LIBRARY OF THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF HOME ECONOMICS CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA, NEW YORK Cornell University Library TX 353.B24 Food products from afar; a popular accoun 3 1924 003 533 696 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003533696 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAE Underwood d- Underwood SORTING DATES AT ELCHE FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF FRUITS AND OTHER FOODSTUFFS FROM FOREIGN LANDS j-i^ BY E. H. S. BAILEY, Ph.D. PBOFEBSOB or CHEMISTEY, tTNIVEESITY OP KANSAS AND HERBEET S. BAILEY, A.B., B.S. chief chemist, the southeen cotton ohj company WITB MANY ILLUSTSATI0N8 *j^^j*«««« NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1922 Copyright, 1922, by The Centuby Co. Printed in U. S. A. PREFACE The aborigine set up his tent where the mountain brook splashed into the lake or near the trail of the forest deer, the easier to obtain his daily food. The early settlements were located at fords or at the junc- tion of beaten paths where folk stopped to buy and sell produce. Cities sprang up at the country cross- roads, because there the farmer met the merchant that they might barter with one another. To-day our nation stands at the intersection of the world's trade-routes and we may take toll of all the earth's food-stores. We have broken the last stretch of virgin prairie. Henceforth sufficient food for a rapidly growing population must be obtained by decreased exporta- tion, more intensified farming, or the increased im- portation of food products from afar. Thus it be- comes of special interest to us to know not only what are our possible sources of domestic supply, but where we can obtain additional food for ourselves and our children. It is the object of this story of the raising and marketing of foods from foreign lands to discuss imported foods — those that come from outside the continental United States. How are these commod- ities grown in the lands from which we bring them ; how are they prepared for the market and trans- vi PEEFACE ported to our own shores? Perhaps many of the foods that we now import could be grown at home, should their supply be cut off by wars or tariffs. Even under present world conditions, might we not profitably curtail the list of "foreign foods" and, in cases where we now raise a partial supply of a prod- uct, raise enough for our entire population in this land that has such a diversity of soils and climates? There are many delicious foods practically un- known to all save the globe-trotting portion of our population. Some of these, if we understood their cultivation, we might raise to advantage. A knowl- edge of "what other people eat," just as of what they think and say, is of practical interest. Also, we may profitably learn something of the composi- tion and dietetic value of these foreign foods, so as to select them judiciously and use them economically. The material here collected is gathered from a variety of sources which are not readily accessible to the reading public. Those who wish to know some- thing about our foreign food supply, will find these pages a satisfactory source of information. Pains have been taken to insure the use of facts and illus- trations which are scientifically correct, and at the same time a minimum of dry statistics and tech- nical terms have been employed. It is our hope that he who is primarily interested in the eating, as well as he who specializes in the marketing or prepara- tion of foods, will find much of entertainment and profit in this volume. The Authors CONTENTS CHAPTER I. WHO FEEDS US? Abundance and scarcity of food under different conditions — Some countries self-supporting — Conditions in Great Britain — Waste in transportation — Stabilization of prices — Independence of our neighbors — Classification of imported foods — Market much disorganized CHAPTEE n. MOLDING THE ITALIAN PASTES Macaroni first came from Italy— Story of its discovery — Durum ■wheats used — Growth of wheats — Semolina — Making pastes in Italy — Drying the product — ^What constitutes a good macaroni — Uses of the product — Production of macaroni in the United States — ^Importation 15 CHAPTEB III. THE NUT-GATHEREES OF SEMI- TEOPICAL LANDS Gathering native nuts — California products increasing — Coun- tries from which nuts are imported — English walnuts — Produc- tion at home and abroad — Filberts in early times — The divin- ing-rod of hazel-wood — Growing filberts — Importation from abroad — Pistachios — Cultivation and use — Cashew-nuts — De- scription of the way they grow — Use of the cashew — Sweet and bitter almonds — ^Almonds in California — Brazil-nuts— The tree on which the nut grows — Cocoanuts — Occurrence in the South Sea Islands — Starting a plantation — Cocoannt-oil— Cocoanuts as food — ^Usefulness of the tree to the natives of tropical islands 25 CHAPTEE rv. THE EDIBLE OILS PEEPARED IN NATURE'S STOREHOUSES Use of oil by the ancients — Growth of olive-tree — ^Varieties — Manufacture of oil — Adulteration — Colza-oil — Pressing the seeds — 'Mustard-seed oil — Sunflower-oil — Sesame oU — Soy-bean oil— -Soy sauce — Palm-oil — ^Palm-kernel oil — Shea-nut oil — ^Pea- nut-oil — Method of manufacture — Importation of the nuts and oil 42 viii CONTENTS CHAPTEE V. WHY WE PRIZE THE CONTINENTAIi CHEESE FAGX Demand for foreign cheese — Pood value of cheese — Classi- Scation — English cheese — Swiss cheese — Manufacture — Em- menthaler — Neufehatel — Dutch cheese — ^Edam — Curing Edam- Italian cheese — Varieties — Parmesan cheese — Grorgonzola — Ei- pending and aging cheese — Cacio-Cavallo — French cheese — Cam- embert — Roquefort — Making and curing — Port-du-8alut — Brie — Gervais — Belgian cheese — Limburger — Argentina cheese be- coming of increasing importance 61 '|. CHAPTER VI. CAMPING WITH THE ARABS AND PAR- TAKING OP THEIR PAKE Milk — ^Dehydrated foods — ^Imported figs may be replaced by those from California — ^Where figs grow — Legends in regard to the date-palm — Growth of the palm — Fertilization of the blos- soms — ^Picking and packing dates — Ripening process — Pood value — Growing dates in California — ^Where figs are grown — Fertilization of the blossoms — Caprifigs — Growth in California — Pomegranates — History — Introduction into America — ^How to use the fruit — Beverages from the pomegranate — Tamarinds — Growing the fruit — Khat — Properties of the plant — Use by the Arabs — Action of khat on the system — The carob-bean — ^Prop- erties and uses of the bean 80 CHAPTER VII. THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES AND WHAT THEY YIELD Settlement around the Mediterranean Sea — Pood products imported from this region — Grape products — Cream of tartar — Grapes — Varieties of raisins — ^Methods of curing — Grapes in California — Zante currants — Methods of growing — -Olives — Olive poisoning — Pickling olives — Mushrooms — Growing mushrooms • — Hunting truffles — Onions — Composition — Citrons— Citrus by- products— Snails 104 CHAPTER VIII. RICE AND SPICE PROM THE PAR EAST Importation of rice — History of the early use of rice — ^Where rice is the staple food — Introduction of rice into the United States — Growth in the Southern States — Economic conditions in rice countries — Husking rice in the Orient — Effect of use of milled rice — Use of rice in different countries — Cooking rice — Importation — Spice a flavor — Cinnamon where grown — Ceylon as a cinnamon island — Preparation for the market — Cloves — Composition of cloves — Ginger — Growth of the plant — Com- position — ^Allspice — Nutmegs . . . .... 125 CONTENTS ix CHAPTEE IX. LIVING WITH THE OEIENTALS AND PAETAKING OF THEIE FAEE PAGE Some Japanese foods — Use of cereals in different countries — Millet, an Oriental food — Dasheen, a staple food — Growing dasheen — ^Use of "poi" — Bamboo sprouts — Bean-sprouts as food — Source of the loquat — Description and method of growing — Use of the loquat abroad and in the United States — Descrip- tion of the jujube — Jujube paste — Jujube in millet cakes — The persimmon as grown in Japan — ^Eipening persimmons — Litchi-fruit — Use of the fruit — Composition — Growing of the durian — Description — ^Value as a food — Papaya — Use in India — Composition — ^Papain — Crabs as food—Method of Catching — Packing — Canning Shrimp — Edible birds '-nests 151 CHAPTEE X. A FEESH CAEGO FEOM TEOPICAIi ISLANDS Sources of imported sugar — Origin of the sugar-cane — ^Prop- agation and growing — Pressing out and filtering the juice — Sugar-boiling — 'Use of centrifugals — History of sugar-beet cul- ture — ^Manufacture of sugar from beets — ^Eefining — ^Palm-sugar — Sugar-growing at a profit — History of the pineapple — Sources — Growing the fruit — ^Preparation and cultivation — Canning pineapples — ^Waste eliminated — Pineapples as food — Breadfruit a tropical necessity — Uses — Cultivation in the West Indies . , 176 CHAPTEE XL FILLING THE COFFEE-CUP FEOM BEAZIL Common use of mild stimulants — Agreeable flavor sought in coffee — Source of coffee — ^History of use of the beverage — Coffee in England — Introduction into the New World — Planting and cultivation of the coffee-tree — Cultivation in Brazil — Curing and preparation for market — Coffee from other countries — Arabian coffee-growers — Java coffee — Coffee from Mexico and Central America — Eoasting — ^Preparation of the beverage — Importation from different countries 191 CHAPTEE XIL LIVING WITH OUR LATIN-AMEEICAN NEIGHBOES The Old-World tropics compared with the New — Importance of cassava in tropical countries — Cultivation — ^Preparation of the starch or flour — "Dumboy" — The cassava zone — Use of manihot as food — ^Description of the sago-palm — ^Making "sago" — ^Arrowroot — Original source of the avocado — ^Prop- agation and growth of the tree— Use in southern countries — Value as a food product — Introduction into California — The CONTENTS prickly-pear — Composition — Use of the fruit — Description and use of the mango — White sapote — Chayote — Cherimoya — Jaboti- caba — The pejibaye of Costa Rica — History of finding the vanilla — ^Where the plant is grown — Description of the plant — Method of curing — Composition — Artificial vanillin — The tonka- bean — Use of the extract 206 CHAPTER XIII. STIMULANTS AND SEDATIVES IN SOUTHERN LANDS Universal use of stimulants — ^Use of cacao by the Mexicans — Introduction into Europe — Use by Indians — Conditions neces- sary for the growth of cacao — Countries where grown — Descrip- tion of the fruit — Curing the nuts — Manufacture of cacao- chocolate — Cocoa-butter — Value of chocolate as a beverage — First American manufacturers — ^Yerba mate — Description of the ilex plant — Gathering and curing the leaves — Composition and properties of the herb — Use by the natives — The kola-nut — Action on the system — Guarana as a stimulant — ^Use of coca — Growth of the maguey plant — Collection of juice by the Mexicans — Pulque manufacture — Use of the beverage . . . 227 CHAPTER xrv. PROM A CENTRAL AMERICAN BANANA PLANTATION Selection of ripe bananas — ^Introduction of bananas into the western world — ^Rapid increase of use of bananas — Countries suited to growth of bananas — Development of the trade in Central America — Growth of the fruit — Grading — Transpor- tation to market — ^Value as nutritive food — Use of the plan- tain for making starch 245 CHAPTER XV. FOREIGN SAILORS AND THEIR CATCH Importance of fish as food — Use of foreign fish by foreign immigrants — Different countries importing fish — Pish from the "Banks "-^Methods used in making the catch — Pishing in the North Sea — London as a fish-market — Fishing in Norway — French fishermen — Anchovy fishing — The sturgeon as a source of caviar — ^Preparation of caviar--ODifferent fish known as sar- dines — Process of canning 254 CHAPTER XVI. WHAT OTHER PEOPLE EAT AND WHERE THEY DO THEIR MARKETING The craving for animal food — Australian and African food habits — Use of the devil-fish as food — Insects used in Africa — CONTENTS xi Many animals used as food — Horse-flesh — Reindeer steaks now popular — iFats and oils used in many countries — Curious foods imported by foreigners — Studying a people when they go to market — Curious costumes and customs — Selling and buying in foreign lands 271 Index 283 ILLUSTRATIONS Sorting dates at Elche Frontispiece FACINO PA8I1 Oriental oils unloaded at Seattle 14 KsMng port in Norway 14 Macaroni — making, drying, and eating it 15 The cocoanut as it grows, is harvested, and dried .... 40 Old olive trees 41 Preparing palm-oil on the Gold Coast 41 Edam cheese market 64 Making leben 65 Milking goats in Palermo 65 Sunrise on the desert 104 Seedling date-palm 104 Treading the grape in Greece 105 Hauling the olive oil to market, Italy 105 Olive-oil press 124 Oil on dock ready for shipment 124 Field of ginger 125 Sorting cinnamon 125 Planting yoimg rice plants 150 Irrigation of rice in Siam 150 Use of the bamboo in husking rice 150 Mung bean sprouts 151 MiUet (proso) cake 151 Papaya tree 160 litchi trees and fruit 160 Making soy bean sauce 161 Tea-picking in Formosa 168 Plantation in Ceylon 16S xiv ILLUSTRATIONS FAQE First firing for the black tea 169 Weighing the tea 169 Shovring how the different grades are obtained 176 Steaming green tea leaves 176 Pineapple field 177 Sugar-cane grinding 177 'Coffee plant 200 Harvesting coffee in Porto Eico 200 Transporting coffee in Arabia 201 Drying coffee in Nicaragua 201 Curing coffee in Costa Eica 201 Sugar apples 2-08 White sapoti 208 Cassava — a field of it, natives pounding it, drying it . . ■„ . 209 Drying vanilla beans 224 Primitive mill for pulverizing corn or capsicum 224 Picking avocados, Mexico 225 Guatemalan chayotes 225 TonKa-beans 225 Use of bombilla in serving mate . . . , 240 Collecting maguey juice 240 Cacao — the tree, turning the bean, peeling the fruit .... 241 Drying mat6 leaves . 244 Drinking "your health" in a glass of pulque 244 Cutting the banana and hauling it to the railroad .... 245 Loading bananas on a steamer and unloading at New Orleans . 256 Unloading dried fiah 257 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM ATAE FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR CHAPTER I WHO FEEDS US? HOW tlie world is fed became for us a few years ago a vital question. When we had abundant crops and the ships of every nation were bringing the comforts, the luxuries, and the necessities of life into our Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf ports, we ate, drank, and made merry. Then when something hap- pened, when the warehouses of the importers became empty of food products, when, even if there were food-stuffs on the dock in the foreign port, there were no bottoms available to ship them to us, then the question which arose and clamored for answer was: Where does our food come from, anyway? Abundance or scarcity of food is often the crucial factor that determines success or registers failure to a nation in a great struggle. Is the country self- supporting as to her food supply? Has she re- sources within herself so that if all outside pro- visions are cut off by a blockade her people will re- main well nourished? We have had scores of illus- trations as to what can be done to avert scarcity of food when the wise heads of the government see it impending. The people are taught "thrift," a 3 4 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR word that had for all nations during the war a new meaning ; they have had to farm intensively, a much' needed lesson ; they have had to eliminate waste, and finally perhaps to "eat everything" that contained even a httle of the starch, sugar, fat, and protein so essential to life. This self-denial does not always suffice; and China, southern Europe, and more re- cently Eussia have suffered terribly from famine. Without discussing the immense resources of the United States or showing what has so often been demonstrated, that we are as a nation altogether too much puffed up with pride over what we possess, it may be worth while to talk, not so much about what we have, as about what we have not. The children in the geography class learn that in many countries a large proportion of the food comes from outside sources. Before the World War, Eng- land produced only one-fifth of the food which she ate, Italy two-thirds, Germany four-fifths. England, Scotland, Norway, Italy, Holland, and the Ehine countries had become dependent for a large part of their food upon what was brought into their ports. When overseas transportation closed they quickly felt the pangs of starvation. With us in the United States the conditions are different because of the richness of the virgin soil, our variety of climate, and the extent of arable lands. Even we, however, have local non-supporting areas ; New England or New Jersey, for instance, would soon starve but for the food-stuffs that are constantly brought to their doors. This is the result, natural and inevitable, of the increasing population. WHO FEEDS US? 5 A nation's standard of living is almost an exact mathematical function. By a "living" we mean the hours of labor necessary for the average individual to acquire a reasonable amount of food, clothing, and the other necessities and comforts of life. Then the standard of living of one nation as compared with that of all other nations is simply the productive area of a country divided by its population. In other words the number of inhabitants per square mile of land yielding crops, minerals, or other re- sources. To-day America has reached the limit of her possible expansion into virgin territory ; she may and will develop her resources, but she cannot ac- quire additional ones. Our population is increasing even without immigration, and as it does our stand- ard of living must fall, except in so far as we can compensate for added members by added efficiency in production of food and other commodities. What has been done in Great Britain in the last few years to bring into active practical use thou- sands of acres that were unproductive so far as rais- ing food-stuffs was concerned, is a splendid illustra- tion of the results of persistent effort, urged on by necessity. Not only can the quantity of food in a given country be greatly increased by planting in- creased acreage, as America has done with wheat, but the variety may be much enlarged by the cultiva- tion of foods that have been grown only in limited areas and by the introduction of new and heretofore unknown food products. In this country there are some foods that we have always obtained from outside. This is partly due 6 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR to the fact that here, notwithstanding our wonder- fully varied climate, north and south and east and west, there are still some fruits and vegetables that are not suited to economical growth. To a consid- erable estent this is because we have not taken the trouble to investigate and to see whether we cannot really grow these products just as well as import them. It does not necessarily follow, however, even then that it is inadvisable to import rather than to produce them ourselves. Up to the present time we have taken httle thought concerning what foods we might raise and what we can better import. It was of Httle conse- quence to us as long as we got what we wanted. If eggs could be imported from China for less than it would cost to feed the hens and hunt the eggs in the haymow, we imported the eggs, and recently a big trade has grown up in dried Chinese eggs. We imported 17,896,857 pounds of dried and frozen eggs in 1921. If potatoes could be grown in Ireland or the Netherlands and shipped two thousand miles across the sea to be sold in Fulton Market for less than the farmers in Maine or Michigan or Wisconsin thought they could raise them and pay the railroads to haul them, let the ocean carriers be burdened with potatoes even if some other merchandise must await transportation on the European docks. As a mat- ter of fact an entire shipload of potatoes was brought over in 1920 and sold in one of our South Atlantic ports. The waste in domestic transportation is also pain- fully illustrated in many of our markets. Fruits and WHO FEEDS US? 7 vegetables that might be raised in Missouri, a Cen- tral State, are shipped hundreds of miles, perhaps in refrigerator-cars, from the Pacific coast, because the farmers of Missouri have not devoted painstak- ing care to soils, fertilizers, cultivation, spraying, and methods of marketing, as have the Californians. We concede that the shipped fruit has no better flavor or appearance than the home-grown, yet be- cause the fruit-growers of some other section have the enterprise to push their products, we smilingly accept them and pay the added transportation charges. There are several reasons why we have imported foods that we could just as well raise at home. Look over the table of imports and exports, and you are surprised to learn that food-stuffs have been shuttled back and forth over the world regardless of whether they could be raised in our own country or not. For the year ending December 31, 1921. Imported Exported Beans, edible (bushels) . . . 274,058 1,409,703 Onions (bushels) 1,976,083 867,342 Peas, dried (bushels) 512,994 124,720 Potatoes (bushels) 2,017,562 3,499,838 Beef, pickled (pounds)... 1,446,634 24,570,582 Beef, fresh (pounds) 32,377,922 10,412,790 Molasses (gallons) 78,110,190 5,552,070 Cheese (pounds) 26,866,404 11,771,971 Eggs, fresh (dozen) 3,062,601 33,497,287 Milk, condensed, etc. (pounds) 8,667,626 299,171,768 8 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR For the year ending December 31, 1921. (Continued) Distilled liquors (proof gal- Imported Exported Ions) 486,774 264,491 Peanuts (pounds) 40,000,000 14,492,651 Raisins (pounds) 16,879,933 32,968,664 As an illustration of the fluctuating character of the market we observe that food-stuffs to the value of $210,000,000 were imported in August, 1920; the corresponding figure was only $84,000,000 in August, 1919, and dropped again in 1921 to $46,000,000. The chief reason for this backward and forward moving of food is that it pays the importer or ex- porter to do it. That has naturally been in almost all cases the answer to the question : Shall the food- stuffs be forwarded? It is of course true our country is so large and the difference between water and rail freights so great that the cost of laying down some things on the Atlantic seaboard, lemons for instance from Italy, is less than the cost of ship- ping them from California. You say it is fortunate that the food products of the world can be so readily moved from one section to another to relieve short- age and "stabilize" prices. This is true within cer- tain limits, but lack of forethought to maintain our own domestic supply always adds to the cost for the consumers. There are actually many farmers in the United States who do not "take the trouble" to raise garden vegetables for home use, so en- grossed are they in raising a big crop of com or wheat or hogs. If they have any of these "luxuries" they ship them out from the cities, and since they WHO FEEDS US? 9 are not fresh they are of course inferior in quality. Besides the importation of f ooHs for economic rea- sons, many of us still think the foreign product bet- ter, and since we are willing to pay more for it the importers are ready to handle it. In many cases it is true that the foreign food product cannot be imitated, or at least has not been imitated, in this country. We may have a Camembert "style" of cheese or an Italian "style" of macaroni, but for many these do not equal in flavor the genuine im- ported varieties. There has been no persistent effort to raise cer- tain fruits and vegetables here, because we have found it easier to import them. A very creditable attempt has been made by the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture to introduce new fruits and to stimulate experiments in the growing of foreign food-stuffs, but such a propaganda takes a long time and must necessarily proceed slowly. The agents of the department have visited all lands known and unknown and have discovered an endless variety of fruits, nuts, and other edible products about which we before knew nothing. The ultimate result should be that any food adapted to the climate of the con- tinental United States would be produced in abun- dance here. Not only ought we to be self-supporting as to abundance of our food, but it is economy to raise the greatest variety as an insurance against the failure of some particular crop. Our farmers of the Central West have long since stopped depending entirely on a single crop, as com or wheat or pota- 10 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR toes, for they realize that if one crop fails, another mil see them safely through the year. In the South the low price of cotton in 1920 helped more than years of preaching to impress the growers with the importance of raising com, peanuts, and live stock. Variety in foods is an indication of a higher civili- zation. The primitive tribes of necessity lived on a few staples, with little variety. It was often difficult enough to get what was needed to sustain life, and there was no thought bestowed on diversity of food. We know that a variety in food stimulates the appe- tite and favors good digestion. The common people of Europe have been depending very largely upon bread and beer or wine, with vegetables and very little meat. They had not even become accustomed to com (maize) as a staple food. So when the war came on we could not help them as much as we otherwise would with a cheap food, because they did not know how to cook and prepare com products and, what is more important, had not acquired a taste for them. We had to ship our wheat to them and eat corn-bread ourselves. With our great available multiplicity of foods we do not miss so much the deprivation of one member of a class of products. We more readily shift into another variety for our nutrients. When wheat is scarce we get along with any one of half a dozen other cereals; and in the future, since we have learned to do this, we shall be less dependent on wheat products than ever before. We have learned a lesson of variety which will stay with us after the necessity of saving wheat has passed. WHO FEEDS US I 11 In the seaports all over the world there is a busy interchange of commodities, and not the least of these are the food products. This ceaseless move- ment is well described by Ernest Poole in "The Harbor": I went into the dock shed, and there I stayed right through the night until my mind was limp and battered from the rush of new impressions. For in this long sea- station under the blue are-lights in boxes, barrels, crates, and bags, tumbling, banging, crushing, came the products of this modern land. You could feel the pulse of a con- tinent here. Prom the factories and mines and mills, the prairies and forests and plantations and vineyards, there flowed a mighty tide of things, endlessly, both day and night; you could shut your eyes and see the long brown lines of cars crawl eastward from all over the land; you could see the stuff converging here to be gathered into coarse rope nets and swept up to the liners. The pulse beat fast and furious. In gangs at every hatchway you saw men heaving, sweating; you heard them swearing, panting. That day they worked straight through the night. For the pulse kept beating, beating, and the ship must sail on time. We can never be wholly independent of our neigh- bors, for some foods must be imported, but cannot we change the present condition of dependence? It is true that if isolated we should, to be comfortable, have to double our sugar production, or limit its use, as other nations have often done. Sugar is not a luxury, however; it is a food, and the quantity should not be limited. We shall, for a long time, probably always, be dependent for our tea, coffee, and cocoa and for spices on a foreign supply, but much of the other food material that we import is not so much a necessity to daily life as a wholesome addition to 12 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR the variety that supplies the table. We should cer- tainly miss these foods if they were unobtainable. For the purpose of classification, our foods may be divided as follows: (1) those foods produced in abundance in the United States which are seldom imported from other lands ; (2) those products which are grown here, sometimes in sufficient quantities so that we export them, but which are often so scarce that we import them; (3) food products raised in this country but not at present in quantities nearly sufficient to supply our needs; (4) products which are grown here only in limited quantities or not grown at all, and which must be virtually all im- ported; (5) those products for which a taste has never been cultivated, or which are perishable and transported with difficulty and hence have never been imported. This classification does not include imports from what our Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- merce calls "non-contiguous territories." If the islands, such as the Philippines, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, which are under the control of the United States, be included, the amount of the so-called im- ports would be sensibly diminished, and the variety of "imported" foods would be much smaller. The foods in the first and second classes may then, for our purpose, be disregarded, as they are usually grown in quantities sufficient for home consumption in the continental United States. Among the foods of the third class raised in this country but not at present in quantities sufficient to supply our needs, these may be mentioned : Rice, WHO FEEDS US? 13 paste products, sugar, honey, figs, grapes, loquats, peanuts, walnuts, lemon oil, tomato paste, olive oil, onions, dried peas, cheese, lemons, prunes, raisins, eggs, cassava, fish, shrimps, almonds and mush- rooms. Those products included in our fourth class, which are virtually all imported, are: Dates, cocoanuts, Zantee currants, litchi nuts. Brazil-nuts, filberts, bananas, pineapples, pomegranates, tamarinds, rape-seed oil, soya bean oil, cocoanut-oil and other nut oils, oHve oil, palm oil, oil of lemon, spices, tea, coffee, cocoa, and chocolate. In the fifth class are included a large number of foreign fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and some meat and fish products that are in common use in Mexico, Central. and South America, China, Japan, and the Orient in general. These have never found favor here, either from lack of knowledge of their desirable qualities, from the fact that a taste has not been cultivated for them, or because many of them, espe- cially fruits and vegetables, are of such a perishable character that they will not bear transportation apd can only be used where they are grown. The food products included in the list as "for- eign" may be a surprise to some who have not con- sidered the amount used with relation to the actual quantity raised in the United States. We do not al- ways raise enough rice for home consumption, but if we were sure that the crop would "pay," the acre- age might be largely increased. The recent scarcity and high price of sugar has shown us how dependent we are on extra-continental countries for this com- 14 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR modity ; the annual importation of cocoanut products alone indicates that with our immense yields of pork and beef, cotton-seed oil, and corn oil, we still lack fats in sufficient quantity to feed the people. The sea is full of fish, yet we draw a large supply every year from Canadian and European waters. The entire commerce of the world has been so dis- organized by the war that in some lines it will take a long time to get back to a normal condition, and in other cases we shall never regain our former trade. The people of Continental Europe have learned to do without some of our products that they once thought essential; and we, on the other hand, have learned that we can substitute something of our own production for what we formerly im- ported. The pool of the world's commerce has been made so roily that no one can predict when the waters will again be settled. This is then a good time to look over our store of food products and find out to what extent we can in the future be self-sup- porting. ORIENTAL OILS UNLOADED AT SEATTLE V-nderiiood i^ Underuood PISHING PORT IN NORWAY wismm^mm' © Underwood & Underwood EATING MACARONI AT A STREET BOOTH TEAFILA, USED IN MAKING MACARONI n .t^'"' I Efe.V!