DIGESTIBILITY OF SOY-BEAN AND PEANUT FLOURS. 3 
Prausnitz! in a study of the digestibility of white beans cooked in 
salted water until soft found that the protein was approximately 70 
per cent digested. 
Snyder? studied tne digestibility of navy beans which were prepared 
by cooking for 20 minutes in boiling water containing bicarbonate 
of soda, removing the skins, and baking the hulled beans in the 
usual way. The results of three experiments indicated that bean 
protein was 80 per cent utilized. 
Woods and Mansfield,’ in a study of the digestibility of rations for 
lumbermen, included three experiments in which the ration contained 
beans, and found that the digestibility of the protein of the total diet 
was 85 per cent, and estimated that the digestibility of the bean 
protein was 78 per cent. 
Wait + conducted a series of 72 experiments to determine the 
digestibility of kidney beans, white beans, and three varieties of 
cowpeas eaten in conjunction with a basal ration consisting of bread, 
milk, butter, pork, bananas, and sugar, and found that the coeffi- 
cients of digestibility of the proteins were as follows: Kidney beans 
77 per cent, white beans 78 per cent, Whippoorwill cowpeas 70 per 
cent, Clay cowpeas 74 per cent, and Lady cowpeas 83 per cent. 
The general conclusion to be drawn from the experimental data 
cited above is that while the proteins of the more widely used legumes 
are quite well utilized by the human body, comparing very favorably 
in this respect with the cereal proteins, they are not as completely 
utilized as the proteins supplied by such animal! foods as meats, eggs, 
and milk. 
SOURCE AND AVAILABLE SUPPLY OF SOY-BEAN AND PEANUT PRESS 
CAKE. 
Considerable interest has recently been aroused regarding the 
nutritive value of two legumes, soy beans, which as yet have not been 
extensively used in this country for food purposes, and peanuts, 
which, though well known and commonly eaten, have been used as a 
casual rather than a staple article of diet. It is of course true that 
soy beans have found limited use in some localities and that peanuts 
have been quite extensively used as a constituent of confectionery, 
as ‘‘salted peanuts,’ and more recently as ‘‘peanut butter,’ but 
neither has been very extensively used in the manner in which peas 
and beans appear in the dietary. 
During very recent years the production of both these legumes 
has grown many fold. The increase in the culture of peanuts is due 
very likely to the fact that the boll weevil has made the growing of 
1Ztschr. Biol., 26 (1890), pp. 227-232. 
2 Minnesota Sta. Bul. 74 (1902), p. 122. 
3U.S. Dept. Agr., Office Expt. Stas. Bul. 149 (1904), pp. 60, pls. 4. 
4U.S. Dept. Agr., Office Expt. Stas. Bul. 187 (1907), pp. 55. 
