- ing process separates them, leaving the solid meats, now called ‘“‘cocoa nibs.” They break easily; indeed there is no way to prevent them from breaking while the hulls are being removed. We can buy cocoa as nibs in grocery stores. Some a people make cocoa by boiling these. Others are _ better pleased’ with the ground beans; the nibs P. make a beverage too rich’for their taste. The _ difference is this: The nibs contain cocoa oil; it constitutes 50 per cent. of the substance of them. - In the manufacture of cocoa, ake nibs are ground fine, and the mass is subjected to great pressure. _ The fat oozes out and hardens into yellowish cocoa butter. What is left is a cake of brown substance, a which again goes through the grinders, and is a ready to be boxed and labelled for sale. This is __ the unsweetened cocoa we buy. : "The cocoa butter extracted turns white in course | of time, but it keeps without becoming rancid; so. it is used in making ointments and salves that _ druggists keep for sale. | One objection to the manufactured cocoa is that it is frequently adulterated with cheap starch a Jike Brazilian arrowroot. Only the reputation of good manufacturers can defend the public from ay he a 272 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS impositions like this. The same is true of choco- late manufacturers. aah In making a cup of cocoa, the cook usually adds sugar. In making chocolate, she does not. Chocolate is a richer beverage than cocoa. The — reason is clear once we know how both are made. Cocoa contains all there is in the nibs except the fat, and it should contain nothing more. To make chocolate, the manufacturer grinds the nibs to a fine powder; adds a certain amount of sugar, flavors with vanilla, and mixes these ingredients into a paste, which is moulded into the tablets and cakes we buy. For cooking purposes, some brands — of chocolate are unsweetened. But the fat is in all grades.. Rich as chocolates are, they are poor stuff if the makers have used glucose for sugar and imitation vanilla extract, with a generous amount of cheap starch taking the place of the cocoa they pretend to use. The cheap chocolates are lacking not only in nutritiousness but in the good flavor of the genuine. er not utterly worthless. The drug, theobromzne, is ex- tracted from them, as well as from the beans, and they are also used as food for cattle. They con- tain elements that enrich the soil, therefore they — are dug in as fertilizer in orchards of cacao trees. Opening the pods to take out the cocoa beans, from which cocoa and chocolate are made be A, oh ORR REE EE OOS The sweet water of this century plant is good to drink, even before it ferments BEVERAGE PLANTS 2°73 TEA The American man who goes to London for a short stay knows that the late afternoon is not the time to do business with a Briton. One impor- tant engagement calls people of high and low degree — they must go and get their tea. You _ cannot stay the universal impulse with any protest that your time is limited and your errand urgent. Nothing takes precedence of afternoon tea. The clerks go, and you cannot get waited on in the shops. Every business is shorthanded for the -time except the places where tea is served. ‘They are crowded. An army of servants move swiftly forward to save the lives of famishing fellow- countrymen, bearing pots of tea and hot water, with little cakes, and thin slices of buttered bread. Before six o’clock the hum of industry. is resumed. The man of business is ready to see you. The world is a good place to live in, for evervagy| is fortified by his tea. Pretty much the same the traveller finds in other European cities, where the British tourist has impressed upon the inn-keepers the necessity for afternoon tea service of the kind rigidly his own. English tea rooms attract Americans, who readily fall into the tea habit. We wonder how * PPh BURRIS oe FOES SN Pa OAC TR TOA Oks Pet RA eh ee ee rere ke oe a ee Ki Wied Ary aly pl f * Ws ts { oe oa iby Ti an i if mW f ; wate 7 WEP eae 274 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ” soon, if ever, the business. men of America will take to tea-drinking in the late afternoon. Great Britain is the nation of tea-drinkers. 'The colonies follow the mother country, and where the Englishman goes into the wilds, he carries his tea- ~ pot and a supply of the dried leaf. The tea con- sumed in Australasia averages over seven pounds a year for every man, woman, and child! England herself does not come up to this record. The whole United Kingdom averages a little over six pounds per capita. The United States consumes one and a third pounds. With us, coffee is the breakfast beverage. In the British possessions it is breakfast tea, first, last, and allthe time. Tea again in the afternoon, and coffee at the end of dinner — for the stomach’s sake! . | The tea plant is a shrub that may grow to the height of thirty feet, if left to its own way. ‘The leaves are leathery and tapering, with saw-toothed edges, varying greatly in size on the same twig. The flowers vary in color from white to deep rose, their waxy petals and central bunch of yellow stamens making them look like single wild roses. The seeds are usually three, a-single one being borne in each of three cells of the dry capsule. — A near relative of the camellia, the tea plant deserves to be cultivated for its bloom and its . BEVERAGE PLANTS 275 beautiful foliage. It requires a climate that is at least warm temperate, so it is not hardy north of __ our Gulf states. In these it is by no means an uncommon plant. ae The leaf is the only commercial product of the tea plant. For this it has been cultivated for - five thousand years, if we can believe the ancient Chinese, writings that make mention of it. Until 500 A. D., tea leaves were used as a medicine only. _ Then tea became a beverage, and sprang into popularity in the Orient. | | In Assam, a province of India that borders on _ China,a species of tea has been found growing wild, _ and botanists have considered this fact as evidence : that this is the ancestral home of the plant. Tradition says that China is its home. Nobody can prove either claim. The interesting fact is that from the wild tea have sprung varieties that - thrive in all tropical countries, and the industry _ -based on tea culture is one of the most important in the commercial world. | America, which is not a good customer of the _ tea merchant, buys each year over four million _ pounds from Japan alone. Fifteen million dollars 4 a year we spend for tea in oriental markets. And we are not obliged to buy abroad either, for tea _ from South Carolina plantations is now to be had. ~ 276 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS Farmers’ Bulletin No. 301, of the Department of Agriculture at Washington tells all about this. Write for George F. Mitchell’s report on ‘‘ Home-’ grown Tea,” stating the number of the bulletin as above, and it will be sent you free. Very amusing are the accounts of the early attempts to introduce to a skeptical public the plants we now use so commonly that we assume they have always been used. China taught the other Eastern countries to drink tea. ‘Tradition says that in the days of ‘‘good Queen Bess” a package of tea was sent to an old couple in England © by their son who was a sailor, and saw much of the world. They brewed the tea as he told them to, but threw away the brown liquid, and ate the leaves spread on their bread! About the middle of the seventeenth century a tea house was opened in London, but the new beverage was expensive and did not come into general use until many years later, when British India began to send home tea grown in her own tea gardens. The beginning of this great enterprise dates at the year 1840. The contest between India and China, the two great rivals for the tea trade of civilized countries, _ has been going on ever since, and the British _ growers have beaten their competitors. But China has a big home market, and Asiatic countries i BEVERAGE PLANTS 277 _ deal largely with their neighbor on the east. And the demand for tea is growing in all countries except the United States where it is falling off. The tea seed is started in a special seed bed, and the little plants set out irrigated in nursery rows that are well tended, and sheltered from the sun. When about a foot high they are transplanted and cultivated until they are three years old. Then they are well covered with young leaf shoots — called “flush,”’ and the first picking is done. As the branches lengthen, pruning is needed to induce the sprouting of new leafy shoots. This “flush” is constantly renewed, and the-bearing of flowers ‘is discouraged. _ The plucking is hand-work of a very particular kind. It is an open question whether or not tea can be profitably raised in the Southern States, where labor costs so much more than in China and India and Ceylon. There coolie labor costs very little. ‘Tea growing is practicable in this country. But tea harvesting may be impracti- cable. | ! If one could only be sure he is getting what he pays for, he might be more interested in the fol- lowing classification and names of brands used in Ceylon. The three leaves nearest the tip of the shoots make the “‘pekoe” teas. The larger leaves Re? iad ce ED Kate AAW IST ONLY | oe on en ; hy MP AG ian rahi MEME eine sett, it Oi 278 ‘THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS " cai below make ‘‘souchong,”’ and then “congou”’ teas. The tip leaf, smallest of all,makes*‘ flowery pekoe’’; the second leaf, “orange pekoe”’; the third, just “‘pekoe.”’ A mixture of this size with) (he jmext makes ‘‘pekoe-souchong” tea. The younger the leaf and smaller, the more delicate and expensive the tea. | | Green tea and black tea are differently made. All tea leaves may be made into either, though some varieties are more easily converted into black than others. And green teas are made from leaves grown in cooler climates, while black teas are the more common product of the warmer regions where tea is grown. Some regions make both’ kinds. | u Green tea is made by rolling the leaves and then drying them. Rolling breaks the cells that contain the refreshing, stimulating ‘printiple, theine, and the astringent acid, tannin, that gives flavor to the beverage. Without the process, the — flavor would remain locked up in the leaf cells. The rolling allows the oil to spread over the leaf asit dries. Green tea which is laid out in the open air after the rolling process until a fermenting and oxidizing process takes place changes to a dark 7 color, from which it later takes the name, “black a tea ic rege aaa PLANTS” | 279 PPiterent’ countries have their own methods of ating tea. They involve much special knowledge and skill, much use of the hands and sometimes the feet! This course of moulding, rolling, tread- _ ing, and firing is a secretin some parts of China. | But the essential processes are known, and machin- ery has been substituted for coolie labor in some » _ places. The product so pleases the tea experts that more modern methods will surely supersede the time-honored, primitive ones. Green tea is distrusted because coloring matter is often used to give it a more attractive appear- ance. Since the American trade demands a _ green tea,"and does not exclude, by law, teas con- taining injurious dyes, we can hardly blame the shrewd manufacturers for catering to our taste. COFFEE. The coffee shrub is grown in sections of all tropical countries, producing yearly for the mar- kets of the world 1,500,000,000 pounds of the beans. Brazil raises three fourths of this crop. © TheUnited