572 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



mineral salts, found in all vegetable foods, also contribute their share 

 toward the flavor. 



CLASSIFICATION OF VEGETABLES. 



Vegetable foods may be divided into a few general classes. These 

 are cereals, legumes, tubers, roots and bulbs, herbaceous or green vege- 

 tables, and vegetable fruits and flowers. Rice and corn will be the 

 only vegetables here considered, as they are the only grains com- 

 monly employed as table vegetables. 



Kice is largely composed of starch and has very small propor- 

 tions of nitrogenous, fatty, and mineral matter. When used as a 

 vegetable, it is naturally and very properly served with foods rich in 

 the constituents which it lacks. The starch granules in rice are small 

 and angular, and it is generally conceded to be easily digested. Corn, 

 when ripe, also has a high percentage of starch in addition to a fair 

 proportion of the other nutrients. Green corn is a succulent vege- 

 table containing a fair proportion of carbohydrates in addition to a 

 small proportion of the other nutrients. (Bu. Chem. 127.) 



In the freshly pulled corn the sugars present are 4.59 and 4.74 

 per cent. On standing twenty-four hours at room temperature, un- 

 husked, about one-third of the sugars disappear ; after the next twen- 

 ty-four hours another loss is noticed, but when the sugars reach 1.80 

 per cent no further decrease takes place. The taste is not so good 

 after twenty-four hours as when first pulled. After ninety-six hours 

 the corn tasted flat and sour and the kernels were wrinkled. Legumes 

 belong to the pulse family. The fruit is usually in the shape of a pod. 

 Only a few kinds are used as table vegetables, beans, peas, cowpeas, 

 and lentils being the most common. 



The ripe leguminous seeds are very rich in nitrogenous matter. 

 Peas, beans, cowpeas, and lentils contain on an average 25 per cent 

 nitrogenous matter and over 50 per cent starch, and about 10 per 

 cent cellulose, fatty matter, and mineral matter. When properly 

 cooked and consumed in reasonable quantities peas, beans, and len- 

 tils may replace a portion of the meat in the daily dietary. The un- 

 ripe legumes and their edible pods, like all green vegetables, are quite 

 succulent foods, the proportion of nutritive material being small as 

 compared with the water present. The green seeds and the green 

 pods of peas and beans are not so highly nutritious as the dried seed, 

 but they are more delicate and apparently more easily digested. 



Among the foods served as table vegetables, tubers and roots 

 have an important place. The potato comes next to the cereals in its 

 almost universal employment and the material consumed. We have 

 no other vegetable that lends itself to such a variety of preparations. 

 It contains a large percentage of water, a fair percentage of starch, 

 a very small percentage of sugar, and nitrogenous, fatty, and gummy 

 matter, and about 1 per cent of mineral matter. The mineral matter 

 consists of potash and soda salts, citrates, phosphates, magnesia, and 

 silicate of lime. It is to this mineral matter that the potato owes its 

 antiscorbutic properties (that is, it prevents scurvy). 



The sweet potato is rich in starch and sugar. The percentage of 

 nitrogenous and fatty matter is very small. This vegetable makes a 



