NOVEMBER 15, 1914 



919 



gives the following figures as units of food value: 

 Helianti, 540.5; green peas, 465.0; turnips, 133.0; 

 potatoes, 126.8. 



He also offers to furnish pink-tuberecl 

 helianti, supposed to be the best, three 

 tubers for 10 ets., or less in quantities. He 

 also offers seed at 15 ets. a package, and 

 says they will bloom the first season and 

 make a lot of tubers. 



DASHEEN BULBS FOR PLANTING. 



In order to answer many questions I give 

 below two advertisements from the Florida 

 Grower. 



Dasheens. — $2.50 bushel; others ask $4. Cas- 

 sava, Kudzu, Para Grass, Ribbon Cane. Poet Eden 

 Farm, Riverview, Fla. 



Seed Dasheens for sale, $2.50 per bushel, f. o. b. 

 C. J. Barrett, grower, Crystal Springs, Fla. 



I confess the above is free advertising; 

 but under the circumstances it will save me 

 answering questions. I shall have, perhaps, 

 thirty to forty bushels of dasheen tubers of 

 my own gi'owing, but they are not for sale. 

 In fact, so long as I am writing up the 

 garden department of Gleanings I shall 

 have nothing to sell. Should I undertake 

 to sell the things I write up or write about, 

 you might accuse me of having an " ax to 

 grind." Whatever I choose to give or offer 

 to the readers of Gleanings^ I suppose no 

 one will object to. We are planning, as I 

 have told you, to give every paid-up sub- 

 scriber for one year or more 1 lb. of dasheen 

 tubers. But said sub.scriber must find out 

 from his postmaster what the postage will 

 be from Bradentown, Fla., to his own place, 

 and then he can send the amount here to 

 Medina, 0., when he makes his application 

 for the pound of tubers. Three grains of 

 the Rainbow corn will also be included if 

 you mention it. 



In addition to the above we have just 

 received an advertisement reading as fol- 

 lows: 



If you want to make sure of an 8-lb. " Trinidad 

 dasheen-seed " shipment in time for spring planting, 

 send me $1.00 now. M. Leidersdoef, Daytona, Fla. 



See advertising columns. 



I have a nice increase of dasheens. I have tried 

 them out and find both bulb and stock delicious. 

 Won't you give us a little advice again as to the 

 methods of preparing for the table, and especially as 

 to care in northern climates, for next summer's 

 planting? Will the old bulb keep over winter?- 

 Shall we pack in sand, dry or moist ? 



S. W. Morrison, M. D. 



Embreeville, Pa., Oct. 19. 



My good friend, it is a very simple matter 

 to prepare dasheens for the table. You may 

 recall that the Government bulletin advised 

 washing the bulbs in water containing a 

 little baking soda; and if there is any ten- 

 dency to acridity, first boil the dasheen in 

 a little soda Avater and pour the water off. 



Then add fresh water and stew until the 

 bulbs are soft. Add butter and milk, or 

 cream, so as to make a sort of soup like 

 oysters and mushrooms. Then put in oyster 

 crackers as you would for oysters. This is 

 our favorite way of cooking them ; and you 

 can cut up the whole plant, and stew with 

 tubers. When they are matured, bake them 

 exactly as you would potatoes. This refers 

 to the underground part only. As to wheth- 

 ei the old bulb will keep over winter here 

 in the North, I cannot answer. As they 

 keep without any trouble down in Florida, 

 if kept where they can have plenty of air, 

 and si^read out on a screen of fine-mesh 

 poultry-netting, we have no trouble. 



Some I grew a year ago and kept in a 

 cellar here in Ohio spoiled because I did not 

 spread them out and give them plenty of air, 

 A few of the tubers, however, that did not 

 get soft were planted, and they grew all 

 right. My impression is that, if packed in 

 dry sand and kept considerably above the 

 freezing-point, they can be kept over all 

 winter all right. In fact, seedsmen keep 

 bulbs of caladium and elephant ears (which 

 are of the same family) without any trouble, 

 year after year. They must, however, be 

 kept in a place sufficiently dry so that they 

 will not get damp and moldy. 



SWEET-CLOVER seed — OVER $1400 in CASH 

 FOR just one WAGONLOAD. 



One of my good friends sent me the 

 following, clipped from the Omaha Daily 

 News of Oct. 5 : 



FARMERS GET RICH ON SWEET CLOVER. 



Hastings, Neb., Oct. 5. — Progressive farmers in 

 the North Platte district are making small fortunes 

 oft' sweet clover hay and seed crops, for which there 

 is an enormous demandj" according to A. J. Mills, 

 who has just returned from there. 



He said every spare bushel of seed was readily 

 disposed of at $14, and that he witnessed the sale of 

 one load for which a little over $1400 cash was paid. 

 He saw another load sold for $1050. 



A farmer with whom Mr. Mills visited rented an 

 eighty-acre tract for $160. From this field the man 

 sold over $2000 worth of sweet-clover seed, to say 

 nothing of the hay feed left from the straw. 



Mr. Mills probably farms more land near Hastings 

 than any other farmer in the county. 



He says at first horses and cattle refuse to eat the 

 clover plant, once styled as a pest and obnoxious 

 weed; but that after they once get a taste the stock 

 will pass up the choicest alfalfa for it. 



Mr. Calvert informs me that the price of 

 sweet-clover seed has been steadily advanc- 

 ing; and just now, Oct. 27, the price is 

 away up. This whole matter of sweet clover 

 illustrates how farmers and others who do 

 not keep posted may get into a notion that 

 one of God's best and most precious gifts 

 is an enemy to mankind. This comes about 

 because so few of the farming people keep 

 in touch with the experiment stations now 



