THE CULTIVATOR. 
239 
1846. 
have but little stock on the “ Plains ” farm all sum- 
mer SiR.\m P. Henkel. 
Plains Mills, Rockingham, Va., 1846. 
[The above communication has been mislaid, or it 
would have appeared before.—E d.] 
nutritive PROPERTIES OT PEAS AND BEANS. 
Experience and observation induced us, long since, 
(to form a very favorable opinion of the nourishing 
properties of peas and beans. The hardy lumbermen of 
Maine, in laying in a stock of provisions for their win¬ 
ter support while engaged in cutting down the forest, 
never fail to secure a large supply of these articles; and 
we have been repeatedly assured by men engaged in 
that laborious business, that their ability to labor was 
greater when their food consisted in a large degree of 
peas and beans, seasoned with fat pork, than when feed¬ 
ing on other substances. 
Oats and peas are known in some parts of our country, 
as forming the very best food for hard-working horses. 
And we have formed, also, a favorable opinion of peas 
and beans for fattening. We cannot, however, say 
that their value is not greater for laboring, than for fat¬ 
tening animals—as chemical analysis seems to indicate— 
but we know that sheep have been fattened rapidly on 
beans and bean-meal, and we have often seen hogs well 
fattened on meal of oats and peas ground together in the 
proportion of one part peas to two of oats, by measure; 
which would make the proportion by weight about 
equal. We never heard any objection to the quality of 
pork so made. 
But we think careful experiments are necessary to 
show the relative value of peas and beans compared with 
other substances, (Indian corn for example,) in feeding 
different animals for different purposes. If peas and 
beans are, as is contended by some chemists, better than 
corn for the production of wool, let it be practically 
demonstrated;—if corn is better for making mutton, let 
it be shown—let us have facts, and no theories but 
what are based on them. 
The value of peas and beans For human food is strong¬ 
ly set forth in the following extracts, which we take 
from an article by Dr. Buckland, published in an 
English paper. He remarks that the seeds of legumi¬ 
nous plants, “ especially peas and beans, are loaded with 
the constituents of muscle and bone ready prepared to 
form and maintain the muscular fibre of the body of 
animals.” “Hence,” he says, « the rapid restoration 
©f the shrunk muscle of the exhausted post-horse by a 
good feed of oats and beans. Hence the sturdy growth 
of the Scotch children on oat-cake and porridge, and of 
broth made of the meal of parched or kiln-dried peas; 
on this a man can live, and do good work, for I^d. a 
day; while the children of the rich, who are pampered 
on the finest wheat flour, (without the pollard or bran,) 
and on sago, rice, butter, and sugar, become fat and 
sleek, and would often die, as sometimes they do, from 
such non-nutricious food, but for the mixture of milk 
and eggs they eat in cakes and puddings. 
“ An old laborer at Axbridge, complained to his 
master, Mr. Symons, (who died in 1844,) that laborers 
feeding now on potatoes, could not do so good a day’s 
work now as when he was young, and when they fed 
on peas. < Peas, sir,’ said he, « stick to the ribs. 5 He 
uttered the very truths of organic chemistry. 
i ‘ I n beans we have vegetable ‘caseine,’ or the pecu¬ 
liar element of cheese. What is more restorative or 
more grateful to man, when fatigued by labor or a long 
walk? As we heat or toast it, it melts, and ere it 
reaches our mouth, is drawn into strings of almost 
Fiady-made fibre; and who has ever dined so fully as 
not to have room left for a little bit of cheese? 
“ What is so restorative as beans to the jaded hack or 
the exhausted race-horse? Sepoys on long voyages 
live exclusively on peas. The working and healthy 
mars and beast want muscle, and not fat; fat encumbers 
and impedes activity and every excess of it is disease. 
We seldom see a fat laborer or a fat soldier, except 
among the sergeants, who sometimes eat or drink too 
much. 
