DECEMBER 1, 1916 



muck farm this fall, and it certainly is an extra- 

 long keeper. I liad them two and three weeks after 

 picking in the mid-state, and they would ripen up 

 in fine color and quality; and, being so solid, 1 

 think they would easily go to Seattle and back to 

 Columbus a?aiii by express. The plant has an un- 

 healtb-y look ; but that is natural to it. The qual- 

 ity is fine when well ripened. 



Livingston's Globe is our great leader in Florida. 

 We have been sending hundreds and hundreds of 

 pounds to that state the past three or four months. 



Our tomato crop was short again this season; but 

 the past two weeks gave us several thousand bushels 

 from late-set plants that we hardly expected anything 

 from when those first frosts came along. I regret I 

 did not send you word to come and see our muck- 

 grown crops, especially tomatoes when they were at 

 their best. This dry summer was just about right 

 for our mnck or peat soil farm. Last year was too 

 wet. I think 1 told you this land was where the 

 wild pigeons used to roost by the millions before 

 the land was reclaimed. It was swamp, and had 

 timber on it. 



Next summer you must surely come down (not 

 StaCe Fair week, tho), as I want more of your un- 

 divided time. I often recall the time we were at the 

 fair together, and how easy it was for the few folks 

 who had not met you to scrape up an acquaintance. 

 It reminded me of my own experience in meeting 

 people for the first time. In most cases they say, 

 " Oh, yes! I used to buy my seed of your father." 



I am enclosing a packet of " Honeydew " musk- 

 melon seed. Be sure to try it, both in Florida and 

 at Medina. We like it very much, and we believe 

 it will leap into general favor at once, as did Golden 

 Bantam corn. ' Robt. Livingston. 



Columbus, O., Oct. 27. 



ed from $1.80 to $1.85 wholesale. Kow is 

 the time for Florida to furnish the ii,reat 

 hungTy North with new potatoes before 

 anj-body else gets on to the racket. 



NEW IRISH POTATOES IN FLORIDA. 



Just after dictating the above I find the 

 following in the Jacksonville Times-Union: 



The first new crop of Irish potatoes to be shipped 

 from here this season was sent out last week by Old- 

 ham & Roberts, to a commission firm in Tampa. The 

 potatoes were grown by John McCreadie on his farm 

 tract in section 25, just north of town. The Tampa 

 firm gave Oldham & Roberts an order for two ham- 

 pers at their ow n price, and the price named by the 

 local firm was $"2 per hamper, or 5 cents per pound. 

 Other shipments of Mr. MeCreadie's potatoes at these 

 fancy prices were made to a Tampa retail grocer, to 

 a Plant City hotel, and to a Dade City firm. 



In the Cleveland Plain Dealer for Nov. 

 11 I notice that Irish potatoes have advanc- 



THE DASIIEEN UP TO DATE. 



With Irish potatoes up to $2.00 a bushel 

 here in Ohio, it would not be strange if 

 there should be a big rush to plant potatoes, 

 say during the month of November, over a 

 great part of Florida. And then there is 

 another thing that would not be strange: 

 With potatoes away up, and with the won- 

 dei ful yield that may be secured from 

 dasheen (a tuber that is preferred by a 

 good many even to Irish potatoes), there is 

 a big opening for the dasheen business. 

 Let me repeat : I have grown a heaping 

 half-bushel of dasheen tubers from one hill • 

 down in Floi'ida. I think they were allow- 

 ed to grow and spread a little more than 

 a year; and I expect to find, when I get 

 down in Florida, dasheens growing sponta- 

 neously almost all over my clear-off acre 

 of ground. The matter has just come up 

 by seeing quite a lengthy article in tha 

 Jacksonville Times-Union on the dasheen. 

 I give you only the closing part of it. 



As a vegetal le for market and home u re the 

 dasheen apparently offers bright possibilities of profit 

 for the Southern farmer; but if Southern enterprise 

 will establish plants for the manufacture of thrs 

 vegetable into flours and breakfast foods that can be 

 sold all over the country, the value of the dasheen 

 to Florida and the South might become, within a 

 very short time, almost unbelievable. 



Perhaps I should explain that I wriie 

 this Nov. 11, just before starting for 

 Florida. 



THAT OKLAWAHA CORNFIELD DOWN IN 

 1-LOKIDA. 



We clip the following from the Florida 

 Grower : 



Eighty-five thousand bushels of corn, valued at 

 $80,750, were produced on one thousand acres of 

 Oklawaha Ri\er muck land near Leesburg. 



Illllll!llllllll!llllllllllllll!lllllll!iillllllllll!llllllllllllllll!llllllllllillllllll!llllllli 



POULTRY DEPARTMENT 



BUTTERCUPS; HOGAN S DISCOVERY, 

 Do you still think the Buttercup fowls the best 

 breed? Can > ou give me any information on Hogan- 

 izing hens >. I have had your literature more or less 

 since 1877. B. A. Bemls. 



Dinuba, Calif, Oct. 14. 



I decided some time ago that Buttercups 

 were no better layers than the Leghorns; 

 and tliey certainly have never laid as well as 

 the Lady Eglantine pullets I have been writ- 

 ing about in Gleanings of late. 



In regard to Hoganizing, I believe our 



different experiment stations have decided 

 that, while it tells what hens are laying 

 and what are not at the time the test is 

 made, it does not by any means take the 

 place of a trap-nest. Perhaps it may pay 

 you to invest in their book; but the sub- 

 stance of the whole matter has been given 

 thru our poultry journals again and again. 

 I have liad a copy of his discovery, that was 

 sold for five or ten dollars some years ago, 

 but I have never made any particular use 



