Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/63

 Australia, and South Africa. This is the climate of the mesquite, native to America, and of certain allied species which thrive amazingly in the arid lands of both North and South America (page 69). For map, see Fig. 136.

All of these bean-bearers have very ingeniously bedded their seeds in a sugary pod which is greedily eaten by many ruminants. The seed itself no beast can bite, bruise, or digest. It passes with the excreta, dropped on every square rod of pasture land and bedded down in fertilizer to help it start its new life. Nature is indeed ingenious!

All of these beans and their pods are much alike in food service and in food analysis. In nutritive value, both protein and carbohydrate, they are much like wheat bran—that standard nutrient of the dairy cow. (See table, page 302.) Therefore, it seems fair to call these bean trees "bran trees" because some are already used as bran substitutes and others may be made to afford a commercial substitute for bran. This gives the possibility of their being major crops of American agriculture.