Alfalfa
Alfalfa. "lucerne" Is Another Name By Which This Won Derful Clover-like Plant Is Called In Europe, But In America We Call It By The Arabic Name, "alfalfa," Which Means "the Best Fodder." That Name Describes It Exactly, For No Other Plant Yields As Much And As Good Hay. All The ...
Almonds
Almonds. Strangest Of All The Stone Fruits Is The Almond, For Its Flesh Dries Away Into A Leathery Husk That Cracks Open When Ripe To Free The Pit. We Do Not Throw Away The Pit Of The Almond As We Do That Of Other Stone Fruits, For It Is Good ...
American Walnuts
American Walnuts. A Dozen Different Kinds Of Valuable Trees Belong In The Family Of The Walnuts And Hickories. They Are Fruit Trees, For Most Of Them Bear Edible Nuts — Pecans, English Walnuts, And Shagbark Hickory Nuts, For Examples. They Are Noble Shade And Valuable Lumber Trees. So They Have ...
Apples
Apples. The Parent Of The Apples Of The Orchard Is A Scraggly Tree With Sour, Crabbed Fruit Enclosing The Core And Seeds. It Grows Wild In The Southeastern Parts Of Europe, And The Neighboring Countries Of Asia Minor. From These Parts It Moved With The Drift Of Population Westward, And ...
Apricots
Apricots. The Apricot Is A Woolly Plum, Or It May Be More Accurate To Say That The Plum Is A Smooth Apricot. Botanists And Horticulturists Recognize The Close Relationship Between The Two Groups Of Species. They Both Belong To The From The Woods Of Armenia The Apricot Has Been Carried ...
Arrowroot Plants
Arrowroot Plants. The Starch That Physicians Prescribe For Children And Invalids With Certain Forms Of Indigestion Is Called Arrowroot. It Is Fine-grained, And Has The Peculiar Characteristic Of Gathering Into Little Balls When A Pinch Of It Is Rubbed Between The Thumb And Finger. Stirred In Boiling Water, It Forms ...
Asparagus
Asparagus. Asparagus Is A Member Of The Lily Family, As The Tiny, Bell-shaped Flowers, And The Fleshy Ber Ries Declare, But The Narrow Leaves, And The Needle Branched Plant, When It Reaches Four Feet In Height, Suggest Any Other Family Than The Lily. I Think The Species, Which Stands Alone, ...
Bamboos
Bamboos. The Giant Grasses, That Are More Familiar To Us In Fish Poles Than In Any Other Of The Uses They Serve, Grow From Sea Level To An Altitude Of 15,000 Feet. If We Think Of The Clump Of Bamboo That Makes An Attractive Feature In A Neighbor's Garden, It ...
Bananas
Bananas. Thirty Years Ago Few People Outside The Large Cities Had Ever Seen A Banana—fewer By Far Were Those Who Knew And Liked The Taste Of The Fruit. Surprising Changes Have Been Brought About By The Growth Of Commerce Between This Country And The West Indies. The Poorest Family In ...
Barley
Barley Barley Is The Hardiest And One Of The Oldest Grains In Cultivation. It Will Grow Much Farther North Than Wheat; It Is A Staple Crop In Norway, Russia, And Siberia, Where It Grows Right Up To The Arctic Circle. This Is A Grain From Which The Bread Of Peasants ...
Beans
Beans. The Person Who "doesn't Know Beans" Is Counted A Stupid One. You And I Know The Little White Dry Beans That Began To Be Grown As A Field Crop To Supply Our Army During The Civil War. This Is The Bean That Supplies Our Navy, Too, And One Name ...
Beeches
Beeches. The Small, Triangular Nut That Is Borne In Pairs In The Prickly, Four-parted Husk Of The Beech Tree Has Small Claim To The Attention Of The Dealer In Commercial Nuts. But You And I Know That It Is Sweet And Rich, Once You Get It Out Of Its Shell. ...
Betel Nuts
Betel Nuts. The Natives Of The Malay Peninsula And Neigh Boring Islands Are Addicted To The Habit Of Chewing Betel Nuts, The Seeds Of The Areca Palm. The Fruit Is The Size Of A Hen's Egg. Inside The Fibrous Husk Is The Nut, Which Is Sliced And Wrapped In The ...