States consumes one half of the world’s aces SS . AOS agen S Rae aes ae ae =< +2 eae i, s coffee crop. ‘This astonishing demand places the average for each man, woman, and child in the country between eleven and twelve pounds. Great Britain consumes less than one pound per 280 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS capita. So we are the great coffee-drinkers of the globe, as the English are the great tea-drinkers. Only Norway, Sweden, and Holland are addicted to the coffee habit to the extent that we Ameri- cans are. Germany has a coffee average equal to England’s consumption of tea. Much tea is grown in little gardens. Coffee is grown on plantations of considerable extent. More than fifty thousand of these estates are the producers of the coffee crop, all employing cheap native labor, and using more or less modern methods and machinery in growing and preparing ~ the crop for market. The best coffee regions have an even tempera-. ture, far cooler than the tropics at sea level, and abundant rainfall. The right climatic conditions are best found on hills or mountain sides of about two thousand feet elevation. The altitude ranges, however, from one thousand to twenty-five hun- dred feet. The thermometer must not fall below 60° F., and the soil must be rich and deep, with much humus, to hold moisture and to prevent washing when the hard rains come. Virgin for- ests are cleared for coffee. In spite of the labor of getting trees off, the soil is rich and free from weeds, and such new plantations justify the bard work of clearing. Fond ee esr San) tN ~ ¢ $ ee ee = oe > BEVERAGE PLANTS 281 - Now we come to the plant itself, with some curiosity, for few of us who read about it have ever seen it growing, or ever expect to. Ride up toone of the coffee plantations that covers the hillsides in Brazil or Porto Rico, and the courteous owner will send some competent person to show you around. He is pleased if you express a wish to 4 Bee the industry of coffee-growing from the be- ginning. The seed bed is in a sheltered corner, with screens to keep both sun and wind from the plants that come up after the sowing of seeds. If the first whorl of leaves is showing, the plants are being reset in the nursery, where they have six inches of space around each one, and the most careful weeding, shading, and protection from winds. As the stems lengthen, the plants are gradually hardened by leaving off the artificial shade, and when the fourth leaf whorl is de- veloped, the plant is lifted, with all the undis- turbed earth the spade can carry, and set in its place in the field. : Coffee plants are perennials, of course. They have woody stems that branch into a round shrub form, and glossy leaves that come out in pairs along the straight, slender twigs, like ets ona walnut tree. 282. THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ys : The beauty of these little trees you will remark Ae as they stand under the shade of the nurse trees, | with which young orchards are usually set. But wait till you go over into a tract of three-year-old plants. The white flowers shine like stars, and breathe a sweet fragrance. They appear at the axils of the leaves, where they are not at all numerous, but quite large. This is their first bloom. Three times a year, from this time for- ward, the plant blooms, the flowers followed by fruit that takes eight months to mature.’ This is why the older bushes have both flowers and fruit: in the same cluster, apparently. | | Light crops are borne by coffee plants up to the sixth year, when the normal habit of bearing is reached, and a pound of dried berries are ex- pected as the yield of the average tree. The berries ripen unevenly, so the crop is picked by hand, and very carefully, so as not to injure the berries that are coming on. The harvest time lasts four months. The picking ‘costs $1.20 to $1.40 per hundredweight of berries in Porto Rico. Whole families turn into the fields at the coffee harvest, and it is as jolly a season as cotton- picking time in the Southern States, and the hop-gathering in New York State. The West Indian negro works for the munificent sum of BEVERAGE PLANTS | 283 35 cents to 50 cents a day, and boys get from Eto cents up! 4 The fruits of the coffee plant are at first green, Spe sae PY full grown and look just like cherries. These ‘“‘cherries”” are not good to eat, though they are fleshy and red. As they change to dark wine color they are ready to pick. at: The fruit contains two hard little ie each flattened on the side that lies next to the other. _ Each seed has a dry, yellow hull that fits it closely, anda filmy inner lining of this horny “parchment,” i _ known in the coffee industry as the “silver skin.” When one of the beans foie to."ni thevsinote | speed remaining takes up all the room, grows to unusual size, and is not flattened. These seeds are carefully culled out of the company of the flat berries, and sold at a higher price under the trade name, “‘pea-berries.”” Another round seed is the berry that grows alone at the tip of each twig. It is smaller than the paired beans, and is sorted out and sold under the trade name, Mocha. This name is borrowed from a variety with small grains and very fine flavor, the best Arabian coffee, which never gets into the American market at all. Indeed, all the coffee raised in Arabia is called Mocha, and buyers from Egypt and Tur- is a a Ee ae i NT th a Ss one ee then yellow, then red. At this stage they are_ 4 284 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS key go into the plantations and buy the crop on the trees. Only the inferior coffee that these buy- ers refuse gets to the port of Mocha, and thence into the market. So the trade name, Mocha and Java, is misleading in the extreme. We might as well understand that the first name would better be dropped. Java coffee comes from the Dutch East Indies, where the plantations are under government control, and methods are very thorough. The Arabian species was at first grown. But unfor- tunately a leaf disease destroyed the industry by killing the trees. The coarser Liberian coffee was introduced and found to be resistant to the blight. Nothing could be done but grow this less desirable, _ but more vigorous and productive species. Since the leaf disease swept the Islands in 1873 and again in 1878, the cultivation of Arabian coffee has been' attempted only by private enterprise, and for household use by families who are willing to take the trouble and the risk for the chance of having the rare, fine Mocha toasted, pulverized, and steeped as a morning beverage, just as their forefathers had it in the good old days. — | Special high quality is accorded by experts to coffee raised in Bolivia. But the home market consumes it all, so we cannot test it. ‘“‘Blue : BEVERAGE PLANTS 285 Mountain”’ coffee, grown at high elevations in Jamaica, commands the highest prices paid any- where. ‘This is a very small crop, absorbed by a very special trade. Mexico is growing coffee that is cheap, as it competes for a place in popular esteem. Hawaii-is an ideal coffee country, and growers are clamoring for protection that will enable the industry to get on its feet. They produce a large, mild, but high-flavored berry, at a cost of about 9 cents per pound. The cherries are treated by the wet or dry process to free the beans. They may be “pulped” by running through a mill that scrapes off the flesh, then allowed to soak and ferment a day or so to rot away the slimy substance that would not come off in the pulping process. | After thorough washing (formerly by trampling the submerged berries with bare feet, now by agitating them mechanically), the water is drawn off, and a number of rinsings clear away the scum, and leave the berries to dry in their bright parch- ment hulls. As rain and dew would retard the drying, the plan is to cover the berries when the sun is gone. Sliding roofs or sliding platforms, that may be shoved under cover, protect the dry- ing berries. Artificial heat is sometimes used. Next, the berries may be sacked for shipment, AlAs Rael uy Vi 286 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS (in . f . cs y or they may be put through the hulling machine, that removes the horny covering. This is the “peeling” process. The winnowing blows away the broken hulls and the silver skins that are © _tubbed off, leaving the coffee bean as it comes to us in the unroasted state. The dry process takes the berries from the pick- ers’ baskets, spreads them to dry on stone floors, where they are raked over to make sure all are dry before they are stored away. When needed, they are freed by pounding from the coat of dried flesh and parchment which are like a single layer, A — hulling machine does the work quickly, and is generally taking the place of the simple mortars. _ The final preparation of coffee berries for mar- ket is the sifting out of broken grains, and grading into different sizes. This is done by the use of sieves of different sized mesh. _ Before using, the berries are roasted till they turn dark brown, then ground or pulverized. The hot water extracts the caffeine and a volatile oil in which resides the flavor of coffee. The stimu- lating and refeshing effect of the caffeine is harmful to some people, and probably to all who drink much of this beverage. We must not for- get that coffee is a much-abused article of com- merce. It is subject to gross adulteration, and BEVERAGE PLANTS _ 287 even the pure coffee becomes unfit for drinking if boiled a long time. Boiling brings out an increas- ing quantity of the caffeine, which is injurious to the nervous system. MATE, OR PARAGUAY TEA Tea-drinking of an entirely new kind the tra- veller meets in the lower half of South America. At first the bitter taste, and the unfamiliar aro- matic taste, of the universal beverage of the people are not atalltohis liking. Butif he sets his mind to it, a liking for the “‘yerba de maté” grows on him. He takes it with pleasure after hours of exercise, and finds his drooping spirits revived, his tired feeling gone. The plant whose leaves are used in making this beverage is a holly that grows as the principal species in vast forests in Paraguay and neighbor- ing countries. A few plantations of the tree have been set, anticipating a possible exhaustion of the native supply. The branches are gathered and - dried over fires. Then the leaves are beaten off and broken or ground into a coarse powder. The highest market grade of the dried herb comes from the youngest leaves. The cheapest grade has twigs and leaf stems in it. wi 288 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS Maté is brewed by pouring hot water over a pinch of the tea leaves held in the bottom of the cup by a disk of wire netting to keep the liquid clear of “grounds.” Sugar is added. The tea is drunk through a tube used as we do a straw for lemonade. But there is a perforated bulb at the base of the tube that strains the tea. PULQUE, THE BEVERAGE OF MEXICO The century plant is our most familiar plant of the Agave tribe. In the dry air of the high- lands of Mexico these fleshy-leaved, robust plants seem to draw water from unknown sources, and store it in their bodies. The Mexican digs a hollow in the central stem, usually by cutting off the flower stalk, and goes away. He returns soon to dip out the accumulation of sweet sap, which he calls “‘agua miel,”’ sweet water. ‘This is good to drink. But after it ferments he likes it better. It is then the bad-smelling, good-tasting pulqué the universal beverage of the people. Foreigners — object to the odor of spoiling meat. But