470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



This result, 32 lbs. per colony, as early as 

 the middle of June, is certainly pretty 

 good. 



May the Lord be praised for what I have 

 been privileged to live and see accomplished 

 with the honeybees. 



High-pressure Gardening 



THE DASHEEN, AND SOMETHING MORE ABOUT 

 IT. 



On page 240 you will find a glimpse of 

 my Florida garden, and of the dasheens 

 about three months after planting. The 

 ground had been mostly cleared otf after 

 growing some other crop. Just over my 

 left shoulder, if you look carefully, you 

 will get a glimpse of our Golden Bantam 

 sweet corn, which our neighbors write me 

 is the best sweet corn they ever tested. I 

 think the Golden Bantam is the most suit- 

 able for growing sweet corn in Florida in 

 winter, because it is much hardier than the 

 other varieties of sweet corn, and will stand 

 the cold weather better. 



Now in regard to the dasheen. Below is 

 a clipping from the Country Gentleman for 

 June 7. This same article contains a pic- 

 ture of dasheen shoots grown in a green- 

 house in Michigan. Although I have not 

 tested any of the shoots to be used like 

 asparagus, I am fully satisfied they will be 

 excellent food; for in hoeing about my 

 plants I have occasionally chopped off a 

 sprout with my hoe; and on chewing these 

 white crisp shoots I have found them to be 

 very rich and sweet, and almost exactly 

 like raw asparagus. On page 240 of our 

 issue for April 1 you will see there is a 

 reference to the dasheen as a substitute for 

 asparagus. It is somewhat surprising, at 

 least to me, that none of our great seeds- 

 men have not as yet taken hold of the dash- 

 een and exploited it as they usually do new 

 vegetables. The dasheen, like the calla 

 lily, wants a very rich soil with a great 

 abundance of humus and plenty of water; 

 and wherever things are favorable I am 

 told they frequently grow as high as a 

 man's head. 



A great deal has been written about the dashten 

 —that new root crop for the South. Now it appears 

 that more will be written, and for good reason. 



It is generally known that the dasheen has all the 

 goodness of the common spud, with even greater 

 food value ; that the tubers can be baked, French 

 fried, mashed, croquetted, and used for stuffing 

 roasts. It is also generally known that a good flour 

 is being manufactured from the dasheen; that the 

 leaves of the plant make an excellent substitute for 

 spinach and other greens; that plantings have 

 yielded as high as 400 bushels of tubers to the acre. 



That should be enough for any iilant that has been 

 experimented with in this country for only five or 

 six years. But now the dasheen has added yet an- 

 other chapter to its catalog of possibilities. The 

 shoots of the plant have been tried out as a food, 



and they have filled the bill to the satisfaction of all 

 wlio have taken a hand in the experiment. 



Ordinarily the shoots that eventually bear the big 

 " elephant-ear " leaves are green and far from tempt- 

 ing. Perhaps they would never serve as a human 

 food if they were experimented with in the natural 

 green condition. 



But recently the Division of Foreign Seed and 

 Plant Introduction of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture secured the co-operation of a man in 

 Michigan and had him box in the growing dasheens 

 so that light would be excluded from the stems. The 

 result was a complete bleaching of these, and a prod- 

 uct more tender and tempting than was hoped for. 



The bleached stems were cut, packed, and shipped 

 to Washington. David Fairchild, agricultural ex- 

 plorer for this division of the department, had them 

 cooked, and served at a banquet. He took a long 

 chance, for he didn't believe in trying out this ex- 

 periment on the " dog." Well, the dasheen sprouts 

 tasted good — something like asparagus — and were 

 served like asparagus. Everybody liked them. And 

 now Mr. Fairchild and the rest of his force are going 

 in for a more thorough investigation of this new 

 dasheen. 



These shoots — or, rather, the dasheen plantings — 

 were forced in a greenhouse. It was found that sev- 

 eral crops could be grown in a season. Of course it 

 is possible that such a process of growing this new 

 food would not pay ; but Mr. Fairchild and his 

 corps feel that the same results will eventually be 

 secured in the field, earth banking taking the place 

 of boxing to effect the bleaching. 



DASHEEN FLOUR — SEE A. I. ROOT'S SPECIAL 

 NOTICES FOR JUNE 15. 



The dasheen flour mentioned in our last 

 issue was finally forwarded from Braden- 

 town, Fla. The Department at Washing- 

 ton informed me that they have no more to 

 send out tliis season. Well, Avhile we are 

 well pleased with the dasheen flour for 

 cooking purposes I am not prepared at 

 present to speak so extravagantly in regard 

 to it as I did of the first baked dasheen 

 tubers last January. Let me explain. 



I got my first bag of dasheens on Christ- 

 mas eve, as you will remember; and some 

 time in March I secured five bushels from 

 the Development Co. at Brookville, Fla. 

 Now, these last five bushels were already 

 sprouted more or less, and some of them 

 were wilted somewhat. We all know that 

 a sprouted and soft Irish potato late in 

 the spring is not expected to be of first 

 quality for table use, and it was so with 

 the samples selected from the five bushels 

 I bought. They were nothing near equal to 

 the first one, which was hard and firm and 

 solid. Well, this dasheen flour tasted a 

 little like the wilted dasheens when cooked. 

 We have tried them for making biscuit with 



