JANUARY 1, 1916 



line of " daily bread," I quote below from 

 a government bulletin : 



roselle: its culture and uses. 

 The roselle plant is adapted for culture in the 

 tropical and subtropical regions of the United States, 

 and should be especially valuable in southern Cal- 

 ifornia, Florida, the tropical islands of the United 

 States, and in the Canal Zone. It is used in the 

 South very much as the cranberry is used in the 

 North, and is especially valuable for the making of 



The name in Florida, " Jamaica sorrel," is evi- 

 dently an indication that the plant was introduced 

 from Jamaica — at what date the writer has been 

 unable to ascertain — but it was probably not ex- 

 tensively grown in Florida before 1887, as P. W. 

 Reasoner does not refer to it. Harcourt does not 

 speak of it. 



In Florida, as in California, those who have tried 

 the roselle have nothing but praise for the plant, 

 and considerable interest in it is manifest; but its 

 culture on a large scale has not yet, to the knowl- 

 edge of the writer, been undertaken by any one. 



The assumption by Royle that the name roselle is 

 a corruption of the French word " oseille " (the 

 equivalent of the English "sorrel") seems very 

 probable. In the evolutionary stages the name has 

 at different times been spelled " rouselle," " rozelle," 

 and " rosella." 



The fruit is seen at present in local markets only, 

 and is sold by the quart. Its excellent qualities for 

 making a sauce so closely imitating in flavor the 

 cranberry as to deceive the very elect are not well 

 known to the public or it would be a formidable 

 rival in the South to that fruit, on which transpor- 

 tation charges are necessarily high owing to the 

 great! distance it must be transported. The crisp 

 and juicy appearance of the roselle is diminished by 

 being too long in the hands of the dealer, but this 

 does not indicate deterioration of its useful qualities. 



SUMMARY. 



The roselle is an annual from the Old World 

 tropics. 



It is extremely sensitive to frosts, and can at 

 present be grown for its fruit only in tropical and 

 subtropical countries. 



Being easily cultivated when the climate is fa- 

 vorable, the roselle should be in the garden of every 

 family ; and on account of its excellent qualities for 

 making jellies, jams, etc., it is certain to become 

 an important plant in the manufacture of those 

 products. 



The young stems also make good jelly. For such 

 use the plant can be grown almost anywhere in the 

 North or South. 



By proper methods of breeding it is possible to 

 obtain strains with larger calyces. Probably earlier- 

 bearing races can also be obtained by careful selec- 

 tion of the earliest-flowering plants. 



To save many inquiries as to where to get 

 seed, I am going to do some free advertis- 

 ing by giving the advertisement as I found 

 it in the Florida Grower: 



Roselle — the lemonade plant, is a wonder ; easy 

 to grow; resists drouth; makes the finest jelly; its 

 pods make a drink similar to lemonade. Send 15 

 cts. for seed and instructions. Mrs. H. G. Kay, 

 Route 1, Box 58, Pasadena, Cal. 



My seed came from the above source. 



When the weather is veiy wet there is apt 

 to be trouble with mildew, but the past 

 summer here seems to have just suited it. 



The above illustrates that certain things 



43 



grow all right during the Florida summers, 

 while there are many things that are sure 

 to be failures. 



Laier.— When you cut up oranges for the 

 table, put with them stewed roselle sauce, 

 half and half. I like this better than any 

 other combination sauce. 



We have now for the first time grapefruit 

 of our own growing; also oranges and tan- 

 gerines, delicious papayas, pineapples, etc. 

 Although our strawberry-bed died out, we 

 got from neighbor Rood forty plants with a 

 good lot of soil with each plant, and set 

 them out so not a leaf has wilted. This is 

 possible only when you can get good strong 

 plants near by. We brought so much soil 

 with each plant that the forty plants made 

 quite a wheelbarrow load. These plants, 

 with care, will probably be bearing in Jan- 

 uary. Over an inch of rain, scattered over 

 three days, has made everything brighten 

 up amazingly. We have an abundance of 

 sweet potatoes and yams and Irish potatoes 

 knee-high. 



FANCY IRISH POTATOES — A NEW TRICK. 



In one of our agricultural periodicals a 

 writer advised thinning out the potatoes in 

 a hill to a single stem, in order to get all 

 large potatoes, evidently forgetting or ig- 

 noring that Terry's A B C of Potato Cul- 

 ture has for its main feature " cutting to 

 one eye," and it has been advocated more 

 or less for for^y years. The above article 

 advised throwing away the surplus sprouts, 

 but right here comes in the " new trick." 



Down here in Florida, and, in fact, in 

 many other places, under some circum- 

 stances potatoes must be planted whole, 

 because, if they are cut, even in halves, they 

 are much more liable to rot, especially in 

 cold wet weather. This is one reason why 

 the seed potatoes in the market are all 

 small. Well, my neighbor Ault makes a 

 bed of threu rows of potatoes. The middle 

 row is planted first all to large potatoes. 

 When these are just coming up he digs 

 them up carefully and cuts them to one or 

 two eyes, and fills the rows on each side. 

 Every potato grows — no missing hills — and 

 the potatoes all go right along almost as if 

 they had never been disturbed, and no rot, 

 for a potato never rots after it has started 

 to grow. Is this too much bother? Possi- 

 bly ; but down here where sprouted seed 

 potatoes cost $2.25 per bushel, and choice 

 new potatoes bring $2.00 per bushel, the 

 saving of seed and having a perfect stand 

 is quite a figure. You will see by our book 

 " What to Do and How to be Happy," etc., 

 that I did the same thing by starting pota- 

 toes in the greenhouse toward forty years 

 ago. 



