JANUARY 1, 1914 



37 



expensive g-rain-bills? " 1 have for years 

 been searching among "God's gifts" (for 

 the people here in Florida) for something 

 that will grow here and take the place of 

 grain. May God be praised, for my search 

 has been rewarded; and may he be thanked, 

 also, for onr Department of Agriculture 

 that helped me to get it. Listen : 



Just before going back north last April 

 my good friend Bannehr, of Manatee (a 

 beekeeper), gave me some canes and roots 

 of cassava, and told me to plant them, say- 

 ing that the roots were " good for chickens," 

 etc. Now, to illustrate how we often neg- 

 lect and pass by some of God's most pre- 

 cious gifts (sweet clover?) I shall have to 

 own up that, after throwing the roots to the 

 chickens, and finding they didn't seem to 

 notice them, I let the canes lie around un- 

 cared for until Wesley said he knew how to 

 plant them, and so he cut them up and 

 l)lanted perhaps a doaen pieces that looked 

 about like corncobs. When we were plant- 

 ing dasheens the cassava was just peeping 

 above the gTound, and I told Wesley he 

 might as well chop them otf, as I didn't 

 believe they were of any use. Well, eithei- 

 Wesley didn't hear or he didn't get around 

 to it for some reason, and I foi'got all about 

 the cassava until we got here a few days 

 ago, Avhen all at once I said : 



" Why, Wesley, what are those great 

 branchey trees down among the dasheen?" 



"Why, Mr. Eoot, that is the cassava." 



" Do you mean they have made all that 

 gi'owth in the past six months?" 



By my direction he dug some roots as big 

 as my arm, and a yard long or more. After 

 taking some pains to teach the chicks, they 

 soon ate them with avidity — no cutting up 

 nor any preparation needed. Then T sent 

 to Washington for a bulletin (No. 1G7) 

 which I recalled having seen. Let me give 

 you some clipping from said bulletin : 



If the entirp crop is not wanted for use during 

 the winter following its growth, a part of it may be 

 left in the ground for another season, as the roots 

 will continue to grow several years if not disturbed. 

 Roots which have grown two or more seasons often 

 rea'-h an enormous size, sometimes as much as 8 feet 

 in length, and forming clusters weighing more than 

 100 pounds; but they become more hard and woody 

 than at the end of the first season, and so are not 

 as eood for the manufacture of starch or for feeding 

 as those which have grown only one season. When 

 it is known heforehand that a part of the crop is to 

 he kept until the second season, it is better to dig 

 alternate rows, so that the plants remaining will be 

 less crowded. 



MEANS OP REMOVING FnO.M THi-: GTOUXD. 



As the roots are of considerable size, often from 

 3 to 4 feet in length by 2 or 3 inches in diameter, 

 and as they gi-ow in clusters of from 4 to 8 on each 

 stalk, a single cluster often weighing from 20 to 30 

 pounds, digging can not be done with a plow, as 

 sweet potatoes are dug, but must be done by hand. 



Dr. Stockbridge states, in Bulletin No. 49 of the 



Florida Experiment Station, that when five lots of 

 pigs were fed a period of seventy-five days, cassava 

 gave a greater net profit and a greater percentage of 

 gain in weight than did either corn, chufas, or pea- 

 nuts, and a greater net gain in weight than did any 

 except corn. The cost of the increased weight of the 

 cassava-fed pigs was only 1.04 cents per pound, 

 while the increase of the corn-fed pigs cost 3.06 cents 

 per pound. In these tests the cassava was charged 

 to the pigs at the rate of $6 per ton and the corn at 

 60 cents per bushel, these prices being somewhat 

 more than the actual cost of growing the cassava 

 and less than the usual market price of corn in 

 Florida. 



FEEDING TO POULTRY. 



In localities where it is grown, cassava is used 

 more commonly than corn in the feeding of poultry. 

 It needs no preparation before feeding, as the roots 

 are so tender that they can be eaten readily, and 

 poultry eat them as greedily as do other kinds of 

 stock. When fed alone cassava makes hens so fat 

 that they do not lay well, as is the case when they 

 are given an exclusive corn diet, so it is better to 

 mix it with wheat, oats, or some similar nitrogenous 

 feed. It is unsurpassed when fowls are to be fat- 

 tened for market, as it makes a rapid increase in 

 weight with very little expense 



One poultry-raiser at Orlando, Fla., who keeps 

 from 500 to 700 fowls, states that he has fed cassava 

 since 1885, and that it is the most inexpensive as 

 well as the most satisfactory feed he can find for use 

 in the place of corn, though it is not so complete a 

 food as is needed by growing chickens and laying 

 hens. Others who have used it for feeding poultry 

 make similar statements ; and it is the general ex- 

 perience that, when it is used as the principal food, 

 from one-third to one-half a feed of wheat or oats 

 should be added to the ration, and that the feeding 

 of cassava saves fully one-half the usual cost of corn. 



Our cassava is growing on ground that 

 was for several years a chicken-yard. As 

 it is desirable to change yards, a very lim- 

 ited piece of ground will gi'ow the roots, 

 and, after well started, the chickens may be 

 let into the yard again. If I were to try to 

 grow grain of any kind a horse would be 

 needed. While it is a very small job to pre- 

 pare and plant cassava by hand, and the 

 harvesting for chickens is nil, as the great 

 roots grow just under the surface, and the 

 spreading branches soon keep down all 

 weeds, and even Bermuda gi'ass gives up 

 trying to grow under rank cassava, the 

 roots are almost equal to Irish potatoes for 

 table use. 



jMrs. Root will scold if I stop here without 

 telling the other side, so here goes : 



" THE OTHER SIDE OF POULTRY •" IN FLORIDA. 



It is the long wet summers, especially for 

 those who live here only in the wintertime. 

 If you will turn back to p. 356, May 15, 

 191.3, you will see that, when I left for 

 Ohio. I had 125 chickens, none over four 

 montlis old, and about 25 ducks; 150 fowls 

 in all. I offered a neighbor all the duck 

 eggs and all the roosters when they were 

 big enough to sell for looking after them 

 during the summer, I to pay all the feed- 

 bills. What did the feed cost for the six 

 months? Just about as many "dollars" 