^ Underwood & Underwood DRYING MACARONI CHAPTER II MOLDING THE ITALIAN PASTES Italian sunshine and blue skies, concentrated in flour paste, wrought into tubes and ribbons and squares and lozenges, come to gladden the sinking heart and cheer the drooping spirits. IT was from Italy that the Yankee nation first learned the delectable taste and later the nutri- tious value of macaroni and other pastes. The small army of Italian immigrants who came flocking to our shores every year did not feel at home with- out their staple food, and they very soon imported it from across the water or tried to manufacture it here. The taste for this food extended to their neighbors, for if it was good for Italians it was good for Americans, and naturally the supply came to meet the increased demand. It is related by Mathilde Serano, the Italian jour- nalist, that in X220, the time of King Frederick, in a little alley of the Cortellari on the top floor of a tumble-down house, there lived a man known as Cicho. He had the reputation among his neighbors of being a sorcerer, because the woman Javanella, whose window opened on his balcony, had spied upon him and reported that he worked with "retorts, filters, and smaU gleaming instruments" long past the midnight hour. Cicho had once been rich, but 16 16 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR having lost his fortune he now devoted all his time to doing something that would help others. "Man's duty is to help his fellow-man," he said. "I must find means of giving happiness to all mankind be- fore I die." In the meantime, Javanella, having learned the secret of making macaroni from the industrious Cicho by watching him work late into the night, sent word to the king through her husband, who was the cook's helper at the palace, that she could cook a dish which was so dehcious that it deserved to appear before the king. On this report, he sent for her to prepare for him the dish, which, when he had tasted it, so pleased him that he begged for the receipt and gave Javanella a hundred pieces of gold. Her fame did not end here, for hundreds of people, both noble and peasant, thronged her rooms to buy her receipt, which she assured them had been given her by an angel in a dream. The king called the dish "maca- roni," from the word marcus, meaning "a divine dish." Finally, and still ignorant of the woman's treach- ery, Cicho, having completed his experiments, was ready to reveal his secret to the world. He went out of his laboratory to take the air, and as he passed along the narrow street, he detected an odor like that of the dish he had discovered. He went into the house from which the odor came and, on making inquiries, was told that the woman was cooMng macaroni, the dish that Javanella had taught her to make — "she who had been taught by an angel in a dream." "The king, the court, and all Naples MOLDING THE ITALIAN PASTES 17 are eating it," she said. Disheartened and in despair, Cicho returned to his laboratory, broke his pots, and burned his books and disappeared, never to be seen again. Javanella flourished for many- years, but on her dying bed the agony of death forced her to confess that she was an impostor. It is said that "in the little street of the Cortellari, in the rooms where Cicho labored for the good of man, on the eve of the witch's Sabbath strange sounds are heard. And there, so the soothsayers believe, the old man cuts and rolls his paste, and Javanella, lashed by demons, stirs red sauce with a cooking-spoon, while Satan grates 'Lodi' cheese with one hand and pokes the fire with the other. ' ' While we are not sure that the Italians were the first to make macaroni, we know that at the end of the fourteenth century they were the only people who habitually used it, and apparently they were wise enough to keep the secret of its manufacture to themselves for a century at least. Then an enter- prising Frenchman introduced it to his fellow-coun- trymen, and ever since France has vied with Italy in its manufacture. Within the last twenty years, an immense industry has grown up about Marseilles, which is now the center of the French macaroni trade. That peculiar hard, glutenous wheat which alone is suitable for making the best macaroni does not grow in Italy. Russia, until the war, sent yearly more than 25,000,000 bushels of this cereal to the Italian and French mills for use in making paste flour. The semi-arid steppes of the great central plateau seem 18 FOOD PEODUOTS FBOM AFAR especially adapted to the raising of macaroni wheat because, while there is a small rainfall, it comes mostly during the growing season. Some Mediter- ranean countries, especially Algeria, produce con- siderable hard wheat, a large part of which is used in the manufacture of alimentary pastes. The Du- rum wheats, now grown in the United States, but in- digenous to Eussia, are well adapted to the making of macaroni and other paste products, of which more than 225,000 tons were made in 1920 in this country. These Durum wheats have been most diligently studied by the Federal and State agricultural de- partments with a view to the adaptation to each par- ticular climate and soil of the variety best suited to it. In appearance the tall stalks, as they ripen in our fields, with their broad smooth leaves and heavily bearded heads, look more like barley than ordinary wheat. On the eastern slope of the Eocky Mountains, where the rainfall is light although the soil is rich, the land is well suited to the growing of macaroni wheats. These alkaline soils seem especially adapted to the needs of the Durum wheats. You wonder, perhaps, why we have to go clear back to the farm in talking about the manufacture of such a simple food as dried "alphabets," "shoe- strings," and tubes of flour paste, made mostly in the congested districts of our large Eastern cities. Some of the "paste" manufacturers have also asked this question of the country and have insisted that ordinary flour, or at least the richer protein portions of common wheat, would serve just as well for maca- roni as the special Durum varieties. The fact, how- MOLDING THE ITALIAN PASTES 19 ever, remains that there must be much gluten in an alimentary paste or in cooking it will get soft and soggy, and that only the Durum varieties of wheat are sufficiently rich in protein to make real macaroni. The flour made from some of these wheats grown in North Dakota contains 16.5 per cent, of protein, while that made from ordinary wheat contains only 11.5 per cent. The wheats which are called grano duro or grano semolino by the Italians are, as has been intimated, richer in gluten than soft wheats. In this country we never buy semolina under that name, but in England and more especially in France the granular product made by coarsely cracking the wheat and sifting from it the fine flour — a product something like our "middlings" — ^is used directly for making porridge and puddings. This is the "mother material" from which macaroni is made. The Italians blend the various grades of semolina from the Taganrag wheat, a Eussian variety, and in France some of the hard wheats from Eussia are mixed with the native grain in making the pastes. That was a memorable ride we took in a trolley- car from Sorrento, high up on the shoulder of a cUff overlooking the Bay of Naples, to Castellammare, and then along a swift roaring stream to Gragnano, the world-famous center of the macaroni industry. Across the valley to the north rose Vesuvius, always the center of any Neapolitan view; and below at the base of the volcano were the buried ruins of Pompeii. At Gragnano the macaroni-mills, clinging to the steep hillsides, remind one of the old grist-mills of this country. Everywhere, even in the village. 20 FOOD PRODUCTS FBOM AFAR macaroni was in evidence, drying on shaded racks in the cottage yards along the highway. It is not a complicated process, that by which the Italian makes his macaroni. A coarse meal is made by grinding the moist wheat between millstones and sifting out the fine flour. This meal is then kneaded into a stiff dough with hot water and placed in a sort of big steel "squirt-gun," the bottom end of which is closed with a bronze die called a trafila, per- forated with holes. The form of the holes deter- mines the variety of paste made — ^large ones with a center core for macaroni, smaller ones with small core for spaghetti, and tiny ones for vermicelli. The dough is squirted through this trafila by heavy pres- sure applied by a screw to a plunger that fits into the cylinder, and comes out of the bottom in continuous pipes or rods, as the case may be. In one Gragnano factory that we visited the machine consisted of two cylinders, one of which was filling while the other was being pressed out. ^ The Italians assert that only the best macaroni has sufficient tenacity to bear the process of "poling," that is, of being thrown over reed poles after the strips have been cut off below the cylinder. Inferior grades do not show the flattened pole-marks at the bend of the tubes because they have been laid flat to dry. In the yards and everywhere on platforms in the vicinity of the factory racks loaded with the macaroni drying in the sunlight are to be seen. The product is then placed in the cellar to allow the mois- ture to become more evenly distributed, and later dried for a longer time in the sunlight. This drying MOLDING THE ITALIAN PASTES 21 or curing is a very delicate process, for if the product is too moist it will mildew or sour, and if too hot it will crack and become damaged in texture. The method of air drying reminds one of the cod- fish drying establishments at Gloucester and else- where on our Atlantic coast, except that there is no "fish" odor to float away on the breeze and "give away" the character of the product. The same general process gives us spaghetti, ver- micelli, and not less than a hundred other varieties of paste products. I confess to some curiosity as to how the alphabetical macaroni, the seeds, stars, and animals were made, but it is all very simple. A cylinder and piston are used as in the macaroni-ma- chines, but the openings in the die are of the particu- lar shape desired, and as the tubes come through the die a set of revolving knives fitting close against the bottom of the disc cuts off thin sections which are the letters or other fancy forms. When dried in shallow pans the product is ready for use in soup and other combinations. The expert knows very well what to look for in a good grade of macaroni. It is rough in texture, elastic yet hornlike, has a yellowish- white color, and breaks like glass. If boiled with water it swells to double its original size and is never sticky. Some idea of the water-absorbing property of dry maca- roni may be gained from the statement that ten pounds will absorb thirty pounds of water during cooking. A good macaroni can safely be stored and keeps weU. We sometimes say that "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," but with macaroni one 22 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR need not wait to taste Ms "pudding," for a good quaKty when boiled for twenty to thirty minutes in salt water shows each tube whole, tender, smooth, and not pasty. That the tenacity or tensile strength of the pipes of macaroni is considered a proof of its excellence is well illustrated in the cut. Each of the venders would have us believe that his product will best stand the strain without rupture. \ Although it will not entirely take the place of meat, yet its high protein content makes macaroni an ex- ceedingly valuable addition to our dietary. As it lacks somewhat in flavor and is deficient in fat, the Italian epicure serves macaroni cooked with butter and flavored with some form of tomato paste.^ Pre- pared with cheese, the nutritive value of the dish is still further enhanced, for cheese adds to the protein content and largely increases the fat. In fact, if prepared with the right mixture of ingredients, macaroni and cheese may be an almost ideal "bal- anced ration," for it can readily be made to contain the three classes of nutrients in just the right pro- portion best to satisfy the demands of the body. Murillo, as long ago as 1650, in his world-famous painting, "The Brush Sellers," depicted the street urchins eating macaroni. Perhaps this is the way to get the flavor for the longest time, for the Itahan usually eats it thus, taking up the macaroni on a fork and putting the lower end in his mouth, gently ^ ' ' Macaroni and tomato sauce ' ' seem to he as closely associated in the Italian dietary as "ham and eggs" or "bread and butt«r" with UB. MOLDING THE ITALIAN PASTES 23 sucking in the long strings. "His whole soul and intelligence is concentrated on the pretty feat of transferring these tubes from his fork to his mouth." Some one has suggested that the Italians must have "reels" in their throats. Should you desire to be more civilized, you may snarl the paste about a fork and then put the "roU" in your mouth, or of course you may have it cut in short pieces so that it can be more conveniently and elegantly eaten. If we make a good quality of macaroni from Dur- um wheat in the United States, there is no reason why we should not supply the market for all these Italian pastes with articles of home manufacture, and even push the domestic product into foreign countries. We have the wheat, and we have the skill necessary to make a superior product. There is little danger of adulteration in alimen- tary pastes except by the addition of coloring mat- ter to some of them to make them appear as though they contained eggs. Moisture in excess of the 13.5 per cent, allowed may occasionally be present, but as a rule the manufacturer does not care to take the chance that too wet a product will spoil before it is sold. Of course we may have inferior grades of macaroni made from flour that is not adapted to its manufacture, and until recently a lot of such pastes were sold to the American trade. In the year ending June 30, 1914, just before the beginning of the war, we imported more than 126,- 000,000 pounds of macaroni and other paste products, 24 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR 122,000,000 pounds of which came from Italy and the rest from France, Japan, Spain, China, and a small amount from other countries. It is pertinent to ask : What is the United States doing to supply the demands of this country for macaroni? One has but to look at the list of over five hundred manufacturers in this country to be con- vinced that we are now taking care of the domestic trade, whatever conditions prevailed before the war. The Durum wheats of North and South Dakota, Mon- tana, and Minnesota, and some Kansas hard wheats are used in its manufacture. In 1921 we imported only 1,586,225 pounds of macaroni. CHAPTER III THE NUT-GATHEREES OP SEMI-TEOPICAL LANDB THE boy who is fortunate enough to have been brought up in the country cannot resist the lure of crisp October mornings, when the frosty air is full of the odor of falling leaves and the rustling woods beckon him to gather the ripened treasures of the year. If he lives in New England or the basin of the Great Lakes, he watches for the opening chestnut-burrs, which are brought down by the skU- fnUy directed club; he climbs the "shagbark" hick- ory-tree and shakes down or "poles" the brown nuts just ready to drop from their protecting shells; he searches beneath the dead leaves for the walnut or the beechnut. The boys who are raised in the great Middle West may not know the chestnut or butter- nut, but there are always plenty of black walnuts in their hand-staining and hazel-nuts in their mouth- puekering jackets. Then, farther south, where the 'possums fatten on persimmons, there are the wild pecans, which in recent years have been cultivated to good advantage in large orchards. These are some of our own native nuts, but all over the world in the forests are trees bending with their loads of these concentrated food products. Everywhere The hardy nut, in solid mail secure, Impregnable to wiater's frost, repays Its hoarder's care. 25 26 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR It is especially in tropical and semi-tropical coun- tries, however, that nuts are most abundant, and so to obtain many of them we must go abroad, where sunshine is more abundant and the average tempera- ture is higher than in most parts of our own land. In a few of our favored States some of the foreign nuts may be grown. It was California that took the lead some years ago in the raising of foreign nuts, and now she produces annually about 40,000,- 000 pounds of English walnuts, with quantities of ahnonds and filberts. This industry, which has sprung up within the last twenty-five years, has greatly increased the use of nuts in this country and has had its effect on foreign importations. For Brazil-nuts we depend mostly on the South American states of Peru, Amazon, and Maranhao. For chestnuts we look to Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France ; for filberts we go to Sicily and the country in the vicinity of Naples. We are supplied with the so-called English walnuts by France especially, al- though many come from Spain, Italy, Turkey, and even Chile. Cocoanuts and pistachios are grown in almost all tropical countries, but most of our supply comes from the West Indies, the Philippines, and the South Sea islands. The reason that nuts stand transportation so well is that they are protected by hard shells from changes of climate and against rough handling. They keep well for several months, and are not readily adulter- ated, for they show their true worth, and a simple inspection will usually determine whether they are worm-eaten or old and rancid. THE NUT-GATHERERS 27 In October the imported almonds arrive in 110- pound bags ; the Brazil-nuts in 200-pound bags ; the filberts from Sicily in 220-pound bags and from Naples in 110-pound bags ; walnuts of the Grenoble variety come in 220-pound packages, the Naples variety in 150-pound cases ; and the Marbots, Cornes, and Chiles in 110-pound bags during the first half of November. WALNUTS Although several varieties of walnuts are native to the United States and grow abundantly in the woods and forests, there are some, especially the English walnuts, that until recently were all im- ported. "We are familiar with the black walnut, a stately tree of our American woods, with its hard- shelled rich nuts, and its soft easily-worked wood so valuable for furniture and gun-stocks ; we know the butternut, sometimes called the white walnut, a less stately tree and more limited in its habitat, growing more especially in the northern United States and in Canada. The English walnut — ^why "English" no one knows — is supposed to have its origin in Persia, al- though it is famous as one of the native nuts of the mountains of Greece, Armenia, and Afghanistan. Turner wrote of it as early as 1551, "It is so well known in all countries that I need not it to describe." The tree grows well in the southern part of England and in the Midland countries ; it is an important tree in southern and southeastern France, and within the past few years has become a staple crop in southern 28 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR California. There is a Spanish proverb which runs : "A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut-tree; the more you beat them the better they be. ' ' But the Calif or- nians, even where they revere their Spanish heritage, have learned that the walnut-tree, at least, bears bet- ter the more carefully it is cultivated. These Ameri- can walnut-groves are to the eyes of the traveler one of the most beautiful sights of California, for not even the prize orange-groves are more carefully cul- tivated, fertilized, and trimmed. In the autumn when the nuts are ripe, they are picked like peaches from the trees, the husk is re- moved, and sometimes the inner shells are bleached -with chloride of lime and polished with soapstone to give them a clean and attractive appearance. The walnut is very popular as a table nut and for con- fectionery. Who does not appreciate with Tennyson the "after-dinner talks across the walnuts and the wine"? An excellent, bland, edible oil may be ex- pressed from them. Only negligible quantities of walnut-oil are made in the United States, however, as there is a good market here for even the broken kernels, which are the chief source of the oil abroad. In parts of Europe the walnut is produced so cheaply that the poorer qualities of the oil find their way to the United States and are at times sold for less than linseed-oil; and it may replace the latter to a small extent for some technical purposes. In con- nection with some of the California walnut-groves and to a greater extent in Southern France and Italy, there are a few green walnuts put up as pickles, but THE NUT-GATHERERS 29 apparently this dainty has never become very popu- lar in America. California, in normal years, supplies one-half of the English walnuts used in the United States and nearly one-half of the remainder come from France. The French nuts are known as "Grrenobles." We also import walnuts from Italy, China, Chile, Tur- key, Japan, Spain, and a few from other countries. Our total imports of walnuts, both shelled and un- shelled, in 1914 amounting to 37,195,728 pounds, and less than half of these came into the country as shelled nuts. In 1921 we imported 47,000,000 pounds of walnuts, FILBEETS; HAZEL-NUTS All over the north temperate zone, in both America and Europe, especially in the more barren soils, hazel-nuts grow, or, as a very early writer expresses it, "Hazels above all affect cold, barren, dry, and sandy soils ; also mountains, and even rockie ground produces them; but more plentifully if somewhat moist, dankish and mossie." The wild nuts in the United States are the legitimate loot of the small boy as he roams over fields and pastures in the early autumn, and well he knows where they are largest and most accessible. But it is not the hazel-nut, which is for us a foreign food, that is largely imported, but a closely related form of the same family, the filbert. Since hazel- nuts were so broadly distributed and grow wild in so many regions, we should expect to find them in use 30 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR very early in history. Even in Shakspere's day, they were well known, for we read that Mercutio in chiding BenvoUno for his quarrelsome disposition says, "Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason, but because thou hast hazel eyes; what an eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel?" We know that hazel-nuts formed a part of the food of the ancient lake-dwellers of Switzerland, as we find the nuts even now with the remains of their houses. They appreciated the ex- cellent food value of the hazel-nuts and their rich- ness in oil, and writers tell us that the peasants often roasted and ate the nuts. The belief in the divining-rod of hazel goes back to Roman times and probably earlier. It is evident that the wood used was that of the hazel-nut and not of the native North American "witch-hazel," as some writers have mistakenly assumed. The efficacy of the divining-rod was in the fact that it had two forks which were loosely grasped by the hands in such a way that the other end of the stick might move freely downward when in the vicinity of mineral veins or a living water supply. Cornish traditions recite that the divining-rod or "dowsing-rod" is guided to mineral lodes by the pixies, the guardians of the treasures of the earth. The name "filbert" is said to be a corruption of the word "full-beard," referring to the fact that the fringed husk or envelope extends beyond the cluster of nuts ; hazel-nuts have the husks shorter than other members of this group of nuts. Of the two varieties, the "common" and "beaked," the former are more THE NUT-GATHEREES 31 desirable although rather smaller. The Kentish dis- trict south of London has become famous for grow- ing both filberts and "cob-nuts." The latter are larger and of finer appearance. Here they are grown on small trees, which are kept closely trimmed so that they are only about seven feet high, A part of the crop is picked green for pickling, which, it is claimed, makes those that remain on the bushes larger than they would otherwise be. The nuts keep well, especially in dry sand ; they yield more than 50 per cent, of a fine edible oil, which is expressed in European countries and sold as "nut-oil," The Barcelona nuts are imported from Spain and are kiln-dried before they are shipped, Trebizond, on the Black Sea, is also a port from which many fil- berts are shipped. Most of the filberts which come to this country are unshelled and are from Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey. The total quantity im- ported in 1914 was 11,636,479 pounds. In 1921 im- ports amoimted to 18,000,000 pounds. PISTACHIO The pistachio-nut is not so common in the Ameri- can retail market as some of those previously men- tioned, but is used in very appreciable quantities by confectioners and in ice-cream manufacture. Its use is confined to that of a dessert-nut. One cannot help wondering, however, if aU the so-called pistachio ice- cream and candy he sees is really flavored and col- ored with this nut, which is so little in evidence even in the wholesale confectionery houses. Sometimes a very small quantity of pistachio is used in ice- 32 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAE cream, and the color is "brought up" by the use of aniline green. The flavor, however, is not improved by this process. The pistachio nut was known to the ancients, and it is said that this was the species of nuts included in the presents which Joseph's brethren took with them from Canaan to Egypt, when Jacob said: "Carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds." The nut grows on a small tree which is a native of Syria, but has been introduced into western Asia, the Mediterranean countries, the southern United States, and California. It is oval in shape and has a red pellicle, and the kernel is of a greenish color. The fruit is a drupe, produced iu cluster, and easily separates into two halves. It is peculiar in that the color is due to the large green cotyledons which are attached to the radicle. The nut 's flavor is very deli- cate and somewhat resinous, and its greenish color adds to its value for decorative purposes. It is usu- ally salted while still in the sheU, and in fact in some countries is dipped in sea water in the process of curing. Pistachio-nuts of the best quality are imported from Syria, Persia, and Arabia. Considerable suc- cess has been attained in raising them in the warmer regions of the United States. CASHEW-NUTS Perhaps the most curious of all the tropical nuts, in its manner of growth, is the cashew. It is both a fruit and a nut and is a native of tropical America, THE NUT-GATHERERS 33 although it is now grown in the East and West In- dies, in South America, and in the Philippine Islands. The cashew grows on large evergreen trees, which are set about fifteen feet apart and begin to bear from the third year, continuing to 3deld profitable crops until about the fifteenth. The fruit is of a pe- cuhar, somewhat pyramidal shape, and yellow and red in color. It has an agreeable, slightly acid, as- tringent flavor. At its outer or distal end it bears, pendant-fashion, a nut or seed, the nut of commerce, which is kidney-shaped and enclosed in a grayish- brown cellular coat. Instead of being inside the pulp, as in ordinary fruits, the seed is actually out- side and exposed to the air. The ' ' apple ' ' or fruit is rich in a milky juice. This juice, when fermented, yields a wine, which, upon distillation, gives a spirit similar to rum. In Brazil and India the nut and the beverages obtained from the fruit are very popular among the natives. The seed is roasted or pickled and has a delicate chest- nut-Kke flavor. Before roasting, the nut contains a considerable quantity of the poisonous substance, prussic acid, but this is dissipated by the heating and a very agreeable flavor is developed. The cashew is considered a very deHcate dessert-nut, and, like virtually all nuts, yields on being pressed a light-col- ored oil, similar to oHve-oil. In India, before the war, cashew-nuts sold at $8.50 a hundred pounds, and perhaps it is because of its high esteem in its native land that this nut has so far been seen but little in the American market. 34 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAE SWEET ALMONDS In the early spring the hillsides of Italy, Spain, and, in fact, most Mediterranean lands are pink -with the petals of the almond-tree. It is Edwin Arnold who, in describing the tree, says : Blossoms of the almond-trees; April's gift to April's bees. The passer-by, were he from a foreign land, would probably think that he was looking upon a peach-or- chard, so great is the similarity. Not only are the blossoms of the peach and almond almost identical, but the green fruits are very similar, and only as they mature does the characteristic difference appear. In the case of almonds, we all know the pit is the edible portion, while with peaches the fleshy portion or pericarp develops into the luscious fruit. In the spring one of the standard dessert materials in almond-growing countries is green almonds. These are edible at a time when the fleshy portion and the shell can be readily cut with a knife, and the kernel is soft like an undried chestnut. There are two distinct kinds of almonds, the bit- ter and the sweet, both of which are cultivated in southern Europe; but only the sweet almonds are edible, as the bitter varieties are poisonous and used solely for the production of bitter almond-oil and the expressed oil of almonds. Some varieties of the sweet almond have hard shells nearly as thick as those of the ordinary peach-pit, and these are seldom seen on the American market, as they caimot com- pete with the thin or paper-shell nuts. THE NUT-GATHEREES 35 The sweet almond is often named for the country in which it is grown, as the Valencia, Sicily, or Bom- bay almond. The nuts are also grown in Persia, which is supposed to be the country where the almond originated, Palestine, Syria, and all the countries around the Mediterranean Sea, China, and the Ca- nary Islands. We are all famihar with the name "Jordan almonds" but are not sure whether this name comes from that of a variety introduced from the vicinity of the River Jordan or whether it is sim- ply a corruption of the French word jardin, the gar- den variety. At any rate, Jordan almonds are a spe- cial hard-shelled variety imported from Malaga, in southeastern Spain, and having a very delicate flavor. Just as this country is now growing part of its English walnuts, so some of our almonds are also being raised in southern California, and the pink of the almond orchards shades into that of the peach groves along many of the arroyos of that wonderful land of fruit and flowers. Ahnonds, shelled and un- shelled, were imported during 1921 to a total amount of 25,000,000 pounds. Not only are almonds used as nuts, but they are ground into flour used for making biscuits and cakes and for the manufacture of almond paste and the delicious "marsipan" of Oriental mar- kets. The oil, which is expressed either from the bit- ter or sweet almond by pressure, is a bland oil, of more agreeable taste than olive-oil, and may be used in cooking and for salads in the same way as olive- oil. The expressed oil must not be confused with the so-called oil of bitter almonds, which is not a fatty 36 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR oil but a poisonous essential oil containing 85 per cent, of benzaldehyde. Almonds contains no starch, but as they have as much as 50 per cent, of fat and 25 per cent, of protein they form a very concentrated food product. BEAZIL-NUTS- We have always regarded the Brazil-nut as a for- eign product, and little success has attended the at- tempt to raise it in the United States, as the tree will not withstand this climate. It is a native of Para, Brazil, and is now extensively cultivated in the Amazon valley and Guiana. The tree is gigantic, in keeping with the luxurious growth of the Amazon forests. At a height of fifty feet it is often fourteen feet in diameter, and it grows to an average height of one hundred and thirty feet. The nuts are found in a thick oval outer shell, which is divided into four compartments, each crowded full of nuts. This re- ceptacle or pericarp is so heavy and solid that it re- quires the blow of a sledge-hammer to break it, and it is dangerous to walk under trees when the nuts are ready to fall. The fact that Brazil-nuts are so much more often rancid than other nuts has been attributed to their high oil content, about 65 per cent., but prob- ably their long flat shape and brittle shells, which make them easily cracked, have a good deal to do with their poor keeping qualities. Imports for 1921 amounted to 40,539,897 pounds. COCOANUTS. No dream of the sensuous Hfe of the natives in tropical lands is supposed to be true to life unless THE NUT-GATHERERS 37 it takes into account the fruits of the native trees, and especially the cocoanut-palm, which we picture as dropping its food "ready to eat" at the feet of the care-free natives. Francis R. Osgood puts it : Oh, the green and the graceful — ^the cocoanut-tree, With its stately shaft, and its verdant crown, And its fruit in clusters drooping down. The cocoanut grows all through the East and West Indies and in parts of China and Japan, but the South Sea Islands seem to be its special habitat. It is not surprising that it should be so widely distrib- uted throughout the tropics, for when the nuts drop into the ocean they are light enough to be borne away by the waves, and the kernel is well protected from the action of the sea water by its thick fibrous cover. The nuts require little encouragement to sprout in sandy bays and on mud flats, and grow rapidly when they once get started. This scheme of nature for the perpetuation of the tropical plant is all well enough for her purposes, but man, even semi-civiUzed man, wants more definite results, and consequently the planting of cocoanut-groves in the tropics has for years been a regular industry. What could be more attractive than an annual crop gathered from trees planted by one's father or grandfather more than fifty years ago! The cocoanut-palm comes into full bearing in its twelfth year, and continues to yield its fruit with very little cultivation on the part of the owner for half a cen- tury or more. A plantation once started insures a lifetime of ease and profit to the owner. It has been said that since this palm furnishes food, clothing, 38 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAE and shelter to the natives, without it the coral islands of the South Seas would be an uninhabitable waste. Not only are cocoanuts a staple food among the natives of the tropics, but cocoanut milk forms a pleasant drink and when allowed to ferment produces an intoxicating beverage. While the cocoanut is primarily valuable as the source of one of the world 's best food-oils, the desiccated meat is used in our own country in very appreciable quantities in con- fectionery and cakes. Only the highest grade of sound nuts imported in the shell can be used for drying and shredding, and great care has to be exer- cised to prevent the development of rancidity in these products. The shells are removed from the whole nuts by being heated very quickly so that they expand and separate from the kernel and can be cracked off in pieces. The kernel is then punctured, the milk drained out, and the outer rind peeled off with sharp mechanically operated knives. Thus prepared, the meat is ready to shred or chip, and as soon as cut up the fine pieces are quickly dried at a low temperature or canned fresh. Cocoanut products then, since the tree does not grow in continental United States although it pro- duces well in some of our island dependencies, must be imported. We are taking advantage of the cheap vegetable oil to take the place of animal oils and fats, and with the recent scarcity of fats both in this coun- try and abroad, cocoanut-oil is indeed a welcome ad- dition to the food of the people. During 1921 eighty naillion cocoanuts were imported. Imports of shred- ded copra or cocoanut meats amounted to 35,391,584 THE NUT-GATHERERS 39 pounds, while 188,203,350 were imported unshredded. We should not forget that the cocoanut is only one of the products of the palm family. In the various tropical countries there are no less than six hundred varieties of palms. From some of these the natives obtain their starchy food, from others wine, or milk or sugar or wax and oil for lighting their dwellings. Linnaeus says, ' ' Man dwells naturally in the tropics and lives on the fruit of the palm-tree ; he exists in other parts of the world and there makes shift to feed on corn and flesh." PEANUTS The peanut, in spite of its appearance and name, is not a nut at all. It is really a legimae, to which family the peas and beans also belong, but imlike other beans the fruit ripens beneath the ground. The Latin name of this plant is Arachis hypogcea, which means growing below ground. Although its blos- soms, little, yellow, pea-like flowers, are produced on the stem above ground, as soon as the petals have fallen off the embryo fruit burrows under the soil and there matures. Chemically the peanut has a just claim to be classed as a nut, as it is very rich in both proteins and oil. The origin of the peanut is unknown, but