7 Peanuts!

Chapter 7 Peanuts! While at Tuskegee, George liked to tell a story about a talk he had once had with God. "Mr. Creator, why did you make the universe?" George asked. "Little man, that question is too big for you," God answered. "Try another!" So George asked, "Mr. Creator, why did you make man?" God answered: "Little man, that question is still too big for you. Try another!" This time George asked, "Mr. Creator, why did you make the peanut?" And God said: "Little man, that question is just your size. You listen and I will teach you." Apparently, George was a good listener, because while experimenting at Tuskegee, he began to develop more than three hundred products that could be made from the peanut.

第7章花生！在塔斯基吉的时候，乔治喜欢讲一个他曾经和上帝谈话的故事。 “造物主先生，你为什么要创造宇宙？”乔治问。 “小家伙，这个问题对你来说太大了。”上帝回答。 “另一个试试!”于是，乔治问道：“乔治先生。 造物主啊，你为什么造人？”上帝回答说：“小家伙，这个问题对你来说还是太大了。 尝试另一个!”这一次，乔治问道：“乔治先生。 造物主，你为什么要造花生？”上帝说：“小家伙，这个问题跟你的身高有关。 你听着，我来教你。” 显然，乔治是一个很好的倾听者，因为当他在塔斯基吉做实验时，他开始开发三百多种可以用花生制成的产品。

They included everything from peanut milk to peanut punch, plastics, glue, soaps, and dyes. Peanuts were considered so lowly that before George began to study them, they were mostly used for animal food. Farmers couldn't make much money from peanuts and had little reason to grow them.

它们包括从花生牛奶到花生潘趣酒、塑料、胶水、肥皂和染料等所有东西。 在乔治开始研究花生之前，花生被认为是很低级的东西，它们主要被用作动物食品。 农民不能从花生中赚很多钱，也没有理由种植花生。

Cotton had been the main crop in the American South. But in the early 1900s, it cost some farmers more to grow cotton than they could sell it for. The boll weevil—a type of beetle that feeds on cotton buds and can destroy entire crops—came to the United States from Mexico in the late 1800s. By 1910, it had arrived in Alabama.

棉花一直是美国南方的主要作物。 但在20世纪初，一些农民种植棉花的成本超过了他们的售价。 棉铃象鼻虫是一种以棉花芽为食并能破坏整株作物的甲虫，于19世纪晚期从墨西哥传入美国。 到1910年，它到达了阿拉巴马州。

After many years of studying soil, George knew that planting cotton over and over again sucked the nutrients—substances plants need to grow—out of the soil. He wanted farmers to rotate their crops. That meant growing cotton one season, but switching to a different crop the next. Then they could replant cotton the season after that. One of the crops George recommended for cotton growers was the sweet potato. Sweet potato plants were easy to grow, and crops could be stored during the winter months. They were good for the soil, and they could be eaten many different ways. Some of George's earliest bulletins were on the sweet potato. George also experimented with cowpeas, sugar beets, rice, soybeans, alfalfa, and more. His experiments helped him understand the best ways to grow these crops so that they would yield the most food. He learned what

经过多年对土壤的研究，乔治知道反复种植棉花会吸走土壤中植物生长所需的营养物质。 他希望农民轮种庄稼。 这意味着一个季节种植棉花，但下一个季节换种不同的作物。 然后他们可以在之后的季节重新种植棉花。 乔治向棉花种植者推荐的一种作物是甘薯。 甘薯很容易种植，而且作物可以在冬季储存。 它们对土壤有益，而且有很多种吃法。 乔治最早的一些公告是关于红薯的。 乔治还用豇豆、甜菜、大米、大豆、苜蓿等做了实验。 他的实验帮助他了解了种植这些作物的最佳方法，从而使它们产出最多的食物。 他学到了什么

kinds of soil and growing conditions they needed. In 1910, Tuskegee built George a modern laboratory to replace his homemade one. And by 1915, his experiments were taking so much of his time that he began to give up teaching. In 1916, George wrote his most famous booklet: "How to Grow the Peanut, and 105

他们需要的土壤和生长条件。 1910年，塔斯基吉为乔治建造了一座现代化的实验室，以取代他的自制实验室。 到1915年，他的实验占用了他太多的时间，他开始放弃教学。 1916年，乔治写了他最著名的小册子：《如何种植花生》

Ways of Preparing It for Human Consumption." Recipes included items such as peanut soup, peanut bread, and peanut pudding. Several recipes included peanut butter in them: Peanut butter was number fifty-one, peanut butter candy was number seventy, and peanut butter fudge was number eighty! In fact, George wrote so much about peanuts that he is sometimes mistakenly credited with inventing peanut butter. The same year George produced his famous peanut booklet, he was honored by the Royal Society of Arts in London. The Royal Society honors people in science and art who find practical solutions to problems. That summed up George perfectly! At the time, it was rare for an American to be honored—let alone one who had been born into slavery.

准备供人类食用的方法。” 食谱包括花生汤、花生面包和花生布丁等。 有几个食谱里都有花生酱：花生酱排在第五十一，花生酱糖排在第七十位，花生酱软糖排在第八十位！事实上，乔治写了很多关于花生的文章，以至于他有时被误认为是花生酱的发明者。 同年，乔治出版了他著名的花生小册子，他被伦敦皇家艺术学会授予了荣誉。 皇家学会表彰在科学和艺术领域找到解决问题的实际办法的人。 这完全概括了乔治的特点！在当时，很少有美国人能获此殊荣，更不用说一个生来就是奴隶的人了。