CHAPTER III 

 VARIOUS FOOD-PLANTS 



32. Classes of food-plants. Having in the last chapter 

 learned something of the uses and importance of the cereal 

 grains, we ma}" now profitably compare with them other food- 

 plants many of which are almost as valuable as cereals al- 

 though in different ways. It will be convenient to study them 

 under the following headings: nuts, pulse, earth-vegetables, 

 herbage-vegetables, fruit-vegetables, fruits, and miscellaneous 

 food-plants. 



33. Nuts have, hke grains, an edible kernel; but this is 

 generally much larger than in any grain, and is moreover 

 protected by a much thicker and harder shell. The chestnut 

 (Figs. 24-26), the filbert (Fig. 23), the walnut (Fig. 27), the 

 butternut (Fig. 28), the hickory-nut (Fig. 30), the pecan 

 (Fig. 29), the almond (Fig. 31), the peanut (Fig. 33), the 

 Brazil-nut (Fig. 32), and the coconut (Figs. 34-36), plainly 

 agree in possessing the iDeculiarities named, although they 

 differ considerably from one another. 



In view of the fact that nuts possess such large edible 

 kernels, and are some of them even richer than the cereals 

 in proteid, the question naturally arises as to why, with us, 

 nuts are so much less used for food than the grains. The 

 many years which must often elapse between the time of 

 planting and the fruit-yield, the much greater bulk in pro- 

 portion to food-material which thej^ occupy when stored, 

 and the additional labor required for separating the nutritive 

 from the inedible part, are doubtless the drawbacks which 

 very largely account for the inferior rank of nuts in our 

 market; but there are also chemical reasons which will be 

 apparent upon consulting the chart on page 114. With the 

 exception of the chestnut, all we have mentioned contain an 



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