28 CIRCULAR NO. 127, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



If dasheeiis are handled in water in scraping or paring them for 

 cooking, a level teaspoonf ul of sal soda should be added to each quart 

 of water. The outer part of the tubers contains an irritant that causes 

 the hands to sting in somewhat the same way as the mouth and throat 

 from the eating of raw, acrid leaves or tubers. The hands are affected 

 m tliis way even in the case of tubers that are not acrid to the taste. 

 If water is not used while scraping them, it is best to wash the hands 

 afterwards in soda water of the strength mentioned. 



The dasheen corms and tubers ^ are similar to the potato in com- 

 position, but they contain less water, and in consequence the content 

 of starch, as well as of protein, is roughly a half liigher than in the 

 potato.2 In addition they possess a very agreeable, nutty flavor. 

 Remarkable digestibility has long been attributed to the aroid tubers, 

 and in Hawaii, as well as in other countries where they are grown, their 

 use for invahds is often prescribed. The starch grains of the taro 

 and dasheen are among the smallest known in all food plants, and this 

 is thought by some to account in ]:)art for the ease of digestion. 



RESULTS OBTAINED IN CULTIVATION. 



Experiments on a small scale in growing the dasheen have been 

 made at a number of points in the Northern States, even as far north 

 as New York, but while tubers were usually produced they were 

 comparatively small. The reports received do not at present warrant 

 the Department of Agriculture in recommending dasheens for culti- 

 vation, even in vegetable gardens, north of the Carolinas. Future 

 experiments, however, may show that this limit can be extended. 



The first marked success in the experimental growing of dasheens 

 in this country was in 1909 in South Carolina, to which reference has 

 already been made. Forty bushels were harvested from one-tenth of 

 an acre. The next year the i)ropagation of the dasheen was begun at 

 the Plant Introduction Field Station, Brooksville, Fla., but it was not 

 until the season of 1912 that a crop large enough for a wide distribution 

 was raised. Seven acres were grown that season, though more than 

 2 acres of this were on what proved to be very unsuitable land. 

 The clay subsoil came almost to the surface in many places and in 

 others formed "pockets" which held the excessive rainfall, to the 

 detriment of the ])lants. 



1 Each hill of dasheens contains one or two rather large, somewhat spherical corms, around which develop 

 numrroiis cormels. The latter are popularly called "tubers." For the corm, however, because of the dif- 

 ferences in size and form between it and the cormels, it is found convenient to retain the technical name in 

 common usage. 



2 An average of 11 analyses of dasheens by the United States Department of Agriculture gives 27§ per 

 cent of carbohydrates (starches and sugars) and 3 per cent of protein. For the white potato the generally 

 accepted figures are IS per cent of carl.rihy<lrates and ?.'-' per cent of protein. The sweet potato appro.xi- 

 mates the dasheen in carbohydrates, but it is even lower than the wliile potato in protein. 



[Ch: 127 J 



