258 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



Treatment. The plants should be allowed to retain all their 

 leaves the first year after planting out, and there must be abundant 

 moisture for summer growth if there is to be a heavy crop the 

 second year. Frequent summer cultivation is desirable unless 

 mulching is employed, and if it is the grower must be sure that 

 his mulching is heavy enough to retain moisture. It is probably 

 better to trust to cultivation and irrigation in most situations. With 

 the fall rains the surface should be liberally dressed with manure 

 and covered in as deeply as possible without injury to the roots. 

 Shallow cultivation should follow before the weeds advance too 

 far, to be repeated as necessary to keep the field clean. 



Winter growing varieties, planted out in the spring and sum- 

 mer, irrigated, establish themselves so strongly the first summer 

 that some pulling can be done upon them the following winter. 

 Even without irrigation, spring set plants will receive a new im- 

 pulse with the first rain, grow riotously with the autumn heat and 

 give large leaf stems by the holidays in the warmer parts of the state. 



Manuring and cultivation should be followed year after year 

 to keep the soil rich and in good tilth. Some soils are, however, 

 so rich naturally that such liberal manuring may not be necessary 

 at first. The plant should not be too fully stripped of its leaves 

 nor should the pulling be continued too late with the summer va- 

 rieties. The following crop depends upon adequate leaf action 

 consequently the plant must have foliage and summer moisture to 

 maintain it. 



Soil Shading and Enriching. Mr. A. W. Lee, of Covina, holds 

 that in interior places rhubarb is greatly helped by soil shading. 

 He grows blackeye beans or cow peas between the rhubarb rows 

 in the summer. It is not to protect the plants from the sun, but 

 for its fertilizing value, especially the humus that it will produce; 

 but, while it probably does not shade the plants, it shades the ground 

 and keeps it moist if kept irrigated and cool, and this is a very ma- 

 terial help in keeping the sun from injuring the plants. 



"If you are in a hurry for rhubarb results," says Mr. Lee, 

 "and if your patch is badly run down or the fertility gone, 200 or 

 300 pounds nitrate of soda per acre, used with manure, revives it. 

 In applying commercial fertilizers, I furrow away both sides of 

 the row, drop the fertilizer in, and cultivate to fill the furrows. 

 Then a good irrigation is necessary to start the fertilizer to work. 

 I use dried blood in the same way. I spread manure on top of the 

 ground and cultivate or plow it in, rather than scraping it into the 

 bottom of the furrow. Fresh cattle manure is best. Rhubarb uses 

 lots of nitrogen. 



Slight Forcing of Summer Rhubarb. Mr. R. E. Hodges notes 

 interesting garden experience as follows : 



In our garden in San Mateo County, the rhubarb started to go to seed 

 early this spring. We cut off the seed stalks before the sheaths bursted and 

 stopped that tendency. But the leaves and stalks would not grow much. We 



