Nuts as a Food Supply

To the Editor: —The editorial on "Peanuts as Food" (The Journal, March 23, 1918, p. 850) is in line with progress. More, however, may be said to advantage. It is a rule in economics that people do not make an effort toward filling a need until the need is felt. The American Indians used a large number of plants that have not as yet been cultivated systematically for the general food market. Eventually civilized man may employ most of the things that the Indians ate. Man began to cultivate the annual plants that bring prompt return for his labors, and this he is likely to continue to do by preference until he comes to understand that nut bearing trees give a larger yield per acre at lesser expenditure of time, care and expense than annual plant crops require, as a general rule. Nuts may be divided into two general classes