even this does not long keep them from tasting, and really liking, the drink, which can be had in various stages of fermentation. | i 9 Sa ae ee Be tee mre ete i as eee A ge oe pa se re CHAPTER IX TOBACCO Wuen Benzoni, a Spanish explorer, wrote of his _ travels in Mexico, about the middle of the six- oth century, he described plantations of an herb the natives called ‘‘tabacco,”’ the leaf of which was dried and smoked in a pipe. Earlier © in the same century, the islands off to the south- east of Florida were explored by the followers of Columbus, and here tobacco was seen first by civilized men. The natives dried the leaves, then made a little bonfire of them in an open vessel, and sat down before it to inhale the smoke, which gave them a pleasant sensation of physical com- fort. The tool they used was a hollow tube that branched near one end. One arm of the Y was inserted in each nostril, and the other end of the *‘pipe”’ was held where it caught the smoke, close to the smouldering leaves. ‘The North American Indians used a pipe much like those we see to-day, and inhaled the smoke through the mouth. The Y-shaped pipe, first 201 Bye et \ et pres : Ua rb. ae ak SMe ; Sahar NS Bi gh ra ¢ 292 ‘THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS seen on the island of San Domingo, was called “‘tabaco.” So there is little doubt that this funny little nose-pipe gave its name to the plant, which - has spread from its native land, America, to the principal countries of the Old World. Of course the Spaniards tried the novelty, and soon learned to like the taste and smell of the narcotic plant. ‘They introduced it in Spain, and the French ambassador to Spain took a plant home with him, and presented it to the king and queen. Other plants were sent by him to set out in the royal gardens in Paris, where the great reputation of the newcomer rested on its medici- nal properties. Famous Spanish physicians had hailed the tobacco plant as a cure for many diseases, and it was called “the holy herb,” and *“‘herba panacea,”’ the cure-all. The name of Nicot, the ambassador to Spain, was given to the tobacco plant by the botanist Linnzeus, who named it Nicotiana Tabacum. The drug, nicotine, contained in the sap of the whole plant, is very poisonous. It must be remem- bered that tobacco belongs in the Nightshade Family, which has a number of poisonous plants in it, : Fifty different sas of the genus Nicotiana are known. The tobacco of the world comes ieee rae Ne + ) NARCOTIC PLANTS 293 from varieties of the single species, which was carried from America to Europe, and thence spread to the other parts of the world where the plant is a commercial crop. Some of the best of foreign tobaccos are from seed of varieties developed in sections of the United States. Tobacco is a tall, broad-leaved plant, with a central stalk that bears, at maturity, a branching, loose cluster of pink or rose-colored flowers, with funnel-shaped corollas, each drawn out into five _ points. The seeds are so small that a great number are packed into the pod that matures in the clasp- ing, green calyx at the base of the funnel. An ounce contains over 300,000 seeds! But a small proportion of them are able to sprout, and those which are “viable” have such hard shells that the little plants have the hardest work to get out. It is a common practice to rub the seeds gently in the hands with powdered emery to bruise the coat and thus ease the sprouting process. : The seedlings are raised in a specially prepared seed bed, and transplanted to the field when about four to six inches high. They are set, by good growers, three or four feet apart, so that the culti- vator can run through between the rows in both directions. Clean culture, but shallow, kills the weeds and saves the soil moisture for the feeding ihe NORE ER BANA ‘ah PAGANO te MV) i KS eh i) aie Ne 44; Na re me Gs HT A Be Wi 1 ya) A REMY Me 2040 De eta roots. When the top. is alone to bieeeene it is 4 removed. to throw the energies of the plant into vat ye) iy 1} Dy Pte Ne 1s 3 Aver wk leaf-making. Side shoots are removed as they appear, for the same reason. When the leaves are sticky, and show yellow when held before the sun, they are ready to harvest. They break easily © when bent. | Harvesting methods differ, but the operations include cutting, drying, sweating, and packing the leaves. Kentucky harvests a tremendous crop, _ the biggest of all the tobacco states. Wisconsin and Massachusetts are the northernmost tobacco states. Florida grows special grades of fine, to-— bacco. So does Connecticut. Louisiana grows a famous kind. | The great tobacco producing countries of Europe are Germany, Russia, and Hungary. . India, Samatra and Java, Turkey, Japan and China are the Asiatic countries. Cuba and Porto Rico, Mexico and Argentina are the tropical ee ee 2 — Se age ee American tobacco regions, and Argentina and 7 Brazil are great tobacco countries in the South MN Temperate Zone. The industry is growing in — Africa and the Philippines. A million tons are © sent to market yearly from all the plantations of a the world. ee The quieting of nerves, and a | general feeling of NARCOTIC PLANTS 295 i bodily Det c are the benefits aanee by the smoker of tobacco. The nicotine, he claims, is dissipated in the burning of the tobacco, but he : concedes that other poisons are developed in the smoke. The damage to the heart and other organs of some smokers is traceable directly to the nar- cotic of tobacco. Nerves of other people are worn _ to a state of prostration. Because the effects of _ tobacco are not alike in different people, the user of the “weed” is very likely to blame the bread _ he eats, as soon as the pipe he smokes, for ill health. _ All agree that the moderate smoker is far better _ off than the immoderate one. And there are no two sides to the question of the i injury at suffer - from the use of tobacco. - learned by the early Spanish explorers from snuff-taking of the aristocrats of the eighteenth Chewing tobacco and snuff-taking were habits Indians in. the West Indies and South America. Snuff is a compound of powdered tobacco, which is inhaled, a pinch at a time, for the “‘titillating joy” it gives the lining membrane of the nose. 'The century was a dainty performance. Snuff-dip- _ ping as practised now by the ‘“‘cracker” of the South is disgusting. And the sources of the ma- _ terial out of which cheap snuff is made are un- speakable. Chewing tobacco is a habit no one 296 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS | can practise to-day and retain his self-respect. It is not tolerated in respectable society in this country, which demands that a gentleman smoke his tobacco, or go without it. POPPY The drug, morphine, is extracted from the dried juice, called opium, of the poppy, cultivated extensively in eastern countries. The pod that contains the seeds is pierced while still green, and the milky juice that exudes is allowed to dry over- night, when it is collected. Hand labor makes poppy culture a slow, primitive business. But the Indian government has built up a vast industry through its monopoly of the growing of this plant and the export of opium to China. The Chinese are opium-eaters (or smokers) to such a degree that their rulers have become frightened, and have tried to stop the importation of the drug, in hope — of checking the habit. The British and the local officials have worked against the success of this wise plan, causing repeated failures, until recent years. Now the importation of opium is lessened, and China is throwing off the deadly drug. The effect of opium is first exciting, then drowsi- ness ensues. Small doses ease pain, and give a ‘NARCOTIC PLANTS 297 sense ee, comfort. Big doses prodine deep sleep, _ then coma and death. Opium-eaters are slaves to a terrible habit they cannot break. They are useless to themselves and to their fellows. Morphine is used by physicians to allay acute suffering and to bring sleep when natural sleep is impossible. They use it with extreme caution and sparingly, as a last resort, knowing the danger. It is administered through the mouth or by means of the hypodermic needle directly into the blood. | Codein is another drug derived from opium. It produces effects like those of morphine, but’ it is not so powerful. BETEL NUTS The natives of the Malay Peninsula and neigh- boring islands are addicted to the habit of chewing betel nuts, the seeds of the Areca palm. The fruit 1s the size of a hen’s egg. Inside the fibrous - husk is the nut, which is sliced and wrapped in the leaves of a peppery plant. The saliva of the chewer turns red and flows freely, owing to the hot and bitter taste of the substance. The effect is at first stimulating, then stupefying to the senses. Moreover, the habit is one that cannot be thrown off. The teeth gradually turn black, and decay. vet Be THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 298 | Often a victim of this practice is toothless at twenty-five years from it. Ceylon exports half ‘ a million dollars’ worth of these nuts annually. : The gum-chewing habit seen so much in this if country is less defensible among our intelligent _ oe people than the betel-chewing of the dark-skinned e natives of the East Indies. They have less knowl- . edge of the proper care of a healthy body, and no higher standards to judge their habits by than those inherited from half-civilized parents \ COCA A wonderful power of resisting mental or bodily weariness is imparted to the person who chews the leaves of the coca shrub, that grows. wild in the Andean valleys of Bolivia and Peru. The dried leaves, mixed with quicklime, are chewed by all the natives of the region, and quantities are ex- ported, for it is from these leaves that the drug, cocaine, is extracted. ‘This is used in dentistry, to produce insensibility to pain over a small area, and for a short time. The habit of chewing coca leaves is an ancient one. The Indians cannot get on without this stimulating drug. The habit of © taking cocaine is a recent one among civilized people, and though the results are soothing, the __ ; Retatlcation Sine eke files dat tatubed by - opium, the habit is dangerous in the extreme. t a Slaves to the coca or cocaine habit are short-lived. _ Do not confuse the shrub coca, with the useful ( coco-nut, a palm, nor the cacao tree, from whose seeds cocoa and chocolate are made. _ The Cola, or Kola, is a tropical African tree, be whose fleshy nuts, like horse-chestnuts, have much > the same effect on the nerves as the leaves of the — coca. The two are combined in a. summer beverage that physicians condemn, knowing the __ two drugs it contains, and the billboards extol as uy harmless and delightful. CHAPTER X_ FLuax Frax bs ehe oldest of cultivated fibre plants, and, until the growing of cotton became the great agricultural industry of the South, it was the most important of the world’s fibre crops. Only within the last century has flax surrendered first place to cotton, though both plants have furnished clothing to civilized man ever since he began to demand something different from the skins of wild beasts. Cotton has the advantage of being cheaper than flax to raise and to prepare for weaving into cloth. Wild flax probably grew on the hillsides of As- _ syria and in the Nile Valley before it was brought into cultivation. Nowhere does it grow in a wild. state to-day, unless we count the roadside flax escaped from fields. It was grown and cloth woven of its fibres, in ancient times, as the earliest @ - e | records prove. The mummies of early Egyptian tombs were wrapped in linen cerements, and