LEGUMES, BERRIES AND SMALL FRUITS 



181 



Fig. 113. — The soy bean of 

 southeastern Asia is a low bushy 

 plant producing small pods. 



cultivated in the Orient for the past several thousand years. Soy 



bean plants are low and bushy, 



producing pods and seeds which 



are considered by some to be the 



richest vegetable food known to 



man. Flour made from it has such 



a low carbohydrate and high pro- 

 tein content that it is an excellent 



food for diabetics. Being a plant of 



warm temperate regions, it is quite 



susceptible to frost. Manchuria 



leads the world in production of 



soy beans, while Illinois grows 



over half of the domestic crop 



raised chiefly for industrial pur- 

 poses (see p. 394). 



The KIDNEY or string bean {^g. 114) which is the type grown 



for eating and canning throughout the United States today, is a 



plant of tropical America which 

 was being cultivated by the Incas 

 when the first white people came to 

 the new world. Brought to Europe 

 by the early explorers, it soon re- 

 placed the then common broad 

 bean. Over a thousand varieties are 

 known today, varying in habit from 

 dwarf bushy plants to tall pole- 

 climbing types, producing pods and 

 seeds of varying texture and color, 

 from green to yellow. Both the seeds 

 and the pods are used as food. 

 Beans have become an important 

 portion of our vegetable crops — 

 23,000,000 bushels being produced 

 in 1935. 



Lima beans (fig. 115) are another 



species of the kidney bean genus, native to the tropical American 



region and named for the capital of Peru. Lima beans have 



Fig. 114. — The kidney or 

 string bean is a plant of 

 tropical America, cultivated 

 as our common eating bean. 