Breadfruit
Breadfruit. It Is Almost Too Much To Believe — The Story Of Bread That Grows On Trees! But People Who Travel In Tropical Countries Have Seen And Eaten This Won Derful Fruit, And They Tell Us That The Story Is Not A Fable, But A Simple, Everyday Fact. The Natives ...
Broom Corn
Broom Corn. Three Varieties Of Sorghum Are Important: Two As Food Plants, And The Third Furnishes The House Wife With Brooms. Kafir Corn Feeds Stock And Poultry In This Country: It Feeds Both Man And Beast In Africa, India, And China. Sorghum Molasses Replaces Sugar To A Considerable Extent. In ...
Buckwheat
Buckwheat The Most Interesting Thing About Buckwheat Is That It Is Not Wheat, Nor Even A Grain Or Grass. It Is The Seed Of A Plant Of The Smartweed Family. We All Know This Pink-flowered Smartweed That Grows In Swampy Ground, And The Knot-grass That Creeps Around The Back Door. ...
Cacao_p1
Cacao. If A Census Could Be Taken Of All Hungry Chil Dren To-day, And They Could Have "just What They Want" To Cure What Ails Them, The Order For Choco Late Would Be Bigger Than For Any Other On The List. Here Is A Candy That Is A Nutritious Food, ...
Cacao_p2
The Best Way To Proceed Is To Open The Pods At Once After They Are Gathered, And Put The Beans In A Box That Slowly Revolves, So As To Give Them Uniform Treatment, Without Loss Of Heat During The Days They Ferment, And Lose Their Bitter Principle. A Week Usually ...
Cacao_p3
Great Britain Is The Nation Of Tea-drinkers. The Colonies Follow The Mother Country, And Where The Englishman Goes Into The Wilds, He Carries His Tea Pot And A Supply Of The Dried Leaf. The Tea Con Sumed In Australasia Averages Over Seven Pounds A Year For Every Man, Woman, And ...
Carrots
Carrots. The Wild Parent Of Garden And Field Varieties Of Carrots Is A Rampant Weed In Most Parts Of Europe, And Has Invaded America, Via England. No Greater Nuisance Distresses The Farmer Than This Plant, For It Takes Possession Of Pasture And Meadow Land, And Runs Out The Grass And ...
Celery
Celery. In Its Wild State, Celery Is A Rather Fleshy Rooted Weed, On Waste Land In Parts Of Europe, With A Top Of Cut Leaves, And Flower Clusters Of The Umbrella Type. It Belongs In The Same Family With Parsley, Carrots, Parsnips, And Fennel. No One Would Think Of Tasting ...
Cherries
Cherries. Four Wild Species Of Cherry Grow In The Woods Of America, And Not One Has Yet Shown Any Disposi Tion To Become Large And Sweet, Like The Cherries Of Our Gardens And Orchards. We Grow Sour Cherries For Pies, And Sweet Cherries That Are Delicious To Eat Fresh Out ...
Chervil
Chervil. The "fine Herbs" Of The French Cooks Is A Seasoning Mixture Of Leaves, Chiefly Of The Plant Called Chervil. It Is A Biennial Of The Fennel, Car Rot And Parsnip Family, Its Flowers Borne In The Umbrella-like Clusters That Are The Recognition Sign For This Family. Six Weeks After ...
Chestnuts
Chestnuts. Famous Old Chestnut Trees, Supposed To Be Near Two Thousand Years Old, And Most Picturesque In Their Decrepitude, Are Venerated In Different Sec Tions Of Southern Europe. They Divide Honors With The Ruins Of Temples Built With Hands. Far More Attractive, To My Mind, Are The Sturdy Trees Of ...
Chicory
Chicory. A Ragged, Sprawling Weed Has Caught The Eyes Of Every Boy Or Girl Who Tramps Along Country Roads, For It Opens Its Blue Flowers Early In The Morning, And Closes Them About Noon. The Result Is That The Plant Is Lovely In The Morning, And Ugly The Rest Of ...
Clovers
Clovers. Grasses Include The Cereals, The Bread Plants Of The World. Because They Furnish Rich Food In Both Forage And Grain, These Plants Are Great Soil Rob Bers. They Give Back Little Or Nothing. The Farmer Must Constantly Fertilize His Fields, Or The Yield Of Grain Falls Off Deplorably. Nitrogen ...
