Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/111

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According to the Argentinian Minister of Agriculture the mesquites grow in nearly all parts of Argentina.

Dr. Clarence F. Jones of Clark University reports beanbearing mesquites in the dry parts of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

Some of these beans were valuable and used for tannin and others for dye stuffs.^[1]

THE ASTONISHING POSSIBILITIES OF THE MESQUITE GROUP OF SHRUBS AND TREES

This group of bean-bearers holds out interesting possibilities of increased productivity for the arid lands of our Southwest, of Mexico, and of similar lands in each of the other five continents.

The possibility of further and useful adaptation to particular places and needs lies pregnantly in the statement that the tropically tender keawe of Hawaii is of the same species

↑ "The algaroba or mesquite tree (prosopis juliflora) is found in a number of places in South America:

"1. In scattered patches in the dry coast of northern Colombia.

"2. In the dry section of western Ecuador.

"3. Along stream courses on the western flank of the Andes in Peru and Chile.

"4. In the eastern lowlands and savannas of Bolivia.

"5. In the Chaco of northern Argentina and Paraguay. A closely related tree, hymenaea courbaril—known also as algaroba—is found near northern Uruguay."

"It bears numerous straight or sickle-shaped pods about six inches long. . . . In Ecuador, the Chaco, and the savannas of Bolivia it is prized as an article of food, being prepared in a number of ways. The leaves and tender shoots are grazed by cattle."

"The pods, which are very saccharine, are greedily eaten by cattle. In the coastal desert of Peru both pods and beans may be gathered and fed to cattle, especially in years of scant pasturage. In northern Colombia, in Ecuador, and in Peru the beans, being rich in tannin (sometimes containing 45 per cent.), are gathered and made into tanning materials for domestic use; also there is quite a trade developing in the beans for the manufacture of tannin."

"Algaroba beans are also used in the manufacture of dye stuffs and coloring materials." (Extracts from letter, Clarence F. Jones, Clark University, Worcester. Massachusetts, February 6, 1928.)

[1] "The algaroba or mesquite tree (prosopis juliflora) is found in a number of places in South America:

"1. In scattered patches in the dry coast of northern Colombia.

"2. In the dry section of western Ecuador.

"3. Along stream courses on the western flank of the Andes in Peru and Chile.

"4. In the eastern lowlands and savannas of Bolivia.

"5. In the Chaco of northern Argentina and Paraguay. A closely related tree, hymenaea courbaril—known also as algaroba—is found near northern Uruguay."

"It bears numerous straight or sickle-shaped pods about six inches long. . . . In Ecuador, the Chaco, and the savannas of Bolivia it is prized as an article of food, being prepared in a number of ways. The leaves and tender shoots are grazed by cattle."

"The pods, which are very saccharine, are greedily eaten by cattle. In the coastal desert of Peru both pods and beans may be gathered and fed to cattle, especially in years of scant pasturage. In northern Colombia, in Ecuador, and in Peru the beans, being rich in tannin (sometimes containing 45 per cent.), are gathered and made into tanning materials for domestic use; also there is quite a trade developing in the beans for the manufacture of tannin."

"Algaroba beans are also used in the manufacture of dye stuffs and coloring materials." (Extracts from letter, Clarence F. Jones, Clark University, Worcester. Massachusetts, February 6, 1928.)

[1]