240 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUTiTURE 



The department was about to abandon the propa- 

 gation of dasheens when Dr. Hood, of Orange City, 

 Fla., suggested that the dasheen be given a trial in 

 the Brooksville hammock-land district. That was 

 three years ago. They began here on the govern- 

 ment farm with twenty-four varieties secured from 

 Japan, Trinidad Island, Porto Rico, and Cuba. The 

 results were more than satisfactory. The second 

 year, by advertising in many foreign countries they 

 increased the number of varieties to fifty-eight, and 

 this year they had one hundred and seventy-four. Out 

 of all these the department found five or .six va- 

 rieties which they considered of especial value as 

 human food. 



This year they had seven acres planted in dash- 

 eens, that had been tested for two years, and the 

 yield was over 3500 bushels. The Department dis- 

 tributed the edible sizes to various hotels in the 

 North and East, and the seed sizes all over the 

 southern States, so as to give everybody a chance 

 to try them ; but we do not expect favorable results 

 from any locality outside of southern Florida, and 

 that, too, on heavy hammock land. In northern 

 Florida and States north, the seasons are too short, 

 as it requires about eight months for the dasheen 

 to mature. 



The tests made here in both hammock and pine 

 land show that the hammock land yields from 500 

 to 800 bushels per acre, while on pine land the 

 tuber can not be raised on a commercial basis at 

 all. The Department, therefore, has made arrange- 

 ments to have quite a large acreage planted here 

 this year so as to be able to take care of the de- 

 mands for next winter. 



As to the qualities of dasheens, they are most re- 

 markable. After being planted they do not come 

 through the ground for about thtee weeks; but if 

 banked up with sand when they come up, they can 

 be blanched the same as celery, and will grow from 

 twelve to fourteen inches high in as many days. 

 Remove the saud and cut the tender tips, and they 

 may be used instead of asparagus tips or mush- 

 rooms. This product has been tested at the New 

 Willard hotel, Washington, the chef of which de- 

 clares that they are superior to either asparagus 

 tips or mushrooms. It will make eight growths of 

 this kind every season — one growth every twelve 

 days. After the last cutting for this purpose, and 

 the tips get to be from three to four feet tall, the 

 stalks can be used instead of rhubarb or pie plant 

 for pie-filler, and are better than rhubarb in the 

 absence of any acridity or acidity. Certain varieties 

 may be grown for greens which may be made from 

 the leaves minus the ribs. 



Now as to the tubers. They may be served in any 

 style that potatoes, either Irish or sweet, may. At 

 the base of the plant is a large tuber called a corm. 

 This corm is too large to be served as an edible on 

 the table, but may be sliced, evaporated, and ground 

 up into flour. Of this flour can be made any thing 

 that can be made of wheat or rye flour, such as 

 bread, doughnuts, cakes, or pie crust; in fact, you 

 can make the crust out of the flour, and make the 

 filling of the pie out of the stalk or the rhubarb. 



Dr. Hood, of Orange City, states that, served as 

 pancakes, they are superior in every respect. He 

 has found that persons sufi"ering with indigestion 

 can eat three or four dasheen pancakes, whereas 

 half of one of the other kind of pancakes would 

 cause pain. 



The dasheen is very popular in Brooksville and 

 vicinity. A year ago we opened the Varnada hotel 

 with a dasheen banquet. There were one hundred 

 guests present, and every one of them testified that 

 the dasheen was superior to any thing ever eaten 

 in that line. Since then we have had served by 

 Mr. Gomme, superintendent of the government farm 

 here, an entire meal made of dasheens and its vari- 

 ous by-products. 



Being rich in starch and protein the dasheen 

 may be used for stock feed. In fact, both hogs and 

 cattle will eat the tuber before they will eat any 

 other kind of root vegetable, and they grow fat more 

 rapidly on dasheens than on any other kind of veg- 

 etable. If they should never make any thing of the 

 dasheen for human food it would be worth the cost 

 of propagation for cattle and hog feed alone. 



The prospects are that we shall have from 35 to 

 50 acres planted in dasheens this year in Brooks- 

 ville section ; and as the government has released 

 four varieties which they have tested, there will be 

 several parties here with a sufficient amount of 

 dasheens to supply any probable demand the coming 

 yeai-. 



You will note that we have indicated a use for 

 every part of the dasheen, stalk and tuber, except- 

 ing the ribs of the leaves, which must be removed 

 when they are used for greens ; but the department 

 at Washington has discovered that there may be 

 distilled from the leaves a very rare fluid, something 

 like that distilled from the century plant, which is 

 known as " punkha." 



From tests being made now, the best chefs of the 

 best hotels in the large cities, and also by sereral 

 scientific men, we are encouraged to believe that 

 the dasheen has a great future; and it has already" 

 replaced the Irish and sweet potato in many homes 

 in this district. 



Trusting this information may be of benefit to 

 you, and soliciting your further correspondence in 

 case you desire any further information along this 

 line, we remain Yours very truly, 



Brooksville Board op Trade, 



per C. H. Preas, Sec. 



Brooksville, Fla., Feb. 11. 



My dasheens are now coming up, and 

 some of them are putting out the second 

 leaves. They very much resemble, so far, 

 a calla lily, and are now (March 1) grow- 

 ing very rapidly. 



MORE ABOUT DASHEEN. 



Experiments have been conducted with the dash- 

 een, both in Washington and Brooksville, which 

 demonstrate that it is a most wonderful vegetable, 

 capable of furnishing the raw material for a great 

 variety of dishes. As the new growths come through 

 the ground the stalks may be blanched like celery, 

 and cooked and served as mushrooms and aspara- 

 gus tips. Later the leaves of certain varieties, minus 

 the ribs, may be served as greens, and the stalks as 

 sauce and pie filling, which are said to be superior 

 to rhubarb for those purposes. Thus the entire 

 stalk and leaf, excepting the ribs, yield food for 

 man ; and even the ribs of the plant are not value- 

 less, for from their juices may be distilled a most 

 precious liquor known in local parlance as aroid 

 punch, but to the men of science as something akin 

 to the liquor obtained from the century plant. 



Brooksville people have been favored with several 

 packages of Mr. Spawn's evaporated products and 

 his flour, especially the dasheen flour, the raw ma- 

 terial of which is produced in Brooksville, and they 

 will welcome the announcement that this place is 

 scheduled to become the home of a plant similar to 

 the one at Kissimmee. 



As the experts of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C, are conducting experiments 

 wliich will determine the relative value of the dash- 

 een as a food product, and since the crop here, 

 comprising eleven acres, is still under their super- 

 vision, those who have never participated at a 

 dasheen banquet will be compelled to accept amateur 

 statistics and data on this subject until experts 

 choose to publish the scientific facts. — Tampa Trib- 

 une. 



