Edible Products. 



10 



considerable commercial importance in Europe and the United States. Brazil Nnts 

 and Butter Nuts form an export from South America amounting to close on 8,000 

 tons a year, and the demand for these is only limited by the supply. Pistachio nuts 

 are a favourite delicacy, and are largely eaten by the Turks and Greeks, being also, 

 according to Rev. Pirminger "obtainable in great abundance in the cold weather 

 in the bazaars of most parts of India." These are not, however, produced in India, 

 but probably in Asiatic Turkey, whence about 1,300 cwts. are yearly imported by 

 England alone. 



Authorities on the subject claim that nuts, especially the larger and in or 

 important kinds, are a nutritious and wholesome food, and predict that the time 

 may come when they will form one of the staples of human food. Vegetarians 

 generally advocate extended cultivation of the better kinds of nuts; these maybe 

 cooked and prepared into numerous dainty dishes, which are claimed to be good 

 substitutes for flesh food. 



THE ECONOMIC POSSIBILITIES OF THE INDIAN JACK. 

 The common Jack (Artocarpus integrifolia, Linn.) is so familiar a tree of the 

 Indian Gai'den that a description of it would appear to be superfluous. Its ever- 

 green crown of dark, glossy leaves, its stout low-branched trunk as well as the 

 irregular branches themselves together with the enormous pendulous syncarpia that 

 are, for the most part, borne upon the stem are too well-known for special remark. 

 It is, however, open to question as to whether the possibilities that are realizable 

 from the utilization of its fruits on any large scale have hitherto engaged the atten- 

 tion they merit at the hands of the Indian agriculturist or economist. For in this 

 " age of economists and calculators " due regard is seldom had or taken of the valu- 

 able source of economic starch. Though the presence of large quantities of the 

 butyrate of ethyl in the fleshy arils of the fruits, when ripe, lends them an odour 

 and flavour that are admitted to be distinctly repugnant to European tastes, they 

 are eagerly sought after and consumed by the natives whenever and wherever they 

 are available. The unripe flakes, together with the nuts or seeds, are boiled and 

 eaten or cooked in curries. Throughout the West Coast of India and in Lower 

 Burma it is the fruit of the hot weather. 



Besides the farinaceous arils surrounding the seeds, the latter themselves are 

 nothing less than compact masses of nutritious starch. These arils, with the seeds 

 enveloped in them, constitute the real fruit of the plant and are, by far, its most 

 valuable product. As stores of readily-available starch they are especially of import- 

 ance to the people of India, particularly during seasons of scarcity and distress. For, 

 either product separated from the other or the two combined together when converted 

 into chips and dried in the sun, admit of being transported to distant places and 

 stored up for indefinite periods of time. When the syncarpia mature, the flakes are 

 separable from the common stalk on which they are borne. The arils may then be 

 readily sliced up with or without the seeds inside them and the slices spread out 

 upon mats and dried in the sun until they are brittle. When they are dry, one or 

 a couple of winnowings is all that will be necessary to eliminate the chips from the 

 dense and indigestible testas of the seeds as well as from any other undesirable 

 matter that may have got mixed up with the chips during their exposure to the sun. 

 Or, after peeling the flakes, the arils may be dried apart from the seeds and the 

 latter desiccated and reduced to flour by pounding in the ordinary mortars of the 

 country. When required for use, the product, on being boiled, in water seasoned 

 with salt, resolves into a mealy mess or porridge spoken of in high terms by the 

 indigent consumer. The mature seeds, when roasted or boiled, resemble the common 



