T

Yang Taw Pie

Sake

Kaki

HIS is not the bill of fare of a Chinese eating house nor yet the menu of a Japanese restaurant-it is simply the daily meal of an American family some two decades hence if the Department of Agriculture succeeds in its attempts to introduce a large number of new foods to this country for the dual purpose of supplying new dainties for jaded appetites and reducing the cost of living.

Uncle Sam, in his parental goodness, has determined to decrease the price of food as much as possible and, for this purpose, has delegated the Department of Agriculture in general and Dr. David S. Fairchild, "Agricultural Explorer in

Charge of the Foreign Plant Section of the Bureau of Plant Industry Section", in particular to see what can be done about it.

The result is: the introduction of new, prolific plants and animals to supply the ever-increasing demand for cheaper food which is palatable and as nourishing as the more expensive species.

More than 30,000 fruits and vegetables have been tested by Uncle Sam and, according to Dr. Fairchild, a goodly portion of the foodstuffs which have been regarded as staples since the days of the first settlers are doomed to displacement.

Consider, for example, the above menu. "Jujube Soup"! Mention that to the average person and he will answer: "But I thought the jujube was a fruit, like an apple. How then can you make soup of it?"

The average person is
right. The jujube is a
fruit, but a most re-
markable one. It is
about the shape,
size, and
and appear-
ance of a crab
apple, but contains
only a single seed.
It grows on a
spiny tree, long and
bare of trunk, with
its foliage cropping
out at the very top like
a royal palm of the
tropics. The jujube itself
is not new to the United

for years to flavor candies and other confections.

apples are prepared, used as a sauce or filling for pie, preserved or dried. Finally, its juice may be extracted and used as a flavoring extract or a delicious fruit broth with highly nutritive qualities.

"Petsai"-or, as the Chinese have it, "Pe tsai"-is the substitute for cabbage with which Dr. Fairchild is at present experimenting with excellent results.

In appearance this vegetable is as different from the American cabbage as can well be imagined. It is tall and cylindrical and, instead of being broad and heart-shaped, its leaves are narrow and delicately curling, with frilled edges.

The petsai can be grown on any land where the ordinary cabbage could be cultivated and on many where it could not. Usually its growth will take care of itself and it is no uncommon thing for a petsai

to reach sixty pounds in weight. Department of Agriculture officials, however, advise that it be plucked when about. eight pounds in weight, its flavor being then the most delicate and appealing.

This new importation, according to Uncle Sam's experts, will cause a decided drop in the price of dinners. Cabbage long ago ceased to be a cheap dish. But petsai requires none of the care which has to be lavished on cabbage and will thrive in almost any climate and any soil. It is also extremely prolific and can be prepared for the table in a multitude of ways.

As a substitute for the potato of commerce the "Dasheen" has long ago passed the experimental stage. It has been served at a number of banquets in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, and the comments everywhere were that it far surpassed the Irish tuber in flavor, having a rich, nutty taste. It can be boiled, baked, or served in any other way that potatoes are used and also makes a delicious stuffing for veal or poultry.

In appearance the dasheen is weird and wonderful, having a striped, hairy skin and a shape which is a cross between a large potato and a sugar beet. One of its principal advantages over the common potato is that it is much larger in size and yield and also that it will grow in hot, moist regions which would cause its common cousin to rot-all of which means a decrease in cost. Another point of superiority lies in the fact that, while the tops of potatoes are useless as food, the tops of the dasheen make delicious greens and

actual tests have shown that dasheen growers can depend on a crop of from four hundred to four hundred and fifty bushels per acre!

The "Udo" is the plant destined by the Department of Agri

culture to replace

asparagus, a delicacy

which it closely resembles.

than asparagus, grows in any

TEVIS BAMBOO GROVE, BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA First large bamboo grove to be established in the United States.

soil suitable for the latter, and requires far less care. Also in the udo one eats both tip and stalk, the latter being differ⚫ent in taste from the former.

