The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,257 pages of information about The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom.

The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,257 pages of information about The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom.
{| | | | | |weight {| | | | | |of the {| | | | | |raw cane +-----------+---------+--------+------+------+-------- Indigo {| 90 |48.60 |21/2 " |57,800| 11/2 |70 plants (Indigofera {| 630 |46.00 |3 " | | |produce tinctoria) {|1077 |40.61 |31/2 " | | |1 lb. {| | | | | |coloring {| | | | | |matter +-----------+---------+--------+------+------+-------- Potato {|1080 |38.70 |140 days|116,600 |41/2 (Solanum {|1980 |33.30 |165 " | |Annual|lb each tuberosum) {|2700 |27.00 |210 " | | |plant +-----------+---------+--------+------+------+-------- Wheat {| 567 |42.30 | 80 " |57,800|Annual|37 for (Triticum {|1170 |38.70 |100 " | | |every aestivum) {|2520 |32.99 |120 " | | |seed {| | | | | |planted -----------------+-----------+---------+--------+------+----
--+--------

The plantain bears at 1,529 yards, in a temperature of 61 deg.  Fahrenheit, and requires fifteen months, but its cultivation is of little benefit in so high a latitude.  It is the same with the cassava root.  The cane at 1,160 altitude, in a temperature of 66 deg., gives no sugar; and indigo at 1,620 affords no coloring matter.

SECTION I.

DRIED LEAVES, SEEDS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES USED IN THE PREPARATION OF POPULAR DIETETIC BEVERAGES.

No substances are so essentially necessary to mankind, or form such important articles of commerce, as those which we come first to consider, the dietetic products—­cacao, coffee, tea, and sugar.  The consumption of these in all civilized countries is immense, notwithstanding that in many they have been fettered with heavy fiscal duties.  The investigation of the culture of the plants from which they are obtained, and the manufacture of the products, is a very curious object of research.

CACAO OR COCOA.

The chocolate nuts or seeds, termed cacao, are the fruit of species of Theobroma, an evergreen tree, native of the Western Continent.  That commonly grown is T. cacao; but Lindley enumerates two other species, T. bicolor, a native of New Granada; and T.  Guianensis, with yellow flowers, a native of Guiana.  The seeds being nourishing and agreeable to most people, are kept in the majority of houses in America, as a part of the provisions of the family.  By pressure they yield fatty oil, called butter of cacao.  They also contain a crystalline principle analogous to caffeine, called theobromine.  The common cacao of the shops consists generally of

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The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.