GENERAL NOTES \ 25 



beef acre. The concentrated food in a nut has been 

 stored up by the plant for the purpose of giving its 

 progeny a strong boost upward toward success in the 

 world, and for that reason each nut represents a prize 

 package of the most concentrated food materials 

 with very little of the waste belonging to the frame- 

 work and structure of other vegetable products. The 

 average number of food units per pound furnished 

 by the more common varieties of nuts is three thou- 

 sand two hundred and thirty-one calories while the 

 average of the same number of varieties of cereals 

 is sixteen hundred and fifty-four calories. The av- 

 erage food value of the best vegetables is only three 

 hundred calories per pound and of fresh fruits two 

 hundred and seventy-eight calories. The average 

 value of the six principal flesh foods is eight hun- 

 dred and ten calories per pound or one-fourth that 

 of the nuts. 



Although we are prone to speak of protein as a 

 unit food substance, proteins from different food 

 products vary largely in character. Nuts furnish 

 proteins of such fine quality that they supply the ele- 

 ments necessary to render more complete the pro- 

 teins of cereals and other vegetable foods. They are 

 free from such waste products as uric acid, urea, and 

 carnine which go with meats. Further than that 

 they are nearly aseptic and free from bacteria of 

 putrefaction at the time when they are eaten. 



From an economic standpoint the raising of nuts 

 possesses an advantage over the raising of meat. 

 One hundred pounds of food fed into a steer pro- 



