112 THE NEW RHUBARB CULTURE. 



spring and early summer, and they suggest that rhubarb 

 might pay if grown as an annual crop, fresh roots being 

 set every year. 



In Louisiana, the crop is grown in gardens only, by 

 those who have obtained roots from the North. At- 

 tempts have been made to grow the plant at the state 

 experiment station, but without continued success. Ehu- 

 barb is not on sale in the markets, and no demand for 

 the product has been created, the people being un- 

 familiar with its use. The long, hot summer of the 

 Gulf coast region seems to prevent j^roper root develop- 

 ment, and the only benefit from the plant is from roots 

 obtained from the North in spring, and used only one 

 year. In the South, rhubarb may be set in the late 

 fall with success ; transplanting any time before Christ- 

 mas. In fact the fall transplanting is likely to be fully 

 as successful as when the operation is performed in 

 spring, unless the locality is so far south that the roots 

 fail to get the bracing effect of a freeze in winter. 



Ehubarb cannot be successfully grown in North 

 Carolina except in the cool soil of the high mountain 

 valleys. Horticulturist W. F. Massey of the state ex- 

 periment station has tried it repeatedly at Ealeigh, both 

 with purchased roots and seedlings, and in the dry soil 

 there it rarely survives the first summer. In low moist 

 bottom land some partial success may be had, but it is 

 apparently not a plant adapted to commercial culture 

 there. With strong roots brought from the North, Prof. 

 Massey could easily force the stalks in winter under 

 greenhouse benches, in cellars or in barrels in the open 

 ground packed around with heating manure, but the 

 first winter would end the usefulness of the roots. He 

 has now a piece of low, black soil in which he proposes 

 to make another experiment with the plant, but has 