probably it was a native of tropical America. It was intro- duced into the United States in the early colonial days, but not until 1870 did it become of commercial importance. For many years the entire supply of "ground- nuts," as the English call them, was of domestic 40 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR origin, and only in recent years, since our commerce ■with the Orient has developed, have we been import- ers of this commodity. During the calendar year 1921 we obtained from foreign countries 4,523,841 pounds in the shells and 35,640,121 shelled. These latter are largely used for making oil. Abroad, peanuts are little used except as a source of oil, although small quantities do find their way into confectionery. In the United States the situa- tion is just the reverse. Virtually all the nuts im- ported with the shell stiU on them and some of those which are decorticated find their ultimate consump- tion in peanut-butter, roasted peanuts, and various confections such as cracker-jack and peanut-brittle. Even our domestic crop goes principally to the "sheUers," and the oil mills get only the surplus and low grade stock. From the tropics to as far north as the city of Washington peanuts grow and produce commercial crops, but they require warm climates and light soil. For more than a century the "coasts of Coromandel where the early pumpkins grow," Mozambique, Ru- fisque, Gambia, and more recently China have sup- plied the European oil-mills with peanuts. Seldom were these nuts in satisfactory shape for eating, and it is therefore little wonder that abroad one almost never sees a peanut-vender with his whistling cart at the street-comer or fiads peanut-butter on his sandwiches at the railroad restaurant. In China the nuts are usually shelled by hand instead of with a flail as in parts of India, or by soaking with water as on the Coromandel coast, and therefore the Chi- vr' Courtesy World's Commercial Products OLD OLIVE-TREES SSi.' .1-1. ^^^" Courtesy ^Vorld's Commercial Products PREPARING PALM-OIL ON THE GOLD COAST THE NUT-GATHERERS 41 nese nuts stand th.e ocean voyage far better than the broken or water-soaked ones from other countries. Abnost all of our peanut importations originate in China, and to some extent therefore the Southern peanut-grower is a competitor of the Chinese. Strict- ly speaking, however, he is in little danger from for- eign competition at the present time, but he may be when Yankee methods of producing and shelling peanuts have been introduced into the Orient. CHAPTER IV THE EDIBLE OILS PEEPARED IN NATURE'S STOEEHOUSES IN her plan of conservation, nature has not only laid up a great store of starch in the grains and roots, and of sugar in roots and stems and in fruit and plant juices, but she has also provided a store- house for vegetable fats in seeds and nuts. As many of these grow abundantly in foreign — especially in tropical — countries, we have always imported the products in large quantities. The most common foreign oils which we use are those from the olive, cocoanut, soy-bean, hemp, mus- tard, peanut, pahn, poppy, rape, sesame, and castor- bean. A few of these oil seeds are grown extensively in this country, but most of the oils are imported to a greater or less extent. In 1921 the United States purchased abroad $104,443,738 worth of vegetable oils. Oleaginous fruits, such as the olive, cannot profit- ably be shipped any great distance to the oil-mills, because the oil in the ripe fruit rapidly becomes rancid. Seeds and hard-shelled nuts, however, which nature has put up in almost air-tight cases, will with- stand ocean transportation and may well be brought to this country and the oil extracted here. Even ocean freights are high in these days, and as nut 42 THE EDIBLE OILS 43 shells are of very little value, few true nuts or pea- nuts are imported for oil making. It is cheaper to bring over tlie oil itself, even though the press cake, which is the residue after the oil has been squeezed out, may be worth more here than abroad. With the oil-seeds it is different. Their coverings are a small fraction of the total weight and, being partially digestible, are a valuable part of the ground press cake as sold for stock feed. But because our own cotton-seed is such an admirable oil material and a by-product of the lint, as a matter of fact al- most none of the grains that yield edible oils are imported. From very early times the people of Asia Minor used the oil of the olive for food, for light in lamps, and for ceremonial purposes. Indeed, mention of oil is made as early as Genesis, Chap, xxvin, v. 18, and of ohve-oil in the book of Exodus. The Phoenicians and early Eomans carried olive-oil to distant coun- tries, and considered it absolutely essential to their domestic life. So down through the poetry and re- ligion of state and domestic life, vegetable oils have had a prominent place. The Psalmist's "oil of glad- ness" was that of the ohve, not of the vine, and the Wise Virgins were provided with olive or almond- oil for their wedding-lamps, not with "Standard," as they are at the present time. The dwellers of the frozen North consume, of necessity, large quantities of animal fats to keep themselves warm, the bare- skinned natives of the tropics eat rancid cocoanut and palm-oils, but neither we ourselves nor other peoples of the temperate zone have ever been great 44 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR consumers of oils. Statistics show that larger quan- tities of vegetable oils are being used each year in this country, and this is due partly to the rise in price of animal fats, to the marked increase in the use of oils for salad dressings, and to the growing popularity of vegetable lard and butter substitutes for general cooking purposes. Since there is a demand for some kind of fat in the diet, different nationahties supply this in their own way. In our own country, butter-fat has been util- ized; in Spain every inhabitant eats as much as twenty-five pounds of olive-oil each year; in Africa they use coeoanut-oil, in China, the soy-bean oil, and in parts of Russia, linseed and sunflower-seed oils. Probably the question most often asked of one who has a reputation for knowing about oils is : What is the best oil to use for food? The answer is very easy: The one you like best. All edible oils are almost completely digested by the normal individual, and there is, so far as we know, no appreciable dif- ference between the food values of any of them. Whichever oil renders the food most palatable is the best for one to use if he can pay the price. As a rule the oil preferred by an individual is the one to which he has become accustomed. The Russian chooses his sunflower-oil ; the Italian peasant prefers his rather crude, and often rancid, olive-oil to the blander and sweeter grades to which we are accus- tomed, OLIVE-OIL The gnarled branches of the olive-tree on the shores of the Mediterranean — ^in Palestine, in Egjrpt, THE EDIBLE OILS 45 and in Spain and Africa — ^have, since the very earli- est times, yielded a fruit that more than any other in those ancient times added to the comfort and luxury of the primitive peoples. The oil as a food and condiment, and the expressed oil for anointing the body or as a food, were a part of the necessary stores of every home. Somehow the olive-branch has always symbolized peace, ever since the days of Noah and his drifting craft, and the oil stood for ease and con- tentment. To quote Marcus Aurelius: "So for the hair's- breadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, ex- tolling the season that bore it and the tree that ma- tured it." The olive-tree flourishes best in a limestone soil and where its branches are stirred by sea breezes, although it grows fairly well farther inland. There is a wild olive found growing in all the countries about the Mediterranean, but with greatest luxuri- ance on the rocky crags of the Grecian peninsula. From this probably the numerous varieties of the cultivated olive sprang. Such frequent reference is made to this tree and its products in the Bible and in the writings of the early inhabitants of Syria and Asia Minor that it must have had its origin in these lands. The Semitic tribes first learned of its value and distributed it to the Grecian archipelago. Says Charles Dudley Warner, speaking of the shores of the Mediterranean, east of Jaffa, on the road to Jerusalem: "The rocks are silicious lime- stone, crumbling and gray with ages of exposure. 46 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR They give the landscape an ashy appearance. But there is always a little verdure amid the rocks, and now and then an ohve-tree, perhaps a very old one, decrepit and twisted into most fantastic forms, as if distorted by vegetable rheumatism, casting abroad its withered arms as if the tree writhed in pain. ' ' Some of the stories of the remarkable age attained by olive-trees are scarcely believable, but we know that there are gnarled and twisted trees still living that for centuries have yielded their crop for the "healing of the nations." Next to the mountains and the rivers, the olive-trees represent unchanging na- ture. We almost unconsciously put the olive-trees in the foreground of the landscape, as we picture the beauties of these semi-tropical lands. As Mrs, Hemans sings : Fair land of chivalry ; the old domain ; Land of the vine and olive ; lovely Spain. The trees are not tall, ordinarily not more than thirty feet in height, and are usually pruned to keep them low so that the fruit may be readily gathered. The long sharp-pointed leaves have a dull grayish- green color that adds little of life or brightness to the landscape, or, as Browning describes them, The wan gray olive woods which seem The fittest foliage for a dream. The wood itself is greenish-brown, very close- grained, and much prized for ornamental turning on account of the fine polish of which it is susceptible. Those who grow the oUve tell us that it is best propagated by means of cuttings laid horizontally in THE EDIBLE OILS 47 shallow trenches ; these are covered with a few inches of soil and soon send up abundant shoots. Often, in the East, the trees are left to themselves, with scarce- ly any pruning ; but for the best results they should be trimmed, pruned, and in the dry season supphed with abundant water. These latter conditions pre- vail in France and in some sections of Spain and Italy. The flowers of the olive are inconspicuous, and the fruit, when it ripens, may be picked by hand for the more choice varieties, or the olives may be allowed to fall on the ground or shaken from the trees. The greater the care taken of the ripe oHves in gather- ing, the finer the quality of oil produced from them. The olive has been introduced into California and Arizona, the first grove being planted in San Diego in 1764. It was the custom of the early Spanish priests to plant at least one olive tree at every Mis- sion no matter how small. To-day the most popular California variety is that known as the Mission olive which is, so far as we know, a direct descendant of these early Spanish trees. A census of California taken in the spring of 1916 showed nearly 805,000 bearing and over 515,000 non-bearing trees in that State. The estimated annual production at that time was 1,000,000 gallons of oil and some 1,800,000 gal- lons of pickled olives, and there has been a natural increase since then, due to the coming into bearing of the young trees not then old enough to produce any fruit. American olives of which there are five common varieties, Mission, ManzaniUa, Ascolan, Serillano, 48 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR and Nevadillo Blanco, are much better suited to pickling than oil production, as none of them contain more than 30 per cent, of oil. European olives on the other hand are usually of a higher oil content, up to 50 per cent., but not so large or "tasty" as our 0"wn. For the manufacture of olive-oil the ripe or nearly ripe fruit is preferred, as the percentage of oil pres- ent in the flesh increases rapidly from the time the pit is formed until the fruit is nearly mature. We speak of the oil in the flesh, as little study has ever been made of that in the pits, although these do con- tain from 2 to 5 per cent, of oil and are often crushed and pressed along with the pulp. The more primitive method of extracting the oil is by the use of a rough mortar, as in Africa, or by hand presses, but the modern methods in use in southern Europe and in California call for heavy hydrauhc presses. The olives are crushed in im- mense flat pans by heavy wheels, which roll around continuously until the whole mass is pulped. This pulp is then put into heavy sacks or cloths and piled up on wooden grids in the press. The first pressing oil, known as the "virgin" oil, is of the best quality. When no more oil can be extracted in this way the pomace is removed from the press, reground with water, and again pressed to obtain a second grade of oil. A third and even a fourth pressing is made in the Continental mills after mixing the mass with hot water, but the product thus obtained is suitable only for technical uses. THE EDIBLE OILS 49 If you are fortunate enough to have a chance to visit the olive-oil dealers or manufacturers in some Italian city, as in Genoa, Pisa, or Lucca, you will find that they have an immense stock of oil from various plantations, which is stored in deep cement cisterns below the floor of their warehouses. Here impurities, bits of skin and gelatinous matter, settle out, so that the pure oil can be drawn from the sur- face to be put into cans for shipment. Dealers also frequently blend the oils from different sources and, after clarifying and filtering them through a filter press, put up their special brands in tin or glass receptacles. These are labeled with trade names which indicate their quality or grade. Often as many as four grades are put up at the same establishment. The oil is then shipped to importers or brokers in London, New York, or Baltimore and in South America. Since there is a great demand for pure ohve or "sweet-oil" all over the world for salads and vari- ous culinary purposes, the supply scarcely comes up to the demand, and there is a temptation to "piece out" the stock by adulteration with cottonseed, ses- ame, com, peanut, or poppyseed-oil. All the oil which we import is examined by chemists of the United States Department of Agriculture before it is put upon the domestic market, and, since the en- forcement of State and Federal food laws began, seldom is adulterated. Imports of olive-oil during 1921 were 6,628,099 gallons, with Italy as the chief country of origin and Spain in second place. 50 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAB BAPE-SEED OIL. One of these oils wMch we have always imported for domestic use is colza or rape-seed oil. Most of this comes to us from France and England and the Orient. The total amount in 1921 was 953,589 gallons. The bulk of this importation, however, is used for technical rather than food purposes. Rape- seed is grown in India, China, France, Germany, Belgium, and Russia — ^more particularly in the Baltic regions. The best results are obtained by planting in the autumn and allowing the young plants to grow during the winter. The tops, before the flower stalk appears, may be eaten off by cattle with- out injury to the plant and are found to be an excel- lent fodder. The plant grows well in the United States, and the oil might be produced here, but we have never thought it worth while to raise the seeds for oil purposes. The crushed seeds are "cold pressed" for high- grade oil, and then the first press-cake reground and heated in a steam-jacketed pan for a second press- ing, which yields a lower grade of oil. The oil still remaining in the press-cake can be extracted by the use of some solvent such as gasolene or carbon bi- sulphid. Since the crude oil contains considerable mucilaginous material, for culinary use it must be refined by treatment with caustic soda or at least clarified by fuller's earth, which is afterward filtered out carrying with it some of the coloring matter and gums. Colza-oil is of a light yellow color and has an agreeable taste. It is used as an edible oil, more THE EDIBLE OILS 51 especially in India, and elsewhere by confectioners to replace more expensive oils. MUSTAHD-SEBD OIL- The use of mustard-seed as a condiment dates back to the time of George I, when a Mrs. Clements, in Durham, England, hit upon the plan of grinding the seed in a mill and sifting the powder from the hulls. The flavor was agreeable to the king and of course at once became popular among the good livers of that time. The mustard flavor is even to-day most highly appreciated by British cooks. As the plants, both white and black mustard, grow readily through- out the temperate zone, mustard might be raised in this country in sufficient quantities to supply all our needs. In California the mesas are yellow in the spring with wild mustard, and one variety known as the charlock is a most objectionable weed in the flax-fields of the Northwest. Mustard has, however, been raised more abundantly in England and on the Continent, and the seed or the prepared condiment, with the stamp of a well-known English firm, has been imported for many years. It has been observed that for its best development and finest flavor the mustard needs a moist, foggy climate, and so we find districts in Poland, in Es- sex and in Cambridgeshire, England, and in Hol- land, where the mustard grows to the greatest per- fection. Too much sunshine as the crop is ripening results in a product that is too strong to be used. Here again it is a fine delicate flavor, after all, for which the public pays the highest price. It is evi- 52 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAE dent that there are "mustards" and "mustards." In addition to a volatile oil which imparts to mus- tard its flavor and gives it the property of producing blisters on the skin, the seed contains over 30 per cent, of a bland, almost tasteless oil. This is par- tially extracted by pressure from the warm mass of ground seeds before the condiment is prepared. The oil can be used for culinary purposes, as a salad-oil, for burning in lamps, or for making soap. With the advent of corn-oil, peanut-oil, and the oil of the soya- bean on our markets, the oil of mustard has become of less importance, although that obtained as a by- product of prepared mustard finds ready sale at good prices. POPPY-SEED OIL. It is not only "where poppies grow in Flanders field," but in many other parts of Europe, Turkey, Persia, India, and China that the seeds of the poppy are used for making a valuable and agreeable food oil. The lower grades are used for industrial pur- poses. There is no reason why such an oil cannot be recommended as a valuable addition to our list of salad and cooking-oils, although at present we im- port it almost entirely for use in special paints and other technical purposes. It is not, however, prob- able that in this country, with our abundant corn, cotton-seed, and peanut production, poppy-seed oil will be extensively produced. SUNPLOWEE-SEED OIL Although the sunflower has been grown in many of the States of the Union and utilized for feeding THE EDIBLE OILS 53 poultry, but little attention has been paid to its seed as a source of oil. The seeds contain 22 per cent, of a mild, light golden-yellow oil suitable for use as salad-oil without any refining, when obtained by cold pressing. The people of southern Eussia particular- ly, and to some extent those of Hungary, Italy, and China, not only eat the seeds raw or roasted, but make from them large quantities of oil for domestic purposes. In the Russian quarter of Los Angeles, one will find in the candy-shops little sacks of parched sunflower seeds which the children buy in- stead of peanuts. If it were not for the enormous amount of shelling required to get a good-sized taste of the tiny kernels, we should be inclined to prefer sunflower seeds ourselves, as they are certainly deli- cious. It is improbable, as noted above, that the sunflower seed wiU be utilized here, except perhaps locally, for making a food oil, but serious efforts have been made by the United States Department of Agriculture to encourage the growing of this seed as the source of a technical oil. SESAME OIL It was by the use of the word "sesame" that Ali Baba opened the cave of the Forty Thieves, accord- ing to the "Arabian Nights." The Orientals be- lieved that sesame was created by the god of death, and so sesame is mixed with rice and honey in the cakes offered to the dead, which the Orientals beKeve will secure to the departed admission into heaven. In India, China, and Japan sesame is an important field crop. Here labor is cheap, and the 54 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR hot climate and abundant seasonal rains are adapted to the growth of the plant. The seeds are readily- shipped to western Europe, where most of the oil of commerce is actually made. This seed, known as ajahi, is produced in large quantities in northern Mexico and in a small way imported and pressed by one or two of the Texas cotton-oil mills during their off seasons. In Turkey, and of course among the Turks and kindred peoples of New York City, the sesame seed is used as the basis of a sticky confec- tion called Jialva. This halva is a mixture of se- same seed and honey, or should be if genuine, but we have seen it made of peanut-flour, a little sesame- oil, and a few seeds and glucose. Sesame-oil is considered on the Continent one of the finest of the salad-oils and when made from clean, sweet seed needs no refining to make it a delicious, bland salad or cooking-oil. Germany and Holland require all margarin to contain a certain minimum amount of this oil, not that its addition to the butter substitutes improves them especially, but because, owing to its characteristic color reaction when mixed with hydrochloric acid and a little sugar, it can be readily detected. The presence, therefore, of se- same-oil makes the food inspector's job in these countries, so far as margarin is concerned, an easy one. SOY-BEAN OIL There is a wonderful bean, first grown in China and Japan, which has added many valuable food materials to those available for man. This is the soy or soya-bean. It has been known as a staple food THE EDIBLE OILS 55 in the Far East for probably five thousand years, and at the present time large shipments of this bean and its oil are made from Manchuria to America. Although it was introduced into the United States as early as 1804, it did not become an important crop until recently, and it is to-day grown more as a for- age than as an oil crop. Soya-beans will grow wher- ever Indian com will flourish, although it seems bet- ter adapted to the Southern than the extreme North- em States. The oil obtained by pressing the beans is bland but of a characteristic beany flavor, which, however, can be removed by modern deodorizing processes. While the major portion of the 195,800,000 pounds of soya-bean oil imported in 1919 was used in paint and soap, appreciable quantities are known to have been used in cooking compounds. Incidentally, it is interesting to see how much use is made of the soy-bean by the Orientals. Mixed with rice, it makes a fairly well-balanced ration, for it contains an abundance of both protein and fat. Below are mentioned some of the soy products which are in coromon use and show the ingenuity of the people of China and Japan: a soy sauce made from fermented beans and wheat-flour ; a bean cheese, rich in protein and fat; natto, which is made into small cakes and fermented on straw; miso, made from boiled beans, rice, and brine; and soy milk, made from boiled beans beaten to a pulp, so that consid- erable vegetable casein passes into solution. About the only one of these that we Americans are ac- quainted with is the soy sauce used liberally in Chi- 56 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR nese restaurants and as a basis at least for a famous English sauce served almost universally at the best hotels with roast beef and steaks. PALM oil; palm-keenel oil. The fortunate people who dwell in Western lands can hardly appreciate to what extent the natives of tropical countries are indebted to the various species of palms for clothing, food, drink, building-material — ^in fact, for whatever makes existence possible. Whittier, in describing the pahn-tree, truly says : To him the palm is a gift divine, Wherein all uses of man combine, House and raiment and food and wine. Among the numerous species of the palm that grow wild, in virtually the entire habitable portion of the torrid zone, are many which bear fruit rich, in edible oils. Perhaps the most interesting of all of these is the oil pahn, Eloeis guineensis, which gives us two distinct kinds of oil. This tree is indigenous to West Africa and flourishes in a belt some three thousand miles in length from Gambier to Angola. Some idea of its value to the natives may be obtained from the fact that in 1918, 295,000 tons of the little palm-kernels, about a million of which are required to make a ton, were imported into the United King- dom. There are only a very few fruits which con- tain, in both their fleshy portion or pericarp, and their pits or kernels, commercial quantities of oil, and the oil-pahn is the most important of these. The fruit grows high up on the feathery top of the trees in huge bunches that weigh from fifteen to THE EDIBLE OILS 57 fifty pounds, and consist of one to two thousand in- dividual seeds. They ripen nearly all the year round, although during the three rainy months there are fewer seeds produced. From the hright red pericarp of the ripe fruit, which has been very aptly described as resembling a mass composed of equal parts of "cocoanut mat- ting and axle-grease," the natives obtain about 60 per cent, of its weight of beautiful pahn-oil. In the preparation of this oil, nearly all of which is still made by the crude native methods, the ripe fruit is first boiled with water in large iron kettles to soften the pericarp. During the process a little oil is liber- ated and floats on top of the water, from which it is skimmed and, if from fresh fruit, saved for the maker's own use. This so-called "chop-oil" is nearly free from acidity and really quite palatable. The fruit, when well softened, is taken from the pot, beaten in large wooden troughs, made often of hollow logs, and again put back into the pot and boiled. The major portion of the oil separates at this stage and is skimmed off, settled, and put in casks for sale to the Enghsh factor. The still greasy mass of fiber and kernels is wrung out by hand and often rinsed once or twice, much as we would wash clothes, to remove as completely as possible all the oil. The little nuts, the pits of the fruit about the size of a hazel-nut, are picked out and dried for several days in the sun until the kernel has become loose in the shell, then cracked, one at a time, between two stones by the women. One million to a ton, nearly S00,000 tons shipped in one year to England alone I 58 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR Just think of the noise of pounding there must be at times in those African villages ! The dried kernels, which must be whole or they will spoil badly in transit, are now shipped largely to Great Britain, as there is a tax of two pounds a ton on all produced in British colonies and exported outside the king- dom. The kernels, which contain some 50 per cent, of oil very similar to cocoanut-oil, are crushed and pressed in hydraulic, box or cage, presses. This ker- nel-oil, which very closely resembles the better known cocoanut-oil, is used principally in the manu- facture of vegetable butter substitutes commonly called nut margarins. Yellow palm-oil, which is made from the fleshy part of the fruit, has not as a rule been used for food in civilized countries, although when properly refined and deodorized it is perfectly edible and of an agree- able flavor. We are best acquainted with it in this country as a technical oil which, until the war, was thought indispensable in the tin-plate industry as a flux over the back half of the coating pots. Con- fronted with the possibility that we might be unable to obtain the oil during the war, we discovered that hardened (hydrogenated) cottonseed-oil was as good or perhaps a little better in making tin-plate. COCOANUT AND BELATED OILS Another member of the palm family from which mankind, both civilized and savage, gets great quan- tities of oil is the cocoanut-palm. The growing of the nut and its uses have already been referred to. In 1921 the United States imported more than THE EDIBLE OILS 59 356,000,000 pounds of cocoanut-oil, and expressed from imported copra in her own mills almost as much. more. When one considers that we get only about three ounces of oil from one nut and that to make the nearly 350,000 tons of oil we used, it took about four billion cocoanuts, he may get some idea of the world's annual crop. Cocoanut-oil is not, at ordinary temperatures, a liquid, like many of the nut oils, but as it contains quite a large percentage of the solid fat called stear- in, it comes into the market as a soft white solid of buttery consistency. On account of this large pro- portion of stearin, cocoanut-oil is often chilled and pressed to separate the solid and liquid constituents. The solid fat finds use not only in the nut margarins but also, when mixed with powdered sugar, as a fill- ing in sweet wafers and some varieties of candy. The liquid "olein," as it is called, makes a very sat- isfactory shortening but cannot be used for "deep frying" because of its tendency to spatter and froth over. Although before the war much of the copra trade went to England and the Continent, at the present time, on account of the demand for fats, especially to make butter substitutes, some of the cottonseed crushers are at times using their plants for pressing cocoanut-oil from the copra. This promises to be an important industry now that any prejudice against the use of cocoanut-oil as food for man — ^if it ever existed — ^has been removed by stem necessity. The making of food products containing cocoanut- oil, especially the nut margarins, is constantly in- 60 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR creasing, and the ingenuity of manufacturers in im- proving their products is second only to that of the advertisers in finding appropriate and "taking" names for them. In Mexico, Central and South America, there are great forests of other nut-bearing palms from which small quantities of oil are produced by the natives. Of these the coquito and cohune nuts are imported to a small extent into the United States, and were it not for the great diflSculty of cracking their al- most steel-hard shells and cheaply separating the kernels, these nuts would materially add to the world's supply of edible oils. SHEA-NUT OIL In this list of oil-producers, the Shea-nut should not be forgotten. It belongs to the star-apple family and grows on a large tree in the wilds of western tropical Africa. If there were only railroads in this region to transport the nuts to the coast, large quan- tities might be exported. A hundred poimds of the nuts will, when treated by European machinery, pro- duce forty pounds of the valuable oil known as Shea- butter. This, Mke palm-nut oil, is used by the na- tives of Nigeria and adjacent regions as we use butter in many ways^ CHAPTER V WHY WE PEIZE THE CONTINENTAL CHEESE HE who is not a connoisseur on flavor may express surprise that we on this side of the Atlantic should bring so much of our cheese from countries two to three thousand miles away, when we have an abundance of cheese at home, and the dairies of New York, Wisconsin, and other States are every year putting their prize cheese on the market; but it is all a matter of flavor. From the same pail of milk a score of different varieties of cheese may be made by different processes and under different climatic conditions. It is natural then that from the Swiss pastures, using the milk from cows that crop the Alpine flowers in the crisp moun- tain air, the dairyman can make cheese that rivals in flavor anything we can produce ; or that the French peasants, with their hundreds of years of gathered wisdom, should have perfected flavors by cooking and storing and aging their cheese that we can but attempt to rival. We sometimes despise the htmable molds, bacteria, and vegetable parasites that prey upon our fruits and berries and spoil them, yet it is to molds and bacteria of various kinds that we must give the credit of causing the ripening of our favor- ite cheeses and imparting to them the flavor so much enjoyed. 