OCR Text |
Show CATTAILS HAVE FOOD VALUE Investigation Has Shown Them to Contain Con-tain a Satisfactory Amount of N Needed Protein. Flour from the cattails of the swamps has been found by the plant chemical laboratory at Washington to contain about the same amount of protein pro-tein as rice and corn flours, with somewhat some-what less fat than wheat flour, and it was regarded as a promising substitute substi-tute with wheat flour to the extent of 10 to 20 per cent. In the Investigation, of which he has given an account in the Scientific Monthly, Prof. P. W. Claassen tried the flour in several ways, both as part substitute with wheat flour In baking and as cornstarch corn-starch substitute for puddings. Biscuits Bis-cuits containing 50 and even 100 per cent of this flour proved to be palatable, palat-able, not very different from those of wheat flour alone, while the puddings had an agreeable flavor and were satisfactory. sat-isfactory. The flour material is obtained ob-tained from the large underground rootstalks or rhizomes, of which it forms a starch core three-eighths to one-half inch in diameter. The dried rhizomes from an acre of cattails were shown to equal 10,792 pounds, and the core substance, passed through a meat grinder and sifted, yielded fine flour at the rate of 5,500 pounds per acre. Many thousand acres of cattail marshes are included in the 139.S55 square miles of swamp land of the United States. |