Coca
Coca. A Wonderful Power Of Resisting Mental Or Bodily Weariness Is Imparted To The Person Who Chews The Leaves Of The Coca Shrub, That Grows Wild In The Andean Valleys Of Bolivia And Peru. The Dried Leaves, Mixed With Quicklime, Are Chewed By All The Natives Of The Region, And ...
Coffee_p1
Coffee. The Coffee Shrub Is Grown In Sections Of All Tropical Countries, Producing Yearly For The Mar Kets Of The World 1,500,000,000 Pounds Of The Beans. Brazil Raises Three Fourths Of This Crop. Theunited States Consumes One Half Of The World's Coffee Crop. This Astonishing Demand Places The Average For ...
Coffee_p2
The Fruit Contains Two Hard Little Seeds, Each Flattened On The Side That Lies Next To The Other. Each Seed Has A Dry, Yellow .hull That Fits It Closely, And A Filmy Inner Lining Of This Horny "parchment," Known In The Coffee Industry As The "silver Skin." When One Of ...
Coir
Coir. The Cocoa Palm Grows On The Shores Of Tropical Countries, Clustering Its Huge, Three-angled Nuts Under An Umbrella Of Leaves. The Nut Is Egg Shaped, And The Three-sided, Smooth-rinded Fruit Is The Husk. The Green Husks Contain Coarse, Stiff, But Elastic Fibres That Are Made Into Door Mats And ...
Core Fruits
Core Fruits. In The Great Rose Family We Find A Number Of The Most Important Genera Of Trees, Whose Seed Envelopes Man Has Developed By The Arts Of Horti Culture Into Luscious And Wholesome Fruits. Be Side Trees, The Family Embraces Shrubs, Herbs, And Vines Known For Their Fruits As ...
Corn Products
Corn Products What A Good All-around Food The Maize Is! Do We Use It As It Deserves? Nothing Tastes Better When One Is Hungry Than Corn Muffins, Or A Loaf Of "johnny-cake." The Corn Flavor Is Unex Celled When Good Cooking Brings It Out. What Else But This Rich Flavor ...
Corn
Corn The Biggest Thing In This Country Is Our Corn Crop. And The Most Wonderful Thing About It Is That Each Year The Crop Is Bigger,— The Miracle Is Repeated, More Granaries Are Filled Each Time The Autumn Rolls Around. Let Us Look At A Few Figures, And Try To ...
Cotton_p1
Cotton. Dixie-land Is The Land Of Cotton. Draw A Line On The Map From The Mouth Of The James River, At Norfolk, Virginia, West To Cairo, Illinois, And On Through Memphis, And Little Rock To Dallas, Texas. Below It Lies The Region Of Profitable Cot Ton Culture Of The United ...
Cotton_p2
The Cotton Plant Belongs To The Mallow Family, Along With The Hollyhock, Hibiscus, Althea, Okra And The Little Weed We Call "cheeses." The Flowers Plainly Proclaim The Relationship Of These Cousins. The Trumpet-like Corolla Has A Belt Of Stamens, All Grown Together By The Fleshiness Of Their Filaments That Form ...
Cotton_p3
The Hairy Upland Cotton, With Short Fibre, Is The Common Crop Of The Cotton Belt. Its "staple" Is Less Than An Inch In Length, And Correspond Ingly Thicker Than That Of The Sea Island. Of This Prevailing Species, A Number Of Varieties Have Been Developed, Adapted To Different Situations, Soils, ...
Cresses
Cresses. The Pungent Watery Juice Of The Cress Group, And Their Cross-bearing Flowers At Time Of Bloom, Prove That The Mustard Family Embraces Them All. There Is A Strong Family Likeness, Especially When One Nibbles First One And Then Another Of These Related Plants. The Leaves Of Cresses Are The ...
Cucumbers
Cucumbers. The Balsam Apple And The Burr Cucumber, That Wind Their Branching Tendrils Over The Shrubby Growth Of Neglected Fence Rows, Along The River Banks, And Hang Their Spiny Fruits Where All Can See, Are The Wild Representatives We Have Of A Great Botanical Family, That Has Furnished Us Many ...