61 62 FOOD PBODUCTS FROM AFAR Cheese is in many respects an ideal "storage food." A food containing more than 25 per cent, of casein and 35 per cent, of fat is evidently highly nutritious. It is not strange that cheese was known to the people of remote ages. It was probably first made accidentally, just as was the case with butter. Who shall say that the use of rennet to coagulate milk was not due to the storage of milk in the fresh stomach of some animal? At any rate the curdling of milk and the bacterial activity that follows would be matters of ordinary observation, especially among nomadic tribes. From the time when Abram "cut out" his cattle and sheep and camels from those of Lot and took the great cattle-range to the south, from the time when the Arabs sought the green oases for their flocks in the desert lands of western Asia, through all the history of these nomadic tribes, how important a food must have been this concentrated product ! It does not melt in the torrid rays of the desert sun, age and bacterial growth only improve its flavor, and even in the hurried flight of the Bedouin raiders it could be packed on the backs of the beasts of bur- den and readily transported. Cheese is of such great food value, and may to such an extent take the place of meat, that it seems strange that it has not been more extensively used as a staple food. One reason suggested is that there has been a notion prevalent that cheese is indiges- tible and therefore should only be ^eaten in small quantities as a flavor or appetizer with the dessert. As Shakspere says in "Merry Wives of Wind- WHY WE PEIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 63 sor," "I'll make an end of my dinner, there's pip- pins and cheese to come." Careful experiments made in this direction by the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture and elsewhere show that, on the contrary, cheese can be used in liberal quantities as a part of the diet without producing any disagree- able symptoms. It should not be forgotten that the whole process of digestion of cheese does not take place in the stomach, for the fat and any undigested casein is taken care of in the intestines, and there is no evidence to show that any disturbance in those of us who have normal digestion occurs from the moderate use of cheese. As we have both mild and highly flavored varieties of cheese, the former are usually selected to form an important part of the diet and the latter to im- prove the taste of what are otherwise somewhat tasteless dishes. It is true that there is a variation in the methods of making different grades of cheese, but the general plan of coagulating milk, either hot or cold, of allow- ing the curd to drain or of pressing it, and of storing under special conditions is the same for Continental cheese as for ours. We commonly classify cheese as either hard or soft. The difference between the two groups is largely due to the methods of manufacture, and espe- cially to the fact that much of the whey is pressed out of hard cheese and not from soft. Of the hard foreign cheeses we are more familiar with the Eng- lish cheeses of the Stilton and Cheddar type, the Schweitzer or Emmenthaler of Switzerland, the 64 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR Edam and Gouda of Holland, the Parmesan and Gorgonzola of Italy, and the Roquefort made in France. Of the soft cheeses imported into this coun- try the most common ones are the French Camem- bert, Gervais, and Brie, the Swiss Neufchatel, and ,the Belgian Limburger. The last year before the war (1914) the United States bought 63,800,000 pounds of cheese from Europe. Of this 26,500,000 pounds came from Italy, 22,500,000 pounds from Switzerland, 5,500,000 pounds from France, and 3,700,000 pounds from Hol- land. This importation was almost entirely stopped during the war, but Continental cheeses are now beginning to appear again on our market. Our 1921 imports were 36,866,404 pounds. The greatest quan- tity came from Italy. Argentina, Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands followed it at the head of the list. In 1921 the United States exported increasing quantities of cheeses of foreign types. This is es- pecially the case with Roquefort, Camembert, Gouda, and Edam. These cheeses imitate closely those made abroad, and find a ready sale there on account of the scarcity of the home-made product. Cheeses of the Cheddar type were the first to be made here, ENGLISH CHEESE, The English cheeses imported in 1914 amounted to only about 335,000 pounds, and these were chiefly of the ^jgddax and Stilton type. The same year we sent to England over 530,000 pounds of American cheese, largely Cheddar, and in 1920 over 5,000,000 Underwood & Underwood EDAM CHEESE MARKET WBY WE PEIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 65 pounds. The Cheddar is made abroad in the same way as in this country as a factory cheese, with a heated curd, which is submitted to considerable pressure. Stilton cheese comes from Leicestershire and adjoining counties. It is made from whole milk, sometimes with the addition of cream, and is not pressed or colored. In the process of ripening, the cheese becomes permeated with the spores of pencil- Hum glaucum, which produces the characteristic blue mold. SWISS CHEESE Formerly the largest quantity of cheese coming to the United States was imported from Switzer- land; the kind most in favor was the so-called Schweitzerkdse or l^fflmenthaler. This, when made in a similar way in France, in the Jura Mountains, is known as Gruyere. These cheeses have been made by the peasants in the mountains of France for sev- eral hundreds of years. This is the cheese that you see piled up in the markets of these countries like so many cart-wheels. They weigh from sixty to 220 pounds, and are often four feet in diameter and six inches thick. This type of cheese is known by the large holes scattered through it, although a "blind" Swiss cheese, without eyes, is often made and is jusfas genuine. Cheese made in the United States by the same process is known as domestic Swiss. In the early summer, on an appointed day, the cattle in a mountain valley are gathered long before daylight, to be driven to "the Alp" for the "summer pasture." In order that they may not be lost in 66 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR their wanderings upon the mountain-side each cow is provided with a bell, some of the bells being very large and giving forth loud and raucous notes. If you are in one of those Swiss villages at the time you will be awakened by the "lowing of the kine" and the "inharmony" of the bells, the sounds coming from all directions as the cows are collected from the hillside and driven to the meeting-place. It is a weird and wonderful sound which you will never forget. The herd is slowly driven up the steep val- leys and over the lower pastures until it seems that they would stop for summer forage just below the snow-line. They are herded in the best pastures where the grass is fresh and the water abundant, and driven from place to place. The cowherds who look after the cattle during the summer do not own them, but the milk from each cow is noted daily, and at the end of the season the cowherd, the cheese-maker, and the owner settle the account for the summer's labor. Scattered about over the Alps you will see the lit- tle huts known as speicJiers where the cheese, made at the dairies, is stored until it is time to carry it back down the valley. These buildings are raised upon stone posts, the better to protect the contents from naice. In different districts cheese of slightly different quality and appearance is made. The term "Em- men thaler" is applied to this cheese because it was first in the valley of that name that it was produced. Generally, whole milk is used in making this cheese, and it is coagulated with rennet at 135 degrees WHY WE PEIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 67 Fahrenheit. The curd is broken up and put in molds to drain. It is pressed and salted and allowed to ripen from eight to twelve months. In the process of making and curing Swiss cheese, as the gases of decomposition and ripening accumulate in the casein mass, the characteristic holes are formed. It is im- portant that the gas-forming bacteria do not act too soon, so the rate of ripening is regulated by the temperature, which is gradually reduced from sixty degrees down to fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit, and it is two or three weeks after the cheese is taken from the press before the cavities begin to appear. Neufchatel cheese, although originally made in Switzerland, is now produced in other countries, and quantities of "Neuf cha tel style" cheese are manu- factured in the large dairies of the United States. This is the soft cream-cheese, sold in cylinders about two and one-half inches in diameter and three inches high, weighing five or six ounces, and covered with tin-foil, which is so common at the cheese-counters of our markets. The curd is only slightly pressed in making this style of cheese, which, after being re- moved from the molds, is dried or cured on straw in a moist cellar for some four weeks. A hard sMm-milk cheese, also made in Switzer- land, is known as Sap-Sag o, and to impart to the product the desired flavor a species of Alpine clover is worked into the curd. This also gives a greenish color to the cheese, which is nearly always molded into the form of a truncated cone, about three inches in diameter at the base. It is a favorite material with the cook, who grates it into various dishes. 68 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR DUTCH CHEESE To the traveler one of the chief show places of Holland is Edam, which gives its name to a cheese of that district. An excursion is easily made from Amsterdam to Edam, Hoom, or Valendam by rail or steamer. The quaint architecture of these towns and the picturesque costumes of the peasants are a constant delight to the artist and the traveler. In Holland the annual production of cheese amounts to over 175,000,000 pounds, two-thirds of which is exported. On account of the importance of the in- dustry the Dutch Government and the schools of agriculture pay great attention to getting the very best quality. In fact the government stamp can be aflBxed only to those cheeses that contain, in the water-free material, 45 per cent, of fat and which are made of unskimmed milk. It is unfortunate that sometimes both in this coun- try and abroad skimmed milk instead of whole milk is used in making the famiUar "cannon-ball" style of cheese, which we have learned to prize for its flavor, and although such cheeses may be labeled to show they were made from skimmed milk, this prac- tice lowers our impression of the fine quality of the genuine Dutch cheeses. It is said that the average fat-content of the cheese made by the Dutch farmers is more than 45 per cent., though some made in the factories is a little below this figure. It is not so much the loss of fat that we deplore as the loss of the fine flavor that goes with the whole-milk, full- cream product. WHY WE PRIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 69 In making Edam and similar cheeses the whole milk is coagulated by rennet at a temperature of eighty-four degrees and is then left in the vat until it becomes very acid. The most important step in the process is perhaps the addition to the mass of some of the whey from a previous curd, to produce, by the bacteria which it contains, what is known as "slimy fermentation." The curd, after being broken up with knives, is poured into wooden or iron cup- shaped molds to drain and is afterward pressed slightly in salting cups covered with cups of similar shape. In salting and curing, a temperature of sixty degrees is employed in an atmosphere of eighty de- grees of saturation. The cheese is turned and rubbed each day for a month with oil, and finally colored on the outside with carmine or with Berlin-red and litmus. When the cheese goes to market it is still far from ripe, and requires nearly a year of slow bacterial action to develop its proper flavor. These cheeses are in great favor for dessert and for use with macaroni, and the shell, after the inside cheese has been removed, may be used very suc- cessfully several times for serving macaroni. Another Holland cheese, made in Friesland, is the Gouda, which is quite similar in color and flavor to the"^jnglish Cheddar cheese. This cheese, which is small and flat, is cured more rapidly than the Edam, weighs ten to twelve pounds, and is inclosed in a bladder or other animal tissue for protection. 70 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR ITALIAN" CHEESE, Once on a time there was a mouse. To all terrestial things he bade adieu, And entered, far from mouse or cat or man, A thick-walled cheese, the best Parmesan. Says Signora Eva Mariotti in a recent article : The subject of Italian cheeses, made in different cities, is fascinating. Cremona is almost as famous for her cheese as she is for her violins. Parma produces huge deep yellow forms called Parmigiano which we grate on macaroni. Urbino makes a small, round, white cheese, only to be had in spring, and inexpressibly good. A raw bean called fava is served with it at table. The English name for these beans is horse-beans. They come on the table in their long thick pods for each person to shell for himself. When cooked they become brown in color and have a bitter taste. Milan, surrounded by her rich pasture lands, is the home of many varieties of cheese. Gorgonzola and Groiera are made there, and one ealled Millefiori (a thousand flowers), also Stracchino, yellow as gold and soft as butter, a queen of cheeses. In Eome, we have the famous Eicotta, a cottage-cheese made from unsalted goats' milk. It is brought into the city every morning in reed baskets, turned out upon a board, the snow-white forms still bearing the impress of the basket, and looking very like pique sunbonnets. Ricotta is eaten with pulverized coffee and sugar, or made into a pudding flavored with rum or marsala. There are two provinces of northern Italy, Lom- bardy and Emilia, that have 'been noted for the qual- ity of cheese produced. One of these is known as Parmesan, named from the district of Parma in Emilia. This is in the rich alluvial valley of the Po, in sight of the Alps and under the shelter of the Apennines. The Pa rmes an is made from partly WHY WE PRIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 71 skimmed milk with a slow heat and the addition of rennet, at 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The curd sepa- rates in small lumps and is broken up and colored and flavored with saffron before being put into molds. After drying for several weeks the outer surface is pared off and the cheese is brushed with oil. The ripening of this cheese is a most important part of the process. Cellars and caves, where the temperature is very even, are used in ripening, and here the cheese is stored from one and one^half to two years. The merchants frequently buy up the cheeses from the peasants and store them until they are sufficiently ripened for use. As this is a hard dry cheese, one of the common methods of using it is by grating. Sometimes the grated cheese is put up in bottles and sold as grated Parmesan. It is perhaps more popular in Europe than in America, and is used especially as a flavor and to add nutriment to macaroni. It is to Lombardy, in northern Italy, that we must go to find the GorgOTZola cheese in its true home. This cheese is a rich and creamy product, in some respects similar to Eoquefort, although milder and usually cheaper. It is also permeated by blue veins of characteristic mold {pencillium glaucum) which has much to do with the production of the pungent taste. In shape it is something like the English Cheddar cheese, and weighs from twenty to forty pounds. This is one of the cheeses made by the "two-curd" process ; that is, an old curd made one or two days 72 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAE before it is used — and consequently very acid — ^is packed into the mold in alternate layers with a fresh curd. Under these conditions the blue mold grows readily at the junction of the two curds. Sometimes a mixture of moldy bread-crumbs is used to start the growth of mold in the cheese. Like so many of the Italian cheeses, this is also ripened in caves and cellars, where it is stored for several months at a temperature of fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit. When hard enough to transport, the cheese is sold to the merchant, who usually holds it under proper condi- tions for ripening for some time before marketing it. As a reddish fungus appears in this process on the outside of those cheeses believed to be of superior quality, the merchants sometimes smear on the out- side a mixture of cheese flour and brick dust to simu- late the color of the mold. Tallow and gypsum are also used in the coating to preserve the cheese. The milk of the sheep is utilized in southern Italy, especially in the province of Calabria and as far north as Eomano, for making the typical cheese known as Ca cio-C avallo. After making, it is filled into sausage-skins and slightly smoked. The weight is about three pounds. It may be eaten fresh, or if stored until it is dry may be grated and used as a flavor for soups and for macaroni. The people of Italy are noted for their thrift; they import those cheeses which are cheap for home consumption, and sell those like Parmesan which command a better price in other countries. In many of these southern lands the milk of the goat and the sheep is more important than that of the cow, for it is much more :WHY WE PRIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 73 economically produced ; 120,000,000 gallons of sheep milk is produced annually in Italy. FRENCH CHBESE- Of the soft cheeses that are imported, prohably the one most in favor is the Camembe rt, known as early as 1791, when it was made by Marie Fontaine, in Camembert, France. Perhaps one reason why this district has become so famous for the produc- tion of this kind of cheese is that the temperature of central France, especially from May to Septem- ber, favors its making and ripening. A stronger rennet is used in the manufacture in the winter than in the warmer months, and the best grade of cheese is made from whole milk, although occasionally some of the fat is removed. The first curd, as there are generally two curds used in making this cheese, is filled with great care into cylindrical metal molds, which are placed on straw mats to drain. This curd has shrunk consid- erably by evening, when the second curd is added. This is a little richer than the first, and the union of the two curds is facilitated by slightly shaking the mold. The next day the cheese is turned and salted and set on a fresh mat to stay until hard enough to transfer from the mold to a straw mat in the drying-room. This room is well ventilated and screened from insects. As the ripening proceeds the molds appear, first white and later blue, and these assist in aging and curing the cheese. When the blue . mold is abundant, the cheeses are moved to the cur- ing-room, the temperature of which is maintained 74 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAE at sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and here they remain until marketed. The finished cheese is six to seven inches in diam- eter and one to two inches thick. There is usually a reddish-brown mold on the surface, and the interior is a soft buttery mass. When the cheese is used in a small family, to prevent its drying out before it is all eaten, the pertinent suggestion is made that the cheese be cut in two in the middle and that portions be taken from each part alternately, so that the cut edges can be brought together to prevent evapora- tion. Keep it in a cool place under an inverted glass. Perhaps one of the best known of the French cheeses is the Eoquefort, which is made from the milk of goats and sheep. This was originally made in the village of Eoquefort, in southwestern France, but it was too much of a favorite to have its manu- facture confined to a single city or district, and now it is produced throughout the departments of Aveyron, Gard, Herault, Lozere, and Tarn. These are districts between the Bay of Biscay on the west and the lower Ehone on the east where the tempera- ture and climate are especially adapted to ripening the cheese and developing the flavor that is so much prized. Pliny says that the Eomans, more than two thou- sand years ago, imported this cheese from France to add flavor to their banquets, and its fame has not decreased, for to-day half a million sheep are re- quired to supply enough milk to cover the demand. In making Eoguefort the curds are placed in layers in a perforated tin mold about six inches in diameter WHY WE PEIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 75 and pressed Kghtly at first, and afterward -with pressure increasing from day to day. As the curds are put into the mold, some dairymen sprinkle moldy bread-crumbs between the layers. This produces in the cheese the grayish-blue mold which, as the cheese ripens, produces the characteristic flavor. It is said that the bread is generally made of wheat and bar- ley-flour with the addition of whey and vinegar. This bread, which furnishes the ideal medium for the growth of the blue mold, is stored in a moist place for several weeks, and then the crumbs are in good condition to be used. When the cheese is hard enough it is removed from the mold, bound with cloth, and put in a drying-room for about ten days before being removed to the caves to ripen. These caves or cellars are cut in the Jurassic limestone in the sides of the valleys and are carefully ventilated by currents of cool moist air. Here the cheese is left to ripen for about two months, and the surface is frequently rubbed with salt and scraped from time to time to prevent the mold from growing on the outside. The air in these caves is fiUed with the floating spores of the pencil- Hum glauGum, and the cheese is perforated with long needles to allow this germ-laden air to penetrate to the inside of the cheese, for there the ripening must take place. During this process the protein is trans- formed into a fatty substance, giving the cheese a friable consistency. These cheeses weigh from four to six pounds when ready for marketing. Another cheese not so well known as those pre- viously described is the PonWJEvegue, a soft French 76 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR cheese. This is named from the arrondissement of this name, near Caen, in northwestern France, where the cheese is produced. The milk is set at a higher temperature, viz., eighty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, than that usually employed in cheese-making. The cheeses are molded in a rectangular mold four and one-half inches square and ripened in moist air at a temperature of fifty-eight degrees. There is a soft cheese made in the province of Normandy in northern France that is very popular on the Continent, but it is not so common in the United States. It is known as Port du Salut. For a long time the Trappist monks~~of fhe^village of Bricquebec, who originated the process of making this cheese, guarded their secret with great care, be- cause they derived considerable revenue from its sale. The milk is heated to eighty-six degrees Fahren- heit and quickly coagulated. It is then drained and pressed by hand into molds and allowed to ripen slowly in cellars at fifty-four degrees. When the process is correctly carried out, the cheese is filled with innumerable small holes made by the, gas- producing bacteria. When finally marketed this cheese is in the form of a circular disk about an inch in thickness with a firm tough rind, the interior of which is filled with a buttery mass having a mellow, nutty flavor and is in great demand by those who "know a good cheese. ' ' Brie is a soft French cheese, twelve to sixteen inches in diameter and about an inch thick, made WHY WE PRIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 77 and ripened by methods similar to those used for Camembert. It is named from a district north and east of Paris. As the cheese ripens at from sixty- two to sixty-four degrees, a blue mold appears quite abundantly on the surface, and the casein is broken down to a soft creamy mass having a decidedly strong odor but a flavor which is much appreciated by connoisseurs. One of the noted French cheese-makers was Gervais, for whom a well-known cheese was named. It is not often that an improved food product is named for a man, except when the name is used by a modem manufacturer for advertising his product. BELGIAN CHEESE The best known of the Belgian cheeses is the JOim- harger, from the province of that name, although it was first made in the province of Lattick. It is also made in Germany and in very large quantities in the United States, notably in New York and Wiscon- sin. The Munster and Backstein are two famous German cheeses made in the same way as Limburger and easily recognized at a distance because of their strong odor. Either whole or skimmed milk is used, and the curd is coagulated at a lower temperature than that used for ordinary cheese. The animal heat in summer is often high enough to curdle the milk. The curd is cut with great care so as not to break the butter globules, upon which the richness of the cheese depends. Perforated rectangular molds five inches square are used for draining the curd, 78 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAE which is salted several times and slightly pressed between boards. The whey is, however, not com- pletely expelled by this process. The packages are put on edge in the curing cellar, just as bricks are piled to dry. They are roUed in salt daily, and the shmy moisture which exudes is rubbed off. This process closes the cracks in the cheese and tends to keep it moist. Just as the pro- teins of meat decompose as the meat becomes "high," so the proteins of the Limburger cheese break down into a soft material and an odor is de- veloped which persistently sticks to those who use the cheese habitually. After curing for eight to ten weeks the product is wrapped in tin-foil and put upon the market. Says a weU-known authority, "In consistence, content, and nourishment this is the richest cheese that can be made, but to the uninitiated a malicious, premeditated outrage upon the organ of smell." After all, de gustibus non disputcmdum. AKGENTINA CHEESE It would not be fair to leave the subject of foreign cheeses without mentioning the remarkable increase of the dairy industries that has taken place within the last few years in Argentina. In 1911 only 500 kilos of cheese were exported, while in 1917 the amount had risen to 2,728,400 kilos. Since the be- ginning of the World War Argentina exports of cheese have increased over 900 per cent. In 1920 more cheese was imported into this country from Argentina than from all European countries com- bined. The most popular brands were those used WHY WE PEIZE CONTINENTAL CHEESE 79 for grating purposes, and cheeses of the Itahan types. The fact is that since 1913 the movement of cheese from one country to another has been entirely thrown out of its normal condition, and the equilibrium has not been reached since the war. We exported slightly more cheese than we imported in 1919, but it is probable that this is only a temporary condi- tion of the market. In 1921 our imports were nearly 27,000,000 pounds and exports less than half this quantity, 11,700,000 pounds. CHAPTER VI CAMPING WITH THE ABABS AND PARTAKING OF THEIR PARE THERE are some sections of the world that are "dehydrated." We call them deserts, but many of them are deserts only because there is not sujfficient water. The soil and climate are ideal for the growth of fruits and vegetables. What was designated on the old maps as the Great American Desert is beginning to "blossom as the rose" under cultivation and intelligent irrigation. These districts constitute the "dried fruit dis- tricts" of each continent. The prevailing winds, the height of the neighboring mountains, and a combina- tion of meteorological conditions have produced these arid and semi-arid spots on the globe, and it is for man to encourage on them the growth of such cereals, fruits, and vegetables as can be adapted to their conditions. T. R. Smith calls attention to the fact that it is in these sections of the globe that the dried fruit industry has been developed. In Aus- tralia, Africa, Asia Minor, Spain, and Chile, as well as California, advantage is taken of sunshiny days and rainless nights to dry the native fruits to per- fection. With the moisture eliminated, the fruit will keep in other climates and can therefore be exported all over the world. 80 CAMPING WITH THE ARABS 81 It required the exigencies of the war to make us realize how much less it costs to ship fruits and vege- tables without the water which they naturally con- tain. MilHons of pounds of dehydrated vegetables were sent to the army overseas from British Colum- bia and the United States during the "late unpleas- antness." Dried fruits and vegetables retain to some extent the vitamines known as "Fat Soluble A," "Water Soluble B," and "Water Soluble C," which are now regarded as so essential to health and the promotion of growth, especially of children. Although the fresh products are more valuable, the dried fruits and vegetables still contain a consider- able quantity of these vitamines. dates- No picture of the oasis of an African desert is complete unless it includes the feathery fronds and stately stems of the date-pahn. We cannot do other- wise than associate the lithe and sinewy Arab and the brown and comely nomadic maiden with the camel, the fertile oasis, and a bunch of dates — the land of "creams and cordials and sugared dates." It is only where the temperature is high, the rains scarce, and the air very dry that the date-pahn will flourish. The palms may grow in other lands, they may beautify the landscape, their fruit may set and appear abundant, but it fails to mature except under these particular climatic conditions. The ancient Assyrians thought much of this re- markable fruit and celebrated its cultivation and use in their mural tablets. It has been grown in the 82 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR Canary Islands, on the North African coast, and throughout the tropical belt of Asia in India. There are a few localities in the United States, espe- cially New Mexico, Arizona, and the Imperial Val- ley of California, where the date is now successfully grown, but until the present time the area has been very limited. In a recent article in the "National Geographic Magazine" entitled "Here and There in Northern Africa, ' ' Frank Edmund Johnson, describ- ing the date-palm, says : The Arabs call the palm-tree "My Aunt" and say that it resembles a human being more than any other variety of tree. ' ' Cut off its head and the palm will die. Its head likes sunshine and its feet (roots) like moisture." An old Arab legend runs something to this effect: "When Allah created Adam, a few grains of dust fell between his fingers ; these grains made the palm-trees." Another legend has it that: The emperor of Byzantium wrote one day to the Caliph Amor Ben El Khattab : "It has been told me that in your country there grows a tree that bears pods, the shape of which reminds one of donkey 's ears ; when these open they expose to view a substance of immaculate whiteness, as white as milk, which afterward becomes the green color of an emerald, then turns as yellow as gold, to redden at last like a great ruby. This fruit is said to have the sweet- ness of taste of cake made of honey and butter and can be dried and used as food by the inhabitants of towns or by travelers on their journeys. If this report is true, surely this is a tree from Paradise ! ' ' Caliph Amor Ben El Khattab wrote back : ' ' That which has been told you is true, King. Allah commanded Meriem beut Omran (the Virgin Mary) to take shelter under this tree when Aissa (Christ) was born. Believe, therefore, in Allah and do not acknowledge any other divinity ! God said to Meriem beut Omran, ' Go to the base of a palm-tree and thou shalt give birth to a tender child, and nourish yourself with the fresh dates.' If God had CAMPING WITH THE AEABS 83 known any better food, he certainly would have given them to Meriem when Christ was born!" Mohammadens say all date-trees had their origin from the land of Hedjer, bordering on the Red Sea — the land of Pilgrimage — the land of the Prophet's birth. The date-palm grows readily from the seed or from cuttings but does not begin to bear until it is ten years old. The crop gradually increases in abun- dance as the tree matures until at thirty to forty years of age it is in its prime ; then as old age comes on above fifty, its crop begins to fail. The beneficent value of the tree is not however over, for some of the leaves are cut off, an incision is made in the trunk, and a pottery jar is hung under the incision to collect the sap which runs out. This juice, called lagmi by the natives, is rich in sugar and is a re- freshing beverage. The juice is more commonly, however,, allowed to ferment and furnish an intoxi- cating Kquor which the natives think most dehcious but which has not found favor with the European palate. The juice of other species of palms, espe- cially the "toddy-palm," is utiHzed in many coun- tries in the East for the production of alcoholic beverages such as "palm wine." This when dis- tilled makes the drink called "arrack," a liquor as strong as whisky. The natives of these Oriental countries also boil down the juice until it crystalHzes or granulates to make a "palm-sugar," which is known on the market as "jaggery." Thus the palm has been justly called the "queen of trees," for it not only affords shade from the tropical heat, while its leaves furnish mats and fiber, 84 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR ropes and building material, but its juice is a valu- able beverage and its fruit is a most concentrated and agreeable nutrient. There are vast areas of northern Africa and west- em Asia which never would attract any inhabitants were it not for the fact that the date palm grows in the oases of this desert, and that camels thrive under these seemingly adverse conditions. In the hottest regions of the globe, even at a temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit, the trees will bear paying crops if their roots can find water, and they seem to have no objection to a very salty or alkaHne soil; in fact they will grow where there is so much salt that scarcely any other plant will thrive. This sandy oasis soil seems never to wear out; the same lands are cultivated now as when the children of Israel wandered through the Wilderness. So valuable is this land that $5000 in gold per acre is sometimes paid for it. As the male and female flowers of the palm occur on separate trees, a few male trees are necessary to furnish pollen for the female trees. In order to fertilize the blossoms, a spray of the flowers of the male palm is fastened with a thread of pahn leaf into each group of blossoms of the female tree. In some parts of Africa, Egypt, and Arabia the dates ripen in August, in other sections not until later, and in Spain and Sicily the crop is not gathered until December. The bunches of fruit weigh from twenty to thirty pounds, and when they are ready for harvesting it is the work of the boys to climb the trees, cut off the bunches, and pass them down CAMPING WITH THE AEABS 85 from one to anotlier, the boys clinging to the trunk all along its great length down to the ground. The individual dates are then picked off the bunches by the women (see frontispiece), sorted for size and quality, dried in the sun, and packed into boxes of from twenty to thirty kilograms each for shipping. These boxes are tied on donkeys to carry to the village, and finally a caravan of camels is loaded to transport them to the nearest port. It is said that considerable ceremony attends the gather- ing of the dates, and that before cutting the clusters the boys in the tree and all the natives assisting join in a chant of thanks to Allah for having given them the harvest, and before they descend the boys lead in the invocation, "May Allah in his loving-kindness preserve this palm-tree from all harm, and permit it to bear a good harvest in the season that is to come. ' ' To give an idea of the life of one of the oases, Mr. Johnson thus describes that of Tozeur, in southern Tunisia : Eleven thousand Arabs live underneath the shadow of the palms of this oasis, which covers an area of about 2,200 acres, and 4,000 occupy small villages on the outskirts. Most of them were bom and have always lived in this oasis, and when they die they will be buried in the desert sand near Tozeur. The oasis has nourished these 15,000 souls and many thousands more; their wants and needs are simple. Families composed of husband and wife, or wives, and three or four children frequently live on less than ten cents (fifty centimes) a day. Their mainstay consists of dried dates and a few boiled beans, with a little pure olive-oil. At almost any turn of the road in the oasis one can buy from an Arab vender, crouched