146 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1917 



great strong sprouts, sometimes only one 

 sprout from the end. Tliis sprout, with a 

 portion of the potato with it, was cut out 

 and planted, while the rest of the large po- 

 tato was put back. In a little time the 

 other eyes formed good sprouts also, and 

 in this way we secured from one large po- 

 tato a good strong sprout from almost every 

 eye ; and it was not only a " sprout " but a 

 pota.to-plant with leaves and roots. I have 

 some potato-beds where one row was set 

 with potato-plants, and the rest of the bed 

 was planted with seed potatoes in the usual 

 way. These beds are a gi-eat astonishment 

 to visitors. Years ago, as some of you may 

 remem.ber, in a manner similar to the above, 

 I increased one single potato to a ivJiole 

 barrel in a single year. This potato was 

 " Maule's Early Thorobred." When my 

 report came out in Gleanings, Everitt, the 

 Indianapolis seedsman, copied it in his cata- 

 log as a description of a new potato he had 

 just brought out.* Of course I made a vig- 

 orous protest and referred the whole matter 

 to Maule. Everitt's excuse was that his po- 

 tato came from the same source as Maule's. 

 ard really was the same thing. As my 

 neiehbor T. P>. Terry had on his grounds 

 the Thorobred from the beginning, I knew 

 this could not be true. It was in one sense 

 a cnol piece of forgery ; but Maule advised 

 letting it drop, as it would make a legal 

 tangle, probably, to take it up. Why do T 

 go back to it here? Because the [Rural 

 New-Yorker of Dee. 23 contains the follow- 

 ing: 



SENTENCED TO PRISON. 



James A. Everitt, 68 years old, Indianapolis, iis- 

 ins; the mails to defraud, eighteen months in Atlanta 

 prison. 



The above few lines tell in. the fewest words pos- 

 sible the culmination of a life record of deception, 

 hypocrisy, and dishonesty practiced by a man having 

 every opportunity to achieve wealth by honorable 

 means. 



" Wliatsoever a man soweth, that also (in time) 

 shall he reap." 



THE dasheen; more about it. 

 The tubers are now on sale in our grocer- 

 ies here (in Bradentown) at about half the 

 price of Irish potatoes. We clip the fol- 

 lowing from The Jacksonville Times-Union: 



The agricultural branch of the federal govern- 

 ment has been endeavoring for several years to 

 make a new article of food popular. It is a vege- 

 table which is eaten today by a larger proportion 

 of the world's inhabitants than any other, com- 

 paring with rice among the cereals in that regard. 

 Moreover, it has been an article of food in the 

 tropics since time immemorial under different names, 

 but has been brought to the attention of the Ameri- 

 can public only in recent years. It is probably un- 



* He used my words and my name without author- 

 ity or even knowledge on my part, to boom a potato 

 I had never even heard of. 



known in Europe, except among those who have 

 traveled in the tropics. 



The dasheen, we learn, is now actually in de- 

 mand to a limited extent, and that demand is grow- 

 ing. The limited commercial demand bids fair 

 soon to outstrip the supply, and Its cultivation along 

 the gulf region and as far north as central Georgia 

 and Alabama will soon be profitable. It is a crop 

 particularly adapted to Florida, one yielding 300 to 

 400 bushels per acre under ordinary conditions, 

 sometimes between 500 and 600 bushels. It is 

 an esculent that has won favor wherever introduced. 



Its corm, the principal part eaten, is superior to 

 the potato, which it resembles in some degree. To 

 the flavor of the potato it adds that of the chestnut. 

 It contains 50 per cent more protein than the 

 potato, and considerably more starch. It is far 

 more digestible than the potato, and for that reason 

 is the favorite food for convalescents in the coun- 

 tries where it is a staple article of diet. This .su- 

 periority of digestibility is said to be due to the 

 smaller size of its starch grains which are to those 

 of the potato, according to one com^parison, "as a 

 pebble to a cobblestone." 'ihose who have eaten 

 the young shoots, when blanched, pronounce them 

 exceeding those of the asparagus for delicacy of 

 flavor. 



Something resembling potato chips is made by 

 slicing very thin the corm, sometimes erroneously 

 termed the " root," and cooking the slices as potato 

 chips are made, and this is a favorite delicacy among 

 children where it has been introduced, we are 

 told, on account of the nutty flavor. 



We direct particular attention to this crop and 

 the growing success of the government in intro- 

 ducing it to public attention because of the adapta- 

 bility of its culture to Florida conditions. Florida 

 farmers make large sums thru supplying the markets 

 of the country with the earliest new potatoes in the 

 spring. A vegetable maturing late in the fall, and 

 which produces so abundantly, would admirably 

 supplement the early spring potato crop. The belt 

 in this country thruout which it can be successfully 

 cultivated is quite narrow, but includes all of Florida. 

 As a means of adding to the resources of Florida 

 truck-growers and the wealth of the state the 

 dasheen is of great promise. 



I clip the following from the Florida 

 Times-Union : 



But few dasheens have been dug here so far. J. 

 J. Schmidt has a two-acre field, from which he esti- 

 mates that the yield will be four hundred bushels. 

 He has been digging them for several weeks and is 

 finding a local market for them as fast as he cares 

 to dig them, and he thinks he will be able to dispose 

 of the entire crop locally. The exceedingly high 

 price of potatoes this year, together with the high 

 price of wheat and flour, it is thought, will be a big 

 factor in introducing the dasheen to more general 

 use. If dasheens are put on the market at a slightly 

 lower price than potatoes, or even at the same price 

 with them, it is thought that many people will buy 

 them in preference to potatoes; and, after an in- 

 troduction, it is thought dnsheens will be able to hold 

 their own in competition with potatoes. 



Dasheens, being a crop that wi'.l keep almost per- 

 fectly in the ground until their growing season in 

 the spring, are one product which the grower does 

 not have to rush to market or even rush to harvest, 

 and the prices, once established, are likely, therefore, 

 to remain quite stable. 



Let me repeat that 1 have dug a heaping 

 half bushel from a single hill that had been 

 growing right along for two years. The 

 tops (also edible) would have made another 

 half bushel or more. 



