ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF GREEN PLANTS 123 



A field of rice, showing tlie conditions of culture. 



Garden Fruits. — Green plants and especially vegetables have 

 come to play an important part in the dietary of man. The 

 diseases known as scurvy and beri-beri, the latter the curse of the 

 far Eastern navies, have been largely prevented hy adding vege- 

 tables and fruit juices to the dietary of the sailors. People in 

 this country are beginning to find that more vegetables and less 

 meat are better than the meat diet so often used. Market gar- 

 dening forms the lucrative business of many thousands of people 

 near our great cities. Some of the more important fruits are 

 squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, peppers, straw- 

 berries, raspberries, and blackberries. The latter fruits bring in 

 an annual income of $25,000,000 to our market gardeners. Beans 

 and peas are important as foods because of their relatively large 