Dandelion
Dandelion The Teeth Of A Lion Form A Jagged Line, Just Like The Toothed Margin Of The Leaf Of This Familiar Dooryard Plant, The Dandelion. "dent-de-lion" Is The French Name. Can You Read The Meaning Into It? Dandelions Grow Wild And Rampant Over The Temperate Zones Of The Northern And ...
Dill
Dill. Dill Pickles Make Us Acquainted With A Rather Rare Flavor Used By German And Italian Cooks As Seasoning In Preserves And Pickles. It Strikes The American Palate As A Blend Of Fennel And Mint. The Seeds And Sometimes The Thread-like Leaves Of The Tall, Wild Parsnip-like Plant Are Used. ...
Egg Plants
Egg Plants. The Botanist Defines A Berry As A Fleshy Pericarp With Many Seeds. This Is Not What The Horti Culturist Means, For A Berry To Him Means A Little, Soft, Sweet Fruit, Without Reference To Its Struct Ure. Botanically Speaking, The Egg-plant, Is A Giant Berry. With It Ranks ...
Endive
Endive When Lettuces, Languishing Under The Summer Heat, Bolt To Seed In The Garden Rows, Instead Of Making The Fine Heads We Expect, We Must Be Re Signed, And Turn Our Attention To The Late-sown Endive For Our Autumn Salads. So Many People Do Not Know The Plant, Whose Thick ...
English Walnuts
English Walnuts. Names Have Interesting Histories. The English Walnut Came To The Boston And New York Markets From English Shipping Houses, Before Commerce Had Established More Direct Lines Of Steamships Between The United States And The Southern Ports Of Europe, And Before California Began To Supply The Country With Home-grown ...
Fennel
Fennel. A Bitter-sweet Aromatic Odor And Flavor Are Strong In The Fennel Group Of The Umbrella Flowered Family, Which Includes Parnsips And Car Rots, And A Dozen More Garden Vegetables Familiar To Us All. The Peculiar Odor Is Found In The Oil That Pervades All Parts Of The Plant, Particularly ...
Figs_p1
Figs. The Rich, Sugary, Amber Figs That Lie Packed Tightly Together In Boxes Shipped From Faraway Smyrna, In Asia Minor, Should Form A Part Of Every Child's Christmas. They Are A Delicious And Wholesome Sweet, Both Food And Candy. Americans Use Them Increasingly In Desserts And Cakes. Tons Are Imported ...
Figs_p2
Is The Pollen Ripe Just When The Flowers Are Ready To Be Fertilized? How In The World Does It Get In Through The Narrow Door Of The Fruit? How Does It Get Scattered Inside, So That Hun Dreds Of Stigmas Receive It? These Questions Put The Scientist On The Right ...
Fine Wild Berries
Fine Wild Berries. Cranberries Grow In Boggy Land In Various Parts Of North America, And Europe, And Require To Be Flooded During The Winter Time To Keep The Plants From Freezing And Being Heaved Out Of The Ground. Flooding Of The Lower Parts Of The Plants During Growing Time Is ...
Flax
Flax. Flax Is The Oldest Of Cultivated Fibre Plants, And, Until The Growing Of Cotton Became The Great Agricultural Industry Of The South, It Was The Most Important Of The World's Fibre Crops. Only Within The Last Century Has Flax Surrendered First Place To Cotton, Though Both Plants Have Furnished ...
Fullers Teasel
Fuller's Teasel. In This Day, Machinery Takes The Raw Wool And Cards, Spins, Weaves, And Dyes It, With Scarcely A Hand Touching The Warp Or Woof Until The Finished Cloth Is Rolled Onto A Bolt For The Merchant To Unroll On His Counter. One Process In The Making Of Cloth ...
Globe Artichoke
Globe Artichoke. The French People Are Particularly Fond Of A Vegetable Which Is The Flower Head Of A Robust Plant Belonging To The Same Family As The Daisy And Sun Flower. All Such Plants Bear Numerous Small Flowers, On A Flat, Circular Disk, Surrounded And Protected By Green Scales, Called ...
