WELL WORTHY OF CULTIVATION 

 The groundnut (Apios tuberosa) is a climbing annual vine having maroon and lilac flowers of 

 velvet texture and with the fragrance of the English violet. The groundnut (it has an edible potato- 

 like tuber) belongs to the pea family — a family of unusual interest because of its fodder value in 

 clovers and alfalfas, and food value in beans and peas, seeds in which starch, sugar, and proteids 

 (manufactured by the plant) have been stored in such stable form that they can be shipped to all 

 quarters of the globe. Members of the pea family have the wonderful power of collecting nitrogen 

 from the air of the soil. The work is done by millions of bacteria which live in minute protuberances 

 on the roots. Farmers are learning to enrich the soil by growing clover or cowpeas and ploughing 

 the crops under, or they alternate various crops with some member of the pea family ; also they in- 

 crease their clover, bean, or pea crop tenfold or more by wetting the seeds before planting with a cul- 

 ture of the bacteria 



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