1918 - Romance of the Velvet Bean

Feedipedia

I had never heard of this bean until the other day when I saw it in the 1938 Library of Congress photo.  I have to confess that this bean's name is what first attracted me to it.  But then I read it was originally used as a trellis plant to provide shade in Florida and that clinched it...I want this bean!!  When I checked it out in a normal (not Google Books) search I see it is now being marketed as a libido enhancer  as well as for various medicines.

In honor of E. Lewis Sturtevant's style I have to list the following from Feedipedia.

Velvet bean is called:

• in English -  Mauritius velvet bean, Bengal bean, Florida velvet bean, Yokohama velvet bean, cowage, cowhage, cowitch, lacuna bean, Lyon bean, itchy bean, krame, buffalobean, pica-pica, kapikachhu; 

• in French - pois mascate, dolic, haricot de Floride, haricot de Maurice, pois velus, haricot pourpre, pois du Bengale ;

• in Spanish -  grano de terciopelo, fríjol terciopelo, picapica, chiporro, nescafe, mucuna, fogaraté, café incasa, café listo, fríjol abono ; 

• in Portuguese - feijão-da-flórida, po de mico, fava coceira; 

• in Dutch - fluweelboon; 

• in German - Juckbohne [German]; 

• in Haitian creole - pwa grate ; 

• in Indonesian - Kara benguk; 

• in Vietnamese - đậu mèo rừng, móc mèo; 

• in Bengali - আলকুশি ; 

• in Burmese - ခွေးလှေယားပင်; 

• in [Chinese - 刺毛黧豆;

• in Hindi -  किवांच ;

• in Japanese - ハッショウマメ ;

• in Malayalam  നായ്ക്കുരണ;

• in Nepali -   काउसो ;

• in Persian مکونا پرورینز ;

• in Punjab -  ਕੌਂਚ ਫਲੀ;

• in Russian - Мукуна жгучая ;

• in Telugu -  దూలగొండి ;

• in Thai - หมามุ้ย 

ROMANCE OF THE VELVET BEAN. (1918)

The story of the velvet bean is really one of the romances of agriculture. Introduced into Florida about 1875 from some unknown source, it first attracted attention as a forage crop about 1890. Until 1914 it was little grown outside of Florida. In 1915 the crop was certainly less than 1,000,000 acres. In 1916 it had increased to 2,500,000, and in 1917 to about 6,000,000 acres. 

The explanation of this remarkable increase was the finding of earlier "sports." Three of these appeared independently. One in Alabama, two in Georgia. These early varieties immensely increased the area over which the velvet bean can be grown, so that now it embraces practically all of the cotton belt.

 These early sports of the old Florida are most grown, but the Chinese velvet bean and the hybrids developed by the Florida Experiment Station are important. In spite of vigorous search, the native home of the Florida velvet bean yet remains unknown, but is probably in the Indo-Malayan region of Southern Asia.

The importance of the velvet bean to the livestock industry now developed in the South can scarcely be over-estimated. Grown with corn, it increases the corn crop year after year, and besides furnishes a large amount of nutritious feed to be eaten by the animals for market. 

This year the velvet bean has been no small factor in helping out the great shortage of foodstuffs, quantities of them having been shipped to Texas. Finally, it has resulted in a new industry for the South, namely, the manufacture of velvet-bean meal which has already won for itself a large demand.

from FLORIDA: An Ideal Cattle State,  Copyrighted 1918 by THE FLORIDA STATE LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATION

The VELVET BEAN  By J. M. SANDERS, Atlanta

Florida claims to be the original home of this wonderful bean, at least it is the mother country where first grown in the United States. Some claim really the bean came from South America, or the West Indies. At any rate this bean flourished in Brazil, Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and all the Islands in that part of the world.

The first velvet beans grown in Florida were only used as trellis climbers, or to make shades over porches. The vines sometimes grow to a length of thirty feet.

The first velvet bean was known as far back as the '70's,  (1870s) but the value of it as a land-builder and renovator and as food for cattle and hogs was not known until about 12 or 15 years ago. Since that time Florida has developed more than one variety, the most popular at that time was the Florida speckled velvet bean. The original family or species from which this bean came is known as the Mucuna Genus, originating in Brazil, and Mucuna utilis is the botanical name of the velvet bean.

The bean is now grown in all the Southern States to a certain extent and even as far North as Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas. It is now recognized to be the greatest soil-renovator and sweetener known. It will eradicate all weeds and foul growth; it is the greatest known source through which to supply humus and nitrogen into the soil. As compared with cowpeas, it is far more valuable.

It furnishes a better and cheaper supply of protein than any other foliage crop; the beans themselves will not rot in the field through the winter months when left as they grew. The bean vines after frost are greedily eaten by cattle and hogs, and they fatten fast without any other food. It has been estimated that an animal will fatten ready for market on one acre of good crop velvet beans. Good velvet bean hay contains 8 per cent of protein. Meal made from the beans and pods ground together furnish 17 per cent protein and about 5 per cent fat, and meal made from hulled beans contain 22% per cent protein and 6% per cent fat. The meal made from the beans alone should be mixed with some other more bulky food substance before feeding, as it would be too rich to feed alone.  It has been claimed that in one instance one acre of velvet beans produced 49 bushels of shelled beans, but an average crop on medium land would be from 20 to 30 bushels yield per acre.

...

There are a number of varieties of the velvet beans already developed, but the most popular are the Florida Speckled, the l00 Days Speckled, the Yokahoma, the Lion, the Chinese and Oceola. The Florida Speckled, 100 Day and Yokahoma seem to be the most popular. The Speckled is a small round bean, the Yokahoma a flat white bean, similar to the Lima; the Lion is flat and white, but smaller than the Yokahoma; the Chinese is a plump, light bean as well as the Osceola. Not only has it been found that these beans are good for stock to eat, but it is claimed they are good human food and not many years hence people will be eating them.

To cook the velvet bean, put in boiling water for 60 minutes, then remove and place in cold water for 30 minutes; after this the skins will slip off by manipulating the beans with the fingers; then after the skins are removed boil another half hour. They are then ready to prepare in several different ways for the table.

Hon. Emmett A. Jones, of the Agricultural Department of Alabama, gave a velvet bean dinner to a number of his friends last winter, and the menu was as follows: 

Velvet Bean Puree 

Creamed Velvet Beans 

Stuffing for Turkey 

Baked Velvet Bean, Plain 

Baked with Tomato Sauce 

Velvet Bean Pudding 

Velvet Bean Cheese

The velvet bean is a very hard bean to hull, the hulls being very tough and hard and it is difficult to free them from the hulls, but since a machine has been perfected for hulling these beans from the dry pods, it is possible to hull them without cracking, splitting or wasting the beans.

As the velvet bean does have chemical content that effects humans there is quite a bit of discussion on the web which I am not getting into, BUT this is an interesting cookbook!  

For info on the medicinal effects try this link to The Magic Velvet Bean of Mucuna pruriens published by the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

1918 - Bean-bag, Volume 1