Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-12

New Workers who enjoy good things
to eat and who go TO the big hotels to
feast upon new contraptions in the GU
lInary line are just now enjoying a
brand new vegetable, says a special
Washington correspondent of the New
York Post. 1t is called "chayote" and
belongs TO the eggplant variety, but
has been developed by scientific agri-
culturists SO successfully that it bears
about the same resemblance to the
original stock as a twenty inch prize
chrysanthemum does to the original
little bloom the size of dollar, from
which it has been developed.
1t is not an unusual thing for the ex-
perts in the bureau of plant introduc-
ton in the department OF agriculture
to receive almost plaintive appeals
from chefs employed in the great hO-
| tells for some new food product upon
which they may exercise their ingenu-
| ity to tickle the jaded palates of their
particular and finicky patrons. Epi-
cures and persistent diners out make
| demands for something new in the line
of eatables, something possessing just
| touch of sweet or tinge of acid
which will differentiate it from the
staple foods OF which they have be-
| come tired.
The task of discovering new foods is
| committed to the care of young men of
scientific training who are sent by the
government to all quarters of the globe
! to search for the merest snip of plant
| which seems to have qualities capable
of development or 10 choose out of a
forest nut bearing tree which pre-
| sents Indications of commercial posi-
bilities as producer.
In following out such processes as
these an insignificant plant stock bear
ing a limited number of small fruits
has been developed into the new cha
vote, a plant which in its Improved
form combines the three important
/ characteristics necessary to great val
lie as q food product-quality. produc
tiveness and reasonable cost. The cha
vote will grow 600 fruits to the vine, n
more numerous product and at the
same time of better quality and of lar
ger size than any market vegetable of
its kind heretofore grown. Growers
may sell their crops at very low fig
ure and still make money on the ia
veStment. At present profit may be
made by selling them at 10 cents
apiece, and when the production be-
comes more general the price will
probably decrease at least half.
Another food stock relied upon 10y |
chefs for n good many connections OF
the substantial sort is rice. For popu- !
lar consumption one of the chief argu- |
ments for acceptance must be cheap |
ness of cost The rice planters of Lou |
isiana am Texas We're losing S3O00.0O0 |
q year through breakage of the long |
kernel variety in the milling process in |
vogue The manner of extracting the i
kernels by passing the stock between |
rollers is admittedly bad, but no better
system has been devised. Consequent |
~ the experts here began an lnvestiga- |
ton, with the result that there has |
been imported from Japan short kerr
mel rice called "kiushu." Already one
half the whole area of the Texas and |
Louisiana rice fields has been planted |
with it. a strange fact discovered Ia
the introduction of this Japanese rice
is that it does not do as well in wet
regions as In dry. For Mississippi it is
not so good variety as they are now
growing, but for the Texans it is much
better
The problem OF what TO grow in the
semiarid sections of the country has
been responsible for some of the i'm
portant seed and plant Introduction
work accomplished in this country.
Some months ago attention was called
in this correspondence to the ready ac-
ceptance with which the durum or
macaroni wheat of the Mediterranean
countries had been received In the
semiarid portions of the west, its cul-
tivation being so successful that the
experiment had been tried of exporting
a cargo abroad TO the very section
from which the seed came originally.
Statistics gathered since that article
was written show that last years crop
of this new variety reached the high
total OF 20000,000 bushels. Because of
the ability to grow ii on land which
had too little rainfall for raising the
standard varieties of wheat and be-
cause of the larger yield TO the acre
the growers of durum wheat found IL
possible to pay all the cost of cultiva-
ton, garnering and transportation TO
Europe and to set il down there at
profit in competition with home grown
wheat.
An agricultural explorer sent TO Tur-
kestan Il number of years ago brought
back a species of alfalfa which he pre-
dicted could be cultivated on the arid
lands of the west with much greater
success than any then known. The
new variety has been found TO yield
half again as much and in some IocalI-
ties double the crop of the ordinary al
falfa. What such an increase means
may be roughly estimat-
ed when 1t is known that its Introduc-
ton affects the whole section from the
two Dakotas and Montana along the !
upper boundary to Wyoming and Utah /,
md down through Nebraska and Kan