Grapes_p1
Grapes. The Oldest Cultivated Fruit Is The Grape, A Plant Related To The Virginia Creeper. Six Thousand Years It Has Furnished The Human Race With Food And Drink. In The Old Countries, Wine Comes First Among The Important Products Of "the Vine." To Us, Grapes Are Important First As Food. ...
Grapes_p2
But Study Of The Ruined Vines Revealed The Cause Of Trouble. No One Could Devise Any Means Of Killing An Insect Enemy That Works Underground. But The Wild American Vines, That Showed Ability To Resist The Attacks Of The Phylloxera, Were Taken To Europe And Planted. Then The Varieties That ...
Grasses
Grasses A Large Part Of The Animal Creation Is Made Up Of Grass-eaters. Carnivorous Creatures Live Upon The Grass-eaters. So The Saying: "all Flesh Is Grass," Is Literally True, In The Long Run. The Commonest Plant In The World Is Grass. It Covers The Bare Earth, Even When Trees And ...
Gutta Percha
Gutta Percha. "getah Taban" Is The Name By Which The Native Of The Malay Peninsula Calls Two Closely Related Trees That He Taps For Their Gray, Milky Juice. The Shamefully Wasteful, Primitive Method Is To Cut Down The Tree, Strip Off The Bark In Rings, Groove The Wood To Make ...
Have
Have You Ever Gone Out Into Your Garden And Pulled A Good Panful Of Little Beets, To Thin The Crowding Globular Roots, And Incidentally To Have For Dinner A Dish Of Beets, Boiled, Tops And All, And Dressed With A Little Vinegar To Temper Their Sweetness? Or Have You Bought ...
Hemp
Hemp. We All Know Hemp As A Roadside Weed, Tall, Straight, With Whorls Of Spreading, Lady-finger Leaves, All Pitching At A Downward Slant, The Flowers Clustered At The Bases Of The Leaves, As Happens With All Members Of The Stinging Nettle Family, To Which Hemp Belongs. Wild Hemp, As It ...
Hickories
Hickories. Two Species Of The Hickory Genus Produce Nuts Of Fine Quality In The Woods, And Are Beginning To Be Improved By Cultivation And Seed Selection. They Are The Shagbark, Or Shellbark, Of The North Ern States, And The Pecan Of The South. Both Are Handsome Shade Trees And Produce ...
Hops
Hops. The Vine From Which The Housewife, A Generation Ago, Picked The Hops And Dried Them For Use In Making A Yeast, Is Still Grown In Many A Backyard, But The Compressed Yeast And The Dry Cakes Have Taken Place Of The Good Old-fashioned Jug Yeast On Which The Daily ...
Horse Radish
Horse Radish. The White, Fibrous Root Of The Horse Radish Is Grated, Seasoned With Salt And Sugar In Vinegar, And Served As A Condiment, With Meats, Especially Roast Beef. It Is Used Also For Sauces Served With Fish And Meats. The Plant Is A Root Vegetable, Growing Wild In Europe, ...
Jerusalem Artichoke
Jerusalem Artichoke. The American Indians Learned — Who Knows How Long Ago? — That A Certain Wild Sunflower Produces Rootstocks Like Those Of The Dahlia, And The Sweet Potato, Underground. The Interesting Thing About These Tubers Is That, Roasted Or Boiled, They Are Good To Eat. When The White Men ...
Jute
Jute. A Relative Of Our Bass-wood, Native Of Bengal, And Grown Successfully In China And Japan, Where Labor Is Very Cheap, Yields The Jute Fibre Out Of Which Gunnysacks Are Made. The Plant Grows To Fifteen Feet High, A Slender, Unbranched Reed That Is Cut At Flowering Time, Retted, Washed, ...
Kafir And Durra
Kafir And Durra Two Sorghum Varieties That Are Not Sugar Producers Have Come To Be Extensively Grown In The Semi-arid Regions Of What Was Once Our Great Plains. The Merit Of These Canes Is That They Thrive In Spite Of Drought, And They Don't Seem To Mind Hot Winds That ...
Lentils
Lentils. One Of The Oldest Food Plants That Supplies In Satisfying Quantities The Muscle-building Ele Ments Is The Lentil, A Puzzle To The Botanist, Hut Cultivated By Men As Far Back As The Bronze Age. We Are Familiar, Perhaps, With The Little, Dark, Flattened Seed, That The Grocer Keeps Chiefly ...