over a large "Standard Oil" can and fanning the live coals, a copious supply of beans, cooked until they 86 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR are mealy, and ladled out of the can boiling hot. One cent buys enough for a hungry man. Caravans of nomads come from far and near to buy the dates. There are at least a hundred varieties of dates, but the finest of all are the Deglet Noor, growing in the depressions of the Sahara desert, with the sands drifting around their roots and their foliage bathed in reflected rays from the surrounding dunes. Other well-known varieties are the Tafilat from Morocco, the Menakher, a brown date from the Tunis Sahara, and the Rhais. The last are full of sugary- juice and used by the Arabs for making date honey. The principal types of dates are the "sweet," — the kind that is exported to us, the "mild sweet," — usually eaten fresh, and the "camel" date, the most popular among the Arabs for general use, perhaps on account of its keeping qualities. The ripe date is naturally rich in sugar and con- tains so little water that it does not require long drying like the more juicy fruits. If the weather is moist when the mature fruit is gathered, it is almost sure to ferment and a large proportion of the crop is often lost. That is the chief reason why a dry climate is best adapted to growing the fruit. The speed with which ripening takes place, and the relative proportion of cane and invert or grape- sugar present at different stages of development, vary with the varieties of fruit. The more invert sugar present, the softer and more translucent the date and, as a general rule, the richer the flavor. Soft dates would, therefore, be by all means the most desirable were it not for the fact that they are some- CAMPING WITH THE ARABS 87 times sticky, hard to handle, and more susceptible to decay. The dates rich in cane-sugar, on the other hand, are dry and easily handled, but rather hard and comparatively tasteless. As dates when gathered are often very sticky, and the natives of some sections who gather them are not noted for taking frequent baths — the only baths ever taken, in fact, being "sand baths" — it is well to wash the dates before eating them. Is the date a fruit? Not when one compares it with the peach, apple, or orange, which are little more than delicately flavored water, as they contain often less than 20 per cent, of nutritive material. In the date we have a fruit, which of course it really is, containing 50 per cent, of sugar, 11 per cent, of pectin and gum, and 7 per cent, of protein, or if we are looking for ' ' calories " as a source of energy, the date as purchased in the American market gives 1450 calories, and without the stones 1615 calories a pound. Half a pound of dates with half a pint of camel's milk is food enough for an ordinary meal. If we are searching for concentrated rations, what can make a better "traveler's food" than pounded dates pressed into cakes! The splendid physique of the men and women of the nomadic tribes of Arabia .may be partly due to their life in the open air, but their diet of dates and camel's milk, with occasional fresh meat or dried fish, no doubt con- tributes largely to their fine condition. More than 34,000,000 pounds of dates came to our shores in 1914, and of these 31,000,000 pounds came from Turkey in Asia and from other Asiatic coun- 88 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR tries. Nine-tenths of our dates come out of Turkey and Arabia through, the port of Smyrna. In 1921 the American imports were 48,504,355 pounds. Efforts have been made for several years to grow the date in the United States, because it has been recognized that there are a few localities where the climate corresponds quite closely to that of the East- ern date growing regions. This is especially the case in parts of Arizona and the Imperial Valley in the extreme southeastern part of California. The Department of Agriculture has also made elaborate experiments on the best methods of curing and pack- ing dates. The American product is greatly superior in appearance to the Mediterranean shipments, but the quantity thus far grown is only sufficient to sup- ply a limited market. riGS. Back to the earliest ages, back to that interesting region near what has been called the "cradle of the race," must we go to trace the origin of the fig. It seems to have been indigenous to Syria and Asia Minor, and even now, after the westward migration of nations, there are no better figs than those raised in Asiatic Turkey. From a strip of land near Smyrna, ninety miles long and three-fourths of a mile wide, comes the bulk of the dried figs brought into the United States. "We have been importing nearly 20,000,000 pounds annually, and of these three-fifths come from Asia Minor and the next con- siderable quantity from Greece. We imported 38,705,943 pounds in 1921. CAMPING WITH THE AEABS 8^ Fig-trees were very early carried westward along the shores of the Mediterranean, and it is interest- ing to discover that in the scientific name, Ficus carica, or the fig of Caria, it is acknowledged that the fruit came to the Greeks from one of the western provinces of Asia Minor — from one of their neigh- bors on the eastern shore of the -^gean Sea. The Greeks were not content with the imported fig stock, however, and much improved its quahty, so that the Attic figs early became celebrated along the southern coasts of Europe. To the Eoman nobles the fig became an important luxury, and the com- mon varieties were regarded as a staple food for their slaves. The excellent food qualities of this fruit caused its cultivation to be still further extended, and later Spain and the south of France were noted for the abundance and the superior quality of the figs produced. To-day both in southern England and in the milder climate of our Southern States, the fig is grown for its fresh fruit or for drying and pre- serving. In these more northern countries, how- ever, it may at times require shelter against the extreme cold of the winter, and so it is very often planted in protected courts or against walls having a southern exposure. Our agricultural experts be- lieve that the climate of the great dry interior valley in the east and south of California is better adapted to raising figs than that of Asia Minor, the original home of the fig, because in the latter there are heavy summer dews, and the autumn rains sometimes injure the crop. The method of growing figs is comparatively 90 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR simple, after the requisite conditions are understood. The United States Department of Agriculture in "Bulletin 732" very thoroughly discusses these con- ditions. The trees are propagated by cuttings or layers. After being well rooted and set in the orchard, the young trees wiU begin to bear in two or three years. The Lab Inger, or Smyrna, fig is different from most plants in that it requires special poUenization to bring its fruit to perfection. The fertile or female figs are divided into two classes, the Smyrna requiring poUenization, and those some- times called Adriatic figs, the fruits of which wiU mature without poUenization. As the Adriatic figs do not need artificial fertiUzation, they are perhaps the best variety to raise in localities where few figs are grown. Adriatic figs, for domestic consumption, canning, and preserving are successfully raised from the CaroUnas to Texas, and are a favorite fresh fruit from the middle of July into September. There is a very interesting insect called the "fig- wasp" that assists in the poUenization process known as "caprification." The natives of the fig- groAving countries noticed long ago that to secure a crop of figs it was necessary to hang on the branches of the cultivated figs, hmbs of the "caprifigs" or "wild goat" figs. They probably did not fully un- derstand why this had to be done, but carried out the practice on the basis of their observation. Those caprifigs bearing only small flowers furnish the host for the fig-wasp. When the fruit of the male plant is about the size of a filbert, the Blastophoga or wasps deposit their eggs in it. The insect hibernates in the CAMPING WITH THE ABABS 91 fruit, and in the spring is ready to issue in time to poUenize the young fruit of the Smyrna fig. If the fruit is not thus fertilized it withers and drops off. The pollen is of course carried on the wings of the insect from the flowers with which it has come in contact. There is probably no other horticultural industry so closely dependent on a specific insect as that of fig-culture. After caprification the Smyrna fig changes its appearance, becomes smooth, and loses its gloss. Fig-trees under ordinary conditions produce two crops a year. The first crop ripens in July and August, and the main crop springs from the axils of the leaves of the new wood and ripens in the late autumn. The fig ripens and matures on the tree. The smaller figs that fall are dry enough to keep readily, but the large ones must be dried in the sun for a day or two. After washing, the figs are again dried in the sun, and it has been found to be good practice to press them into large boxes where they are allowed to sweat for some time to distribute the moisture and make the whole fig pliable and tender. In packing figs in Cahfomia they are first boiled in brine for a minute or two, to destroy the eggs of any insect which may have entered the fruit, and to prevent the figs from drying out too rapidly. The brine is not very salt — ^not salt enough to affect the taste of the fruit. The figs are then packed into boxes and the bricks thus formed are compressed fnto smaller bulk. Sometimes, for a fancy grade, the figs are flattened out with the finger and spHt so 92 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR as to fit the form in wMch the brick is packed. An- other method of packing is to place them in rows in the cartons. This is a common method in Smyrna. In the process of curing, the figs are in some locali- ties exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur, so as to sterilize them and destroy the spores, fungi, and larvae that may be present. They are afterwards treated with boiling lye, washed, and sun-dried. Some of the figs are also shipped to America in baskets, on strings, or in boxes. Although we usually picture figs as the dried prod- uct, yet this is by no means the only way in which they are used. Our Greek, Italian, Turkish, and Spanish population would miss fresh figs if they could not find them in the market. On this account in many cities an excellent trade in fresh figs has sprung up. There is still some difficulty in getting fresh figs to the Eastern cities without too much expense for refrigeration. Only the finest quahty of California or southern Smyrna figs should be used for shipping in the natural state, as the poorer fruit rapidly deteriorates. Like the date, the fig is a concentrated food, pro- vided by nature for the people of a dry, sandy, ap- parently inhospitable region, where long journeys must be taken with as little bulky food as possible, and where food and water are scarce. While fresh figs contain 15 per cent, of sugar and 1.5 per cent, of protein, the dried fig is one of the most concen- trated forms of nourishment on the market, as it holds under its somewhat tough skin more than 51 per cent, of sugar and 3.5 per cent, of protein. CAMPING WITH THE AEABS 93 Besides its use all over the tropical and semi- tropical countries as a fresh product, and its ex- portation to every land as a dried fruit, the fig is too valuable not to be still further utilized. In parts of the Archipelago figs are mashed to form a Mnd of cake, which is used as a substitute for bread ; and the ancients, as long ago as the time of Pliny, made a wine from fermented figs. As a gentle laxative, this fruit has been favorably known since early times. There is no better illustration of what can be done in bringing foreign fruits to this country and grow- ing them successfully than what was done through the efforts of G. P. Eixf ord, now of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the * ' San Francisco Evening Bulletin. ' ' After several failures they suc- ceeded in September, 1881, in getting a shipment of 14,000 cuttings of the best varieties of Smyrna figs from the Mendere Valley in Asia Minor through to California in good condition for starting an orchard. The trees now growing throughout California and the Southwestern States are the result of this ex- periment. Some of the trunks of these trees are al- ready three feet in diameter. Adriatic figs have long been grown in America, being probably introduced all along the Pacific coast by the early Mission Fathers. There are more than six hundred species of fig-trees, but only a few of these bear edible figs. Some of the larger evergreen trees of the tropics and even one of the most impor- tant rubber-trees belongs to this family. Before the war, we were annually supplied with 94 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR over nine thousand tons of dried figs from abroad, and California now furnishes six tons annually. A third of the domestic figs are of the Smyrna type, and the remainder are the Adriatic and Mission varieties. There is, however, a tendency to increase the quantity of Smyrna figs grown, as they are more satisfactory. Ultimately our markets should be wholly supplied with home-grown figs, to the ex- clusion of the foreign product. As an evidence of this tendency, it is stated that within the last two years fully ten thousand acres in the San Joaquin Valley alone have been planted with fig-trees. In other districts outside of California and Arizona, as in the Southern States, where the climate is not suited to the successful drying of figs, there is an increasing market for fresh figs for immediate con- sumption and for canning and preserving. ST. John's bbead, ob caeob-bean, The traveler in Italy or Greece will be impressed by the abundance of "locusts" (carob-beans) in the markets of the principal cities. He will be told that they are sometimes eaten by man but more fre- quently used as a food for horses and cattle. The pods of this legume grow on an evergreen tree that came originally from Syria. The Arabs, more than any other people, have used it as a staple human food, and its cultivation has been extended west on both sides of the Mediterranean as far as Morocco and Spain. In Sicily the natives make a syrup, and by fermentation an alcoholic liquor from the pods. Since the pods are often used for swine's feed, CAMPING WITH THE ARABS 95 this bean has been called " swine 's-bread" and is probably what is referred to in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Some have thought that the carob- tree was what was used by Moses when he sweetened the bitter waters of Marah. The pods of the carob-bean resemble somewhat those of the honey locust that is so common in the United States. The seeds or beans are surrounded by a sweet mucilaginous pulp, which in this country is prized especially by foreign children as a kind of confectionery. The dried pods are a valuable addi- tion to the food supply, especially in those lands where concentrated foods are demanded in the fit- ting out of caravans for the desert. Dr. Jaffa of the California Agricultural Experi- ment Station has recently made a careful study of these beans. He finds that the pods, which are the valuable part of the product, contain 34.41 per cent. of sugars and 4.5 per cent, of protein. Large quan- tities of these beans are now shipped to the United States to be used in the preparation of cattle feeds. POMEGRANATES. The nomadic tribes of the Orient were long accus- tomed to Pluck the Acacia's golden balls, And mark where the red pomegranate falls, for the pomegranate is grown throughout India, Persia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean regions. It probably originated in Afghanistan or northwestern India, and was known to the Hebrews, Egyptians, 96 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR and Greeks in very early times. In Greek mythology the pomegranate occupies a prominent place. One of their legends is that as Persephone was gather- ing flowers in a meadow with her companions the earth suddenly opened, and Pluto, the god of the dead, appeared and carried her off to be his queen in the lower regions. Her mother Hebe, goddess of agriculture, torch in hand, sought her through- out the earth, but not finding her forbade the earth to bring forth any increase until she had been found. So all that year not a blade of com grew on the earth, and men would have died of hunger had not Zeus, seeing the situation, persuaded Pluto to let Persephone return to her home in the upper regions of the earth. Before letting her go, however, he persuaded her to eat of the fruit of the pomegranate, so that she could not stay away from him forever. Thereafter she spent half of each year with her mother, but the other half had to be spent with Pluto in his underground kingdom. We read that when the Persians under Xerxes invaded Greece there was one battalion which was known as the Pomegranate Brigade, and these sol- diers, who were Xerxes 's own bodyguard, carried spears with golden pomegranates on the lower end. The Israelites learned to like this fruit while they were in Egypt, and during their wanderings in the wilderness mourned for the "fig, the wine, and the pomegranate" of the land. In the ancient days this fruit was highly appreciated also for its medicinal properties and was mentioned by the well-known CAMPING WITH THE AEABS 97 physicians, Galen and Dioscorides. In the thickets of pomegranates still found growing in Spain we have one of the few remaining evidences of Moorish occupation; it was a favorite food in their day. Granada in particular was famous for its fine pome- granates. In the middle ages the fruit was known as Pomum granatum, or seeded apple, and this by contraction gives us the present name, pomegranate. As early as 1521, following the conquering armies of Cortez in Mexico, the Jesuit Fathers brought cut- tings of the pomegranate, together with other French and Spanish fruits to this hemisphere, and gradually they were planted in the coast missions of southern California. In some of these old mis- sion gardens, as at San Buena Ventura, pome- granates were found growing with other tropical fruits as late as 1792, and Robinson mentions the occurrence of an orchard of pomegranates at the San Gabriel mission east of the present city of Los Angeles. This fruit was also early introduced from the Mediterranean countries into the Southern States, but it was not until the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury that much attention was paid to its culture in the South. In speaking of the growing of the pome- granate in California, R. "W. Hodgson of Berkeley notes that there seems to be no climate that is too hot for it if only water for the roots is obtainable. In Aden, one of the hottest of Arabian cities, where the European hardly dares venture out of his house except at night, this fruit seems to thrive. It is in 98 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR the desert regions that the finest specimens are grown, and in fact the climate of the fig and date suits the pomegranate. The pomegranate grows on a stately tree, often used for ornamental purposes on account of its glossy, green leaves and huge, crimson flowers. The fruit is brownish or reddish-yellow, the size of a large orange, and beneath a leathery rind is found a refreshing red, acid pulp of mild flavor, which sur- rounds the numerous purphsh white seeds. The fruit ripens in September but if not picked will hang on the tree until January without spoiling. Like the apple and the banana, the pomegranate, if picked, after reaching a certain degree of maturity on the tree, will continue to ripen in cold storage, so that it will, under the right conditions, keep and improve in flavor for several months. This fact in- dicates that the shipment of pomegranates to North- em markets can readily be increased when there is a greater demand for this rather acid fruit. There has been no very general use of this fruit, as a taste for it has not been developed except among the natives of the tropics. It is used for decorating fruitstands in our markets, and the red pulp and juice are used in salads, punches, and fancy dishes. The fresh, sweet fruit has a crispness and delicacy which is almost unrivaled. The Syrians, after cut- ting the fruit open, extract the "arils" and stew them with sugar, sprinkle with rosewater, and serve as a rare luxury. One of the chief uses for the fruit is for making an acid drink ; in fact it is used as we use lemons for CAMPING WITH THE ARABS 99 lemonade. Scented with rosewater its juice is a favorite beverage in the Levant. In South America the juice is allowed to ferment and produce an al- coholic drink known as aguardiente. Since the fruit contains as much sugar as do many varieties of grapes, 12 to 17 per cent., it has been used for wine-making by the natives of many countries, espe- cially Palestine, France, and the Balkan states. "With the increasing use of soft drinks, since alco- holic beverages are no longer permitted, there should be an increased demand for pomegranate beverages. The flavor is agreeable and aromatic; the color of the juice is a beautiful crimson, with no necessity for the addition of a coal-tar dye ; the acid, chiefly citric, is seldom above 1 per cent., and 75 per cent, of the weight of the fruit is juice. You would never sus- pect it, but the pomegranate contains more sugar than the apricot, plum, peach, or orange. A syrup called "grenadine," named from the city of Grenada in Spain, and made from the juice cooked with sugar, is in common use in Europe as a basis for soft drinks. This may be carbonated and served in soda-foun- tains, or it may be bottled and used like grape-juice. Pomegranates have been more especially grown in California, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, Nevada, and Utah. In 1915 one firm in California handled 7219 boxes, netting more than $6000. If a sufficient market is provided, as has been done for grape-fruit, for instance, the supply can be increased without difficulty to meet the increasing demand, and a valu- able addition to our fruit supply will be the result. 100 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR TAMAEINDS. In the hot, dry countries every one craves a fruit that will furnish a cooling tart drink, and this de- mand in the United States is supplied by lemons and lime-juice, but in many tropical countries by the pomegranate, and still further by the tamarind. The tamarind-tree, which at a distance has some- what the appearance of the sugar-maple, is a legume, a native of India, and is cultivated in many tropical countries, principally in the East and West Indies ; in fact, the name by which the fruit is com- monly known signifies, in Arabic, "Indian date. ' ' It ripens during July and August. Inside the rather stout pod the beans are surrounded by a dark-colored pasty mass which is the edible part of the fruit. This is used both as a food product and as a medi- cine, and is official in nearly all pharmacopoeias. It is "sour-sweet" in taste, containing about 15 per cent, of organic acids, largely tartaric, with consid- erable citric acid and quite a percentage of cream of tartar. The tamarind contains also from 31 to 40 per cent, of invert sugar. As one author puts it, "It contains more acid than the sourest fruit and more sugar than the sweetest fruit. " It is certainly unique in this particular. The large amount of sugar, however, does not wholly mask the acid, for the fruit still has a distinctly sour taste. This combination of acids and acid salts makes the tamarind especially valuable as a "mild laxative and refrigerant," as the doctors would put it. In many countries the beverage is prepared by simply CAMPING WITH THE AEABS 101 soaking the pulp in water, as the acids and sugar readily .go into solution. One can buy the dried beans for immediate consumption, but there are many ways of preserving them for future use. They may be put into jars and covered with boiling syrup, thus making tamarind preserves. A beverage known as "tamarind whey," useful for invalids, is prepared by mixing an ounce of tamarind-pulp with a pint and a half of warm milk. In some countries the fruit is preserved with salt, or the paste is made up into small balls and put upon the market in this form. The roasted tamarind beans have an agreeable flavor and are used as a food in tropical countries. LBBEN It often happens that in his wanderings from one oasis to another the nomad of the desert has no fruit and but little water to satisfy his thirst. His food must consist of little else besides meat and dates, figs and the milk of his camels. Milk would not remain sweet for any length of time in these hot climates, thus from time immemorial artificially soured or fermented milk has been a common bever- age. It is prepared by adding a little of the pre- viously soured milk to the fresh supply. This was no doubt the beverage that the Arab woman Jael gave to Sisera, as described in the book of Judges, before she slew him with a nail or perhaps with a tent peg driven into his temple. He had asked her for a drink of water, and she, conforming to the cus- tom still prevalent in that country, had given him milk. It is said that to this day, if you pass an Arab 102 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR encampment on your desert journey, the half-clad Arab girls will run out of their brown goat-hair tents to offer you a brimming bowl of "leben," their national sour-milk beverage^ KHAT. It would be strange if the wandering tribes that people the African and Arabian oases did not have some stimulants in addition to the wine made from grapes, dates, figs, and other fruits, the koumiss which is prepared by the fermentation of mare's milk, and the leben, made from fermented camel's milk. Like most races, when left to themselves they have found a stimulant. It is khat, the Catha edulis of the botanist. Charles K. Moser, formerly Ameri- can consul at Aden, Arabia, says, in the "National Geographic Magazine": When the European is weary he calls for alcohol to re- vive him; when he is joyful he takes wine, that he may have more joy. In like manner the Chinese woos his "white lady," the poppy flower, the Indian chews bhang, and the West African seeks surcease in kola. Khat is more to the Yemen Arab than any of these to its devotees. It is no narcotic, wooing sleep, but a stimulant, like alcohol. Un- like alcohol, however, it conceals no demon, but a fairy. The khat-eater will tell you that when he follows this fairy it takes him into regions overlooking paradise. He calls the plant the "flower of paradise." The Arabs have little knowledge as to where the plant came from; they say "it has been always." This plant is cultivated in the mountains in the interior back of Aden. It only grows at an elevation of from four to six thousand feet, away from the salt air and in a soil free from sand — it is very exclusive in its habitat. Khat is propagated by cuttings, and after growing for two or three years the young twigs and evergreen leaves CAMPING WITH THE AEABS 103 are fit to harvest. The plant grows to a height of frpm five to twelve feet and is cut back each year that it may produce a fresh crop of tender twigs. These twigs are packed in bundles and carried by camels to the market- place, where each bundle is sold at auction to the highest bidder. There are public rooms both for the wealthy and for the poor khat-chewers, where they may smoke and chew at their ease. It had been formerly supposed that the khat was used for a beverage, but it seems never to be used in that way in the Yemen, but always chewed. Khat contains an active principle that has a lively and immediate effect on the brain and nerve-cells; it makes a gloomy man cheerful, a lazy man active. Nobody works without first having his "ration" of khat. Some day this herb or its active principle may be utilized in other lands to alleviate pain, or as a sedative for tired humanity. CHAPTER Vn THE MEDITEREANEAN SHOEES AND WHAT THEY YIELD THAT there should be great inland seas, sur- rounded by fertile lands, in a tropical or sub- tropical climate in both the New and Old World, is an interesting fact, and the location of these seas has much to do with the civilization and distribution of population on both sides of the Atlantic. In the New World the settlement by civilized races is much more recent than in the Eastern Hemis- phere; yet around the GuK of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea are grouped many thriving countries that furnish rice, sugar, coffee, and an abundant supply of tropical fruits to their northern neighbors. In the Old World, however, the conditions are dif- ferent. For thousands of years the population of Asia has been pressing westward along the more accessible routes of travel. The waterways espe- cially attracted them, and naturally some settled by the seaside while others pushed inland. Since the African coast was not so well watered as the north- em shore and much of it was a sandy waste, the tide of immigration flowed through Greece, Italy, and Spain, and penetrated into the countries lying to the north until stopped by the inhospitable cold of the Arctic regions. What a wonderful inland sea is the Mediterra- 104 SUNEISE ON THE DESERT Courtesy V. S. Department of Agriculture SEEDLING DATE-PALM Courier World*s Commercial Products TREADING THE GRAPE IN GREECE «.l C^fr-'^^l^^ L%;^ Court'. SI/ X. Musker and Company, Baltimore, Maryland HAULING THE OLIVE-OIL TO MARKET, ITALY THE MEDITEREANEAN SHORES 105 nean ! There is on the globe no other body of water of so limited extent on whose shores so much of human history has been enacted. From the Pillars of Hercules on the west, through Spain, the French Riviera, along the rocky shores of Italy, around through the Adriatic and the Bulgarian states, in the Grecian isles and Archipelago, where the races begin to show a darker skin, in Palestine, Turkey, and Asia Minor, and by the mouths of the Nile, the home of the Moors, and the sand dunes of northern Africa — everywhere history has been made. Coincident with the rise and fall of these nations has been the development of new and, let us hope, improved dietary habits of the peoples. Besides the well-known foods, which were in common use among the ancestors of these races so long ago that we speak of it tritely as the ' ' days when the world was young," some new foods have been introduced and all have been much improved by cultivation. There are a few, and at present only a few, of these food products which are of sufficient interest to us Americans to pay for their importation. There are many, like oranges, lemons, raisins, and some varieties of nuts, which we are able to raise in the United States and so do not need to import in any great quantities. If we look at the invoice of the vessels coming from the Mediterranean to our At- lantic ports of entry, what do we find? The largest of these, that is, the cargo having the greatest money value, has been the grape products, WLue and brandy. These have been coming to our shores until recently (1914) as follows : More than 106 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR a million gallons of champagne have been imported, mostly from France ; more than five million gallons of still wines in casks have come principally from Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Portugal. By the distillation of wines, brandy is obtained, and of this we have consumed 550,000 proof gallons an- nually, most of which was sent us from France, with small quantities from Austria-Hungary and Greece. Besides this, Germany and Austria sent us nearly six million gallons of beer and other malt liquors. With the advancing wave of prohibition, on ac- count of the recent constitutional amendment, it is evident that some other market will have to be sought for these alcoholic beverages, so that it is hardly worth while to discuss them in detail here. There is one by-product of wine-manufacture that will become of increasing importance in this coun- try, however, since wine is only to a limited extent included in our manufactured products. In the process of making wine a crystalline salt separates out as the amount of alcohol increases during fer- mentation. This salt when purified is our "cream of tartar" largely used in the manufacture of bak- ing-powder. The crude deposit in the wine vats is known as "argol," and in 1914 we imported 29,793,- 000 pounds of it from abroad. California has here- tofore had a large production of this salt. There is already an increasing demand for fresh grapes, and for these we have several sources of supply. California, New York, Ohio, and Michi- gan will be able to send to market a still larger quantity of grapes ; and many wine vineyards will be THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 107 replanted with table varieties, or with those suited to the making of raisins, now that the wine industry is threatened with destruction. Already steps have been taken in California to prepare for this change in the use of grapes, as well as to devise uses other than wine-making for the juice of this fruit. Table grapes, grown in the province of Almekia, Spain, and other overseas localities have found con- siderable favor in this country. These grapes are picked with great care, packed in ground cork, and shipped in small barrels containing forty-seven pounds of fruit. In normal times Spain has been sending us 1,300,000 cubic feet of grapes ; it is cus- tomary to compute the quantity for revenue pur- poses by the space which the grapes occupy rather than by their weight. In 1921 imports of grapes amounted to 751,843 cubic feet. BAISINS Although California furnishes a large supply of raisins, and although we export many more raisins than we import, yet the foreign crop is not to be entirely ignored. Through many years of foreign supply, some people have become accustomed to the imported varieties and naturally prefer them. There is still no doubt a sentiment that "Malaga raisins are very good raisins, but Sumatra raisins are better." In the Old World most of the raisins are grown in the south of Spain and France, in Greece, Italy, Turkey, and Persia. As classified in foreign coun- tries the raisins include: 108 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAE 1. Muscatels, that is, raisins dried on tlie vines, including Malaga, Valencia, and Denia Muscatels. 2. Valencia or dipped raisins, including Lexias and Denias from Valencia and Turkey raisins sMpped from Smyrna. 