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 for his customers of the Latin races. They have no prejudices against foods that are dark-colored and have a strong taste. We can buy canned lentils, ready to eat, and learn what they taste like, or make soup of the dry seeds that act and look like small, dark split peas.
Any vegetable that has saved the race from famine, and came with the Aryan civilization into Europe, and on to this country, is one worth know ing, from a historical standpoint, if from no other.
There are so many legumes far more useful, how ever, that it will be surprising if the lentils should not decline with the advance of civilization in the years to come.
The lupines and vetches, pod-bearing plants once important as food for cattle, have value, but better forage plants will surely beat them in the race. Some species may fit peculiar situations, and be improved for this purpose. But only the fittest plants survive in the new, intelligent agri culture that is coming on.