Identifier: descriptionofsom00blas (find matches)
Title: A description of some Chinese vegetable food materials and their nutritive and economic value
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Blasdale, Walter Charles, b. 1871
Subjects: Plants, Edible
Publisher: Washington, D.C. Govt. printing off
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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49 SEEDS AND GRAINS. SOY BEANS. Leguminous seeds and certain preparations made from them havealways formed an important part of the largely vegetarian diet of theChinese and Japanese. Of the legumes the soy bean, Glycine Mspida(iSoja hifipida), is the most important. The soy bean has long beenknown in Europe. Kaempfer was perhaps one of the first ihiropeansto describe it. This plant has been cultivated many years in Europe,and is coming to be quite extensively grown in the United States,largely for use as a forage plant. The soy bean has been treated of ina previous publication- of this Department. A large number of vari-eties of the soy bean are in cultivation in China and Japan, but onlytwo were found in the Chinese markets in San Francisco, a yellowand a black variety. Aside from a difference in color, the two forms 1 Amoinitatum Exoticarum, p. 837. Lemgovise, H. W. Meyer, 1712.* U. S. Dept. Agr,, Farmers BuUetiu 58. U. S. Dept. of Agr., Bui. 68, Office of Expt. Stations. Plate VI.
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Upper Portion of a Plant of the Black Soy Bean. 33 apparently do not differ materially from eacli other. Tlie yellow vari-ety is known as woiig tau, and is designated by the characters ^j^,while the black is known as ^hak tau, and is designated by the charac-ters Mj^. The soy bean resembles a pea rather than a bean, althoughthe botanical characteristics of the plant indicate that it is very differ-ent from any of our cultivated peas or beans. Both varieties obtained from the Chinese market in San Franciscogrew readily in Berkelej^, attaining a height of about 3 feet, and inspite of a very dry season produced an abundant crop of seeds. Theappearance of two of these plants at different stages of growth isshown in Pis. VI and VII. The composition of the seeds of the twovarieties is shown in Ta,ble 10, the average composition of American-grown soy beans being quoted also for purposes of comparison. Taule 10.—CompoMion uf soy beans. Hi in -d n3 -s . C s ^ a C sr. & M . g n m ^ s ■S

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