3. Sultanas, which include the small seedless rai- sins exported from Turkey, Greece, and Persia. Abroad the genuine Muscatels are made from the white grapes grown in the vicinity of Malaga, in the extreme southern part of the Spanish peninsula. The common practice is partly to cut or twist the stem of the ripe grape, to prevent the circulation of the sap and to allow the fruit to hang on the vine in this condition for two or three weeks. This process presupposes a dry climate with virtually no rain and very little dew at night. Raisins cured in this way are of very fine quality. The second method of preparing, that of drying after cutting, is quicker than that just described, and is better adapted to a climate where no long succes- sion of warm dry days is to be depended upon. The stem of the bunch, when ripe, is twisted or partly cut, the leaves are thinned on the vine to allow the mois- ture to evaporate from the grapes, and they are al- lowed to hang in this way for a day or two. Then the bunches are cut off, rinsed with boiling water, which is usually covered with a layer of olive-oil, or dipped into a vat of strong potash lye and salt, some- times flavored with rosemary and lavender. When the grapes are slightly wrinkled they are withdrawn and spread on wicker trays to dry in the sun for a few days. The oil gives to the raisins a brighter THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 109 and more glossy appearance, and they are sterilized by the lye bath. In order to distribute the moisture more evenly the raisins are piled in heaps to * * sweat ' ' for a time before they are packed in boxes for ship- ment. This latter process of curing, which is common in the vicinity of the port of Denia on the eastern coast of Spain, since it is a quicker process, enables the growers to get their raisins on the market somewhat earher than the product from the Valencia or Malaga districts. The Muscatels are packed in layers between sheets of paper in boxes. "We are accustomed to seeing the raisins somewhat flattened. This is partly done by pressure of the hand and partly by the pressure in the boxes, which are placed one on top of another before being permanently nailed shut. Other varieties of foreign raisins are the bloom raisins and the Lexia raisins. The former are made from grapes having a bluish bloom on their surface, and the latter are grown in the Valencia district and prepared by dipping in hot lye. Valencia is a prov- ince on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, about as far north as the port of Lisbon in Portugal. Asiatic Turkey formerly sent a large quantity of raisins to this country. In 1914 we imported more than 2,700,000 pounds from that region and only about 1,700,000 pounds from Spain. Most of the Turkish raisins are shipped from the port of Smyrna. These include the red Chesme, and Eleme, a hand picked variety, of good size and sweet, pleas- ant flavor. The best Itahan raisins are produced in 110 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR the province of Calabria, in the extreme south, and some are shipped from the neighboring island of Sicily. The total quantity of raisins imported from all sources in 1921 was 16,879,933 pounds. The Sultanas are made from a seedless variety of grapes grown in the immediate vicinity of Smyrna. The vines, after they become productive, can be de- pended on to bear a crop for fifty years. There seems to be something peculiar about the climate and especially the soil of this region so that it is pecu- liarly adapted to the growth of this grape. The vines are planted on the sloping hillsides to a height of 400 feet above the sea. It is said that attempts to raise Sultana raisins in other regions have resulted only in obtaining a grape which reverts to the seeded type. The Sultana raisins are familiar to us as the golden-yellow, thin-skinned, translucent, seedless variety so popular in the kitchen. Loose Muscatels seeded by machinery from Cali- fornia are becoming the most common form of rai- sins for culinary use. These and the Sultanas in boxes and in cartons are shipped all over the world in increasing quantities. On account of the rainless summer in California, especially in the vicinity of Fresno, this State ha^ become an important competitor of the Mediter- ranean countries for the raisin trade. The industry was started in 1870, but in 1894 the crop was abun- dant enough virtually to supply the United States. California has frequently also had the advantage of a protective tariff and by intensive advertising has THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 111 greatly increased the demand for raisins. Espe- cially in times of sugar scarcity has the raisin in- creased in favor, for we somehow have learned that a food containing 74 per cent, of sugar must be highly valuable in the production of energy. There is one other raisin, the Zante currant, that so far has always been imported from the Mediter- ranean regions. By a curious corruption of the name ' ' Corinth, ' ' for in that country they were called "Corinth grapes," the English speaking people called them "currants." They are grown on the Ionian Islands, southeast of Greece, principally on the islands of Zante, Cephalonia and Ithaki, and any attempts to grow them elsewhere, even in other parts of Greece, have resulted in producing a different kind of grape. In writing of Zante, Charles Dudley Warner says : "Sharp hills rise behind the town, and, beyond, a most fertile valley broadens out to the sea. Almost all the land is given up to the cultivation of the cur- rant-vine and the grapes of Corinth, for in the trans- fer of the chief cultivation of this profitable fruit from Corinth to Zante the name went with the dwarf vines. On the hillsides, as we sailed away, we ob- served innumerable terraces, flat and hard like threshing-floors, and learned that they were the dry- ing-grounds of the ripe currants." In 1914, 32,000,000 pounds of "currants," the equivalent of 50,000 tons of fresh grapes, were im- ported into this country, chiefly from the port of Patres, where most of this fruit is collected for ex- port. The 1921 figures show 57,036,538 pounds. The 112 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR grapes are gathered in August, when overripe and nearly black, and are dried in the sun, picked from the stems, packed in barrels weighing about three hundred pounds, and shipped to other countries. Here the importers clean and repack them in boxes or cartons for retail distribution. Experiments recently made in California indicate that Zante currants can be profitably raised there. OLrSTES- Considerable has already been said in Chapter IV on the cultivation of the olive and the production of its oil. Although Cahf ornia is each year growing a larger crop of olives we still depend on foreign coun- tries for a considerable supply. Prom Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey in Asia have come most of our pickled ohves. We imported more than 5,000,000 gallons in 1914 and 4,778,000 gallons in 1920. A few years ago only green olives were pickled and put on the market, but more recently the pro- cesses of pickling ripe olives have been so much im- proved and the taste for the ripe fruit has so largely increased that the market for green ohves has pro- portionately decreased. To make olive pickles from the green olive, the fruit is carefully picked by hand about six weeks before it becomes ripe and is placed in a 2 per cent, solution of lye to remove the bitter taste. It is then soaked and washed with water and leached in several brines of increasing strength, and finally packed for shipment in brine sterilized and recently boiled. To insure a good product, the olives THE MEDITEERANEAN SHORES 113 should remain in the pickle three months before being used. In preparing ripe olives, which are, when fresh, of a purplish color, they are soaked several times in water, then in a strong sterilized brine, and finally in a weaker brine. Although both green and ripe olives have a high food value, we generally regard the ripe fruit more as a food and the green ohve as a condiment. In the markets of Greece, Italy, and other Mediterranean countries, dried ripe olives are exposed for sale, but to the foreigner at least they have a disagreeable, astringent taste. The United States Department of Agriculture has recently investigated the fatal cases of poisoning that have arisen from eating olives, especially ripe olives and those which were stuffed with pimento. This poisoning was found to be due to the presence of the bacillus botulinus. Canned string-beans, as- paragus, cheese, sausage, and the like may also con- tain this same bacteriima where the food has not been thoroughly sterilized by heat. It has been found both in commercially packed food and in that canned in the home. The chances of getting poisoned by using these canned foods seem very slight when we consider the millions of cans of vegetables that are used each year and the very few cases of poisoning that have occurred. The consumer should remem- ber that it is only spoiled food that contains this bacillus, and if the contents of the can have an offen- sive odor, if they have an abnormal appearance, or if the can is a "swell" or gives off gas, the food 114 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAE should be discarded. By no means all canned food that is spoiled contains the bacillus botulinus, but it is likely to contain it and therefore should be re- garded "with suspicion. Thorough cooking destroys the bacillus so that food that is taken from the cans and served without cooking, as in salads and the like, is much more apt to produce serious results. Canners are now taking special precautions thoroughly to sterilize their "pack," as they are as desirous as the public to have their products safe and sanitary. CITEONS- No picture of the Mediterranean shore is complete unless it includes the "vine-clad hills and citron- groves of Ceresole"; no catalogue of the imported citrus products is complete unless it includes that delicious confection, candied citron. Citron-groves have been cultivated from the earli- est times along the Mediterranean coasts. That citron is a fruit of great antiquity is shown when we read that the Hebrews carried branches of palm and citron-trees to the tabernacle on their great feast- days, and we know that the wild citron was a common tree in Asia Minor. Some have even suggested that all our citrus fruits — the orange, lemon, grape-fruit, and so on — ^had a common origin in the wild citron- tree. The fruit suggests the lemon in its appearance and manner of growth, but it is larger and usually weighs three pounds or more. It has a thicker skin and a smaller proportion of pulp than the lemon. Some- times the juice is exported, but the chief commercial THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 115 product is the preserved or candied rind. The oil in the skin has such a pronounced flavor that in pre- paring the confection it must be extracted from the fruit by soaMng for several weeks in brine. The fruit is then boiled to extract the salt and to loosen the pulp, which is readily scooped out. The citron may be candied by boiling it with sugar, but it is more recently contended that a softer, bet- ter-flavored, and more translucent product is ob- tained by using some commercial glucose with the cane-sugar in preserving. The fruit is boiled for an hour, allowed to stand for a week, then again boiled until it has absorbed as much sugar as it will take up, and again allowed to stand. In the finishing process the rind is boiled in pure cane-sugar syrup, so that some of the sugar may crystallize on the surface. The product is much in demand for con- fectionery and in making mincemeat, cake, and the like. The citron is chiefly cultivated in France, Italy, Corsica, and Sicily. There are special varieties grown in each district, as, for instance, the com- mon citron grown in and about Genoa, the Florence citron which grows in Tuscany and has a dehcious aroma, the large citron grown in Liguria, which is very irregular in shape and seedless, and the sweet citron, a hybrid, between the citron and the orange. Although at the present time some citrons are grown and some rind is preserved in California and in Florida the bulk of the commercial product still comes from Mediterranean shores. 116 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR CITETTS BY-PRODUCTS Southern Italy is so well adapted to the raising of lemons that for years we have depended upon that country for our main supply, but with changed condi- tions in the United States the quantity imported has gradually decreased. In 1914 we imported lemons to the amount of $5,981,635, mostly from Sicily; as transportation conditions had become more difficult, the value of the lemon cargo was only about $2,000,- 000 in 1918 and in 1921 $1,230,000. Although we can depend on California and Florida to furnish us with large quantities of lemons at a reasonable price, there are still two or three citrus by-products that are imported. A small quantity of lemon-oil is made from culls and frozen lemons in California by mechanical processes, but the bulk of the oil that we use comes from Sicily and Italy. Four to five hundred thousand pounds come to us annually from this source. Most of this oil is made by a rather crude process known as the "sponge" method. After removing the pulp from the lemons the halves are soaked with water. Each piece is inserted by the workman into a cup-shaped sponge held over a bowl, and then, by pressure of the hand, using a stick of wood as a rest, the oil is squeezed out. The rind is turned several times so as to press it completely. Two or three pounds of oil a day is obtained in this way. There is also used a crude hand-press by which the oil is pressed from the rinds. From lemon-oil the lemon-extract of commerce is THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 117 made, by dissolving five parts of the oil in ninety-five parts of strong alcohol. On account of the cost of alcohol a great variety of adulterated extracts of lemon have been on the market until within a few years. Many of these contained only traces of oil of lemon and were colored yellow with aniline dye in imitation of the genuine extract. Notwithstanding the fact that the citrus by-prod- uct factories of California and elsewhere are utiliz- ing thousands of tons of waste lemons in the manu- facture of calcium citrate and citric acid we are still importing a considerable quantity of these mate- rials: 3,000,000 pounds of calcium citrate in 1914; 12,490,000 in 1920, but only 989,000 in 1921. To make calcium citrate the pulp is pressed and the juice thus extracted is clarified and filtered, then nearly neutralized with boiling-hot calcium carbon- ate; the calcium citrate thus produced is separated from the liquid by putting it through a filter-press. The insoluble salt is either treated directly with pure sulphuric acid, forming insoluble calcium sulphate, which is filtered off from the liquid citric acid, or it is shipped to one of the large Eastern cities for the completion of the process. Other by-products are concentrated lime-juice, candied peel, and salted lemons and marmalades. MUSHEOOMS "Beefsteak and mushrooms" is a favorite order with the epicure ; beefsteak for food, mushrooms for flavor. Notwithstanding many lurid articles that were written a few years ago in which it was stated 118 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR that there was as much nutriment in a pound of mushrooms as in a pound of beef, and that hundreds of tons of this valuable ' ' foodstuff ' ' were from ignor- ance, allowed to go to waste in our fields and forests, the world has at last got back to the plain fact that mushrooms and truffles are only useful for flavor and not for food. While we do have an abundance of home-grown mushrooms, and they are actually "just as good" as the foreign-grown, we have not, as a people, enough information properly to utilize them, and we do not care to explore in unknown paths that may lead to the cemetery. Accordingly we import mushrooms in various forms, as dried, canned, powdered, bottled in oil or butter, and preserved in other ways. In the year 1914 there was imported 9,188,177 pounds of mushrooms and truffles, more than 90 per cent, coming from France, with small quantities from Japan, Russia, and Italy. Imports for 1921 were 4,953,548 pounds. Mushrooms and truffles have been used as food since the time of Pliny. They have been in much more demand in Europe and by the common people of China and Japan than in the "Western world. By ignorant people the poisonous varieties are called "toadstools" and edible ones "mushrooms," but no such classification is recognized. Mushrooms are not at all like ordinary plants, for they really have no roots, stems, or leaves. In the common varieties they are propagated by the little cells called "spores" which are produced between the gills on the under THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 119 side of the cap. Each spore, if it finds the right kind of a place for germination, will produce a thread- like growth. These are known as "spawn," and it is this that is sown in mushroom beds. On these, little thick nodules are f onned, and from the nodules, with sufficient moisture, the mushrooms mature so quickly that we have coined the expression, "a mush- room growth," for whatever grows rapidly. It is to France, England, and Italy we should go if we wish to see mushroom culture on a commercial scale. About Paris, mushrooms have been cultivated since the sixteenth century. Caves, abandoned quarries, and even the catacombs in the vicinity of the city have been utilized for mushroom gardens. The fungus grows readily in these "spooky" places, not so much because the daylight is shut out as be- cause, being virtually underground, the temperature is even and the humidity of the air can be carefully regulated. Some of the mushroom-beds are from sixty to eighty feet beneath the surface, and in one cave it is stated that there are twenty-three miles of beds, which produce for the markets of Paris thou- sands of pounds of the delicious fungi daily. Mushrooms are grown on very rich soil, consist- ing largely of well-composted horse-manure, and they are daily watered to increase the crop. After a few years the fertilizing material becomes ex- hausted and is taken to the surface for use in vege- table gardens. A new manure bed is then prepared. The "buttons," as they are called, are gathered before they are fully matured, and when we get them 120 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR from tlie importer they are really not as good as the fresh mushrooms that might be gathered in our pas- tures at home. Among the edible mushrooms growing in the United States, and there is a great variety, one of the most common is the Agaricus campestris, which grows in open pastures. Another is the Marasmius oreades Bolt, or fairy-ring champignon, which is smaller than the above and is usually found growing in a circle. The "morel" is a variety imported in a dried condition especially from Germany and is in common use for flavoring sauces. Since there are mushrooms that are poisonous, the the only safe way is to purchase those that have been cultivated and are known to be edible, unless one is an expert. The numerous ' ' rules ' ' and "tests " pub- lished for the guidance of the uninitiated in the selec- tion of wild mushrooms are Ukely to mislead him and cause serious results. Poisonous mushrooms contain various alkaloids and other harmful principles which produce very serious symptoms and sometimes death. The symp- toms do not always appear immediately after eating the poisonous fungi but may be delayed even for twenty-four hours. Again it is from the French people we learn the valuable flavoring qualities of another of the fungi, namely, truffles. These are found growing beneath the surface of the leaf -mold in France, England, and Italy. Some of the best varieties come from Peri- gord, in the southwest part of France, and from the department of Vaucluse, in the lower Rhone Valley. THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 121 They grow particularly well in the shade of the trees in the oak forests. Those who make a specialty of gathering truffles are called caveurs de truffles, and they pick them every day or two and take them to the nearest market towns, where they are sold to the commission merchants. The caveur realizes from forty-four cents to $1.30 a pound for his produce. As truffles, especially the most prized varieties, have a strong aromatic odor, it has been found pos- sible to train pigs and sometimes dogs to hunt them in the woods. When the quarry has been pointed, the animal is rewarded with a piece of cheese or some such delicacy. Truffles are of several varieties, both black and white, and the best specimens are no larger than an English walnut, although specimens weigh- ing a pound are not uncommon. The first-of-the-season truffles, which are gathered in August, are black outside and white inside, and have little fragrance, but as the weather becomes colder they improve in quality and fragrance. The season lasts until the end of March. The dehcate aroma and flavor of the truffle makes it highly prized, but as they are difficult to obtain they of course command a high price. As some one has remarked, "Perhaps if they were not expensive but were within the reach of everybody, we should not prize them so highly. ' ' France in 1913 exported 451,500 pounds of fresh, dried, and pickled truffles. The question is frequently asked: Why can we not find truffles in the United States? Dr. B. M. Duggar of the United States Bureau of Plant Indus- try says that there are some small species, similar 122 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR to one of the well-known Italian species, occurring on the Pacific coast and that one form has been dis- covered in Minnesota and in New York. Climatic conditions for growing truffles seem to be favorable especially in some of the Southern States. ONIONS If there is anything that we think can be raised almost anywhere in this country, in the North or in the South, it is onions and other plants of the Allium family. Yet it has been our custom to import more than a million bushels every year. Of these, 630,000 bushels came from Spain in 1914, with smaller quan- tities from England, Bermuda, Australia, Italy, the Canary Islands, and some other countries. In 1921 a total of nearly 2,000,000 bushels arrived. Probably the chief reason why so many onions are imported is because, curiously enough, those grown in warm countries have a mild flavor and possess less of the acrid principle than those raised in colder lat- itudes. If tested by being eaten raw, boiled, or fried, the Spanish onions will be found most mild and agreeable. In the process of boiling or frying it is evident that much of the acrid volatile oil, to which the flavor is largely due, is dissipated, for we do not need to be told when onions are to be served for dinner. This volatile oil has been analyzed by the chemist and is known as allyl sulphid, producing an effect upon the eyes similar to the tear gas that was recently used in the Great War. That sulphur is present in onions as well as in mustard and horse- THE MEDITERRANEAN SHORES 123 radish is a well-known fact, and is shown by the ac- tion of these vegetables on silver, as it produces a black coating of silver sulphid. Garlic is one of the most strongly-flavored of the plants of the Allium family, and the odor even sticks to the breath and the perspiration of those who per- sist in eating it. Although garlic could no doubt be grown readily in the United States, immigrants seem to think that the "home-grown" product is better, and we import every year about eight million pounds for their use. Imports for 1921 were 7,030,824 pounds. Other plants of this genus, such as leeks, shallot, and chives, are in much more common use in foreign countries than in the United States. SNAILS There is nothing in the soil, climate, or other con- ditions, especially in the South, that would prevent our raising in this country all the snails that the peo- ple demand. We simply have not the professional growers who take the trouble to supply the market, and accordingly we import about $50,000 worth of snails, fresh and canned, every year. The edible snails are of course entirely different from the shell- less mollusks often called slugs in the United States. There is really no reason why these mollusks, grown abroad in clean surroundings, hving on lettuce or aromatic herbs, should not become a part of our food, as weU as oysters, clams, and mussels. They are popular in many European countries and espe- 124 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR cially in Paris. The dealers in the Halles Centrales, the great food market of Paris, seU no less than eighty million snails annually. Such is the demand for snails that "snail-nurs- eries" have been established in France, Austria, and Germany. Under the protection of bushes or wooden shelters, and in the vicinity of an abundance of water, these moUusks are raised for the market. In Vienna the snail market is especially well patron- ized during Lent, the snails being largely shipped in from Wiirttemburg. Half a dozen different vari- eties of snails are cultivated and, just as we have a special season for oysters, there are special times, one in spring and the other in the winter, when snails are in the market. Although snails are soft and easily digested when raw, they become somewhat tough upon cooking. A common method of prepara- tion for the table is with spices, herbs, or wines. Courtes^i/ X. Mnsker and Cumimny^ Baltimore, Mai-yland OLIVE-OIL PRESS \Hsf-ciV^^^ Courtesy N. Musker and Companij, Baltimore, Maryland OIL ON DOCK READY FOR SHIPMENT Courfesij U. S. Department of Agriculture •^ FIEL.D OP GINGER Courier World's Commercial Products SORTING CINNAMON CHAPTER VIII BICE AND SPICE EEOM THE FAB EAST LET US browse around among the boxes, bundles, and bags of tbe aromatic cargoes that the ocean liners and tramp steamers are bringing to the wharves of our Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf ports. There was a time when these products from foreign shores were landed on particular wharves, and we went to such localities as India Wharf in Boston to smell the rich and spicy odors of the East. Now, with the changed conditions of transportation, it is difficult to tell under what flag, or at which dock of the great overseas trading companies, these goods may be landed. Are these products the luxuries or the necessaries of life? Here is perhaps a cargo of rice. We are inclined to ask : Why is rice imported? Do we not grow it anywhere along our South Atlan- tic and Grulf coasts? Yes, but we have never until recently raised half enough to supply our home mar- ket. Rice is a native of India and southern China, but it is impossible to name definitely the date when it was first used in these countries. Some varieties of rice were undoubtedly found by the aborigines of many tropical countries growing luxuriantly, espe- cially in low, wet places near their seacoasts. As the population increased, the need of having more food than that obtainable from the wild varieties led, in 125 126 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR very early times, to its intensive cultivation. Re- ferring to the almost prehistoric cultivation of rice, it is said that a ceremonial ordinance was established in China by the Emperor Chin-Nung, 2800 years before Christ. On this occasion the emperor himself sowed one variety of rice, and seeds of four other kinds were sown by the princes of his family. Although no mention of rice is made in the Bible, it seems to be proved that it was not an uncommon crop in the broad valley of the Euphrates at least four hundred years before the time of Christ. From the remote East the cultivation of rice spread through the rich tropical countries and into the islands of the sea, both east and west. The flowery kingdom of Japan was found to be especially adapted to its growth, and very early rice became the staple cereal of that country, even as wheat has been util- ized in Europe and America. Rice appears to be almost an essential part of the diet of those peoples who live in the torrid zone and in parts of somewhat cooler climates near the coast where heavy rains are prevalent, as along the Gulf coast of the United States. The other cereals can- not readily be raised in these regions, and, if shipped in, they often mold and heat. Rice is by nature well protected from moisture by its dry, horny husk, which keeps the dampness from getting into the softer inside portion of the grain. In the Philippines, as early as we know anything about these islands, the cultivation of rice has been one of the chief occupations of the people. In fact it was virtually the only cultivated crop found grow- RICE AND SPICE FEOM THE FAR EAST 127 ing there when the islands were discovered by the Spanish explorer Magellan in 1521. For three cen- turies after the Spanish took possession of the islands, rice was the principal crop, and it was grown in increasing quantities until 1885. Then produc- tion began to fall off, and instead of exporting rice to sarrounding countries the islanders were actually obliged to import the grain for domestic consump- tion. One cause leading to this diminished produc- tion was that the growing of hemp, sugar, and other crops was found to be more profitable. As we have in our prairie States both dry sum- mers and wet springs, which insure the growth and the final ripening of the wheat, so in the rice-grow- ing regions they have an abundance of warm summer rains which are needed for this particular crop. Southeastern Asia and the adjacent islands are esj^e- cially adapted to the growing of rice because the monsoon, a sea-breeze, laden with moisture from the Indian and Pacific oceans, blows across these lands throughout the summer. First comes the hot moist season when the crops grow luxuriantly and the peo- ple must work hard in their fields to prepare the food which they will need in the season of drought that follows. With rice as the leading cereal these regions have become more and more crowded until we actually find more than one-half of the human race settled in this corner of the earth. With semi-civilized people density of population is largely a matter of climate and food-supply. Rice for them takes the place of the potatoes, the wheat, the rye, or the millet grown 128 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR by their northern neighbors. The lands bordering on the Mediterranean, where rice was introduced in 1468, were also found to produce this cereal abun- dantly, some of them in great excess of the amount demanded for home consumption. Spain, for in- stance, is able to export more than 100,000,000 pounds of rice annually. If you ask how rice came to be introduced from the Orient into this new Western land it is related that in 1694 an English boat, homeward bound from Mad- agascar, was forced by bad weather to put in at Charleston, South Carolina. The captain paid a visit to Governor Smith, whom he had previously met in Madagascar, and gave him a small bag of rice from the store on board his vessel. The governor planted the seed in a swampy part of his garden, and from this beginning sprang the rice industry of the Carolinas. Ever since that time it has been an im- portant part of the simple diet of the negroes of the South, although it has never been quite so essential as their "hog and hominy." Their former depen- dence on these staple foods is well illustrated in the old war-time plantation melody : De yam will ^ow, De cotton blow, We'll hab de rice and corn. In our own country the cultivation of rice was common in South Carolina and Georgia before the Civil War, and in earlier times the Southern States grew most of the rice for domestic commerce. More recently Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas have fur- nished most of the product raised in this country. RICE AND SPICE FEOM THE FAE EAST 129 The rich prairie lands of southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas are specially adapted to raising this cereal, and in fact in these States rice-culture has largely taken the place of sugar-growing. These rich alluvial lands are nearly level and have a clay suh-soil which keeps the water from soaking away too rapidly. Dykes and dams have been built to enable the farmer to irrigate the land when he pleases, and numerous pumping-plants keep the ditches filled. The ground when dry is cultivated like a wheat-field, and after the crop has ripened the water is drawn off and the crop can be harvested by the use of modern harvesting machinery. J. Russell Smith says that in Louisiana it has been found the rice-plant requires about one-half an inch of water a day for ninety days, so that the rainfall of twenty inches during the rice season must be sup- plemented by twenty-five inches of water furnished by irrigation. Not less than 10,000,000 acres of land on our Gulf coast are suited to the growing of this cereal. It is probable that more rice than can be consumed might easily be raised in the Southern sections of the United States. The delta of the Sac- ramento River in California is a new and very prom- ising area suitable for its cultivation. There produc- tion has increased rapidly since the rice-farming ex- periment was started, so that in 1919 nearly 8,000,000 bushels were raised. In some Eastern countries the grain is sown on the water, which is afterwards drawn off to allow cul- tivation. While the rice is growing it is flooded sev- eral times, and for the last time about eight days be- 130 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR fore the harvest. If sown in drills rice can be readily cultivated between the rows, and this method is now considered preferable to the older one of broadcast- ing. As early as 1713 the British colonists in America began to export rice, and in 1836 the amount shipped abroad was 127,000,000 pounds. There was then a rapid decrease during the next fifty years, but more recently increasing quantities have been exported, and this in the face of the fact that not nearly enough has been produced for domestic use. No doubt rice will always be imported, even if we eventually raise as much as we consume, for our Chinese, Japanese, and Itahans naturally prefer the varieties grown in their own countries, and they are also partial to the native methods of milhng and pre- paring for market. The South Carolina and Japa- nese rices are comparatively rich in fats. Some who have learned to appreciate a fine flavor in their food always select the varieties found to be the most agreeable. The higher wages paid in the United States need not necessarily limit the growing of rice in this coun- try, for here a much larger area can be cultivated by a single farmer. It has been shown that while in Japan, China, India, Siam, and the Far East farm wages are very low, one man can raise only from half an acre to three acres of rice ; on the other hand, in southwest Louisiana and Texas, although wages are often ten times as much as in the Orient, one man, by modem methods of farming, can cultivate eighty RICE AND SPICE FROM THE FAR EAST 131 acres of the grain. There are scores of different varieties of rice grown in different parts of the world, some being adapted to one climate and some to entirely different conditions of soil and tempera- ture. Although some rice is raised on the uplands, most of the grain is groima in damp soil where there is a sub-soil that holds the moisture, and in localities that can be readily flooded. In the interior regions of India, China, and Japan an upland rice is raised with considerable success where the soil is sufficiently rich, but a bountiful crop is not always so well as- sured as when grown on irrigated land. In some foreign countries the grain is cut with a reaping-machine, but very often, especially in India, China, and Japan, that primitive instrument, the sickle, is still used, just as it was hundreds of years ago. In foreign countries usually the threshing is done by hand, with the aid of some simple device such as a board with a slit in it. By drawing the stalks through the slit the kernels are pulled from the heads and fall into a receptacle underneath. One advantage that rice possesses over other grains is the ease with which it can be prepared for use. As the grain is covered by a husk, this must be removed, and both in this country and abroad the primitive process of pounding it by means of a mor- tar and pestle is in use. A mortar is hollowed out of a block of hard wood by burning or cutting, and a wooden pestle is turned or trimmed down so that it will approximately fit the mortar. The pestle, which 132 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR weighs ten or fifteen pounds, is raised and dropped into the mortar until the hulls are loosened; then these are blown out by the wind in a simple process of "winnowing." In the Orient, as unhuUed rice keeps better, the "paddy," that is, the grain in the husk, is not hulled until it is needed for domestic use. Throughout the East, the most common domestic noise heard about the huts of the natives in the early morning is the dull pounding of the pestle as it falls into the vessel of paddy loosening the husk from the day's supply of cereal. By a natural extension of the above pro- cess, a mill was so constructed that a number of these pestles could be dropped into corresponding mortars by the use of drums driven by water or steam-power. Later, millstones were used to separate the hulls from the kernels, and screen-blowers to separate the chaff. The product of this process is called unpol- ished or rough rice. Rice as thus prepared is fit to use for food, but in order to give it a finer appearance and make it more attractive to the eye a method has been devised for rubbing off the outer layer by means of leather rollers in a polishing-machine. It has been repeat- edly shown that this polishing process removes from the rice much of its most valuable nutritive material, especially that part containing the major portion of the fat and most of the vitamines. In addition, the flavor is injured. Various malnutritional diseases such as beri-beri have become prevalent where the people depend almost wholly upon polished rice for their food. It is stated that a man supposed to be EICE AND SPICE FEOM THE FAR EAST 133 dying of beri-beri in Japan was fed a dish of rice bran gruel, and to the surprise of everybody in four days he was able to go home completely restored. It is believed that the vitamines, while not of nutritive value in themselves, enable us to utilize the food material in the foods that we eat. Notwithstanding aU this direct testimony, the housewife still demands a poKshed white rice. No one attempts to make bread from rice alone, as it lacks the gluten which is found in wheat and some other grains and which when mixed with water makes a sticky dough that entraps the air and car- bon dioxid, thus forming a light product. The Ori- entals usually boil their rice and flavor it with meat or fish or perhaps add curry or a hot seasoning prep- aration. Unpolished rice is the variety usually eaten by the common people of the East. Eice is shipped to this country, hulled but often unpolished, usually in bags or barrels holding 162 pounds. Prom 162 pounds of rough rice the mills secure ninety-five pounds of clean rice, eight pounds of polish, thirty pounds of bran, and twenty-nine pounds of waste. In India, Siam, and other Asiatic countries, grain is carried down the rivers in na- tive boats and finds its way to the great ports of ex- port. Here the paddy is cleaned and often polished and coated for the Caucasian markets. From our own ports of entry. