Page:Korea (1904).djvu/177

Rh flourish in Kyöng-keui Province. The yellow bean is found in Hwang-hai Province; the South River bean appears in Chyung-chyöng Province; the grandfather-bean (so called because of its wrinkles) grows anywhere, but not in large quantities. The brown-bean and chestnut-bean come from Kang-won Province.

It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of these different species of pulse to the Korean. They furnish the oily and nitrogenous elements which are lacking in rice. As a diet they are strengthening, the nutritious properties of the soil imparting a tone to the system. Preparations of beans are as numerous as the dishes made from flour; it is impossible to enumerate them. Upon an average, the Koreans eat about one-sixth as much pulse as rice. The price of beans is one-half that of rice; the price of either article is liable to variations. There are varieties which cost nearly as much as rice.

The common name for barley is po-ri; in poetical parlance the Koreans call barley The Fifth Moon of Autumn, because it is then that it is harvested. The value of barley to the Korean arises from the fact that it is the first grain to germinate in the spring. It carries the people on until the millet and rice crops are ready. Barley and wheat are extensively raised throughout Korea for the purpose of making wine and beer. In other ways, however, they may be considered almost as important as the different kinds of pulse. The uses of barley are very numerous. Besides being used directly as farinaceous food it becomes malt, medicine, candy, syrup, and furnishes a number of side-dishes. Wheat comes mostly from Pyöng-an Province, only small crops of it appearing in the other Provinces. Barley yields spring and autumn crops, but wheat yields