the flax plant was carved on the tombs. The Bible describes the royal splendor of kings, clothed in me a ee et i ae = awe eS Lee key see es : = au wer ~ 304. THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS _ purple and fine linen. The strength and durability of the fabric, whether coarse or fine, and the snowy whiteness and silky lustre of the cloth when bleached, established flax as the finest fibre crop in the agricultural countries of the world. The Lake-dwellers of Switzerland, who repre- sent the Stone Age, grew the plant for its fibre, which they wove into cloth. The household in- dustries have brought the growing, spinning, and weaving of flax down to the time when machinery relieved human hands of much of the labor in- volved. But machines have not made better nor finer linen than the old-time hand looms produced. A large part of the difference in cost between cotton and linen is due to the fact that machinery has not yet taken much work away from the hand- laborer in linen manufacture. Cotton machinery, from the newly introduced pickers, and the gins, to all the mill machinery, isa perfect system that makes the machinery used in handling flax look crude indeed. And it is crude. Flax is a delicate, branched plant, two or three feet high, with narrow, long leaves, set opposite, and numerous pale blue flowers, followed by globu- lar capsules, each five-chambered, with two seeds in each chamber. The shiny, slippery, brown seeds are kept by every druggist. They are in FIBRE PLANTS 305 : demand to make flaxseed poultices. Asingle seed dropped into the eye will invariably capture the cinder that no other means has been able to re- move. The gum that coats the seed swells when wet so that a poultice takes up four times as much space as the dry seeds did. More commonly, the _ meal is used, cooked to a mush, and applied as hot as can be borne to painful swellings, which it relieves by keeping moist and warm. The growing of flax in America to-day is chiefly for its seed; the making of linen from the fibre is not yet profitable. The farmer threshes his flax, and sells the seed to his local grain merchant, who sells it to the jobber, who sends it to the linseed mill. Here the seed is cleaned of weed seeds and refuse by screening and fanning machines; then it passes through a series of rollers that reduce it to a pasty massof meal. Now the meal is put into camel’s hair bags, and moulded into cakes, that are heated to near 200° F., then brought under pressure that extracts the oil, leaving “oil cake.” The oil is drawn off and refined, after which it is ready for market. Oil cake is ground into oil meal, and sold for stock food. ‘‘Linseed” oil is used in the manufacture of the best grades of paint, and for a multitudeof other purposes, includ- ing the making of patent-leather shoes. may soon make it a profitable industry in this | table linens. The Dakota Cla may sell his fide fen as it comes, broken and tangled, out of the thresher, to. the tow mill, where it is made into stuffing for cheap mattresses, upholstered furniture, padding © for refrigerator cars and cold storage warehouses, | ice boxes and the like, or spun into binding twine. ,The highest grades of linen made in America at a, \profit are coarse crash towelling, carpet yarns, | and fish seines. THE GROWING OF FLAX Homespun linen clothed our ancestors until they could no longer afford to keep the industry going. Labor is high-priced, so Americans buy _ their linens abroad, where labor is still cheap. The improvement of machinery to handle flax country. Students of the problem believe the time is coming when we shall make our own ~The growing of ie is an eae ne business. — The best soil.is a heavy, rich, well-drained loam. 4 that has borne crops that require clean culture. — This means that the weeds are under control. | On this soil, finely mellowed, and lightly rolle the seed is sown broadcast, by hand, and sha Ste a FIBRE PLANTS UR A RGN 7 il ‘a bowed with a tool of many teeth, to cover. In _ Europe the field is rolled when the seeds sprout, and when the flax plants are two inches high they get a careful hand-weeding. This work is done by women and boys, who kneel at their work. Sometimes two or three weedings are necessary. The earlier the sowing, the better the fibre, if early frosts do not catch the crop. “June makes the flax,” they say. Then or never the stems lengthen, and the three months of _ growth end in flowers and seed capsules. When the lower leaves droop, and the pods are turning to yellow, the men go out to pull the flax. Hand- fuls are pulled up, laid with even roots on the ground, after the dirt is shaken out, and all weeds discarded. Bundle is laid across bundle to let in air. So the field is harvested, and the dry stems prepared for stacking or retting. ‘The seeds are “in the dough” when the straw ‘is in best condition to make linen. But even these — unripe seeds must be removed. Hand labor again. | The worker takes a handful at a time, and draws the heads through a rude stationary comb; the capsules roll off as they are drawn through the teeth. | “Retting”’ is the process that separates the fibre in the bark of the flax stem from the gummy sub- | 308. THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS + stance and the woody tissues. It may be done chemically in a short time, but that injures the fabric. ‘‘Dew-retting” is laying the straw on the grass and letting the rain and dew rot away the parts that support the soft, strong threads. It takes weeks for this method of retting, and the fibres are stained by uneven contact with the earth and sun. | Bran *‘Pool-retting”? is submerging the bundles of straw in natural or made pools of soft water until the fibres are freed by fermentation. _ ‘‘River-retting”? substitutes running water for stagnant. ‘The most perfect place for this process yet found is a stretch of several miles near Cour- trai, in Belgium, in the bed of the River Lys. Its murky waters barely creep along over a bottom of blue clay. Flemish flax-growers draw their heavy loads of straw to the river, pack their crates, and wait their turn to push off these precious loads into the river. Each crate is covered with a protecting layer of rye straw and properly bal- lasted with stones. so that the flax will all be under water. When the process of retting is complete, ~acrane raises the crate, the straw is spread on the grass till thoroughly dried, then carried away. | Flax retted in the “Golden Lys” is soft and. silky, and finer than any retted elsewhere. Just FIBRE PLANTS 309 why, nobody knows with certainty. Pools lined with blue clay do better than others not so lined. It may be that the clay does it. The dry straw is next broken by passing through corrugated rollers. The result is that bits of woody substance from the stem fall off in the “scutching,” or combing, and shaking that follows. Tow is the . name given the combings of the scutching tool. Next, the “hackling” does the thorough combing that removes snarls in the fibres, and gets rid of any “‘shives” (woody particles) the scutching _ missed. The skeins of flax are ready to be baled and sent to the mills for weaving into cloth, or spinning into yarn. A single fibre of flax may be over a foot in length. Though one of the finest of fibres, it is stronger than that of any other textile plant. _ These facts explain the strength and the filmy sheerness we see combined in some handkerchief linens, and their durability. Nobody can fully appreciate the beauty of the flax flower until he has grown a plot of it. ‘‘Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,”’ wrote the poet of the skipper’s little daughter, in ““The Wreck of the Hesperus.”’ Our flax flowers are a color we can’t forget. We can easily follow the steps by which flax is prepared for spinning, and do by bi iy Nong 4 La baa Vani ue PA 310 | THE BOOK OF ‘USEFUL, PLANTS i ERR: hand, or with tools we rake the retting, breaking, scutching, and heckling. Choose the longest fibre in the skein of your own Oh making. Stretch it taut. The English word, “line,” originally meant “a thread of flax,” whose Latin name is Linum. A dozen words come from this old root: the German lein, F rench lin, Celtic lIlin, Swiss linie. The English words lint, liniment, linseed are from the same root. I. fancy that lin, a pool or brook, came from the use made ofthese in the retting of Ham. et COTTON Dixie-land is the land of cotton. Draw a line on the map from the mouth of the James River, at Norfolk, Virginia, west to Cairo, Illinois, and on through Memphis, and Little Rock to Dallas, — Texas. Below it lies the region of profitable cot- ton culture of the United States. ‘The Cotton — t Belt” occupies the southeastern quarter of our country, touching the Atlantic and the Gulf, and reaching nearly to the western boundary of Texas. — Only the lower half of Florida and the delta of 1 ha shaped, and the three-sided, smooth-rinded fruit 4 is the husk. The green husks contain coarse, stiff, but elastic fibres that are made into door mats and coco matting in this country. In Asia and | q Europe, coir fibre is used for cables. The bulk of — the coir of commerce comes from Ceylon, and am from the southern shores of India and China, ee ee += z ? IS = a a ee ees 2 _ and conservatories. eee a = Se Se re eae mf 4 ers ui i “FIBRE PLANTS” “The fi fibre deca etl if he nuts are Newed to ripen. It is used for leaf mold in greenhouses { . RAFFIA The ide. ok strips ot strong, tying material pe that hang in greenhouses and packing sheds of nurseries are obtained by skinning the leaves — of a palm tree that grows abundantly in the _ wilds of Madagascar and Brazil. The “Arts and Crafts” people discovered its usefulness in bas- _ketry, weaving, and other fancy work. Milliners made it into hats. The increased demand has doubled the price. It can be bought in a variety of colors. The uses are not yet extensive enough Via Big) greatly to increase the present demand. BROOM CORN Three varieties of sorghum are important: two as food plants, and the third furnishes the house- wife with brooms. Kafir corn feeds stock and poultry in this country: it feeds both man and beast in Africa, India, and China? Sorghum molasses replaces sugar to a considerable extent. In our country to-day, it is a feeble competitor ‘ of bugar-cane and beets. 