316 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



^ .' e^. is. ■■■ 



Pig 3. — How the potatoes grow down in Florida, where Colorado bugs, 

 flea beetles, etc., are (as yet) unknown. 



our new potatoes by " gTabbling " them 

 wherever we see the ground puffed up ; and 

 in this soil they are smooth, round, and 

 perfect in shape. Now, in preparing new 

 potatoes (that are not perfectly ripe) for 

 the table they are usually scraped instead 

 of being pared; and when I saw Mrs. Root 

 scraping a panful I bethought me of the 

 stiff palmetto brushes with which we brush 

 the dasheen tubers before they go into the 

 oven, and, sure enough, the brush removed 

 the potato skins in a twinkling. As we have 

 so much dasheen brushing to get them ready 

 for the mail, I bought a variety of brushes; 

 and a big stiff brush made for cleaning 

 horses proved the best implement. Now. 

 when Mrs. Root asks for potatoes for din- 

 ner I get the potatoes and Wesley waslies 

 and brushes them, and you can't imagine 

 how handsome they look when they are 

 ready for Mrs. Root. 



I get them out of the ground first, because 

 T love to do it, and because I think I can 

 find them and disturb the still growing vine 

 less than any one else. Why, it's like catch- 



ing big fish to catch 

 my finger under a 

 whopper and turn him 

 out, so handsome, and 

 l^erfect in shape. 



Cut No. 3 shows a 

 spot whei'e I get them. 

 Cut No. 4 shows a hill 

 of dasheens that came 

 from a single small 

 tuber planted in Jan- 

 uary, 1913. The chick- 

 ens got at it last sum- 

 mer; and when I got 

 here it had made very 

 little growth. It has 

 now " stooled out," as 

 you see, so there must 

 be, I think, toward a 

 peck of tubers. I gave 

 it in December about 

 a pint of fertilizer and 

 cotton-seed meal, and 

 it soon responded to 

 the treatment. Besides 

 the tubers there are 

 enough green stalks 

 and leaves to make 

 several delicious meals. 

 Cut No. 5 shows 

 what Ernest calls our 

 "waterfall." The water 

 above is fresh, while 

 that below the fall is 

 salt; and as this rises 

 and falls with the tide, 

 the waterfall — or rath- 

 er, perhaijs, the " rapids " — varies in depth 

 from perhaps three feet to nothing at all, as 

 the tide sometimes goes so high as to cover 

 and obliterate the fall entirely. There is, 

 however, almost always enough fall to make 

 it what / call our " babbling brook," and I 

 always enjoy its music. It is a favorite spot 

 for the ducks; and if I don't get aroused 

 promptly at 8 :30 a.m. to let them out of 

 their yard they get up a concert of protest 

 that is louder than many " waterfalls." The 

 alligator cave is in the rocks just above the 

 fall, and visitors almost always inquire 

 about it, and I have to tell the story over 

 again about the alligator and the ducks. He 

 has never come back since Wesley made him 

 give up his unequal and unfair fight with 

 the courageous hen that was the mother of 

 the ducks. 



The transparent water above and below 

 the fall is very prettily embellished with 

 pearly-wliite shells, and sometimes a duck's 

 egg adds to the beauty of the bed of the 

 nppling stream. It just now occurs to me 

 that we ought to have a book where the 



