The Cornell Reading Courses 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

 NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



Beverly T. Galloway, Dean 



COURSE FOR THE FARM HOME, MARTHA VAN RENSSELAER and FLORA ROSE, Supervisors 



Published and distributed in furtherance of the purposes provided for in the 

 Act of Congress of May 8, 1914 



VOL. IV. No. 89 JUNE I, 1 91 5 ^°°No.^f|"^^ 



BEANS AND SIMILAR VEGETABLES AS FOOD 



LuciLE Brewer and Helen Canon 



EANS and other plants of the legiime family are of 

 immense importance because of their ability 

 to furnish nitrogen to the soil, to animals, and to 

 human beings.^ Certain microorganisms living in 

 the roots of rightly cultivated legumes take up 

 nitrogen from the air and furnish it to the plant 

 body. The plant is then either plowed under or 

 gathered for food. If it is plowed under, the 

 nitrogen increases the fertility of the soil; if it is used as a forage crop 

 or a human food, the nitrogen furnishes material for building animal 

 tissue. 



The legumes that are most commonly used for human food are the 

 bean, the pea, the lentil, and the peanut. These foods deserve an important 

 place in the dietary because they furnish the body with material for the 

 development and the repair of tissues, they help to keep the body in good 

 running-order, and, generally speaking, they are cheaper than other pro- 

 tein foods. The extent to which the nutrients of the legimies may be used 

 by the body, as well as the ease with which they may be digested, is in- 

 fluenced by the method of cooking them. Their value has long been recog- 

 nized. 



LONG AND EXTENSIVE USE OF LEGUMES AS FOOD 



Beans and peas have been used as human food since early times. Ac- 

 cording to historical records, beans were cultivated by the Egyptians, the 

 Greeks, and the Romans. Peas do not seem to have been known to the 

 Greeks and the Romans. They were introduced into Europe in the Middle 

 Ages, but even in the time of Queen Elizabeth the English obtained them 

 only from Holland and considered them " a dainty dish for ladies, they 



1 For suggestions in regard to the cultivation of beans and peas, the reader is referred to Raising Vege- 

 tables for Canning, by Albert E. Wilkinson, Reading Course Lesson for the Farm Home, No. 83. 



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