PEAS, BKANS, ETC. 



187 



4.4 lbs. of dry cocoa annually, and the produce of an acre there may 

 be estimated at 733 lbs. 



Cocoa beans contain albumen, a particular principle, theobromine, 

 analogous to coffeine, a coloring matter, and a large quantity of oil or 

 fat, which, from experiments made in my laboratory, appears to 

 amount to 43 per cent. The presence of a large quantity of albu- 

 men and fatty matter in cocoa explains its highly nutritious qualities. 

 It is indeed one of the most wholesome and restorative articles of 

 sustenance known. Nevertheless, very opposite statements have 

 been made upon the virtues of cocoa or chocolate, of which the bean 

 forms the basis. Benzoni, in his History ot the New World, de- 

 clared chocolate to be a drink that was fitter for hogs than men; 

 and Father Acosta declares the taste for cocoa to be unreasonable. 

 On the other hand, Fernando Cortez and one of his gentlemen fol- 

 lowers are perhaps guilty of exaggeration when they say, " that he 

 who has taken a cup of chocolate may march the rest of the day 

 without other aliment 1"* Without going the whole of this length 

 with Cortez, I still allow that chocolate is one of the best articles 

 for travelling upon, especially in the uninhabited forests of South 

 America, where it is a matter of the highest moment to have the 

 bulk and the weight of necessary rations as small as possible. 



Seeds of leguminous -plants. The leguminous plants that are cul- 

 tivated as food for man are beans, peas, haricots, and lentils ; vetches 

 are grown exclusively for the use of cattle. 



Leguminous plants scarcely ever open rotations ; but they very 

 often wind them up. Speaking generally, however, they may follow 

 any crop. In speaking of the Indian corn, I have said that haricots 

 and beans might be advantageously intercalated. 



The meteorological observations I have made in different coun- 

 tries lead me to conclude that to succeed, leguminous plants require 

 a temperature which in the mean does not fall below from 14° to 15° 

 C, (57° to 59° F.) Hot climates agree with them perfectly ; I have 

 followed them from the sea-board of the equatorial Andes to a height 

 of from 8200 to 9800 feet above the level of the sea. Schwertz has 

 given the following statement of the produce of the different legu- 

 minous plants generally cultivated : 



The analyses we have of leguminous vegetables show the follow 

 ing proporticn of elements : 



* Humboldt, Travels, vol. v. p. 285. 