Lettuce
Lettuce The Wild Prickly Lettuce Grows As A Tall, Ragged Looking Weed Along Our Roadsides, And Springs Up In Fields Whenever They Lie Fallow, Or Are Not Care Fully Cultivated. We Call It The "compass Plant," Because Its Narrow, Opposite Leaves Hold True To The Points Of The Compass. The ...
Loquat
Loquat. A Small, Pear-shaped Fruit, Scarcely As Large As A Plum, With Yellow Skin And A Pleasantly Acid Taste, Grows Wild In China And Japan, And Is Called The Loquat. Introduced Into California, It Is Com Mon In The Fruit Stalls In Los Angeles. It Thrives In Southern Australia, And ...
Manila Hemp
Manila Hemp. Manila Hemp Is A Philippine Export, Grown On Hillsides Of Luzon And Other Provinces That Have A Very Humid, Hot Atmosphere. The Plant, Near Relative Of The Banana, Grows Like The Maize, Or Indian Corn. The Fibre Is In The Overlapping Leaf-sheaths, That Support A Stem Twenty Feet ...
Mate Or Paraguay Tea
Mate Or Paraguay Tea. Tea-drinking Of An Entirely New Kind The Tra Veller Meets In The Lower Half Of South America. At First The Bitter Taste, And The Unfamiliar Aro Matic Taste, Of The Universal Beverage Of The People Are Ndt At All To His Liking. But If He Sets ...
Medlar
Medlar. The Medlar Is A Wild Fruit Tree From The Woods Of Central Europe. It Is Soft-fleshed When Ripe, But Is Indifferent In Flavor, And Is Only Occasion Ally Grown As A Curiosity. The Core Is Exposed At The Blossom End, As If There Was Not Quite Enough Flesh To ...
Melons_p1
Melons. The Family Of The Cucurbits Includes Both Vegetables And Fruits. Here The Squashes, Pump Kins, And Cucumbers Hobnob With The Watermelons And Canteloupes. All Are Fleshy Seed-vessels, With Abundant Seeds, Attached Along Three Distinct Areas Of The Wall Of The Cavity Of Hollow Kinds, And Similarly Located When The ...
Melons_p2
The Two Types Of Muskmelons Grown In This Country Are The Early, Short-seasoned, Nutmeg Melons (with A Soft, Netted Rind), And The Long Seasoned, Hard-rinded, And Furrowed Canteloupe, Proper. The Names Are Often Used Interchange Ably. In California, Which Produces Fine Melons For Home And Eastern Markets From May To ...
Millets
Millets. In India, Millet Takes The Place Of Rice In The Dry Regions Of That Vast Country. A Great Abundance Of Small Seed Is Borne In The Thick Spikes Of Certain Robust Grasses Of Several Different Kinds. In Several Oriental Countries The Food Of The People Is Made, To A ...
Mushrooms
Mushrooms. The Decay Of Plants Keeps The Surface Of The Earth Littered With Debris Of Fallen Leaves And Branches, And Underground Stems And Roots. Swarms Of Microscopic Plants, Called Bacteria, Are At Work Reducing The Tough, Woody Substances To Their Original Elements — Making Vegetable Mold, Upon Which Living Plants ...
Oats_p1
Oats Wheat, Rye, And Barley Are Members Of One Subdivision Of The Great Grass Family. They All Bear Their Seeds In Spikes, Bald Or Bearded. Oats Stand Alone, The Grain With A Loose, Branched Head, Made Of Separate Kernels. Each Kernel Has An Outside Papery Husk And An Inner Hull ...
Oats_p2
Rye Because It Grows On Soil Too Poor And Arid For Other Grains, Rye Is Called "the Grain Of Poverty." Rye Meal Makes The Bread Of Peasants In European Countries, Over A Vast Area Of The Poorest, And So The Cheapest, Land. The Extremes Of Heat And Cold Are Suffered ...
Olives
Olives. The Pale Green Leaves And The Gray Bark Of The Olive Trees Blend With The Ashy Soil That Lies On The Slopes Of Vesuvius And 'etna. It Is Amazing That People Have Courage To Plant Again The Groves That An Eruption Of The Smouldering Volcano May At Any Moment ...
