178 
April, 1915 
THE GARDEN M A G A Z I N E 
I N “PENNSYLVANIA” Quality Mowers 
alone, will you find all the blades made 
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“PENNSYLVANIA” 
Quality Lawn Mowers 
HAND. HORSE OR POWER) 
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If you want a dependable high-grade mower ask your 
Hardware Dealer or Seedsman to show you any of the 
“PENNSYLVANIA” Quality line. 
M Qllprl T? f*p p “Scientific Lawn Making,” 
an instructive book, written 
for us by a prominent authority, gladly mailed to any- 
one interested, together with a catalog of “PENNSYL- 
VANIA” Quality Lawn Mowers. 
SUPPLEE- BIDDLE HARDWARE COMPANY 
Box 1575 PHILADELPHIA 
The “PENNSYLVANIA" Quality 
family includes the following brands: 
‘Pennsylvania” 
‘Great American” 
‘Continental” 
‘Keystone” 
‘New Departure” 
‘Golf” 
Horse and Power 
and others 

L 
F. J. 
Lew i 
yr. 
Roof moss green, sides silver gray 
Doubles Life of Shingles 
Dipping a shingle in Dexter Oil Stain doubles its 
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book, "Symphonies in Stains,” will guide you. Both free. 
DexterStains 
For Shingles and Boards 
DEXTER BROTHERS CO., 145 Broad Street, Bo.ton, Ma»i. 
Agents Everywhere 
Dasheens Grown on Long Island 
F OR the past two years kind neighbors have 
advised me, from time to time, that I have 
given too much space in my garden to the growing of 
caladiums, or elephant’s ear, which, they tell me, is 
an ornamental plant and should not be planted and 
tilled as though it were a vegetable. They are some- 
what astonished and perplexed when I reply that 
they are probably referring to my dasheens which 
indeed I am growing for a vegetable. 
The dasheen is a tropical and semi-tropical vege- 
table belonging to the same botanical family as the 
calla and the elephant’s ear. It is grown ex- 
tensively in the West Indies, the Pacific Islands and 
to a limited extent in our own Southern States. In 
our South poorly shaped, unselected forms were 
formerly grown under the name of tanier. In the 
West Indies the plant is known as the edda, some- 
times as the tanier-edda and the dasheen. In the 
Pacific Islands it is called taro. The word dasheen 
is probably the French West Indian patoise for de la 
Chine, or da Chine — from China. 
Dasheens have been grown for several years in 
Florida and California but, so far as I know, never 
before with any success as far north as New York. 
For two years I have grown them on Long Island 
and have reaped a good harvest. The first year I 
grew the Japanese variety, and the second both the 
Japanese and Trinidad varieties with equal success. 
Both varieties have large, shield-shaped leaves 
exactly like the leaves of the elephant’s ear. 
The entire plant is of economic importance, since 
leaf, stem, root and even blossom are used for food in 
the West Indies. The West Indians gather the 
tender but well grown, bright green leaves, here and 
there from the vigorous plants, just as we select 
rhubarb. Two or three stems and leaves are drawn 
through the left hand until the leaves have almost 
passed through the hand. Then with a knife the 
leaves are cut, slice after slice, while the left hand 
moves back slowly along the leaves until the stems 
are reached. The stems are then peeled and cut across 
The leaves of the dasheen, an edible variety of the ele- 
phant’s ear family 
exactly as though they were rhubarb. The leaves 
and stems are boiled together, seasoned and served 
like spinach for which it may easily be mistaken. 
The dasheen has a growing advantage over spinach 
during hot weather, for the more heat the more 
luxuriantly it grows. The blossom is a long, slender 
flower, of a canary-yellow color and shaped like a 
calla lily. In the West Indies it, too, is prized for 
food, all of it, except the spadix, being used in vege- 
table soups. 
The edible, underground portion of the plant is a 
waxy corm well stored with starch. The central or 
parent corm, when it has attained size, sends out 
side corms. These lateral corms in time send out 
leaf stalks above and later side corms in their turn; 
so that, when harvest time comes, each vigorous hill 
should consist of an armful of leaves above ground 
and a clump of corms below ground that may attain 
the size of a half bushel measure. To harvest them 
the leaves should be cut off a few inches above 
Write to the Readers’ Service for information about live stock 