328 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS ~— All of these species of sorghum belong to one genus, Andropogon, a member of the great Grass Family upon which the world depends for food. The blossom is a branching panicle at the top of a jointed stalk that grows like maize. There is no ear —the seeds follow the blossoms on the op: : Broom corn seed is planted later than corn in fields within the Corn Belt and farther south. Its culture is like that given to corn, and as the bloom passes the grower watches the clouds anxiously. Dry, clear weather is needed for the harvest. The crop is the “brush,” or top, made up of fine, wiry, and very long branches that bear the small seeds. In the fields of standard varieties the harvest involves the “‘tabling” of the stalks, before the cutting of the heads. The stalks are partly severed three feet from the ground, and the tops bent diagonally over so that the brush lies across the broken stalks of the neighboring row. The bent stalks form a table on which the heads lie to dry. Each brush has two or three inches of stalk left for a handle, and is in prime condition if cut right after the bloom fades. If the seeds ripen, the straws become brittle and stiff. Dwarf varieties are grown for whisk brooms. The stalks are pulled after blooming, and the FIBRE PLANTS See ot 420). Z ee dried and cut off. Oklahoma and Kansas _ are large producers of dwarf broom corn. The special thresher or seed stripper, a kind of | comb, removes the seeds from the straw, after which the brushes are finished by being quickly dried in airy, shady sheds, to preserve the green color as much as possible. The brushes are then compressed into 200 to 300 pound bales for ship- - ment to the broom factories, or to the wholesale market. CHAPTER XI | BAMBOOS THE giant grasses, that are more familiar to us in fish poles than in any other of the uses they serve, grow from sea level to an altitude of 15,000 feet. If we think of the clump of bamboo that makes an attractive feature in a neighbor’s garden, _ it is a surprise to learn that some tropical species reach a height of over one hundred feet, and a diameter of a foot at base. Even these jointed canes that almost touch the sky are slim and graceful. In all, there are over two hundred different species of bamboo, growing chiefly in tropical countries, all around the globe. The Temperate Zone has a few species that are small. and unimportant in comparison. In Chinese restaurants a savory stew contains the tender shoots of bamboo. These blanched tips of oriental species are also served like as- paragus, or boiled with rice, or pickled, or candied. The seeds of some species are like wheat, and these are mixed with honey, or 333 334 — THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS: ee | parched fee food. Nut-like seeds of another ae : are roasted. ( . We must go into a pial country, where primitive people live, to see how many everyday uses the bamboos can be put to. The great > ky See Sate ee naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, was amazed : at what he saw in Borneo, of the admirable qualities and clever uses of the abundant reeds. “Their strength, lightness, smoothness, straight- ness, roundness, and hollowness, the facility and — regularity with which they can be split, their many different sizes, the varying length of their joints, the ease with which they can be cut and with which holes can be made through them, their hardness outside, their freedom from’ any pro- — nounced taste or smell, their great abundance, and the rapidity of their growth and increase are all qualities which render them useful for a hundred different purposes, to serve which other materials would require much more labor and preparation. The bamboo is one of the most wonderful and most beautiful productions of the tropics, and one oF Nature’s most valuable gifts to uncivilized man.” | Then follows a long account of, ie Dyak houses, built and furnished with useful articles, even to — cooking vessels, all of bamboo, The solid wall “MANY, OR SPECIAL PURPOSES | pee se its vg ‘ , okay, ‘separates the. pithy joint sections enables the brown man to make, with his knife in a very short time, a complete set of dishes that stand straight and hold water. A single reed makes cups and bowls, the sizes ranging from the thick base to the narrow tip. Certain dwarf bamboos cultivated in China furnish material used in the manufacture of paper of all grades. Quite as many uses are found for dom, small species as for the giant reeds'used as posts and joist for houses and masts for vessels. ‘The thin, hard rind makes knives with which arrows, pens, and such small things are cut and finished. PALMS The rank of “Princes of the Vegetable King-. ym,” given by grateful natives of tropical countries, is certainly deserved, for the uses to which palm trees are put are without number. “They are among Nature’s most generous gifts to uncivilized men’? — to quote the words of Wallace who spoke of the bamboo in the East Indies. - To begin with, there are in tropical and sub- tropical countries over 1,200 different kinds of palms. They are mostly trees of slender, un- branched stems, crowned or feathered with a 336 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS graceful head of foliage. All are of the same — structure as reeds and grasses, in that they have round stalks composed of a pithy, central part enclosed in a hard rind, and growth is not in- dicated by rings of wood added year by year. The flowers are in spikes or clusters, usually com- ing out of the crown of the tree, and each flower is on the plan of three. Staminate and pistillate flowers are separate, though the clusters may be on the same or different trees. Leaves differ in form of blade, but between the palmate and pinnate types, and all have stems, usually with clasping or sheathing bases. Our familiar palm-leaf fan illustrates the palmate form; the funeral palm, the pinnate or feather form. The most exuberant species bears leaves ten to thirty feet in length. The highest palm trees reach two hundred feet. | 3 An old saying, of tropical origin, perhaps, says there is a use for the palm for every day in the year. The Hindoo goes further; for of one noble species of India he claims eight hundred distinct uses! What claim can be exaggerated for trees that furnish all the parts for a house and the furniture in it: thatch to keep out sun and rain, fibre for clothing, for paper, for ropes, brooms, and rugs; meal for bread, sugar, wine, and a cabbage- Wo can count the uses of the oriental bamboo? AYIIVA }AIISSIP SIdIOYI . ay} Jo ore Ady} asnvdoq punod v svyop ev sulIq yey} Sa}Vp UMOIS-eIUIOF]e) ioe "MANY oR “SPECIAL, PURPOSES Bae like Midetable, the hebrt of the palmetto! Delic- ious food and drink come from the coco palm; wax from two species; resin for unnumbered uses from the palm called the “dragon’s blood.” The savage tips his spears and his poisoned arrows with the spines of certain kinds of palm leaves. He makes knives of keen edge of the thin, hard edges of leaf stems. ‘Tanning materials from palms are used in the making of fine leathers. Dyes are derived from other kinds. Valuable oils ¢ are eriong the best products of palm trees. THE eee PALM is “The « coco-nut palm grows best on the shelly | s barren soil of tropical shores. It loves the sea air, and as it grows, leans toward the water! A crown _ of leaves shelters the clustered nuts that turn from green to brown as they ripen. | It is the delight of native boys and men to run up the trees and throw down nuts, to the wonder ag of strangers, who pay the acrobats well for their. _ feats, and who enjoy the fresh food and drink thus — 3 supplied. Inside the shiny, brown, three-cor- _ nered husk is the hard-shelled nut, lined with a 4 _ thick layer of white meat, rich in flavor and in food value. The ita vies the useful fibre known in : commerce as” coir,” | Ww The wide distribution x the coco ple is sive to 4 the fact that the nuts float, and are not injured 4 _ by sea water, as they drift to other shores. They 4 grow in the tropics of all. continents, and are the chief food of the inhabitants of many tropical islands. Cocos means monkey, in the Portuguese language. oo So it must have been when he was looking at the funny little monkey face on-the end of a nut, the _ end with the three flat penny spots on it, that the 4 botanist adopted the name that was applied i in fun a to the familiar nut by a Portuguese sailor. | . The meaning of the three spots is not clear at 7: first. One is always largest; this is the one that _ breaks to let the little plant escape on germination. 4 The nut was intended to be in three compart- ments, with a plantlet, orembryo, ineach. But _ long ago the partitions between the chambers got a into the way of breaking down, and a single seed ~ was developed, in the place of three. The two | prints are all that are left to show that the plant has decided to have fewer and therefore tones seeds. | ae We know the coco-nuts as they come to ou markets, freed of their bulky husks, and carrie ‘i as ballast in the holds of vessels from Jamaica and Trinidad. There is a tremendous demand f py MANY, OR SPECIAL PURPOSES | 339 — Sse ee ay a ES Fk ~ e —— SS oe ont i in the United Sites) “We know the bine ded and dried meat of the nuts, that lend such a - fine flavor to desserts and candies we make. We ne do not know copra, though. | : The dry meats are shipped under this name from the South Sea Islands and other far regions, to be sold at the factories where presses extract _ the valuable coco-nut oil of commerce. Planta- tions of the coco palms have been planted in the + Old World as oil producers. In the New World, Brazil, and the West Indies, they are set out as es fruit plantations. | 5 ‘THE DATE PALM The Arab may well claim that the best palm in ‘all the world is his beautiful, feathery-leaved, desert-loving date palm, the palm of the Bible, ahd of ancient history in many languages. The hot sun only sweetens and dries the great clusters of dates, that feed the family, the camels, the horses, and the dogs. Wherever the Arab emi- grant has gone, the date palm has followed, and _ become the dooryard tree, as it isathome. The - meanest surroundings, the poorest soil, do not | discourage the wonderful plant. Where there is sufficient water it grows, and makes a grateful 340 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS shade, and abundant food for the traveller. The” desert of Sahara would not have been threaded ~ by highways of oriental commerce in the past centuries except that date palms grew at the scattered oases, and furnished cheer for the weary caravans. | ] We can understand the jealous feeling that led P the crafty Arabs of Asia Minor and Tunis to cheat the clever and energetic American horticulturists 4 with seeds of inferior seedling varieties when the effort was first made to establish date culture in — the hot regions of this country. The date palm does not come true from seed, and of seedling trees, but one in a great host can be expected to be a fruit of any merit. So progress has been slow, and discouragements many in the few spots adapted to successful date culture in America. At last suckers of good varieties have been obtained from dependable sources in the best date-growing regions of North Africa and Arabia, and we are at last getting home-grown datesfrom _ trees in the torrid Imperial Valley of southern ss California, from Yuma, Arizona, and other points, 4 where the work of the Government Plant Intro- — duction Bureau was first successful. ey a One thing the Arabs discovered long ago: he id staminate, or male trees, are barren, and th — ie Sirias —= | Z x a Ce, ee eS Oe eee ae ea a eS Se ee eg ae a Sa a MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES 341 pistillate, or female trees, require to be tilted. or they, too, are barren, though they blossom -Juxuriantly. It is a simple thing to cut a cluster of the pollen-loaded staminate flowers, and shake them over the pistillate clusters in the other trees. One pollen-bearing tree among twenty-five fertile ones will supply all the pollen needed. And the sex of a tree can be relied upon at the setting out of aneworchard. Cuttings, or suckers, reproduce their parent trees. Suckers from bearing trees will bear when half a dozen years old, or even younger. Many a tree stands alone in a garden, blossoms freely, then ripens no fruit; it lacks the fertilization. Without pollen no fruit can be sae duced. Ene’ beginning of work looking toward the development of date-growing in this country was made in 1891. Already it is demonstrated a suc- cess. Time will bring the increase. We are even now growing dates that excite the envy of the old Arabian growers, for we have Science, the s eeat Magician, helping us. THE RATTAN PALM The Royal palms are noble specimens of their © race. But one