302 ON FORCING SEAKALE AND RHUBARB, 



XXXVII. — On Forcing Seakale and Rhubarb, Blanchinc/ 

 Winter Salads, and Protecting late Vegetables. By Jame& 

 Duncan, C.M.H.S., Gardener to Joseph Martineau, Esq.. 

 F.H.S., Basing Park, near Alton. 



(Comniuuicated July 8, 1848.) 



The cumbersome and" unsightly mode by wliich seakale and 

 rhubarb are usually produced, viz., under masses of fermenting: 

 material in the open groiuid, has long appeared to me an anomaly 

 in gardening which not only involves a very serious expense ir> 

 the production of these articles, but, from the changeable nature 

 of our atmosphere during the winter months, the produce itself 

 is rendered very uncertain, more especially during periods of 

 continued wet or stormy weather. It also often occurs that over- 

 heating is a source of much mischief, considerably damaging the 

 leaves, and not unfreqnently destroying them altogether. Many 

 years since, whilst under-gardener in a large establishment, at 

 my suggestion, a close dark shed at the back of a fruiting pine- 

 stove, and whicli derived a borrowed heat from that structure, 

 was appropriated to the purpose of forcing seakale and blanching 

 winter .salads, and it answered the purpose tolerably well, although 

 in severe weather an excess of heat was sometimes unavoidable^ 

 and of a more drying nature than was favourable to a liealthy 

 development of the leaves of those esculents. The roots were 

 removed from the open ground and planted in a bed of mould 

 some eight or nine inches in thickness on the floor of the shed, 

 and no further care was required than occasionally to sprinkle 

 the walls and floor of the building, so as in some measure to 

 counteract the drying nature of the heat proceeding through the 

 wall of the pine-stove. Since then I have resorted to many 

 expedients in the production of seakale and rhubarb, such as 

 forcing in dark frames, on the floors of vineries, and the mashroom- 

 house, and occasionally potting the roots and forcing them in 

 the pine-stove — preferring, in sliort, almost any mode of culti- 

 vation to the antiquated one of forcing with pots and manure in 

 the open ground during the depth of winter: the only condi- 

 tions necessary in these operations being to secure a sufiiciency 

 of heat and complete darkiiess, so as at once to insure a vigorous 

 growth, perfectly blanched. 



The system, however, which I have practised here for a series 

 of years is at once so economical and well suited for the pur- 

 poses alike of forcing rhubarl) and seakale, or the blanching of 

 endive or other salarls, as at once to do away with (at least in 

 my case) all other plans or expedients by which these vegetables 

 had hitherto been produced. 



