Soya Beans In The East

WRITING from Western Samoa, Mr. H.

C. Reed, of Apia, sends us some useful notes on the uses of the Soya bean in the East.

“Not only is this bean a prolific oil pro ducer (says Mr. Reed), but it is an esteemed article in the diet of many peoples in the Far East. A wide range of products such as flour, jam-filler, candies, soap, meat substitutes, and curd cheese are made from the beans.

“Shoyu sauce, the basis of many Euro pean sauces in use to-day, is also a pro duct of this versatile bean. Soya bean curd cheese is in great demand in China and Japan, where it is served with Shoyu sauce or with Ajinomoto—the recently dis covered synthetic meat powder.

“In the East, the Soya bean is now made into an attractive and palatable bean candy. On account of its high nutritive value and its low retail price, this candy commands a considerable sale in school cafeterias.

“The Soya bean thrives well in the tropics in any good soil, though the more humus in the earth the better is the crop.

The seeds —there are several varieties and colours —are planted in the ordinary fashion and the crop matures in about five or six weeks.”

A correspondent, Mr. John North, writing in the “Sydney Morning Herald” recently, gives some pertinent facts regarding the Soya bean in China and its growing rivalry with butter.

“For cooking the Chinese use bean oil, a derivative of the wonderful soya bean of Manchukuo (writes Mr. North), which is coming into increasing use the world over.

On account of its quality and cheapness, it is even displacing to some extent the use of olive oil for cooking among the poorer Mediterranean peoples.

“It is most improbable that butter could ever compete with it. As a competitor con fronting the use of second-grade butter for culinary purposes, bean oil is likely to be encountered, not only in China, but eventu ally universally.

“Again, better classes of margarine are manufactured wholly or in part from soya beans. So excellent is the article that it

is scarcely to be distinguished from real butter. The Chinese commodity most re sembling our cheese is made from the soya bean.”