of these is not more interesting my a4 | THE BOOK OF USEFUL | PLANTS an ‘the rattan palm, that has not the ‘aoa stiffness to grow erect. I quote the interesting description given by Mr. Wallace, who saw the | - plant in the Island of Celebes: 3 “The chief feature of this forest was the bins dance of the rattan palms, hanging from the trees, and turning and twisting about on the ground ~ often in inextricable confusion. One wonders at first how they get into such queer shapes; but it is evidently caused by the decay and fall of the trees up which they have first climbed, after which 4 they grow along the ground till they meet with 4 another trunk up which to ascend. A tangled 4 mass of twisted, living rattan is therefore a sign _ that at some former period a large tree has fallen there, though there may be not the slightest vestige of it left. q “The rattan seems to have antioniceg powers of as growth, and a single plant may mount up several a trees in succession, and thus reach the enormous” length they are said sometimes to attain. They much improve the appearance of a forest as seen _ from the coast; for they vary the otherwise monot- — onous tree-tops with feathery crowns of leaves, rising clear above them, and each terminating in an erect nae spike rising like a lightning-condueton” : Ce i ae) i an Haat “MANY ‘OR SPECIAL PURPOSES | 343 of he rattan akens. is illustrated in i enies the | world over. Split rattan canes are the splints oe ‘woven into seats and backs of chairs and couches. _ All kinds of beautiful furniture are made up with rattan weaving. It is a combination of strength ; and lightness, lace-like delicacy of pattern and color, that makes for comfort, especially in warm ae i" oo where solid wood or metal furniture require stuffy cushions. Cane seats are cool and elastic. | The round rattan canes are used for many pur- poses; whip stocks, walking sticks, and hoops. _ Split into splints they are made into baskets, fish a nets, weirs, and brooms. __ THE IVORY PALM _ Alow-growing palm of South America, fruits in ao a “head” of hard, heavy clustered capsules, con- ee taining four to ten hard, ivory-like seeds, each the size of a hen’s egg. The texture of the seed is - much like the ivory of the elephant’s tusk, and is _ used in making buttons, and carved into orna- ments of various kinds. | THE SUGAR PALMS y A traveller in the East Indies describes the _. making of sugar from the true sugar palm and the 344 | coco palm. “Each day the tapped trees of the | latter species’ yield two quarts of sap that boils — ‘ down to three or four ounces of sugar. That has — a nutty fragrance and flavor, as unique as maple sugar. We were not long in learning to melt coco- palm sugar and pour it on grated ripe coconut, _ thus achieving a sweet supreme. Thesugarof the — true sugar palm of the market-places looks and tastes like other brown sugar.” THE BOOK OF USEFUL ‘PLANTS i: HOPS The vine from which the housewife, a generation ago, picked the hops and dried them for use in ~ making a yeast, is still grown in many a backyard, but the compressed yeast and the dry cakeshave taken place of the good old-fashioned jug yeast a on which the daily bread of the family depended. _ The hop vine is ornamental now, trailing its long fingers over the lattice that screens from view the neighbors’ barns and any unsightly objects in the a” landscape. One good feature of the hop vine is — the twenty feet or more of growth it makes in a 4 single season. While slower vines are coming on it covers its trellis and reaches for more, climbing — onto the roof or up telegraph poles, with. vise joy in its freedom. | ‘MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES _ 345 Hop Dives ane a cle like those of the grape and the hard maples. The inconspicuous flowers are followed by clusters of pale green catkins or cones, called “hops,” that contrast beautifully with the dark foliage. Only the fertile (female) plants bear fruit in hops, the flower cluster of the sterile (male) plants merely pollenating the fertile ones, then fading, leaving the vine barren. _ Hops are a valuable crop to raise, since the _“burs”’ are used in the brewing of malt liquors. Two pounds of dry hops are needed for each barrel of beer. They give a pleasant bitter flavor to all malt beverages, and keep them from turning sour. Young hop plantations are set with cuttings from the root crowns of old plants. Various systems of trellises are used to carry the vines up where they get the sun to the best advantage, and can be best let down for the picking of the crop. The climbing goes on without help in fine weather, _ the tendrils helped by the hooked hairs that _ roughen the leaves. But gray weather dis-. _ courages the climbing, the shoots must be tied up or they fall. They refuse to climb any slope of less than 45 per cent., unless helped by being tied at intervals. Four sterile plants to the acre are niationt for fertilization of the fruiting vines. When the burs a ay Ren ee se ms es Oe ae Ree a = rs = aCe Pata ee ee te = és Ss pe , ee SE ea eae ao en MO ee Lets 25 Ree Se Cr ee Pa feel papery and Sentember ty is at Hand, women und children from the cities go out to the hop harvest — a in England and the United States. New York | u has a large hop-growing section near Syracuse. | "The average picker gets forty to sixty bushels | oe _ picked in a day. The boxes are carried to the 4 | - dry house, where the hops.are spread on a cloth that lies on a slatted floor above a room heated — by a furnace. Sulphur, burned at first, bleaches — color out of the hops, which come out a pale straw color twelve hours after they enter the dry, hot q atmosphere. They are cooled and sweated, then pressed into solid cakes by hand presses. These a bricks of hops, in cloth cases, weigh nearly 200 ‘ pounds, and are five feet long and twenty inches a square at the ends. In this condition Nuke keep — indefinitely. The cultivated hop is merely the wild species, 4 native to Europe and America, member of the Nettle Family, brought into domestication. No- — where does it grow in greater luxuriance than ie river banks, where it finds rich, moist soil, and — plenty of support in climbing. " The price of hops is peculiarly liable to change. Not many years ago it flopped from 12 cents to $1.20 the pound, without any noticeable reaso: for the astonishing difference. Ordinarily t c. : “MANY oR ‘SPECIAL PURPOSES 347 "price 1 runs between 12 and 4o cents. The crop land well, unless it is an off year, when weather and i insect enemies are a ieagentg SUCCESS. | RAPE _ Acertain amount of rape-seed must go into the _ bird-seed ration of the canary, or your singer will not be well and happy. This every person who _ ‘keeps a bird knows. Rape-seed produces an oil that is valuable for a number of different uses, and is as common in European countries as kero- Re sene is in the United States. | _ The rape plant is a thin-rooted relative a the a turnip, with a decided turnip odor, when a leaf is on z yee os = a = Ro Gs = See Se ue ates SS v, ; bruised. Above the stringy root rises a large head of succulent blue-green foliage, the leaves much divided and curled, like leaves of some of the _kales. The tops grow two and three feet high on good, mellow soil; even four feet in soil especially rich and, well-tilled. The farmer sows the seed broadcast on a field from which he has harvested an early crop, like oats. Two months later he turns his pigs or sheep in, and they graze the tops off. It is best to let the stock have grass pasture, too, for rape alone makes flabby flesh, and animals are likely to — 348 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PL. eat more than is good for them. F sedeae oF stock © ; My _ find the better plan is to cut the rape and feed fen q with grain and dry fodder in stable and feed lot. 8 { Other methods are to sow oats, and a fortnight | | later sow rape, and harrow it in. The oats have 4 the start of the other crop; they are harvested a while the tops of the rape are short. Four weeks later the field is just right to turn sheep into. As | fast as the tops are gnawed off new leaves are _ i. formed. This pasture. Keeps” on coming when | others are dry. | . Rape makes a good nurse plant for clover, ren : is feeble in starting, and needs shade. This com- bination forms a good cover crop in young or- 7 chards. Feeding off the rape does no great harm — q once the clover becomes established. _ oC In this country the value of rape is not yet — realized by farmers and stock raisers. One visit — to a good English farm would convert them. 9 For oil, the rape-seed is put through fanning mills, and cleaned of all foreign bodies. Then it is a run ag rollers, which reduce it to a paste. - vst ) e troughs that lead to reservoirs. ) remains is ground and sold for stock food, as rap tas MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES 349 “seed meal. It is also used as a fertilizer. It still contains considerable oil, and is rich in nitrogen, _ the most expensive element that plants require. ___ The oil is refined and filtered for table use and 4 for cooking. Without filtering, it is the staple ' _ illuminating oil of Europe, and is quite as com- monly used for lubrication. I do not know of a better instance of a weed that has been brought into the service of man than rape, : which makes wealth in so many forms, both as a raw materials and easily manufactured products. FULLER’S hoeeae ce this day, machinery takes the raw wool and cards, spins, weaves, and dyes it, with scarcely a hand touching the warp or woof until the finished cloth is rolled onto a bolt for the merchant to a unroll on his counter. One process in the making of cloth depends upon the seed heads of a weedy plant. No inventor has been able to imitate in steel the fuller’s teasel. It comes down into the modern woolen mills from the days when it helped . the hand worker co bring up the ‘‘nap” on cloth. _ All the primitive machinery has passed into mus- eums — all but the hooks on the teasels. They were as flexible, as strong, as efficient in the begin- l improvement they have seen is in ‘the device that om holds them in position as they do their inimitable i 1 work in finishing fine cloth. a Ema 7 : For blankets and other woolens with the longest nap, the “king” teasel heads are required. Shorter — nap, such as English cloths have, is made by the | ‘“‘queens.”? Broadcloth has a fine, short nap that _ is pane by the smallest teasel eeu, called _ q ‘buttons.’ | q The common teasel of waysides and negleeten fields is not the same as the cultivated “fuller’s teasel.” But it is so close to it that few people | , would distinguish the commercial from the worth- a ae less species, unless they had experience in teasel- a buying. Look at a full-grown teasel, and the | “king” is easily seen standing at the top of the ~ straight, main stem. The “queens” are on the 4q ends of the main branches. The “buttons” tip the q secondary branches. One king, several queens, and a multitude of buttons — that is the way me a run in size and numbers. ! ia ‘ Teasel plants have some very interesting poe . | jarities. The paired leaves that clasp the stem forma ere cup A at each joint where branches start, : ere MANY OR ‘SPECIAL PURPORES | 3ST a fuller s feavels ea taee: hey say, too, that the flowers of all other heads depend on the king’ for pollen, and if the king is dethroned at blooming time the other heads will fail to mature seeds, though they come to larger size. If the teasel is grown in your neighborhood, find - out if these things are true. The cultivated species is raised on a commercial scale in Onondaga _ County, New York, where is it a great success. _ Small plantations in Oregon do well, but buyers on prefer the New York teasels. | European countries buy buttons from America q for broadcloths, and we import kings for the _ making of our blankets. So there is exchange _ between teasel-growing countries. ee —— Teasel seed is planted in drills, the plants _ thinned to ten inches apart in the rows and culti- _ vated like corn. Each forms a large rosette of a leaves the first year, and throws up the blossom i stalk the second spring. The blossoms, crowded q on the oval head, begin to bloom in a purple belt around the middle. As these flowers fade, the _ bloom proceeds toward the top and bottom. _ Two bands of purple are moving in opposite di- cy rections, until the base and tip have shed their i withered petals. This curious habit may be seen fhe (LAM yA SNA D RUE UN Ae st q MURATA ATM yah tee rf Nunya 352 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PL/ NTS es in any roadside teasel. The wiry, -backward- ; i turning bracts under the individual blossoms are’ the hooks that “full” the cloth by picking up he ee of fibres, and thus forming the desired ‘nap.’ The teasel buyer pays Sous a dollar a themmaan 8 (ten pounds) for dry heads. The grower ue heads with a few inches of stem, and spreads them in lofts of barns or sheds to dry. A fair yield i in. 4 New York is 100,000 heads per acre. In Europe — intensive farming on land much higher in value | produces a crop three or four times as can | Considering that the field is in use two years, a must be very carefully tilled, the grower’s income > is not large, though it is good. His job is to sort the heads, shorten the stems, and pack his stock | . for shipment to the manufacturer. The heads are surprisingly long-lived in use, the hooks having to 4 be cleaned of fuzz often before they become worn | out. RUBBER PLANTS When white men first came to South America and explored the Amazon River and adjoining territory, they saw native Indians at home, an had many surprises aerial: the oe he lead met A young rubber tree in the plantation AT[IIIUUIOD UMOIS 9UO 9Y} SI WoOoIYsNUI Mopvaw poaTs-yutd oyT, “MANY OR ‘SPECIAL PURPOSES 253 i dick OD vitsnce, that bounded high when it struck the ground. It was natural for the strangers to examine the ball, and try to find out what it was made of. | The Indians called it by a name that 4 sounded like “‘ca-chook.” The substance was not rigid, but flexible; could be kneaded out of shape, | but returned to its round form when pressure was released. The Indians said it was the dried juice of a tree, but for some time the curious explorers had no idea what trees produced it. Some one eis! Wa ) of them, handling a bit of the strange substance, ; — possibly writing a letter describing it — dis- covered that it takes out pencil marks. He was _ probably delighted to discover this useful property ‘of the bouncing ball. He called it “rubber,” and ‘this name has always stuck, and no other sub- stance has been found so good for pencil erasers, to this day. We can imagine the interest roused in Europe __ by the specimens of rubber that reached there from. ‘America. Explorers in the Amazon territory, and other tropical regions, found that the natives had _ rubber in their possession. Not long before our Revolution, a party of Frenchmen saw natives tapping trees and gathering the flow of juice. This was the first discovery by white men of trees that yield rubber. They learned how the juice ‘was converted into nilieee in the site now © forming the countries of Braziland Guiana. hie What real good is there in a substance that can. a be pressed out of shape, but returns when pressure ~ q is removed? That is capable of being stretched — and of flying back to its original length? At first — a the new product seemed more interesting than aD useful. The growing European demand for the — rubber stimulated the Indians to ies eae 4 ‘‘wild rubber.”’ | a The vast number of uses to which ie 18 put a to-day make it seem a necessity of life. We smile 4 at the grave scientist of the eighteenth century 4 who gave out as his judgment that the new sub- 4 stance would attain some popularity as an eraser _ of pencil marks, but, as for him, bread crumbs were very satisfactory for that purpose. Not — long afterward, Samuel Piat discovered a process _ of waterproofing cloth by treating. it with India © rubber dissolved in turpentine. Our raincoats _ take their names from a Mr. MacIntosh who im- | proved upon the original patent. Then came the ~ ink en my | invention of Goodyear, who, by the addition of — sulphur, hardened rubber, and adapted it to many uses. | i In one form and another, we can count a _ doze rubber articles in daily use by us, and not MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES | 355 bebld be Oe to serve the purpose so well if made by any other material. No known substance has _ the elasticity of rubber, and springs back to its original shape when tension is released. No substitute for the indispensible rubber band is a likely to appear. The modern rubber industry is built, however, upon the process of vulcanization, which hardens and darkens the crude caoutchouc, reducing its cy elasticity, in various degrees, according to the ‘proportion of sulphur added, and the thoroughness _of their union. Vulcanite is the name given to the ~ product. It is not so sticky as pure rubber, it resists ordinary solvents, and changes of tempera- ture. It is adulterated with pigments and other antderal substances. ‘The colored ‘‘rubber goods” a in the druggist’ s window illustrate vulcanite in _ modern everyday conveniences of the household. he Thirty to 70 to per cent. of the weight of rubber , tires of vehicles is mineral substance. The rubber plate of false teeth is largely coloring matter. - Ebonite is the hardest form of vulcanite, black, | brittle, shiny. We.buy it in combs, photographic _ trays, and in the insulation of electric apparatus. The invention of rubber tires for vehicles has - given the rubber market a tremendous lift within Dy recent years, Automobiles consume the greater ® i) \ THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS as ‘part of the supply, and need anuve than the market , can furnish. The price keeps step with the de- _ mand. ‘The cultivation of rubber in plantations” 4 has been started; in order that rubber production | may be put on a scientific basis, and the bois: a increased. | . | | Legal restrictions now prevent the abitees 4 treatment of the forests of rubber trees. They may not be cut down, as formerly permitted, and 4 tapping must be done at stated intervals, to let the q trees recuperate from the exhaustion they suffer. a At present the simple natives, who do the work of © 4 gathering crude rubber, are under the control of © syndicates which have concessions from the countries in which the trees grow. The work is” a hard and the pay small, at best; but cruel ab ment, even atrocities, have been committed by faces will doubtless soon iid to ees correction. , Between the native, who ete) scant pay fe 4 and but half of that rubber, yee is a ! profit for the maker and the seller. No w —— ey a = is = » SRS a ee eS eerie ae ea ae ee panes SX 2 ete ~_ 5 roe yee cae SEOs Ss Ht Car Siac ee a abe Ses ee ae a eee ee a "MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES 357 a biople get excited on the subject of halber planta- tions, and invest sicineaavigd in shares in such schemes, for the suave “promoter” can easily prove that there is money made in the rubber es business. ’ From Brazil, rubber culture has spread and | become established in all important countries in the Tropics. Investigations have determined just the trees and other plants that produce _ rubber in paying quantities. The best methods of harvesting the crop have been tested, and are _ being established to replace worn-out, wasteful methods. Crude rubber is the coagulated milky; juice of ‘ several trees, chiefly of the Euphorbia tribe, or family. It is.produced in a network of passages that lie in the bark, near the cambium, or liv- ing layer, that separates wood and bark. To get the fluid, the trees are tapped, and the flow led into cups that are emptied at regular times, and _ the sap treated, without delay, to hasten the coag- ulation of the caoutchouc, and to evaporate the watery part. The harvesting of rubber has in late years inter- ested even the uncivilized tribes, now the slaves of the Rubber Companies; for they realized that it ___ was bad business to abuse or kill the tree that 358 LANTS — produces Be tly To get the greatest quant of rubber with the least injury to the | tree is the modern problem. Code The oldest method of tapping was to cut ‘trea 4 down the four sides of the tree, and catch in some a crude way the flow of sap. Then the plan was to” ‘ cut four V’s as high as the reach of aman standing oo by the tree. A cup was fastened at the point of a each. Other V’s cut at intervals drained the area > below. This overtaxed the trees, ie The method in general use now in harvest- ing Para rubber is the herringbone system. A vertical trough is cut with alternating side troughs, slanting at 45 degrees and about a foot apart. The cup set at the base of the main trough — catches the flow. Each day, when he comes to empty the cup, the collector cuts a thin slice of bark from the lower edge of each lateral trough. This opens the clogged passages, and renews the flow. The daily cutting is repeated until the side troughs are nearly two inches wide, or until d crease in the flow indicates that the tree is drained. Six months of rest allows the tree to heal | wounds, and reéstablish the network in Me milky j juice is found. : i ti ‘MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES 359 h Non of sap. Whether it is ee for the tree re- bh mains to be seen. A plan to prick the bark, | puncturing the net-veins but not going deep ‘uiegeg to injure the cambium, is a perfect method; _ but the collecting of the flow is the difficulty. ~ Such treatment would not hurt the trees, if done -onalternate days. It might goon for years. Tapping on rainy days and early in the morning induce the greatest flow, for the heat of the sun causes the j juice to coagulate and stop the passages. BW auug trees and trees too heavily drained yield rubber of poor quality. So do the upper parts of trunks and the limbs. These facts are known ‘to the greedy rubber gatherer, and it saves the tree from many abuses. | Uy a Para rubber comes from a tree alia Hevea ‘ — Braziliensis, that grows wild in different parts of the silvas of the Amazon, and in Peru, Bolivia, and Guiana, a total area of millions of square miles. F Para is the port from which most of it is shipped. _ Brazil furnishes the world about half of its rubber ' i supply —exports amount to fifty-four million _ poundsayear. Not all of this is Para quality. Because Hevea trees produce the highest i quality of rubber, they have been planted where - new plantations are desired. They are estab- f. Mahed ais) the West Indies and Trinidad, and in ~ Te ee es a = mf ie " 7 wh At fobs at i ; sich 4 % companies have ed great plantation tween 1900 and 1910, Para rubber rose in price — from three shillings to twelve shillings per peters, It costs about one shilling per pound to collect — from the wild or to produce in plantations. The price fluctuates in the hands of speculators, quite independent of supply and demand. — Central American, or Panama rubber is froma — tree called Castilloa elastica, which grows ten degrees north of the equator. The rubber has