Garden Fruits.—Green plants and especially vegetables have come to play an important part in the dietary of man. The diseases known as scurvy and beri-beri, the latter the curse of the far Eastern navies, have been largely prevented by adding vegetables and fruit juices to the dietary of the sailors. People in this country are beginning to find that more vegetables and less meat are better than the meat diet so often used. Market gardening forms the lucrative business of many thousands of people near our great cities. Some of the more important fruits are squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. The latter fruits bring in an annual income of $25,000,000 to our market gardeners. Beans and peas are important as foods because of their relatively large amount of protein. Canning green corn, peas, beans, and tomatoes has become an important industry.
Picking apples, an important crop in some parts of the United States.
Orchard and Other Fruits.—In the United States over one hundred and seventy-five million bushels of apples are grown every year. Pears, plums, apricots, peaches, and nectarines also form large orchards, especially in California. Nuts form one of our important articles of food, largely because of the large amount of protein contained in them.
The grape crop of the world is commercially valuable, because of the raisins and wine produced. The culture of lemons, oranges, and grapefruit has come in recent years to give a living to many people in this country as well as in other parts of the world. Figs, olives, and dates are staple foods in the Mediterranean countries and are sources of wealth to the people there, as are coconuts, bananas, and many other fruits in tropical countries.
Beverages and Condiments.—The coffee and cacao beans, and leaves of the tea plant, products of tropical regions, form the basis of very important beverages of civilized man. Pepper, black and red, mustard, allspice, nutmegs, cloves, and vanilla are all products manufactured from various fruits or seeds of tropical plants.
Alcoholic liquors are produced from various plants in different parts of the world, the dried fruit of the hop vine being an important product of New York State used in the making of beer.
Raw Materials.—Besides use as food, green plants have many other uses. Many of our city industries would not be in existence, were it not for certain plant products which furnish the raw materials for many manufacturing industries. Many cities of the east and south, for example, depend upon cotton to give employment to thousands of factory hands.
Cotton.—Of our native plant products cotton is probably of the most importance to the outside world. Over eleven million bales of five hundred pounds each are raised annually.
