VARIETIES AND STATION TESTS. Ill 



be maintained by means of a lamp or oil stove, and 

 partitioning off the place where the plants are growing 

 with canvas or other material. The forced product 

 grown in this way is very attractive, the color of the 

 stalks being particularly bright and beautiful." 



Xew Jersey station has tried Linnaeus for winter 

 forcing, but thinks Victoria would have succeeded better, 

 and recommends use of two-year-old plants in place of 

 one-year-olds, for forcing. Missouri station reports fair 

 success with winter rhubarb under greenhouse benches, 

 and is trying a new method of outdoor, steam forcing, 

 as described in Chapter I. The stations of Ontario, the 

 Dakotas, Alaska, Xorthwest Territory, and Manitoba 

 have done useful work in testing hardiness and adapta- 

 bility of old and new varieties. The results, also the 

 Massachusetts experiments with rhubarb varieties, are 

 included in the descriptions of varieties in the preceding 

 part of this chapter. 



Several of the southern experiment stations have 

 tried the crop, but with poor success in the extreme south, 

 where the long summer drouth appears to kill out the 

 plants in a year or two, unless located at a high altitude 

 where the summers are cooler, or unless cultivated under 

 irrigation. Maryland is the most southern state where 

 the crop is reported grown on a commercial scale to any 

 great extent, but the success of the crop under irrigation 

 in California, Idaho, Colorado, and other parts of the 

 arid section, would indicate that rhubarb will thrive 

 luxuriantly wherever there is frost in winter and an 

 abundant supply of water during the greater part of the 

 growing season. 



At Texas experiment station, the rhubarb plants died 

 out in the drouth of Aiigust, whenever tested. But 

 the experimenters report a good growth of the plant in 



