428 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



ing potatoes, $7.50 per barrel." My melons 

 and squashes during the past winter were 

 mostlj^ a failure, owing to the unusual 

 amount of cold and wet weather; but cab- 

 bages seem just suited with the conditions. 

 We are growing them mostly for our chick- 

 ens. 



Helianti is growing tremendously since 

 the warm weather. The tubers I brought 

 from Ohio and planted in November have 

 just started; but half a dozen tubers from 

 the Burgess Seed Co., Allegan, Mich., 

 planted in March, came up at once, and are 

 now a yard high. We hope they will give 

 a bigger crop here than they did in Medina. 



Later. — To-day is May 3, and I am here 

 at my Medina home; and it occurs to me 

 that I wish to say something more about the 

 Red Triumph potatoes that I have grown 

 with so much enjoyment down in our Flor- 

 ida home. To get $2 a bushel for the pota- 

 toes, of course we have to sort the small or 

 inferior ones. After the sorting they are 

 put on a screen made of one-inch poultry- 

 netting. Those that went through the screen 

 were boiled for the poultry. While they 

 were boiling hot they were taken in a com- 

 mon pail, with the water they were boiled 

 in, to the poultry-yard. With a common 

 fire-shovel they were mashed and chopped 

 up with enough middlings to make a nice 

 dry mash; and the fowls become so fond of 

 them that as soon as they saw me coming 

 with the pail they would run to meet me. 

 Small potatoes, or any potatoes not wanted 

 othei'wise, are certainly very profitable for 

 poultry. While feeding our small potatoes 

 we got our best laying of eggs. 



Now, I have something more to tell you 

 about small potatoes. Those that did not 

 go through the screen, and were too small 

 to be saved for seed, are used as follows: 

 I made a little basket of wire cloth to hold 

 the potatoes while they were being baked 

 in the oven. The basket kept them from 

 rolling about, and made it easy to get them 

 in and out of the oven. Then they were 

 baked until, when squeezed, they would pop 

 open like an egg. Of course the outside was 

 somewhat charred; but you know charcoal 

 is advertised as a valuable medicine; and I 

 suppose you know, also, that Terry, Wiley, 

 and others have been telling us that not 

 only should wheat be eaten whole as God 

 made it, but that the peeling of the potato 

 contains valuable salts necessary for good 

 health that we cannot well get otherwise. 

 Now, when the roasted potatoes are smok- 

 ing hot I crush them and drop them into a 

 bowl such as we commonly use for oysters. 

 When the bowl is full, or nearly so, I 

 sprinkle on some salt and pour on some 



milk. It seems to me I shall never tire of 

 these roasted potatoes. They agree with my 

 digestion better than anything else; and I 

 feel sure they are a very good substitute 

 for meat, with milk taken with them. Who 

 is there among you who has not had fun in 

 roasting little potatoes outdoors in the fire 

 when you were kids? Perhaps old potatoes 

 would not seem just as luscious; but when 

 you come to eating new potatoes again, just 

 try what I have recommended in the above. 

 It is another short cut " from producer to 

 consumer."* 



For the first time during the past winter 

 we have had a strawberry-bed of our own ; 

 and those raised beds I have told you about, 

 in the Florida soil, seem to be just the 

 thing for strawberries. We have had straw- 

 berries for two or three months — all we 

 could use, gTown in our own gai'den. 



Our feterita plants, when we left, had 

 made. such a growth during the recent warm 

 weather in Florida that I could stretch 

 some of the leaves up almost as high as my 

 head. One single grain produced from six 

 to twelve stalks; and the plants for green 

 stuff alone, for all domestic animals, in- 

 cluding chickens, is worth more than almost 

 any other plant I know of. A plant grown 

 considerably in Floiida called " chicken 

 corn " very much resembles it, but the 

 grains are smaller. Another plant called 

 Egj'ptian wheat (or shallu), although it 

 was only a foot high when I left, so far 

 very much resembles feterita. All three 

 belong to the non-saccharine sorghums. 



THE SPINELESS CACTUS. 



I^ast fall (p. 828, Oct. 15) I had 'quite a 

 little to say about spineless cactus. Some 

 time in December I got half a dozen "slabs" 

 of the Reasoner Brothers. I planted the 

 slabs according to directions, and watched 

 them all winter, anxious to see a bud start- 

 ing; but we had so much cold wet weather 

 that I did not see any start until about 

 April 1. From that time on they made a 

 most amazing gi'owth. When I left there, 

 one plant liad five leaves, each one fully as 

 large as my hand. The growth was so rapid 

 that I could see a dilTerenee each morning, 

 and another difference in size when night 

 time came. 'My good fi'iend Henry Borcher, 

 of Laredo, Texas, also sent me half a dozen 

 slabs of the wild spineless cactus that grows 

 in Mexico. These, although planted later 

 than the others, took a start during the 



* Since the above was put in type I find the 

 following from our good friend T. B. Terrj-, in the 

 Practical Farmer: "One of the best authorities in 

 the world tells us that a pound of baked potato is 

 equivalent in total nutritive value to one pound of 

 chicken, or eight eggs, or seven ounces of bread, 

 etc." 



