THE FLORIDA VELVET BEAN.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] :SIB,—I send an extract from an American paper received 'this morning from a nephew who has worked for many years in Florida. "The bean," he eays, "is very much in its experi- mental stage as yet. I have seen it growing for three years now, but do not care for it as well as two other land-building ,plants we have in Florida." " Land-building plants are # great help to our Florida sand, but are by no means a fertiliser ; and the man who depends on them for such gets " I was induced to plant about two acres of them [velvet beans] -last spring upon thin land. The beans grew nicely, and made a large amount of forage. As they were recommended as good food —both vines and beans for stock, and also regarded by some as edible table food—we cooked and ate a lot as green shelled beans. Quite a number were made sick, some before leaving the table, ,others later—even to twelve hours afterwards. Two who were not affected, and doubting that the beans were the cause of the trouble experienced by others, ate some cold the next day, which fetched 'em.' Some were seriously affected, but all recovered after two or three days. Symptoms were nausea, purging of the bowels, headache, and violent action of the heart. Afterwards, some were fed to chickens, both cooked and raw; some of the chickens died, and the beans were found, on examination, to be still undigested. Horses refuse to eat the ripe beans in the pods, and, in view of our experience, we do not care to urge them by grinding and mixing with other food. Will not our experiment station test and analyse them for poison, and tell us what is its extent, and how to overcome it ? "—The Datil Pepper.
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