The cultivation of lupines has been practiced in Europe for over a thousand years. Impoverished Greeks and Romans used lupine meal in their bread and farmers have long grown the plants for forage and green manure. Extensive cultivation of these plants would be expected because the seed, which consists of from 30 to 40 per cent protein, is high in food value and because relatively high yields can be obtained even under unfavorable conditions. Stock poisoning, however, has frequently resulted from consumption of these plants owing to the presence of harmful alkaloids. Such substances could be removed from the seeds, but only by soaking in water. Since this procedure required considerable time and energy and since the other parts of the plant could not be treated in this way, lupines have not been grown extensively in the past