not ~ the strength of Para, and brings a lower price. It — is the tree of Mexican and Honduras plantations. _ A tree that reaches sixty feet in height, and — yields rubber almost equal to Para, is Sapium Jeumani, that grows in Colombia and Guiana. In cultivation, it does surprisingly better than in the wild. be , The “India rubber” plant of the nortan greenhouses, Ficus elasticus, is the Assam rubber irce in its East Indian forest home. It may begin — life as an air plant, fixing its roots in the crotch of another tree in which a seed has lodged. A shock of aérial roots strike downward, and reach the ground, after which the top depends upon fo drawn from the earth, and the up hie t 3 MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES 361 “this time has a ‘stiff trunk, and is able to stand alone. _ Assam rubber is not inferior to Para, except a that i it is not so carefully gathered, and comes dirty - tomarket. The mountain trees are the only ones that produce first quality rubber. The Silk rubber is a tree sixty or seventy feet in height, as it reaches maturity in the forests of _ Africa. It crosses the central part of the conti- . nent, from east to west, the seeds wafted away on the long, silky filaments that give the tree its name. ‘“‘Funtum” the natives call it, and the scientific name is Funtumia elastica. The trees are tapped by the herringbone method, the latex (milky juice), collected in hollowed-out logs, and covered with palm leaves. The water is absorbed by the porous wood, and the spongy rubber that remains is kneaded into balls and sent APA yy B® 5 es to market. ‘In the West African forests the natives are practically slaves to the agents of the company _ that holds the concession from the government that rules the district. King Leopold of Belgium has been held personally responsible for much of the abuse that has terrorized the blacks. . _ Several different species of woody climbers of the genus Landolphia, near relatives of the Mats F untum tree, Weld ene Shel : eons | Jay latex is spread out, coagulates, and layer on layer, ‘aa is prepared for market.. The old method was to cut down the vines to drain their juices. As they Ni 4 grow on forest trees, they form a jungle in which a it is difficult to collect the latex. mods : The rootstocks of certain Landolahess and a other plants, and the tuberous roots of the | Guayule plant of Mexico and the Ecanda plant Of am West Africa yield ‘‘root rubber, ” which is ex- tracted by breaking them up in hot water, and a later separating the waxy rubber from the residue. | It is not likely that these plants will be used a when the growing of plantations and the harvest- a | ing of rubber from wild forests are put ona sound __ economic basis. i GUTTA PERCHA -“Getah taban” is the name by which the @ native of the Malay Peninsula calls two closely A related trees that he taps for, their gray, milky ao juice. The shamefully wasteful, primitive method | a. is to cut down the tree, strip off the bark in ring : the fragments of wood and bark to ben er the. | latex possible. It is the residue, after the w ‘MANY, oR SPECIAL PURPOSES Rigg all anodted, that he sells, as “gutta.” We i eal this solid substance “gutta percha.” ‘ The peculiar property that sets gutta percha apart from rubber is its softening in warm water, and becoming rigid again when cooled. It is i a inelastic. Otherwise it is like rubber. — _ Gutta percha is used chiefly to insulate wires in electrical apparatus. The laying of the Atlantic cable created a considerable demand for it. oe Dentists and artists prefer it to other substances for taking impressions. It is one of the materials __used for the handles of surgical instruments, and A similar articles. 7 The nearest natural substitute for genuine hoe gutta percha is made from the juice of the bullet tree, a near relative of the true getah taban. It grows in Trinidad and South America, and its juice, while containing gutta, is about half resin, Me which is a great nuisance. The product is called -Balata, or Surinam gutta percha. | “Pontianac,” made from the juice of certain East Indian trees, is an inferior waterproofing ) _ material, cheap in price, for, with a small propor- tion of gutta-like substance, it contains a high a _ "percentage of resin and other elements. The five species of true gutta percha trees "belong to the genus heclriaaa te and grow only on > = > Re 364 the Malay Peninsula, or near it. . bullet tree, is Mimusops bullata, whose rich, sweet fruit is found regularly in the West Indian” markets. ' MUSHROOMS The decay of plants keeps the surface of the _ earth littered with débris of fallen leaves and branches, and underground stems and roots. Swarms of microscopic plants, called bacteria, are at work reducing the tough, woody substances to their original elements — making vegetable mold, _ | upon which living plants can subsist. Earth- 4 worms are helping, by consuming this mold, to mix the surface mulch with the mineral, earthy soil below. They are the natural plows that re- — duce clay and plant mold to that rich, productive y mixture the farmer wants — a live, porousloam. Among the other plant organisms that feed . upon the broken and decaying parts of dead plants _ is a group of flowerless plants called fungi. They multiply unseen, in the moist warmth of decaying ; roots, under the bark of fallen logs, everywhere that stored plant food is available. Decaying plant tissues present the richest possible Pa 2 to fungi. ole Lae 365 ment, they suddenly turn their energies to fruiting. i Out of the ground, or out of some pile of decaying wood, a grove of pallid mushrooms appears. They come up in a night, and set us to marvelling. We have not seen the plants themselves. Tear the bark off of the rotten log, and there, between wood and bark, lie the pale threads, like a mass of tangled yarn. Without the weeks of growth un-. _ seen, no mushrooms could have been formed. ‘The pink-gilled meadow mushroom, whose cultivation is the absorbing occupation of many _ gardeners, and whose search takes us all into the fields in the fall of the year, is the species best _.. known asa food plant. The fleshy, cream-colored umbrella is hung with dull pink “gills,” that turn brown in a short time after the “button” opens into the umbrella. Cut a fresh one from the _ stem, and lay it on a sheet of white paper. Next ~ morning you will find on the paper a pattern of the gills made by a fine dust that has fallen from each w in a tiny ridge. A breath will blur the distinct lines, for the dust is impalpable, almost. These “spores” are to the mushroom what seeds are to the higher plants. | Be oh The claim that mushrooms are as nutritious as Me _ beefsteak may be exaggerated, Much of them is ae water. The reason they are good food is that ‘MANY OR SPECIAL PURPOSES decay it feeds on. pe The tall “shaggy manes,” wie blll ume brellas, and roughened surfaces, belong to the ink-caps, a group of mushrooms whose spores are not scattered by wind, as the powdery ones are, but carried off in an inky fluid, into which ihe gills seem to melt, as they pass their prime. They | : are not edible after the gills begintodarken. i. q Some of the gayest mushrooms are not fit to 4 eat; a few of the pale edible-looking ones are — deadly poison! The “destroying angel, " called 4 iy mn) 4 the “death cup,” also grows in the woods among a the fine, wholesome kinds, and it is most impor- _ a tant to let all mushrooms alone, unless you know, - q with certainty, the edible kinds at sight. People — : who do not know the good from the bad should a not collect mushrooms, and rely on selecting the b i good ones later under the eye ofa competent judge. The poisonous mushrooms contaminate those they touch. So there is real danger in Hees an chances. an me mushrooms of the woods, i My o this apill | The soil | is made by mixing anure with garden loam, and planting ice hm mushroom ) tapes lag of te dried Though they grow in = in 1 meadows, secs mushrooms are happier . ¥ ‘4 i A p i vi Pai aa fi i a ot 4 ie ns } NY =e et". Hicauiel bes, 70 Burbank, 219 Bush fruits, 220 a aad 107 ‘Cabbage. 142 Cacao, 267 Caffeine, 286 . Cane fruits, 218 Canteloupe, 244 Caprification, 235 | Carosella, 140 Carrots, 177 Cassaba, 245 Cashew-nuts, 117 Cassava, 62 Cauliflower, 145 Celeriac, 136 Celery, 133 Chard, 130 I | Cheeses, 313 ge “nly 266 Cherries, 217, 283 DB Chervill tar) Chestnut blight, 113 Chestnuts, 112 Chicory, 168 Chiles, 259 Chillies, 259 Chinquapins, 114 Chives, 152 Chocolate, 272 Citron, 199, 244 _Citrous fruits, 195 | —Clovers, 68 Cathee 116 | Coca, 298 ae Gs HONS : Cocoa, 268 Coco-nuts, 337 Codein, 297 Coffee, 169, 279 Coir, 326, 337 Cola, 299 Collards, 148 Copra, 339 Core fruits, 206 Corn, 36 products, 42 races of, 38 strains of, 40 varieties of, 40 Cotton, 310 gin, 316 Cowpeas, 95 | _ Cranberries, 220 Cream ‘of tartar, .205 Cresses, 131 Cross-fertilization, 25, 225, 233 Cucumbers, 260 Currants, 202, 220 Dandelion, 125 Dewberry, 219 Dextrine, 44 Dill, 141 Dragon’ s blood, 337 Durra,; 51 Ebonite, 355 Eeggplants, 256 Endive, 124 Ergot, 33 Fscarolle, 125 Fennel, 139 Fibre plants, 300 Garlic, “Ter -Gherkins, 261, . Goober, 100 -Gooseberries, 220 Grapefruit, 200 | Gutta Percha, 362. | Hasheesh, 324 ‘Hickoriés, 111. Horseradish, 164 — | Kohlrabi, 147 Kola, 290% tas ‘Kumquats, 1998 Leeks, 152, a : Fine herbs, 141 Mei }. Flax, 303) a ‘Formalin bath, ae pa [ON naey: Frijoles, 95 Gee Fungi, 364 ae ne my ew Aaa Glucose, 14g. ae : Gluten, (15 sich ee Gourd, 247. =. He i Grafting, 208 i Grapes, 201 ie Grass Family, 67, Hungarian, 942.9) 3 Grasses, 67 de eae Ground-nut, IOI Hazelnuts, 116 Hemp, 321,, 248) Manila, 324 Henequen, 325 an Herba Panacea, 292 _ Hops, 35, 344 Jerusalem artichoke,” ie Jute, 326 | Kafir, 51 ‘Onions, 150 | Onion sets, 154 Opium, 296 ne, ; Orange, 195 nen, making of, 309, 3 mandarin, 198 pinta a : ii) MATICTICS | FOS i) Oyster vegetable, 172 Ty Paddy, IL upines, Q7 Wig pene 148 ‘ : , alms, 335 ‘Mahiz, a0 | : gieve are 6 A ee ivory, 343 Paprika, 259 Papyrus, 68 . nioc, , 62 | Para nut, 116 oe wurzels, 160 Parsley, 137 Parsnips, 176 Peaberries, 283 vam nL | Peaches, 214 larrows, 247 Peanuts, 98 ‘Mate, 287. Pears, 210 “cmon 212 be Pepo, 241, 260 hee WE Peppers, 258 Pe-tsai, 148 Pieplant, 154 Pina-cloth, 229 Pineapples, 226 | Pisang, 239 : stain 367. Pistachio nuts, 117 ushrooms, 364 | Phylloxera, 204 ew, i Plants, arrowroot, 59 bread, I holy, 6 Plums, 213 Pome," 207 Pomelo, 200 Pontianac, 363 Popcorn, 38, 45 types of, 45 ; oy és se trees, 269 4 4h rte Neoopy, bee _ Potato beetles, 185 _ Potatoes, 180. _ Prunes, 214 Puffballs, 367 Pulqué, 288 Pumpkins, 246 ~ Queen Anne’s lace, 178 i Quinces, 211 ~Radishes, 162 Raffa, 327 Ramie, 325 Raisins, 202, 206 Rape, 347 aspberries, 218 Ratoons, 80 Rattan palm, 341 _ Red-top, 67 Retting, 307 Rhubarb, 154 Rice, 4 farming, 8 Roots, brace, 51 ‘feeding, 51 Rotation of crops, 168 Rubber, 44, 236, 352 Rutabaga, 147 Rye, 31 Sago, 62 Sake, 12 Salsify, 172 Scab, 186 Scarlet runner, 94 Scullions, 150 Sea-kale, 138 Seedlings, 208 Shallots, 151 Silos, 44 Sisal, 325 Spinach, 128 | Sport, 215 Sorghum, 84 _Squashes, Bae Stone fruits, 213 Stooling, 17, 72. Strawberries, 222 Succory, 168 Sucrose, 82 Sugar beets, g 5 cane,’ 7O4) |, maples, 88 plants, 77’ Tangerines, 198 Tannin, 278 Tapioca, 62 éa,-274 Teasel, Fuller’s, 349 Teosinte, 39 Theine, 278 Theobroma, 268 Theobromine, 272 Timothy, 67 Tillering, 17 Tobacco, 291 _ Tomatoes, 253 Tubercles, 69 — Turnips, 147, 165 Vetches, 97 Vulcanite, 355 Walnuts, 106 Watermelons, 242 Wheat, 14 districts, 26 farming, 15 harvest, 20. 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