Arizona republican., 1920-09-02
MESQUITE BEAN
 MAY YIELD NEW
 FOOD PRODUCT

. Advanced freight rates and what are generally accepted prohibitive sugar prices have led to an investigation which may lead to the manufacture by machinery here of pecheta, the food product of the mesquite bean pod. To that end there has been shipped to California five pounds of pinol de pecheta and pinol de trYgo to either continue or conclude the investigation. the chamber of commerce has been advised.
 Pecheta, however. is what is most interesting the California people, as it contains a Sweetening which is ten times as sweet as cane sugar and which constitutes a complete food in itself. The trigo, or wheat powder, is considered as equal to the heaviest ce- real, the Indians having included in this food all of the wheat except the chaff, which they permit the wind to blow away by tossing up the wheat after it has been slightly roasted.
 Pecheta, because of it's abundance in the native state as mesquite beans, growing wild on the desert, is consid- cred unlimited in it's possibilities. A factory or factories to make it may re- suit from the present investigation. 1t is reported that if properly advertised pecheta would soon take it's place in the world as an important product, or it could be reduced, at the sacrifice of its other food contents, to a sugar richer and as pure as honey and at a cost far below normal prices in this country of cane sugar.
 It is said here that the commercial possibilities of pecheta have been overlooked in Arizona because the In- dians now make little pecheta, as it is easier with Uncle Sam's treaty and help for them to buy store food, or have it given to them.
 Pecheta, made by the Indian women fEr~ stone with another stone in hand, has proved profitable, even by such meth odS of manufacturing. What enormous returns and reductions in present sugar prices is considered apparent should pecheta be made by machinery in a modern plant. The process of re- auction is simply to take the mesquite beans. cut out their seeds and crush the pods. Mesquite has been consid- cred a common desert tree or bush for so long that the white people as a class see nothing when they pass by. little realizing that the Indians, Mexi- cans and old white settlers of the desert know mesquite contains the richest of foods and the best of medi- cines. The leaves crushed to a liquid induce vomiting and allay fever.
 As a manufacturing proposition it is considered, according to investigators, as one possessing great merit and one which would give to the world a new food which the Indians are permitting to pass away with the old squaws be- cause of their treaty with an indulgent "uncle.''
 Pecheta, the Indians point out was the backbone of Indian warfare A food requiring no cooking was put in their belts or provision bags by the squaws when they were about to take the warpath. This was the advantage, because the Indians then did not re- quire fires, and fires would reveal their whereabouts to the enemy.
 What the shipment of pechet and pinol de trigo will bring forth prob ably will be definitely known within a short time, it will take time to pre- pare machinery for the reduction of the mesquite beans to pecheta or sugar and the harvest begins in late spring or early summer. The Indians say the mesquite bears most plenti- fully when there is a scarcity of other foods or when famine is coming This summers production of mesquite was very abundant, covering the ground with beans, all of which went to waste except the few bushels gathered by the old Indian women.