168 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



yet so tender that a needle will readily penetrate the inner 

 shell, and, as a preparatory step, soaked for a week in water 

 or brine to leach off their excessive bitterness, may be salted 

 and made up by the process last described, and are, by some 

 persons, preferred to all other pickles. 



The spicing is varied according to individual taste. Be- 

 sides the ordinary spices, white mustard-seed, peppers, nastur- 

 tiums, horseradish, onions, garlic, etc., are often mixed with 

 the various kinds of pickles to flavor them. 



PIE PLANT. 



French, Rhubarbe. German, Rhubarber. Spanish, Ruibarbo. 

 EARLY. LARGE LATE. GIANT SEEDLESS. 



For the seeding varieties sow from February to May, in good 

 soil, in a drill about an inch deep ; cover carefully, and if 

 dry, give water two or three times. Keep the plants clear of 

 weeds through the summer, and in the following fall or spring 

 set them out where they are to remain permanently, in deep 

 and very rich soil, in rows three to four feet wide, and fifteen 

 to thirty inches apart in the row. 



Let it be well cultivated through the second year of its 

 growth, and well manured in the fall, and in the following 

 spring it may be freely plucked for use. 



The earlier varieties of pie plant produce leaf-stems twelve 

 or fifteen inches in length, and from one to two inches in cir- 

 cumference, and may be set out at the smaller distances named 

 above ; but the large varieties, as the Victoria, the giant seed- 

 less, etc., coming later in the season, and, with high culture, 

 yielding leaf-stems from two to three feet long and proportion- 

 ably thick, require the full spaces mentioned. 



Experienced cultivators usually cut out the seed-stalk when 

 it first starts, in order to encourage the leaf growth. The giant 

 seedless, as its name imports, never produces a seed- stalk un- 

 less from a diseased plant, and with proper care may be made 

 to yield its leaf-stems more largely /than any other variety. 



For a private garden about a dozen plants of the early and 

 as many of the late varieties will usually furnish a supply. 



