Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-09-11
MESQUITE BEAN MAY YIELD
 A NEW FOOD PRODUCT

are generally accepted as prohibitiv,
 sugar prices have led an investigation
 which may lead in the manufacture
 by machinery here of pecheca, tho
 fruit product of the mesquite bear
 pod. To that end there has beer
 shipped to California five pounds ot
 pinol de pecheta and pinol de trigo tc
 either continue or conclude the inves.
 tigation, the chamber of commerce
 has been advised.
 Pecheta, however, is what is most
 interesting to California people, as il
 contains a sweetening which is ten
 times as sweet as cane; sugar and
 which constitutes & complete food in
 itself. The trigo, or wheat powder
 is considered as equal to the heaviest cereal, the Indians having included ip this food all except the chaff, which, they permit the wind to blow away by tossing the wheat after it has been slightly roasted.
 Pecheta because of it's abundance in is interesting the California people, as it is in the native state as mesquite beans, growing wild on the desert, is considered unlimited in its possibili- ties. A factory or factories to make it may result from the present inves- tigation. It is reported that if prop erly advertised pecheta would soon take it's place in the world as an i'm portant product, or it could be reduc- ed, at the sacrifice of the other food contents, to sugar richer and as pure as honey and at a cost far be- low normal prices in this country of cane sugar.
 It is said here that the commercial possibilities of pecheta have been in Arizona because the Indians 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 by pounding it in the hollow of one stone with another stone in hand, has proved profitable, even by such meth ,ds of manufacturing. What 'enor- nous returns and reductions in pres .nt sugar prices is copsidered appar- ,nt should pecheta be made by mach nery in a modern plant. The process ,f reduction is simply to take the nesauite beans, cut out the seeds and rush the pods. Mesquite has been considered a common desert tree or push for so long that the white people IS a class see nothing when they pass ,y, little realizing that the Indians, dexicans and old white settlers of he desert know mesquite contains the ichest foods and, the best of med,- ines. The leaves crushed to a liquid ndnce vomiting and allay fever.
 As manufacturing proposition 1t s considered, according to investiga- ors, as one possessing great merit nd which would give to the world a CIV food which the Indians are per hitting to pass away with the old maws because of their treaty with n indulgent "uncle".
 Pecheta, the Indians point out, was he backbone of Indian warfare. A pod requiring no cooking was put in heir belts or provision bags by the uuaws when they were about to take ne warpath. This was the advan- ,pe, because the Indians then did not eouire fires, and fires would reveal ,eir whereabouts to the enemy.
 What the shipment of pecheta ana incl de trigo will bring forth prob bly will be definitely known within
 short time, as it will take time to repare machinery for the reduction [ the mesquite beans to pecheta or 1gar and the harvest begins in late ,ring or early summer. The Indians " the mesquite beans most plenti- ,llv when there is scarcity of other ,ods or when a famine is coming. his summers production of mes ,ites was very abundant, covering ,e ground with beans, all of which ent to waste except the few bushels athered by the old Indian women.