EXTENSION COURSE IN VEGETABLE FOODS. 3 
This course of study is more particularly along the line of the last 
item in this list—the culinary processes through which vegetables 
must pass before they can be properly utilized by the human body 
as food. | 
Few of the vegetables which are now man’s main dependence were 
attractive in their original form, but most have been developed 
through centuries of cultivation and experiment. Cookery, as well 
as agriculture, has served to increase the number of plants available 
for food. “The number of inhabitants that can be supported in a 
country depends as much upon the art of cookery as upon that of 
agriculture; both arts belong to civilization,” said Count Rumford, 
a pioneer in scientific food study. Primitive man gave little thought 
to agriculture, but took seeds, fruits, roots, leaves, and stalks, or fish 
and game, as nature provided them, thus satisfying his hunger and 
getting such variety as he could. In the division of labor between 
the sexes in early times the men were usually the hunters, and the 
women gathered, transported, and stored the simple forms of vege- 
table foods, including fruits and nuts, roots and seeds. The total 
number of kinds grown is very small compared to the total number 
of known plants; large markets offer hardly 50 varieties of vege- 
tables, and most families use less than half this number. 
CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS. 
To trace the common vegetables back to their sources would be 
interesting. Some have been known so long that it can only be 
guessed what land they came from or from what wild plant they 
were developed. More is known about others. 
In order to describe and classify plants accurately botanists have 
adopted a system of Latin names for the principal forms and groups, 
and some familiarity with these is very helpful in studying this sub- 
ject or even for reference to the dictionaries and encyclopedias. 
There are many ways of classifying the plants which are useful 
toman. A simple plan is to divide them according to their uses into— 
(1) Those that yield food for man, or for those animals which in 
turn are useful to man; 
(2) Those which furnish materials for clothing and shelter; and 
(3) Those which supply no material need, but add beauty to 
human surroundings. 
The plants that are used for human food might be classified in 
several ways. One would be from the dietetic standpoint and would 
include, first, those used primarily for the sake of nutrients con- 
tained, and second, those used primarily for the sake of flavor or 
variety. Another classification would be according to the part of 
the plant used. This is a little difficult because in some cases several 
parts are eaten, but it is nevertheless worth considering. One of the 