In addition to serving the Japanese luxury in any of the familiar ways in which asparagus is prepared, it can also be eaten raw as a salad. It is thus possible to serve the new vegetable twice in the same meal, prepared in different ways. For example, the stalks might be creamed. and the tips made into a delicious

STATES

vegetable would

then have the taste and appearance of two-an advantage which the economical housewife could not afford to overlook. Anyone who has visited Chinese cafes has tasted the tender bamboo shoots which form a component part of real "chop suey". They have also partaken of "rice tips" and of a product of the "soy bean" which is one of the staples of Chinese diet. Since 1907, more than three

hundred varieties of this bean have been gathered by plant explorers in the far East and sent to Washington where but twentythree species had been known before.

The soy bean, once started, grows wild and yields several crops a season. It is capable of preparation in a multitude of ways, from being baked to forming a delicious salad. In the latter form it is particularly appetizing when combined. with the lichee nut, another importation from China with which Uncle Sam's experimentalists are having marked success. The fruit of the "Yang Taw" vine, which grows along the Yang Tse Valley in China, was first sent here by American missionaries. The yang taw has the flavor of the finest gooseberries and makes an especially palatable filling for tarts and pies, besides forming the foundation. for a delicious beverage

when steamed and distilled. Among the fruits which have been imported extensively is the mango. There are more than five hundred species of this fruit being grown in India today and the Department of Agriculture now has over one hundred of these varieties among its plant immigrants. They have been raised extensively in Florida, Porto Rico, and Hawaii, and dealers maintain that a single fruit from one of these trees has a market value of seventy-five cents, so great is the demand. Frank N. Meyer, the "plant explorer", who is now exploring the steppes of the Tien Shan Mountains in search of a wild apple which will withstand a very low temperature, is also respon

sible for the introduction of the "kaki"-an oriental persimmon which nature has robbed of its pucker. Professor Meyer discovered this giant fruit in the Mings Tombs Valley in China and sent a number of plants to Washington where they were propagated by the Department of Agriculture with exceptionally pleasing results.

In Japan the "puckerless" quality has been obtained by packing the fruit in barrels filled with "sake", an oriental brew also to be introduced by Uncle Sam's experts, but with Professor Meyer's discovery of the kaki, the entire persimmon question has been reopened because those who have tasted it declare that its flavor sur

passes that of any fruit now generally known in this country. These are by no means the only foodstuffs which Department of Agriculture experts experts are experimenting with at the present. Among the others are the “Tung Shu nut”, a combination food, medicine, and furniture polish; the "Dahomey Tuber", which is to be to the sweet potato what the dasheen is to the white potato; the "Scarlet TurnipRadish", a huge vegetable partaking of the qualities of both edible roots inasmuch as it may be eaten raw or cooked; the "Breadfruit", a delicacy from Tahiti, and a wild peach from China.

epicures maintain that hippopotamus steak is as tender and inviting as the choicest beef.

But the efforts of the government experts are not all being used for the introduction of new plants. Animal life is also being considered and officials of the Bureau of Animal Industry claim that it will not be long before we are partaking of antelope steak-this animal having been found to be particularly well adapted to the more arid western sections of the country-and even the flesh of hippopotami. The lower valley of the Mississippi is admirably suited to the support of these huge beasts, the flesh of one of which would be equal to that of a score of cattle, and African-traveled

Hippopotami and Louisiana are not in the least connected in the mind of the laymen, but Bureau of Animal Industry experts seriously declare that they will be so within comparatively few years. In this connection it may be remembered that, only twenty years ago, almost all the dates consumed here came from the Oasis of Arabia and the Valley of the Euphrates. Today there are more than a hundred varieties successfully and commercially produced in California and Arizona.

The wonders of today are the commonplaces of tomorrow and there is no telling to what apparently impossible lengths Uncle Sam will go to relieve his people of the burden they now bear in the price of food. He has scoured the ends of the earth for new delicacies and now his experts will do their best to teach the farmers the value of these foods and the and the consumers their charm. If the cost of living doesn't materially decrease, it won't be the fault of Uncle Sam nor of his Department of Agriculture experts.