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Galveston, and San Francisco, rice is distributed over the country. Why is rice such an important cereal in so many countries of the world ? One reason is its yield to the 134 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAE acre. Do you know that in 1917, while our average acreage production of wheat was 14.2 bushels, and of com 26.4 bushels, the average of rice was 37.6 bushels ? Since rice forms the principal food of more than 700,000,000 people in China, India, and Japan, its nutritive value should be considered. Is it good, wholesome food? Yes, but not to the exclusion of other foods, because it is poor in proteins and fats, both of which are as essential to growth and energy as the carbo-hydrates. Where teeming thousands must be fed on the product of a small area, it is out of the question to try to grow sufficient meat to sup- plement the cereals. In these moist warm climates the legumes grow luxuriantly, so that with a cheap cereal like rice, and abundant peas, lentils, beans, and soy-beans, and small quantities of meat, fish, or eggs, the balanced ration is maintained. Some of these legumes, as the soy-bean, also contain an abundance of the fat that is essential to the nutri- tion of the animal body. In this country it is com- mon to supplement rice with meat, fish, game, eggs, and milk products. The process of cooking rice by steaming, such as is used in Japan, is perhaps the best, as in it each grain is allowed to swell, and the product consists of the whole grains thoroughly cooked. In what- ever way prepared, the water used in cooking should not be thrown away, as it contains much of the nu- tritive material that ought to be retained. Eice absorbs nearly five times its weight of water when cooked, is easily digested, and is always regarded as RICE AND SPICE FROM THE FAR EAST 135 an excellent food for convalescents because it is so completely absorbed in the intestines. Some of the interesting Japanese rice dishes are thus described by Dr. Mary E. Green: "Shir-a-ta- ma is made from the glutinous varieties, which are first steeped in water, then ground and washed through fine sieves. The residue obtained is dried over a coal fire, then made into small round balls of dough, which, when steamed, are eaten with soups and with sweets. Ame, prepared from malt and from flour of glutinous rice, greatly resembles glucose. It is a delicious sweetmeat. Its making dates from 100 B.C., when sugar was unknown. Do-mo-ji is rice steamed, dried, and then ground into flour. It may be prepared for use whenever wanted, and is eaten with sugar. It is especially valuable to travelers and to an army on long marches. Kori-mochi is made from steamed rice beaten into a paste and then frozen. Water is poured upon it to soften it, and it is served with sugar. ' ' For the year ending June 30, 1914, just before the war, we imported into this country 290,194,917 pounds of rice and rice products. Of this more than 30,000,000 pounds came from China, 53,000,000 pounds from Japan, and large quantities were brought in from the Netherlands and Germany by reshipment. During the same year, we exported 22,000,000 pounds, the larger portion of which went to Cuba and Central American states. We produced in 1914 656,917,000 pounds. There was a crop of 41,000,000 bushels of rice in the United States in 1921, while we imported 174,000,000 bushels. We 136 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR get some of our supply from India and Siam. There is no doubt that the rice-growing area of the globe can be greatly increased, for there is land that might be utilized for thig purpose in many of the Latin American states, as well as in Borneo, Papua, Su- matra, and northern Australia. The story of the use of rice in the United States is rather remarkable. Before the last quarter of a century, rice was regarded by many people as a purely Southern dish, because there it was in daily use as a vegetable, but in the North only incidentally as a dessert. More recently, as the nutritive value of rice has dawned on the people all over the coun- try, its use has more than doubled. SPICE The bags of rice are only a part of the cargo of the vessels that come here from the East Indies and the far-away islands on the other side of the world. The spicy odors in the hold and warehouse have al- ready dehghted us as the salty breezes have borne them to our nostrils. Let us talk about flavor, for spices are flavor and of no nutritive value. They are not, however, for that reason to be neglected in the preparation of food, for they "bring up" the flavor of otherwise tasteless foods as pumpkin-pies or rice-pudding or insipid fruits. They act as pre- servatives if added in sufficient quantities and often supplement, in an agreeable way, the flavors which we already enjoy, as when we add vanilla to choco- late, thereby making a delicious combination of flavors. RICE AND SPICE FEOM THE FAE EAST 137 In many cases the taste of the food is injured by the use of spices. If there is a naturally agreeable flavor of the fruit or vegetable, it might much better be retained than modified or disguised by spices or condiments. Says Henry T. Finck : "Excessive use of spices is the chief blemish of German cookery. Many otherwise well-made dishes are spoiled by the addition of pungent condiments which completely monopolize the palate. The excessive use of their condiments is a survival of medieval coarseness. ' ' Aside from the every-day preservatives and condi- ments, such as salt, sugar, and vinegar, and the flavor derived from wood-smoke and from home-grown garden herbs and seeds, we have for scores of years depended on the Far East for spices. The "spicy breezes that blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle" bring to us impressions of cloves and cinna- mon, ginger and nutmeg, pepper and allspice — all Asiatic products. The substantial old sailing-ves- sels that traded in the Asiatic ports always included in their cargo bales and bundles and barrels of sweet- smelling spices. This cargo was unloaded at the dock of the European or American port, and the aromatic East India goods were sorted and cleaned and distributed from the wholesale houses, to appear finally as an appetizing flavor in the kitchens of the poor as well as the rich. Nowadays these products are transported much more rapidly across the seas, but they are still in demand among all classes of people. What are these flavors that we so much desire? The chemist will tell you that they are usually some 138 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR essential oil or some volatile principle, some mixture of ethers or esters, curiously and wonderfully manu- factured in nature 's laboratory, and which we have found to be agreeable to the palate. We can make a lot of them artificially in the laboratory, now that we have found out what they really are. At pres- ent it is often cheaper to go back to the original plant- laboratory for our product, for there strikes and "high overhead" do not restrict the abihty to turn out the product with each returning season. These aromatic substances are volatile when the material is boiled with water, and many of the active prin- ciples may be obtained in a state of purity by simply separating them from the condensed steam. That is the way that oil of cloves, oil of sassafras, or cin- namon-oil is made. But this agreeable odor is given off continually below the temperature of boiling water and that is why the wharves, the docks, and warehouses of some sections of our seaport towns — these busy hum-drum commercial places — are filled with what Milton has called "Sabean odors from the spicy shore of Araby the blest." The commercial value of spices diminishes a little month by month. "We talk of "old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust" — but never of "old spices to use," because spices are better when fresh. All parts of the plant may yield these aro- matic substances; we get them from leaves, buds, flowers, bark, roots, seeds, and immature and ripe fruits. Sometimes the plant has hoarded these pre- cious flavors in one place and sometimes in another, RICE AND SPICE FROM THE FAR EAST 139 and we have learned to utilize that special part where the principle is found in greatest abundance. CINNAMON The tropical island of Ceylon, on the southeast coast of India, has always been noted as the original home of the cinnamon. This state, with an area five-sixths as large as that of Ireland, with its low- lying northern coast and with interior mountains towering to the height of more than a mile, is ad- mirably adapted to the growth of the sweet cinna- mon. Into the harbor of Colombo, on the west coast, come the ships of the world to take on their cargo of cinnamon-bark, tea, cocoa, cocoanuts. India-rubber, pearls, and precious stones. This beautiful city of more than 150,000 inhabitants is the metropolis of the island and has a long history of siege and cap- ture, for its forts command the harbor which gives access to the rich products of the mountain jungles and plains of the interior. For centuries Arabs and other traders kept the secret of the source of cinnamon from the outside world. It is remarkable that this most jealously guarded secret should have remained so long undis- covered. The ancients were not wanting in the knowledge of the value of cinnamon, for it is fre- quently referred to in the Bible and also by the classical writers, Galen, Pliny, and Dioscorides. The Greeks and Romans prized it so highly that they thought it a fit offering for their gods. "We read that 140 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR "witli garlands and chaplets of cinnamon Vespasian dedicated the temple of the Capitol. Monsieur Aplorlo, a recent writer, says that the Arabs told many strange and weird stories in regard to the place where cinnamon was fomid, in order to keep the too inquisitive trader away, so that they might retain their monopoly. Herodotus evidently believed these tales, for he tells in all seriousness that cin- namon-bark is found only in those far-away countries where "winged serpents" abound and that these creatures build their nests of cinnamon-bark. The Arabs, it was said, in order to obtain the coveted treasure, placed large bones on the ground in the vicinity, and the serpents took these to their nests, but on account of the weight of the bones the nests were broken down. The Arabs then came from their places of concealment and carried off the bark from the ruined nests. Pliny, commenting on this state- ment, says, "Lies aU, both the one and the other, for cinnamon grows in Ethiopia, a country near the Troglodytes." Just as we read of earlier religious wars, and raids for the purpose of carrying off the gold sup- posed to be abundant in some far-off countries, so, on account of its wonderful yield of cinnamon, Ceylon was the scene of many wars during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After being ruled in turn by the Malahais and the Singhalese, the island of Ceylon was finally captured by the Portu- guese. Their cruel greed and extortionate treat- ment of the natives in order to obtain the cinnamon- bark, which the latter had gathered in the jungle, at RICE AND SPICE FROM THE FAR EAST 141 last aroused the natives to appeal to the Dutch, with whom they were on friendly terms, to relieve them. The Dutch laid siege to Colombo, and for seven months their fierce warfare was carried on. Thou- sands perished by the sword or through starvation. When at last the Dutch had conquered the island, their treatment of the natives was hardly less cruel than that of the former rulers, and they tried both by fair and foul means to obtain a monopoly of the cinnamon trade of the world. Not a single cinna- mon plant was allowed to be taken from the island for cultivation elsewhere. If the crop was larger than the trade demanded and there was danger of lowering the price, immense stocks of the bark were burned or thrown into the sea. It is related that in 1760 a single pile of cinnamon-bark valued at £230,- 000 was burned, and later the price of the bark was actually raised to sixty-eight shillings an ounce. This is even worse than some of the stories told of the profiteers of the present day, who corner the pro- vision market. Later, Ceylon was captured by the English, and they kept up the price of cinnamon for many years until in 1833 the monopoly was aban- doned. The cinnamon-tree is now grown in many other tropical countries. Great progress has also been made in its cultivation, so that we are now no longer dependent upon the supply of wild cinnamon brought from the jungles by the natives. Garcia da Orta, a Portuguese traveler who visited Ceylon about 1537, writes of cinnamon, and his ob- servations have been quaintly translated as follows : 142 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR The trees are about the size of olives, or rather smaller; the branches are numerous and not crooked, but somewhat straight. The flowers are white, the fruit black and round, larger than a myrtle, or between that and a nut. The canela is the second bark of the tree ; for it has two barks like the cork-tree, which has bark and shell. The canela is the same except that the two layers are not so thick and distinct as in the cork-tree. First, they take off th« outer bark and clean the other. The bark, cut in squares, is then thrown on the ground. When on the ground it rolls itseK up in a round form, so as to look like the bark of a stick, which it is not. For the poles or sticks are the size of a man's thigh. The thickest of the bark is the thickness of a finger. It takes a vermilion color, or that which is given when burnt by the sun ; or more like ashes mixed with red wine, very little of the cinder and a great deal of the wine. The trees are not so small as is stated by Dioscorides and Pliny, and they are numerous, so that the price is very low in Ceylon. For more than thirty years it has not been possible to buy any, except from the agent of the king. This year's bark is taken, and leaving the tree for three years it renews its bark. There are many trees, the leaves like a laurel. The trees that yield bad canela in Malabar and Goa are much smaller than those of Ceylon, and are all wild, growing of themselves. The root gives a water the color of camphor, and is considered to be cold. The king forbids the roots to be pulled up, so as not to destroy the trees. His description of Ceylon is as follows: The island of Ceylon is rather more than eighty leagues in circumference, and its length is thirty leagues, by six to eight broad. Some have said it is Trapobana or Sumatra. In front of its coast is the promontory they call Cape Comorin. It is very populous, though mountainous in many parts. The people are called Cingalese. It belongs to the king our lord, and the native kings are subject to him. It is certain that this island is the most noble in the world. It belonged to one king who was killed by his grandsons, and they divided it amongst themselves. When the Portuguese came to this land they took counsel to cut RICE AND SPICE FEOM THE FAE EAST 143 and sterilize many trees, such as nutmegs, cloves, and pep- per. In this island there are all kinds of precious stones, including diamonds; and many pearls, as we shall state farther on. They have gold and silver, and do not wish to bring it to the kings, but to keep it for treasure. They say that they combine sometimes to withdraw it secretly. The woods are full of all the birds in the world, many pea- cock, fowls, and pigeons of many kinds, stags and deer, and pigs in great quantities. There are many fruits and orange- groves in this land, which is all mountainous, and the oranges are the best fruit in the world for taste and sweet- ness. The land also yields all our fruits, such as figs and grapes. Certainly very good profit might be made of the oranges, for they are the best fruit in the world. They have flax and iron. The natives say that it is the terres- trial paradise. They have a fable that Adam stopped on the top of a very high mountain which they call Adam's Peak. They have other fables much stranger. There are many palm-groves, and the elephants are the best in the world and very intelligent, and they say that the others which they have are obedient. The odor of cinnamon, whicli we enjoy so much, is due largely to the presence of about 2 per cent, of a volatile oil, containing what the chemist calls cinnamic aldehyde. It seems to be generally con- ceded that much of the so-called cinnamon on the market is not the true Ceylon cinnamon at all but the bark of a related tree, the cassia, also of the laurel family. Cassia-bark is thicker, darker, and coarser, and consequently cheaper than that of the true cinnamon, and is exported principally from China, Indo-China, and India. Imports of cassia and cinnamon for 1921 were 5,426,183 pounds. CLOVES, The clove-tree was apparently a native of the Spice Islands, sometimes called the Malaccas, which lie a 144 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR Kttle south and east of the Philippines in the Indian archipelago. The trade in cloves was established very early in the Christian era and has proved a source of great wealth to traders, especially the Dutch and Portuguese. As was the case with the commerce in cinnamon, the Dutch tried by all sorts of means to obtain a monopoly on the clove trade, even going so far as attempting to exterminate the tree in all of the islands escept Amboyna, which they con- trolled. Finally, in 1770, the French succeeded in getting the clove-tree started in Mauritius and other islands, and it is now cultivated very extensively on the small islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, on the southeastern coast of Africa, and in the islands of Penang and Amboyna. The market is also supplied from the East Indies, Ceylon, and from some islands of the "West Indies. It is useless to attempt to grow cloves in the interior of a continent, for the clove is a typical island plant and requires sea air for its successful growth. Because of its fancied resem- blance to a nail, the French word clou has been ap- plied to the clove. No more beautiful trees are found in tropical is- lands than those upon which the clove is borne. An evergreen tree with shining oval leaves and rich clusters of crimson flowers would be an attractive ob- ject anywhere, but when the flower-buds develop, with their greenish color changing to bright red as the clove becomes sufficiently matured to be gath- ered, the beauty of the tree is still further enhanced. It is the custom to collect the flower-buds and dry BICE AND SPICE FEOM THE FAE EAST 145 tliem to prepare them for the market. In Zanzibar and Pemba the cloves are spread on mats to dry in the sun, and on account of this they are often some- what shriveled and of a dark color. In Penang and Amboyna, however, they are dried slowly over a wood fire, a process which causes them to retain their form and bright color. The Penang cloves are said to be of the highest quality. Cloves are unique in containing such a large amount of essential oil, about 18 per cent., so that it is only necessary to rub the cloves between the fingers to make the presence of the oil apparent. This oil consists of about 90 per cent, of a substance which the chemists call "eugenol." In order to ob- tain it the cloves are ground and boiled with water, to which some salt has been added to raise the boiling point. The steam that comes over is condensed and put back several times into the still, so that finally all of the essential oil shall be extracted. The boiling is then continued and the condensed steam collected, when the oil readily separates out from the water upon standing. It is stated, as a fact not generally known, that so great is the demand among the Orientals themselves for cloves and other spices that often the European and American markets get only what is left, and that is frequently an inferior product. In a single year 50,000 "frails" (135-pound packages) of Zanzibar and Pemba cloves were sent to India alone to meet the special demand during coronation festivities. We imported 4,362,773 pounds of cloves in 1921, 146 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR GINGEB. Why do we always associate energy, vim and snap, with ginger? Is it not because the root has the qual- ity of sharpness, pungency, tang? Here is a plant known in Europe in very early times, mentioned in the Roman tariff lists and subject to duty in Pales- tine, in Spain, and in France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, highly favored by the Italian mer- chants as early as the fourteenth century, yet always, up to that time, imported from India, China, and the Far East. Since it grew readily in semi-tropical regions, the Spaniards, the indefatigable explorers and discov- erers of those times, introduced the plant from the East Indies to their American colony of New Spain, and the cultivation was so successful there that it began to be exported from Santo Domingo as early as 1585. Ginger was then next in value to pepper, which had been for years universally used. The ginger-plant, of which we use the underground stem, grows wild in southeastern Asia and the Malay archipelago, and has been cultivated especially in South America and the West Indies. Just as we associate the lowlands of Holland with gin, so we associate the island of Jamaica with ginger because of the superior quality of the product grown there. This island has a mild climate, rich soil, and an abundance of rain at certain seasons of the year, all of which are needed for the cultivation of the plant. A ginger-plantation is started by planting pieces EICE AND SPICE FEOM THE FAR EAST 147 of the root as we plant potatoes. Leafy shoots rise from the underground stem, and separate shoots bear the rather inconspicuous flowers. The roots are dug in January. Commercial ginger comes into the market in two forms. If the "races" or "hands," as the rhizomes are called, are simply washed and thoroughly dried in the sun, we have coated or black ginger. If, on the other hand, these roots are washed and the outer coating is scraped off before being sun-dried, the product is known as uncoated ginger. Sometimes the latter is bleached with sulphur fumes, or coated with whiting or lime sulphate, which may possibly serve to conceal inferiority. The volatile oil and resins found in the ginger-root give it, as the physician would say, "stimulative, aromatic, and carminative ' ' properties. Not only is it used medicinally, but as a flavor in cooking and for making crystallized ginger, ginger-ale, ginger-beer, and similar beverages. We imported 4,009,943 pounds of the unground root in 1921. Another plant of the ginger family is the turmeric, and like the ginger it has an underground rootstock with an annual stem. We are apt to think of tur- meric as simply a yellow coloring material because it has been used so much for dyeing purposes, but it is also valuable as a condiment, on account of the agreeable taste of the volatile oil which it contains. The presence of this flavor is one reason why it has been used for so many years as an important con- stituent of curry-powder. Turmeric originally came from the East Indies and Cochin-China. 148 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR PEPPERS We have so far discussed an aromatic bark, a dried flower-bud, and a pungent root, but there is another important spicy product of the East, which is a dried berry. The pepper-plant is a climbing shrub, bear- ing a red berry. When this begins to color it is gath- ered and dried, in which process it shrinks and turns black — and this is what we call black pepper. Just as we can prepare a green or a black tea from the same leaves by different methods of curing, so we can make the black or the white pepper from the same berry. If the fully ripened black pepper-corn is soaked in water, it is then possible to rub off the outer skin, and we have what is known as white pep- per, which is milder and less pungent than the darker variety. There is no doubt that pepper comes from the Far East, for we read on the invoices such names as Singapore, Sumatra, Malabar, Penang, Alleppi, Lampong, and Mangalone. Imports for 1921 were 33,848,840 pounds. Like other spices, pepper contains an essential oil which is given off at ordinary temperatures and so readily flavors the food with which it comes in con- tact. The nightshade family, which furnishes us with the potato and the tomato, contributes also to our list of spices, by giving us the capsicums or red peppers. More than four million pounds from different coun- tries are annually imported into the United States. The genuine red pepper originated in tropical America, but it can be cultivated in almost any of RICE AND SPICE FROM THE FAR EAST 149 the temperate climates. Zanzibar and Japan have a reputation for furnishing the leading commercial varieties. We are all familiar with the taste of chile con carne and the other "hot" concoctions that have been introduced into this country from our as- sociation with our Spanish-Mexican neighbors on the south. Hungarian paprika is a favorite on ac- count of the sweetish, mildly pungent flavor. From Spain comes the large-fruited pimento, NUTMEGS Those who are familiar with colonial housekeep- ing utensils will remember that no bride 's outfit was considered complete unless she had been furnished with one of those shallow circular pewter boxes, pro- vided with a tight-fitting hinged cover to hold the family nutmegs. This condiment was in great de- mand for apple-sauce, puddings, and many of the plain but toothsome foods of those earlier days. We must go to the far-off Malay archipelago, to Madagascar, or the West Indies to obtain nutmegs. The tree grows something like an orange-tree, and like it is cut back and grafted. It does not bear flowers until about nine years of age, but when it once begins fruiting can be depended upon for a crop for eighty or more years. The fruit is of a yellowish-green color and, when ripe, splits in two, showing within a kernel sur- rounded by a fleshy crimson covering — the mace of commerce. Within a second inner envelope is the nutmeg proper, which is separated after drying from its husk and becomes the well-known article of trade. 