“ Charcoal, which next to water, forms the chief 
ingredient in potatoes, is subsidaiy to life, though not 
to strength. The same is true of the charcoal, which 
is the main ingredient of rice, sago, sugar, butter, and 
fat. The woman at Tutbury, who pretended to fast for 
many days and weeks, sustained life by secretly sucking 
handkerchiefs charged with sugar or starch. During 
the manufacturers’ distress in Lancashire, five years ago, 
many of the poor remained in bed covered with blan¬ 
kets, where warmth and the absence of exercise les¬ 
sened materially the need of food. When Sir John 
Franklin and his polar party travelled on snow nearly a 
fortnight without food, they felt no pain or hunger 
after the second day; they became lean and weak by 
severe exercise and cold, but sustained life by drinking 
warm water and sleeping in blankets with their feet 
round a fire; alas, a knowledge of such facts may be¬ 
come needful and useful in the approaching winter. 
“ It has been already stated that the most nutritious 
of all vegetable food is the flour of peas, which was the 
staple food in Europe before potatoes. The flour of 
kiln-dried peas stirred in hot water makes a strong and 
pleasant Scotch brose, on which alone a man may do 
good work. Barrels of peas brose flour may be brought 
from Scotland, or prepared in England wherever there 
is a malt-kiln. 
“ In England, pea-soup and peas pudding are still a 
common and most nourishing food. Our forefathers 
and their children, we know from nursery rhymes, ate 
‘ Peas pudding hot, peas pudding cold, 
Peas pudding in the pot, and nine days old.’ 
<e Let us for a part of this and next year once live as 
they lived 300 years ago. Boiled or fried slices of peas 
pudding are not unsavor} 7 - food; and what boy would 
not prefer parched peas to nuts? 
“ Oat cake is the bread of all Scotland, and of much of 
Ireland, and of the North of England; and oatmeal 
made into broth and porridge is the universal and 
almost the only food of highland children. Let those 
who have quailed under the charge of a highland regi¬ 
ment tell the results. 
“ Bread made of rye is the chief food of farmers and 
laborers in Germany and the north of Europe; it is of a 
dark color, and little used with us, but it is very nourish¬ 
ing, and in time of scarcity is a good substitute for 
wheat. 
“ Indian corn or maize is the food of man over a 
large part of the world, and makes bread and cakes, not 
very palatable to us, but better than nothing! in times 
of scarcity.” 
Dr. B. places a low value on our much-esteemed 
Indian corn,—admitting only, that it makes “ bread and 
cakes ” which are “ better than nothing in times of 
scarcity!” The taste for different articles of food is 
undoubtedly formed in a great degree by habit. The 
Esquimaux relish the raw flesh and blubber of the seal 
—our American Indians their parched corn and bear’s 
oil—the Scotchman his broth of oats or peas, or bread 
made from those articles—while we in this country, 
who have duly learned the “art and mystery ” of cook¬ 
ing Indian corn, consider it equally as “ palatable ” as 
any other article of bread-stuffs. 
Destroying Weeps.—S. W. Jewett, of Weybridge, 
Vt., says he finds nothing equal to sheep for destroying 
ox-eye daisy, johnswort, and other troublesome weeds. 
“ They must be stocked down early, if covered with 
johnswort, the plant being poisonous to those animals 
after it obtains rank growth.” 
Succession of Apples. —An eminent cultivator of 
fruit near Boston, gives the following as a good list for 
a succession, commencing with the earliest:—Heath's 
Early Nonsuch, Early Harvest, Porter, Gravenstein, 
Fameuse, Greening and Baldwin, and the Russets. He 
' also adds, as fine, Red Astracan, Williams’ Favorite, 
| St. Lawrence, White Seek-no-t'arther, Yellow Bell¬ 
flower, Lyscom, Canada Reinette, and Murphy. And 
of sweet apples. Bough, Sugar Sweet, French Sweet, 
Danvers’ Sweet, Gardiner’s Sweet, and Seaver Sweet 