Other Nuts Of Commerce
Other Nuts Of Commerce. Hazelnuts Are Small And Hard-shelled But Delicious Nuts, That Grow On Small Bushes In The American Woods, And Come To Market Locally And In Very Small Quantities. The Clearing Away Of Forests Has Exterminated Them In Many Regions, And Thereby We Lose A Charming Shrub. The ...
Palms
Palms. The Rank Of "princes Of The Vegetable King Dom," Given By Grateful Natives Of Tropical Countries, Is Certainly Deserved, For The Uses To Which Palm Trees Are Put Are Without Number. "they Are Among Nature's Most Generous Gifts To Uncivilized Men" — To Quote The Words Of Wallace Who ...
Parsley
Parsley. Wherever We Go, The Parsley Plant Is There To Welcome Us, As We Sit Down, Hungry As A Bear, To A Good, Square Meal. The Soup And The Fish Are Seasoned With A Sprinkle Of Minced Pars Ley. Its Curly Leaves Garnish The Steak Or The Omelette, And The ...
Parsnips
Parsnips. The Wild Parent Of Garden Parsnips Has A Long, Slim Root That Tapers Above Ground Into A Long, Leaf-bearing Neck. It Is One Of The Oldest Root Vegetables To Be Cultivated. Various Writings Of Ancient Times Make Frequent Mention Of The Plant And Its Uses. The Improvement Of The ...
Peaches
Peaches. First Among The Members Of The Stone Fruits, By Reason Of Size, Lusciousness And Flavor, Stands The Peach, Native Of China, Probably, But Long In Cultivation In Europe And All Countries That Touch The Old Highway Through Persia To The Mediter Ranean. The Chinese Cultivated It At A Remote ...
Peanuts_p1
Peanuts. The Young Gardener Who Plants, Just For Fun, A Peanut Or Two, To See What The Plant Looks Like, Realizes, When It Comes Into Bloom, That He Has Something That Might Easily Be Mistaken For A Bushy Bean Or Pea Plant, With Lower Branches That Creep Along The Ground ...
Peanuts_p2
The Botanist Has Gone Farther Than We Have In Tracing The Peanut To Its Original Home. How Did It Come Into Virginia, And When? The Records Say It Was The Chief Food Supplied On "slavers" To The Natives Of Africa On Their Way To America, And The Auction Block Where ...
Pears
Pears. We Have No Native Species Of Pear, Though We Cultivate A Number Of Varieties, Imported From Europe, And Some Fine Kinds Have Originated Here. The Original Home Of The Wild Pear Was Not Far From That Of The Wild Apple, But It Has Spread In Two Directions Until It ...
Peas
Peas. Fully As Ancient As The Bean, As Human Food, Is The Pea, Records Of Whose Cultivation Are Found In The Lake Dwellings Of Switzerland And Savoy, And In The Early Classic Writings. No Mention Of Peas Is Made In The Records Of Early Times In India Or Egypt. So ...
Pineapples
Pineapples. Once An Irate Commission Merchant In A North Ern City Wrote A Letter To A Pineapple Grower In Southern Florida, Charging Him With Sending Second-rate Fruit. The Consignment Contained Many Imperfect Specimens. He Threatened Dire Consequences If Any More "windfall Pineapples" Came His Way! The South Half Of Florida ...
Plums
Plums. The European Plums Have Come From Ancestors That Grow Wild In The Caucasus And Asia Minor. The Woolly-twigged Varieties We See In New England Gardens, And In Better Condition On The Pacific Slope, The Damsons And Green Gages, For Two Examples, Are From European Nurseries, Originally. They Do Poorly ...
Pop Corn
Pop Corn The Tom Thumb Race Of Corn Has In The Starchy Part Of The Grain Sufficient Moisture To Explode It When Heated. This "popping" Of Corn Turns The Grain Wrong Side Out, Dries It And Makes It Twenty Times As Large As It Was Before. Because It Has An ...
Poppy
Poppy. The Drug, Morphine, Is Extracted From The Dried Juice, Called Opium, Of The Poppy, Cultivated Extensively In Eastern Countries. The Pod That Contains The Seeds Is Pierced While Still Green, And The Milky Juice That Exudes Is Allowed To Dry Over Night, When It Is Collected. Hand Labor Makes ...
