HISTORY OF BEAN PLANT 'Ml 



the raising of beans is an important industry, the raising 

 of hogs and sheep is also practiced extensively. Sheep eal 

 not only the rejected dry beans, but also the pods. 



Certain varieties of beans are eaten when young and 



« I 



green, the pod itself being used as an article of food. 



Figure 338. — A Field of Beans. 



These "string beans" are raised extensively in some 

 localities and are canned for the market. In this industry 

 much of the work has to be done by hand. 



232. The Value of Beans as Food. — Beans furnish more 

 protein and yield more energy than any other kind of plant 

 food except wheat. Compared with the cost of meal or of 

 eggs, vegetable forms of protein are much cheaper, and 

 beans are the cheapest of all. String beans do not contain so 

 much nourishment as dry beans. Beans properly cooked 

 are both digestible and palatable and should form an even 

 more important part of our diet than at present. 



233. History of the Bean Plant. — The bean and the mem- 

 bers of the bean family (beans, peas, clover) are known to 

 have been cultivated from the earliest times .>!' human 

 history. They are spoken of in the Bible under the name 

 of pulse (Daniel i. 12), and mention is made of them in the 

 records of the Kgyptians, (i reeks, and Roman8. When 

 America was discovered, the Indians were cultivating pole 



