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making a dish not inferior to the best spinach. A special method of 
cooking is required to destroy the acridity in the leaves and stems. 
The dasheen, being essentially a tropical plant, requires a 
long, warm season. Six to eight months without frost is needed. 
It is a moisture-loving plant, but it thrives well in rich, sah 
soil that is only a little too moist for ordinary crops. 
some of the related plants are grown regularly under eee 
in other parts of the world the dasheen has not yet been tested 
in this way. This method of culture is now under investigation. 
As an upland crop the dasheen has produced more than 400 
bushels to the acre in the southern states, where soil conditions 
are suitable. The yield of course falls a ee when 
the requisite oe are not supplied. 
he value of this crop for the south lies principally in the fact 
that it matures in the autumn. The main potato crop is grown 
in the spring and the small grower is obliged to dispose of it 
within a short time in order to avoid loss through deterioration 
and decay due to hot weather. Later, he must buy northern 
grown potatoes at a high price. Dasheens, when properly cured 
and stored, keep well. In the far south, where the ground does 
not freeze, they can be left in the ground and harvested as 
wanted during the winter and early spring. 
Dasheens for propagating purposes were distributed in the 
spring of 1913 to more than a thousand persons, principally in 
the South Atlantic and Gulf States and in Southern California. 
Some of these codperators have attained a marked degree of 
success, though with few exceptions the areas grown were very 
small. As the larger successful growers are already making 
marketing arrangements with fruiterers and restauranters in 
commercial product. For the present, on account of scarcity 
if for no other reason, the cost will doubtless be considerably 
greater than for potatoes, and in view of the higher food value of 
the dasheen, the price should probably normally remain some- 
what higher. Rogpert A. Youne. 
Bureau oF PLANT INDUSTRY, 
. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