Potatoes_p1
Potatoes. A Family Of Plants Is A Group Of Different Kinds Which Bears Certain General Resemblances To Each Other. The Flowers Are Often The Parts That Exhibit These Family Characteristics, When Other Features Are So Modified That The Members Seem Very Far Apart. The Fruits Of Closely Related Plants May ...
Potatoes_p2
It Is Possible To Control The Diseases And Pests That Caused The Failures, Partial And Complete, Of The Potato Crops, Up To The Time That Spraying Methods Were Perfected. In Revolutionary Times But Two Varieties Of Potatoes Were Generally Known, A Red And A White One. It Was Not Known ...
Pulque The Beverage Of
Pulque The Beverage Of Mexico. The Century Plant Is Our Most Familiar Plant Of The Agave Tribe. In The Dry Air Of The High Lands Of Mexico These Fleshy-leaved, Robust Plants Seem To Draw Water From Unknown Sources, And Store It In Their Bodies. The Mexican Digs A Hollow In ...
Quinces
Quinces. In The Gardens Of New England You Will Find Dwarf Trees That Blossom With Lovely Pink Clusters Of Flowers Like Wild Roses, And Bear Golden Apples In The Fall. Taste One, And Its Flesh Is Too Hard To Eat. This Is The Old-fashioned Quince, Cultivated From The Earliest Times, ...
Radishes
Radishes. A Familiar And Very Popular Member Of The Mustard Family Is The Radish, Grown Wherever We See A Garden As Large As A Handkerchief. One Of The Quickest Seeds To Sprout, And The Earliest Vegetable Ready For The Table Is This Radish, Grown In Many Varieties, To Suit Different ...
Raffia
Raffia. The Long, Thin Strips Of Strong, Tying Material That Hang In Greenhouses And Packing Sheds Of Nurseries Are Obtained By Skinning The Leaves Of A Palm Tree That Grows Abundantly In The Wilds Of Madagascar And Brazil. The "arts And Crafts" People Discovered Its Usefulness In Bas Ketry, Weaving, ...
Ramie
Ramie. Another Member Of The Stinging-nettle Family Furnishes A Silky, Fine Fibre From Its Inner Bark. It Is A Tall, Reedy Stem, Whose Bark Is Stripped Into "ribbons" Which Are Scraped Free Of Woody Tissue, And Later Of Gum And Coloring Matter. Ramie Underwear Has Been Introduced Here. But Dress ...
Rape
Rape. A Certain Amount Of Rape-seed Must Go Into The Bird-seed Ration Of The Canary, Or Your Singer Will Not Be Well And Happy. This Every Person Who Keeps A Bird Knows. Rape-seed Produces An Oil That Is Valuable For A Number Of Different Uses, And Is As Common In ...
Red Peppers
Red Peppers. The Big, Green "bell Peppers" Are Now As Com Mon As Any Vegetable, And Mild Enough To Make A Most Agreeable Addition To Salads. But Their Ancestors, And Some Of Their Near Relatives, Are Hot As Fire, Due To A Bitter Juice That Is Especially Strong In The ...
Rhubarb Or Pie Plant
Rhubarb Or Pie Plant. The Druggist Sells A Bitter Tonic Extracted From The Rootstocks Of A Wild Plant Called Rhubarb, That Grows In Thibet And Northwestern China. The Acid Of The Sorrels Is In The Whole Plant, Which Has Come Into Cultivation For Its Fleshy Leaf Stalks Which Are Eaten ...
Rice Farming_p1
Rice Farming Rice Culture In The United States Is Usually Carried On In The Most Up-to-date Manner, With Improved, Labor-saving Machinery. The Fields Must Be Level, The Soil A Clay Loam, With Stiff Clay Under It To Hold The Water, And Later To Support The Heavy Harvester. Reclaimed Swamps And ...
Rice Farming_p2
Then Comes The Winnowing Process. The Grain Is Lifted High And Poured Out Of Shovel-like Baskets. The Heavy Grain Drops To The Ground. The Light Chaff Drifts Away A Little Distance As It Falls. It Is Easy To Find Rice Imported From Japan In Any Large City Market. It Comes ...