382 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Rasmussen : Not necessarily small. When onions are 

 not worth over a dollar a bushel we grow them in sawdust 

 commercially, and we think we double our money. You can 

 take your winter onions at this time of the year and pack them 

 in the cellar, just like the rhubarb, with good results. We dig a 

 good many of the onions at this time, let them freeze and put 

 them in hotbeds along the middle of February and start them 

 growing. 



A Member: Can that rhubarb plant be put back in the 

 garden in the spring? 



Mr. Rasmussen : It can, but it would take two years for it 

 to overcome that severe checking. 



Mr. Baldwin: You take a sharp pointed shovel and take 

 only part of the hill, cut the hill right in two, and it will come 

 right along, will do all the better for reducing the size of the 

 clump. I find it works very well in the cellar not to take up the 

 whole root. 



Mr. Rasmussen: Yes, sir, it will, but I prefer taking the 

 whole clump, and then in the spring cutting it to the right size, 

 although the other way is also practiced. 



Mr. Baldwin: Don't the plant lose a lot of nourishment 

 through the fresh cuts? 



Mr. Rasmussen : I don't think so. People that are not used 

 to handling them might not have good success in trying to divide 

 them, therefor I prefer taking the whole clump. 



A Member: What time would you take them up? Now? 



Mr. Rasmussen: It is just time to take them up now. 



Mr. Black : With a foot of frost? 



Mr. Rasmussen. We haven't any frost in Wisconsin. We 

 were plowing when I left home. Maybe it is too late here. 



A Member: How many kinds of rhubarb are there? 



Mr. Rasmussen: There are several kinds on the market. 

 We have a fine variety; I cannot say just what it is as it was on 

 the place when I bought it. I have been saving the seeds and 

 raise my own plants. It is one of the wine plants. 



A Member : Does the seed come true ? 



Mr. Rasmussen: Almost always. Occasionally we see a 

 light colored plant and throw it out. 



A Member : You save your own seed ? 



Mr. Rasmussen: Yes, sir, it costs practically nothing to 

 strip off a few handfuls. 



A Member: I always had a failure that way; where one 

 plant out of three or four hundred would be of commercial value 

 the rest would be green. 



Mr. Rasmussen: Did you save your seed or buy it? 



A Member : Bought it. 



Mr. Rasmussen : If you save the seed from the right kind 

 of plant it will generally come true to kind. 



