`Michelle Mosley, age 9, of Chattanooga, Tenn., for her question:
IS CAULIFLOWER REALLY GOOD FOR YOU?
Cauliflower is a garden vegetable that is grown for its head of tightly clustered flowers and its fleshy stem. It is indeed good for you. It gives a person large amounts of vitamin C and sulfur and smaller amounts of vitamin A and phosphorus.
The plant is usually grown from seeds in a hotbed or greenhouse. Then, the plants are transplanted to a field. Most growers tie the large leaves around the head while it is growing to keep the flowers white.
Cauliflower grows best in cool, moist weather such as that found in some of the Pacific Coast states. Cauliflower is also grown in Southern states during the late fall and winter.
Leading cauliflower producing states include California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Oregon and Texas.
Strange 'as it may seem, the cauliflower belongs to the mustard family.
The vegetable may be cooked, pickled or eaten raw. It has been cultivated and eaten for many hundreds of years.
Tasha McCabe, age 13, of Decatur,Ill., for her question:
ARE THERE MANY KINDS OF HOGS GROWN?
About one fourth of the meat eaten in the United States comes from hogs. These animals provide such popular items as bacon, ham, pork chops, sausage and pork roasts.
Farmers raise about 20 breeds of hogs. Bacon type hogs come mainly from three breeds: American Landrace, Tamworth and Yorkshire. Hogs of these types weigh from 200 to 230 pounds each.
The most widely raised breeds of hogs include the Duroc, Hampshire, Spotted Swine, Poland China, Chester White, Berkshire, Yorkshire, American Landrace and Tamworth. Farmers in the U.S. developed all these breeds except the Berkshire, Yorkshire and Tamworth, which were imported from England in the 1800s.
No one breed is greatly superior to another in its ability to produce meat, to grow swiftly and to produce large litters. A farmer can develop good meat hogs from any one of these breeds.
Farmers in almost every country raise hogs. People who see hogs wallowing in mud often consider them to be dirty and stupid. But hogs keep themselves cleaner than do most other farm animals. And hogs are also considered to be very intelligent animals.
There are about 700 million hogs on farms throughout the world today. China has the most hogs, about a third of the world total. Brazil, Russia and the U.S. have about 10 percent each. About one third of the farms in the U.S. raise hogs.
Hogs rank with cattle, poultry and dairy products as one of the chief sources of farm income in the U.S.
Scientific breeders have developed hogs that gain one and a half or more pounds every day. Corn is one of the best hog foods, and hogs eat about 40 percent of the entire corn crop grown in the U.S.
Hog raising has become concentrated on "corn hog farms" in the Corn Belt of the Midwest. Leading hog raising states are Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Kansas.
Some religions, such as Islam and Judaism, forbid their followers to eat hog meat because they regard hogs as unclean.
But lots of people enjoy pork chops, spareribs, loin roasts, ham, bacon, sausage and pickled pig's feet and knuckles
People also eat various parts of the hog's body, including the stomach, kidneys, liver, ears, brain, skin, jowls, lips, tongue and throat. Lard used for cooking is made from hog fat. And some people enjoy fried chitterlings, or hog intestines.
In addition to using hog fat for lard, it is also used to make soap, candles, salves, shaving cream, explosives and lubricating oils. And the bones of the animals are ground for glue, fertilizer and animal feeds.
Tanneries make it possible to produce many items after the skins of hogs are turned into leather. Favorite items are belts, gloves, jackets and shoes. The hair of hogs provides bristles for brushes and it is also used to stuff mattresses and baseball gloves, and to make insulating materials.