150 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR The white powder often noticed on nutmegs is there because the seed has been washed with milk of lime, or dusted with dry air-slacked lime. Importers con- tend that this liming prevents the attack of insects. In 1921 we imported 2,978,197 pounds. Nutmegs differ from most spices in that they con- tain a large quantity (about 35 per cent.) of a fixed oil or butter which is a solid fat at an ordinary tem- perature. The agreeable flavor of the nutmeg is largely due to the presence of about 3 per cent, of a volatile oil, which may be distilled off with steam as already mentioned in the case of oil of cinnamon. BEia^fr."i^ijMa i^agll B g « '^ '«' »*M "j 9 »"i. w w 4 * i;: - Courtesy World's Commercial Products PLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS Courtesy World's Commercial Products IRRIGATION OF RICE IN SIAM Courtesy World's CommeTcial Products USE OF THE BAMBOO IN HUSKING RICE Courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture MUNG BEAN-SPROUTS ^"^ ^f* ? Courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture MILLET (PROSO) CAKE CHAPTEE IX UVING WITH THE ORIENTALS AND PARTAKING OF THEIR TARE IT may seem to be rather a hazardous experiment to accept the invitation of a resident of China, Japan, or the Straits Settlements to partake of his bill of fare, but, after all, there are so many things from these countries that we know and have wel- comed to our own table for years that we should not be averse to trying a few of their less-known foods. We can get a good idea of what the Japanese eat from a description by J. Alexis Schriver, of our De- partment of Commerce. Eice is the staple food, but barley, millet, wheat, and buckwheat are also used. We have no sauce, unless it is tomato catsup, that has so important a place as does soy, the sauce made from the soya-bean. We have become somewhat familiar with its flavor, as it is the basis of the well- known Worcestershire sauce. Soy is always on the table in Japan, and nearly every article eaten is first dipped in it to acquire some of its flavor. The boarding-school girl, who with us is said to live on pickles, would be at home among the Jap- anese, for they pickle and eat a great variety of vegetables, especially radishes, cucumbers, egg- plants, and small turnips. For breakfast, instead of the American cereals, toast, and coffee, the 151 152 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR Japanese meal consists of miso, a soup made from strips of radishes, seaweed, eggplant, and other vegetables, cooked with bean curd and water, rice, pickles, and tea without sugar or cream. At other meals fish, dried or cured, when it cannot be ob- tained fresh, is usually served, with vegetable or fish soup. Except in the case of a few strictly maritime coun- tries it has been observed that in all lands the seed of some member of the grass family — some cereal — is cultivated as the staple food of the people. Now- adays we consider wheat the basic food of the civilized nations, and to attain this exalted position it has been improved by careful selection and in its advance in popularity has gradually driven out the coarser and cheaper grains. For the com- mon people of Central Europe and Russia, rye has been for many years and still is the staple; there was a time wh-en barley-flour and barley-meal were the chief breadstuffs of the inhabitants of northern Germany and even of Great Britain. Referring to the national diet of Scotland, Dr. Johnson once wittily remarked that oats are "a grain which in England is given to horses, but which in Scotland supports the people. ' ' The North American Indians when discovered by European settlers were relying on maize, or Indian-corn, for their starchy food. Among the dwellers in eastern Asia and the adja- cent islands, there is no cereal that holds so impor- tant a place as does rice. LIVING WITH THE OEIENTALS 153 MILLET When we come to the cereal diet of the inhabitants of parts of China, Japan, India, and Africa, we find it to be a little seed, not much larger than the head of a pin, known as millet, a name coming from the Latin mille, a thousand, given to it because of the fact that there are such large numbers of tiny seeds in the head. This grain grows much like a grass and is so very prohfic that one seed will yield an increase five times as great as a grain of wheat. This abundant production must be what is re- ferred to by Alice Gary in "Work": With the hand on the spade and the heart in the sky, Dress the ground and till it ; Turn in the little seed brown and dry, Turn out the golden millet. It hardly seems credible, yet from what is known of the food habits of the peoples of the Orient, it appears that millet feeds one-third of the inhabitants of the earth. We in the Occident know virtually nothing of such thickly inhabited countries where the teeming millions toil for a mere pittance simply to sustain life. We can hardly appreciate the fact that Japan uses annually 35,000,000 bushels of millet, and that India sows from thirty-five to forty million acres with this cereal. In our own country millet is sometimes cultivated for stock feed, but with the people of the East miUet- bread or porridge is often the only thing that stands between them and starvation. This bread is nutri- 154 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR tious and palatable when fresh, but after a short time becomes dark and crumbles easily. We can and do, of course, raise all the millet for which we have a use in this country, and so it may be regarded as a foreign product, adopted as a human food only by foreigners. There are many varieties of millet and millet-like plants grown in different parts of the world, as for instance, the Hungarian or Itahan millet, the Sanna-millet of India and Mexico, broom-corn, sorghum or durra, and Kafir-corn. The seeds of some kinds are used for human food, some as fodder for the lower animals, and some for the sugar contained in the green and succulent stalks. In China both a tall and a short variety are raised. TAEO (dASHBEN) On account of our limited acquaintance with the root-crops used in different countries, we are likely to believe that the potato is the only suitable vege- table of this class and that nothing could take its place. In tropical countries, however, there are dozens of other roots used as human food, and some of them are of great commercial importance and form the principal starchy diet of millions of people. The use of the manioc has already been referred to. In warm countries, especially in the Orient and the Hawaiian Islands, one of the staple root-crops is the Taro, known also as the Trinidad dasheen. Since its introduction into the United States in 1905 it has become one of the important products in the agri- culture of our own Southern States. It can be groAvn at small expense, and as it contains about 50 per LIVING WITH THE ORIENTALS 155 cent, more protein and 50 per cent, more starch and sugar than the potato it is really a cheaper food than the Irish potato, even if produced at equal cost. As the name "dasheen" is but a corruption of the French de la Chine, meaning from China, it is sup- posed that the root came at first from that country. Its true origin is rather uncertain, but we know that it was introduced into the United States from Trini- dad. The dasheen plant appears somewhat like the familiar elephant-ear which grows in marshy places, but those who have tried them tell us that the tubers of the latter are not good eating. In flavor and texture when cooked the dasheen is something between the chestnut and the potato. Under the microscope its starch grains appear more like those of rice and are extremely small. One peculiarity about the cultivation of the dasheen is that while it may be grown as an upland plant it does much better under irrigation. The roots grow best in a rich, moist soil where the fields can be flooded with water while the crop is growing. Those who have traveled in the Orient, especially in Hawaii, will not fail to remember the dish called "poi" that is in such universal use among the natives. This is made by cooking the taro, peeling and grinding it in a mortar or mill into a sticky mass with a little water. When the paste becomes per- fectly smooth it is put in a covered pot to ferment, or it may be made up into a kind of a mush or por- ridge. As a taste must be cultivated for this "poi" it is probable that among our own people the vege- table will for the present be used like the potato, 156 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR that is, boiled, baked, or scalloped. The dasheen starch could, if cheap enough, be used as a flour-sub- stitute, but, thank fortune, the days of wheat-substi- tute breads are now over. Dasheen shoots are said to be very palatable, taking the place in the Orient of asparagus and suggesting in flavor the common edible mushroom. There has been so far little appreciable importa- tion of the taro into this country, although some have been brought into Eastern cities and to the South to supply the Oriental population. The bulbs have been shipped in small quantities from China under the name of "China potatoes." BAMBOO SPEOUTS We are more familiar with the use of the bamboo to make fish-poles and canes than as a food prod- uct. Indeed, who that has seen, in semi-tropical countries, the thickets of bamboo crowded together and growing without branches straight to the height of fifty feet or more would suggest that they might be used for human food? David Fairchild, in a recent article, says: "Thou- sands of hillsides in China are covered with bamboo- groves. Through their thin green leaves the sun- light falls with a greenish tint. Their plume-Hke stems rise fifty feet into the air and for thirty feet are without a branch — just jointed, brilliant, green tubes, the most fascinating thing in the world to put one's hands on. "For decades these groves furnish to their owners an abundance of young shoots in the early spring, LIVING WITH THE ORIENTALS 157 shoots that are as good to eat as asparagus, and poles so light and from which so many things can be easily and quickly made that they belong in a class by themselves. This bamboo can be grown from the Carolinas to Texas, and there is no reason to doubt that our grandchildren will wander, as do the Chinese children, through beautiful groves of this wonderful plant." Americans who sojourn in the Far East soon be- come as fond of this table delicacy as are the natives of these countries. The sprouts are cooked by boil- ing and served like asparagus. Creamed bamboo sprouts are much in favor with Orientals. One con- cern packs as many as seven hundred thousand cans annually, and no small quantity of them are served in "Chinese restaurants" as a part of those nonde- script mixtures we all enjoy now and then. BEAN-SPEOUTS Who ever heard of eating bean-sprouts? They may not be very popular with the native American, but they certainly have an extensive use, for numer- ous baskets of bean-sprouts are exposed for sale in the markets of California and in those of our East- ern cities that have a large Oriental population. THE LOQTJAT- There is a delicious fruit, the loquat, belonging to the rose family and hence related to the apple, pear^ and quince, which has not received attention in this country commensurate with its merits. Descriptions of this fruit, as found growing in Japan, were pub- 158 FOOD PRODUCTS FEOM AFAR lished some two hundred years ago. It is probably- indigenous to the moist regions of central-eastern China. At present there are many localities in that country where, as far as the eye can see, there is nothing growing but luxurious orchards of the loquat, which seems pecuUarly adapted to these low, rich lands with their abundance of water. Dr. Alex- ander Kennedy, a missionary in Tangsi, said that in a single year twenty thousand dollars' worth of this fruit was exported from the vicinity of that village alone. The loquat, like many of our own summer visitors, does best and seems to enjoy life most in a mild ch- mate near the seashore. On the steep and breezy hillsides of Japan, especially around the Gulf of Kagashima, are some of the most famous loquat orchards of the world. For a thousand years this tree has flourished in Japan, but only gradually has it become known to the Western world. The climate of England is too severe for growing the loquat, but it has become common in Italy, Aus- tralia, Hawaii, and Chile. The tree was introduced into our own country as early as 1889, but strangely enough it was prized rather as an ornamental tree than for its fruit. One reason for this may be that like the citrus fruits it is quite sensitive to low tem- peratures ; and although the tree may grow luxuri- antly, the fruit will not mature very far north. The loquat finds a congenial home in the Gulf States, especially in the vicinity of the ocean. A tree that is so injudicious as to blossom and set its fruit in December and January must seek a climate where LIVING WITH THE ORIENTALS 159 only light frosts occur at this time of the year. Since orchard heating and the use of smudge-pots has be- come so common in the orange-groves of California, this same procedure may extend the area of loquat growth to more northerly regions. The leaves of the loquat are thick and leathery, as thus the tree can withstand a large amount of heat and drouth. Hot winds will, however, injure the maturing of the fruit. Although the loquat grows readily from the seed, the seedlings should always be budded to obtain a good variety of fruit. As the tree is very prolific and likely to overbear, in Japan it is a common practice to crowd the trees in the rows so as to dwarf their growth. The fruit grows in bunches, each fruit larger than a plum. It is oval in shape, and yellowish to reddish in color. It should stay on the tree until well colored. For shipment the loquats are best packed in small orange-boxes and handled much as are citrus fruits. They have been shipped from California to the East- ern market, but the supply is not at present large enough to provide economical shipping arrange- ments, as is the case with oranges. A demand for a larger crop must first be assured. What about the fruit itself, and its uses? The food value of the loquat, like that of most fruits, is not in its high calories, but there are other qualities that make it a valuable addition to the diet. The edible portion contains 85 per cent, of water, with 12 per cent, of fruit-sugar and less than 1 per cent, of cane-sugar. The skin is thin, and inside this is the fleshy pulp, surrounding a few rather large seeds 160 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR of irregular shape. The pulp has an agreeable sub- acid taste. Much of the fruit is sold for fresh con- sumption, but as it becomes better known there will be a greater demand for the loquat for making jams, jellies, and preserves, and for canning. It is rich in pectin, the gelatinizing principle of fruits, and as it contains considerable acid, lends itself very readily to the making of jelly. This is reddish in color, firm, and of excellent flavor. The juice may also be mixed with that of other fruits to vary the flavor. The use of the fruit is increasing very rapidly in Cali- fornia. JUJUBB In discussing the flora of China, Frank N. Meyers, agricultural explorer of our Department of Agricul- ture, speaks of the jujube as one of the most inter- esting of the Chinese fruits. There are several varie- ties of this plant which seem to grow wild in north- em China. It is a spiny shrub or small tree, some varieties of which have been cultivated in parts of southern Europe as well as in western Asia. The jujube fruit is a drupe, varying in size from that of a small plum to that of a hen's egg. It is of a reddish-brown color, with a yellow pulp, and has a stone similar to that of the common plum. Some varieties are soft when ripe and have to be eaten within a few days, while others can be easily dried and in this condition kept for several months. The pulp improves in quaUty and flavor on storage. Some varieties are smoked like ham or herring and exported from Shantung Province as a much prized Courtesy Pan-American Union PAPAYA-TREE Courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture LITCHI-TREES AND FRUIT LIVING WITH THE OEIENTALS 161 sweetmeat. Other varieties are preserved with sugar and honey, and in this condition compare favorably with Persian dates. Preserved jujubes are served in the best Oriental hotels and on the first-class steamers plying between Eastern ports. The dried fruit is used in the Mediterranean regions as a winter dessert and is very popular for its re- freshing acid flavor. A jujube-paste was formerly imported into this country and western Europe. This was made of gum-arabic and sugar evaporated to a paste with a decoction of the jujube fruit, which gave the con- fection its fine taste. But, alas! the jujube confec- tion which is now on the market, especially in Eng- land, is made from gum-arabic, gelatin, sugar, and some artificial flavor, and is said to contain none of the real jujube pulp. There is one variety of this fruit which is a native of northern Africa and south- em Europe and is largely used by the Arabs. They dry the fruits, pound them to remove the stones, and make the pulp into a cake having the color and flavor of gingerbread. An illustration of one of the Oriental uses of the jujube is shown in the cut, which is an immense cake made of proso, or millet, and jujubes boiled together. This is sold to the natives at less than a penny a sHce. As to the growing of the jujube in this country, experiments show that it can be cultivated satis- factorily in the Southwest, particularly in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, and 162 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR soutlieni Utah. Some varieties, notably those grown in Texas and California, prove very fruitful and have readily withstood our climate. PEBSIMMONS. The persimmon is another fruit which has been cultivated to such an extent in the Far East that in the fresh and dried state it is of as much impor- tance on the market there as is the peach with us. This fruit seems to belong to both hemispheres, for it grows wild in Japan and China, as well as on this continent from southern Ohio down into Mexico. By cultivation and careful selection the Japanese gardener has developed a luscious reddish-yeUow fruit as large as our apple, which we do not at first recognize as in any way related to the wild per- simmon of the Ohio Valley and the South. The Southern negroes wait until the early frosts tinge the woods and the leaves of the persimmon tree have fallen; then when the fruit glistens on the naked branches an abundant crop can be gathered by shak- ing the trees or thrashing the branches with poles ; whence the proverb, ' ' The longest pole gets the per- simmon, ' ' so often applied to the means used to win success. It is not really necessary that the frost should touch the fruit to change the puckery, astringent taste caused by an excess of tannic acid to the sugary flavor so much appreciated. In fact, many varieties of persimmons ripen where there is no frost at all. The Japanese have an ingenious method of arti- ficially ripening persimmons by placing them in an LIVING WITH THE OEIENTALS 163 empty cask from wMch the sake, or native beer, has been recently drawn. A study of this process led investigators of the Bureau of Chemistry to decide that this effect was produced by the small quantity of carbon dioxid gas that was left in the cask. Ex- periments confirmed this theory, and now persim- mons may be rapidly ripened in an atmosphere of this gas by merely placing them in chambers filled with it. The Japanese dry this fruit in the same way that figs are dried and export the product to other countries. Horticulturists have been very successful in rais- ing the Japanese varieties of persimmon in Cali- fornia and the Southwest, and the persimmon is coming into our markets in increasing quantities every year, LITCHI-FBtriT In Chinatown, San Francisco, and in many of our larger cities where the Oriental population is large, dried htchi-fruits or nuts have become quite a com- mon article of merchandise. We always associate this fruit, and its peculiar sub-acid, slightly smoky flavor, with the Chinese. As children many of us remember how the boy who did not call "Ching- chong- Chinaman eats dead rats" at the town laun- dry-man was rewarded by a few of these strange nuts "with a candy inside." There are no less than sixteen species of the htchi, so that the descriptions sometimes given do not seem to tally accurately, as they refer to different varie- ties. The fruit is usually globose, having a dull brick-red pericarp which when ruptured discloses 164 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR a sweet white mass surrounding a glossy chestnut- brown seed. Although sometimes called a Chinese nut, it is really a fruit. Besides its use as a fruit, the Chinese serve this dried so-called nut as a sweetmeat at their feasts, and often give it as a ceremonial present to newly- married couples. They use the fruit in tea, on account of its sub-acid flavor; in fact it does com- bine to some extent the sweetness of sugar with the acid of the lemon, so that the addition to tea is very appropriate. Its food value lies in the sugar and starch content, which is about 77 per cent. The acid flavor which makes the taste so agreeable is due to the presence of citric acid, the acid found in lemons. None of the jelly-forming pectin, so common in most fruits, is present. The litchi is grown in China, India, and the Malay archipelago, but there does not seem to be a suffi- cient demand for it with us to introduce it into the list of fruits "grown in the United States of America. ' ' DTTEIAN" There is a fruit, somewhat oval like a cocoanut, which is produced on trees sixty to seventy feet high, found growing in the Malay archipelago, and cultivated in the East Indies, the Malay peninsula, and Siam. This fruit, the Durio or durian (from Malay duri, a thorn), is very popular among the Dyaks and with the Europeans who live in the East, but is little known elsewhere. Alfred Russel Wal- lace, the naturalist, in describing it, says: "The fruit is round or slightly oval, about the size of a LIVING WITH THE ORIENTALS 165 large cocoanut, of a green color, and covered all over with short stout spines, the ends of which touch each other, and are consequently somewhat hexagonal, while the points are very strong and sharp. It is so completely covered that if the stalk is broken off it is a difficult matter to lift one from the ground. The outer rind is so thick and tough that from whatever height it may fall it is never broken. The interior of the fruit is filled with a mass of cream-colored pulp, imbedded in which are two or three seeds the size of chestnuts. This pulp is the edible part, and its consistence and flavor are indescribable. A rich butter-Hke custard flavored with almonds gives the best general idea of it ; but intermingled with it come wafts of flavor that call to mind cream-cheese, onion- sauce, brown sherry, and other incongruities. Then there is a rich gelatinous substance in the pulp, which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy, yet one feels the want of none of these qualities, for it is perfect as it is. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durio is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. When the fruit is ripe, it falls off itself ; and the only way to eat Durios in perfection is to get them as they fall, and the smell is then less overpowering. ' ' Says Mr. Wallace, "If I had to fix on two fruits only as representing the perfection of two classes, I should certainly choose the Durio and the orange as the king and queen of fruits." When the fruit begins to ripen, it falls daily and 166 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR almost hourly, and accidents not infrequently hap- pen to persons walking or working under the trees. When the Durio strikes a man in its fall it produces a dreadful wound, the strong spines tearing open the flesh, while the blow itself is very heavy. No serious attempts have been made to cultivate the Durio in the Central American countries. PAPAYA In these days when the chronic dyspeptic walks among us and when the vegetable, animal, and min- eral kingdoms are being investigated to find a food or medicine that will stimulate the lagging digestive system to new and victorious attacks on the endless variety of food presented for approval and disposal, it is refreshing to find that in some countries in the Far East there is a digestive ferment or enzyme prepared in nature ready for use. This is the papaya, or as it is sometimes called, the pawpaw. It is in no way, however, related to the American fruit of that name. The papaya, which is about the size of a small melon and of a greenish color, is a favorite break- fast-dish for travelers in southern India, Siam, and Ceylon. Not only does it contain the digestive fer- ment papain, but it is itself a luscious appetizer. As soon as the fruit is cut, it must be scored several times with a knife ; otherwise the juice hardens and looks like tapioca. The papaya cannot be kept even in cold storage more than three days after it is picked, so that it never appears in our American markets. As an illustration of the digestive quali- LIVING WITH THE ORIENTALS 167 ties of the papaya, it is said that the milk or even a decocotion of the fresh leaves will render the tough- est beef tender in two hours. In Siam your cook will wrap raw beef in papaya-leaves for half an hour before cooking, or put a piece of the green fruit into the stew when the meat will not boil tender. It will digest ten or twelve times its weight of egg albumen. The pure ferment may be prepared from the fruit, and as a medicinal product has been placed on the American market. But there are other uses for the papaya ; it intensifies color if used in washing black clothing, makes an excellent cosmetic, or can be utilized for making soap. In order that the Occi- dental world may have the use of this remarkable fruit, the mills or juice is dried and canned. Thus the canned papaya now finds a place in the world's markets, and if you are really anxious to become acquainted with it you can probably procure it from your delicatessen dealer. CBABS- Crab-meat in tin cans is often imported from Japan, but few of us are aware of the details of the process by which it is prepared for foreign markets. The principal factories are located on the island of Komjuro. Crabs are caught usually in the autumn and winter seasons, at a distance of from twelve to fourteen miles off the coast, in comparatively deep water. "Flounder-nets," as they are called, which are really large sack-shaped bags with a mouth opening perhaps ten feet in width, are trailed be- hind the boats. The catch is from three hundred 168 FOOD PEODUCTS FEOM AFAR to five hundred crabs a day for each boat, but the day is a long one and the work of rowing the boats and hauling in the nets is very laborious. Do not imagine that the Japanese crabs are little fellows such as are caught so readily along our Atlantic coast. The "babies" often weigh eight pounds, and many of the ' ' old ones ' ' are as big around as a bushel basket and weigh more than thirty pounds. In Japan many of the canning-factories are small and in reality a part of the dwellings of their owners.. It is a cheering fact to know that the Japanese carry their proverbial cleanliness into the canning indus- try. The crabs are boiled and the meat is picked from the shells by women and girls. It is packed into the cans and heated under pressure for an hour at 228 degrees. The cans are then taken out of the kettle, vented by punching a hole in the top, re- soldered, and reprocessed for something more than an hour under pressure. Crabs are usually put up in lacquered cans, and the meat is protected by being wrapped in parchment-paper to prevent blackening, which often occurs when it comes in direct contact with tin-plate. Imports for 1921 were 2,580,657 pounds. SHEIMP- Shrimp are also canned for export in Japan. They are caught in trawl-nets, having a one-third inch mesh. It is an interesting fact that this shrimp- fishing is always done on dark nights only, probably because the water is so clear that the boats and nets could be readily seen by the crustaceans from the Courtesy T. C. Whitney Co. TEA-PICKING IN POEMOSA Courtesy T. C. Whitney Co. PLANTATION IN CEYLON Courtesy T. C. Whitney Co. FIRST FIRING FOR THE BLACK TEA Courtesy T. C. Wliitncy Co. WEIGHING THE TEA LIVING WITH THE OEIENTALS 169 bottom thirty feet below. At any rate, the shrimp refuse to be caught on moonhght nights. From the fishermen's boats the shrimp are trans- ferred to pots or tanks of boiling water at the can- neries and cooked. They are next dumped upon tables, and the meat is removed by the women who generally are employed for this work. For first- class goods the shrimp are placed in thin cotton bags, and then in a lacquered can which is Hned with parchment-paper. This precaution is taken to avoid blackening the product, an effect said to be due to the presence of phosphorus in the food. Shrimp and prawns as canned in Japan are "dry-packed," that is, without the addition of any salt and water, as most of us know, and are then processed under pressure. An agent of the United States Department of Commerce says: "If the export of crab-meat to the United States and imports of condensed milk from the United States are disregarded, there is a big balance in favor of Japanese canned products. This is because there are so many more Japanese in America than Americans in Japan, and the people of each nation have a prejudice in favor of canned foods from their own country." As a real luxury and an expensive one, the Chi- nese waiter will serve you edible birds '-nests. These are a very delicate semi-transparent substance made by certain swallow-like birds known as salangane. 170 FOOD PEODUCTS FROM AFAR These birds nest in almost inaccessible holes in the cliffs overhanging the sea, especially in Siam and the Malay archipelago. The nests are made from a variety of algae, gathered by the birds. This is very laborious work, requiring three months of tireless industry on their part, and just before the birds are ready to lay their eggs the nest is stolen by the natives. Undaunted, the birds build another nest, strange as it may seem, in thirty days ; this is also stolen, but the third nest is left mimolested, that there may be at least one brood of young and no danger of exterminating the little manufacturer of their titbits. In preparing the birds '-nests for the table, they are washed in cold water, cooked for eight hours in a closed vessel, mixed with chicken-broth, seasoned, and boiled again. This delicacy is very popular with Occidentals as well as with the natives who have been accustomed to it all their lives. TEA, Tea does our fancy aid, Kepress the vapors which The head invade, And keeps the palace of the soul serene. The gracious summons, "Tea is served," comes to the tired laborer calling him to rest and relaxa- tion as well as to the ladies of "high degree" who "toil not, neither do they spin." Throughout the Oriental and English-speaking world it is the sum- mons to sociability and exchange of gossip. Sydney Smith said: "Thank God for tea! What would LIVING WITH THE OEIENTALS 171 the world do without tea? I am glad I was not born before tea." It was ages ago that the virtues of tea were dis- covered. Kieulung, in the fourth century, after tell- ing how to make the beverage, said: "At your ease drink the precious beverage so prepared, which will chase away the five causes of sorrow. You can taste and feel but not describe the state of repose pro- duced by a beverage thus prepared." One species of the herb has been found growing wild in the mountain ranges of Assam, a province of India, and some have argued that this was the original source of the plant. How did the knowledge of the use of tea spread to Occidental lands? Probably Moorish travelers were responsible for the introduction of tea into Mohammedan countries as early as the tenth cen- tury. Adam Olearius, writing in 1631, has told us how the Persians frequented the taverns to drink "thea" or "cha" which the Tartars had brought from China, "imagining that it alone would keep a man in perfect health." Those of us who have not forgotten our history will remember that there was a time when the Portu- guese were the greatest voyagers, discoverers, and colonizers of the world. It is not strange, then, that these adventurers, as early as 1559, brought from the East to Europe the knowledge of the virtues of the "chia," a beverage which they said the people of China prepare and "which is extremely whole- 172 FOOD PEODUCTS FBOM AFAR some against phlegm, langor, and a promoter of longevity." The Dutch East India Co. manifested their usual "sagacity" in their transactions with the Chinese. On one of their voyages they carried a quan- tity of sage, and telling the unsophisticated Chinese that this bland garden herb contained all the virtues of their tea, they induced them to exchange three or four pounds of Chinese tea for one pound of sage. About 1658, partly through Dutch travelers and partly through direct importation, tea came into such general use in England that we read attention was called to "that excellent and by all physicians approved China drink called by the Chineans 'cha,' by other nations 'tay,' sold at the Sultaner's Head, the Cophee-House by the Royal Dutch Exchange, London. ' ' From this time on the use of tea in Great Britain has increased continually until to-day the annual importation into England provides for seven pounds per capita. It has become a national bever- age. Was there ever a chapter in American history that more graphically tells the character, the loyalty, and the determination of the colonists than what js facetiously called the Boston Tea-party? The story is known and delighted in by every schoolboy, who would like to have been "in it." As an act of defi- ance against "taxation without representation" it startled the world and laid the foundation of a fed- eration of States, or as J. M, Walsh expressed it: "From the minute the first tea-leaf touched the LIVING WITH THE ORIENTALS 173 water the whole atmosphere surrounding the issues involved changed ! In that instant, with the rapidity of thought, the Colonies vanished and America arose." We are all more or less familiar with the growing and curing of tea. We know perhaps that Japan, China, India, Formosa, Ceylon, and Java are the only countries where tea in any commercial quanti- ties is produced. We have probably learned that the two kinds of tea are the unfermented or green and the fermented or black, and that Japan is the only country that produces only green tea. From the same plant and the same leaves we can obtain either green or black tea, the difference depending upon the method of curing the leaves. Imports of tea for 1921 were 76,486,766 pounds. The tea plantations of the East are beautiful to look upon. The evergreen shrub is started from the seeds which are grown in the nursery, and the small plants are set out in rows about four feet apart. As they grow they are vigorously pruned so that numerous young shoots form. The leaves may be picked after the plants are three years old, and the picking is repeated as often as young leaves are produced. It seems rather difficult for us to understand the names of the different kinds of tea and the methods used in grading. We can remember something about this, however, by referring to the illustrations. Un- fortunately, though, the part of the twig known by one name in one country is called by another name in other countries. In the illustration the name 174 FOOD PRODUCTS FROM AFAR above the leaf is that used in India, Java, and Cey- lon, while that below the leaf is the Chinese name. Different grades are obtained not only by this selec- tive picking of leaves but by sifting and picking over the finished tea, thus giving samples having various degrees of coarseness. The tea-growers of Japan, China, and Formosa in making green tea, after allowing the fresh leaves to wilt, carry them at once to a room where heat can be applied so as to close the pores and stop evaporation of volatile substances. The leaves are shaken in a shallow pan above a fire of hot coals, much in the same way as we pop com, only at a lower temperature, all the time being constantly stirred with the bare hands. When heated sufficiently the leaves are transferred to bambob tables, where thej are rolled and curled by hand until sufficient mois- ture has been driven off. They are then dried more thoroughly over the charcoal fire, and if treated properly will retain their green color. If black or fermented tea is to be prepared the natural sap is allowed to remain in the leaf for a time after it is picked, and to this end the leaves are spread out in the air on large mats for twenty- four hours and cured much as we dry hay. They are then heaped and allowed to stand for an hour or more until finally they have darkened in color and enait a fragrant odor. They are then fired sev- eral times, exposed to the air, and finally curled, rolled, and afterwards sifted and graded. The most characteristic constituents of tea are thein, an alkaloid identical with the caffein of coffee. LIVING WITH THE ORIENTALS 175 volatile oil, to which the odor and flavor is largely due, and tannin, an astringent. This "puckery" sub- stance, which is more abundant in green teas than in black, is present in greater quantity on account of the different processes used in curing the green and the black tea. In making the beverage freshly boiled water is poured over the tea, and it is allowed to stand in contact with the leaves for a short time only. The use of the "tea-ball" is to be particularly recommended. CHAPTER X A FEE8H CAEGO FEOM TEOPICAL ISLANDS INTO the harbor of San Francisco through the Golden Gate come the vessels from Hawaii and the Phihppines laden with sugar; past the Statue of Liberty and into the port of New York sail the vessels from Continental Europe, from the West Indies, and Central America ; and into our Southern ports come vessels from the torrid bays on the south- em shore of the Gulf of Mexico, all laden with raw sugar. This comes to us partly for refining and reexport and partly for home consumption. In normal times all these foreign nations and our non-contiguous territories have contributed to help fill Uncle Sam's sugar-bowl. The non-contiguous territory furnished 140,000,000 pounds more sugar in 1917 than we raised at home. The island of Cuba alone in 1917 sent us 44 per cent, of all the sugar we consumed. Porto Eico, Hawaii, and the Philippines sent us 2,407,875,006 pounds, and other outside coun- tries provided 5,064,806,051 pounds. We raise only 26.7 per cent, of the sugar which we use, so with all our encouragement to the industry sugar is still very largely a "foreign food." The sugar trade of the world in 1921 was perhaps more nearly normal than that of many other commodities, and still we im- 176