SOME EXPERIMENTAL FOODS 233 



apples are prepared, used as a sauce or for pie, preserved or dried. 

 Finally, its juice may be used as a delicious and highly nutritive 

 fruit broth." 



Petsai, or, as the Chinese have it, Pe-tsai, is a substitute 

 for the cabbage. In appearance it is as different from 

 cabbage as can be imagined. It is tall and cylindrical and 

 its leaves are narrow, delicately curled, with frilled edges. 

 The petsai can, however, be grown on any soil where the 

 ordinary cabbage could be cultivated and in many sections 

 where the native vegetable would languish. We are told 

 it is no uncommon thing for a petsai to reach sixty pounds 

 in weight. Department of Agriculture officials, however, 

 advise that it be plucked when about eight pounds in weight, 

 its flavor being then the most delicate and appealing. 



This new importation, Uncle Sam's experts hope, will 

 cause a drop in the price of dinners. Cabbage long ago 

 ceased to be a cheap dish. But petsai requires none of the 

 care which has to be lavished on cabbage and will thrive in 

 almost any climate and any soil. 



The soy bean, once started, grows wild and yields several 

 crops a season. It can be prepared in a multitude of 

 ways, from baking to a delicious salad. According to 

 Doctor Yamei Kin, the head of the Women's Medical 

 School near Pekin, milk can be made from it to cost about six 

 cents a quart and equal to cows' milk. It would be a bless- 

 ing if we could get rid of the sacred but unclean cow. One 

 of the state dairy inspectors told me, "We consider milk a 

 filthy product." 



It may be remembered that, only twenty years ago, 

 almost all the dates consumed here came from the oases 

 of Arabia and the valley of the Euphrates. To-day there 

 are more than a hundred varieties successfully produced 



