Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-04-18

Americans appropriate to their own
cuisine the best wherever it is found.
and sometimes interesting discoveries
are made as to what the other half
eat and when economy and appetizing
qualities go hand in hand we are
lucky.
The national bureau of agriculture
has men in all the corners of the earth
to find new foods for Americas mil
lions, and attention just now is riveted
upon Japan's ocean gardening of kelp.
This they plant like any staple vege-
table in the garden, only h garden in
this case Is the water of the bays and
inlets about the rocky shores Of the
islands.
At planting time the women drive
bundles of stakes, of bamboo, into the
water Of the bays at low tide, and these
catch the floating spores, or algae, Of
the marine plants, which become at
tached and in three months have grown
to full size and are ready to be drawn
up, clinging to the poles, and washed,
dried and chopped fine, are made into
"kanten" to be used in soups and
sauces or into "kombu." which much
resembles some of our patent breakfast
foods. 1t is also made into gelatin and
every Massachusetts housewife can
tell you how delicate are the buildings
and jellies made from sea moss. The
thrifty New Englanders have harvested
kelp along Cohasset and Rye Harbor
and White Horse Beaches since 1885,
and these sea farmers, it is estimated.
clear about fifty thousand dollars a
year.
Why capitalists have not taken the
purity and usefulness of sea foods into
consideration long ago and developed
the industry is a question, for every
ton of this vegetable growth represents
pounds of food that is nutritious ana
pure and the sea contains more of this
food material than the great wheat
.lelds of the Northwest.
Along the coast of Monterey. Cal.
the red lava seaweed is gathered by
the Chinese and Japanese and cured.
baled like hay and shipped abroad for
various food products.
other things the bureau of plant IN
dustry has it's official eye upon are the
"chayote," a pepper-shaped plant
about the color Of a cucumber and
flavor similar to the squash. AS it IS
a perennial, easily raised and very pro-
iillCs OCdllitS wv 0AAo " fhAOS ~ hoo
been brought to our farmers from the
West Indies. 1t is a splendid salad
plant and the metropolitan hotels of
the country have already placed it on
their bills of fare. 1t grows in any
of our lowland temperatures.
From Japan they have brought the
loquat,s a bright yellow pear-shaped
fruit as fuzzy as a peach and as re-
freshing as new plucked apricots.
Fresh artichokes were curiosity-ex-
citing strangers to US a few years ago
but now our markets have the home
grown ones at a few cents each.
Our government also has a tea gar
den at ~Sommerville. South Carolina;
it is only an experiment, to be sure,
but several crops have been harvested
to prove that tea can be raised in our
| own wonderful country.
Not satisfied with importing foods, or
coaxing them to grow in alien soil and
temperature, Uncle Sam also invents
food plants. The tangelo is n of his
accomplishments; 1t is a tangerine as
large as a grape fruit and favored
like it but seedless and a easily peeled
as a kid glove orange.
California has taken advantage OF
the governments experiments with
more zeal than other states, and as q
result is reaping a financial harvest al
the close of each years regular har-