The Home Garden 



Rhubarb is a gross feeder,' and speedily 

 exhausts the soil in which it is planted, there- 

 fore manure must be used in very liberal quan- 

 tities, or there will soon be a falling off in the 

 size and quality of the plant. To be tender 

 and delicate in flavor, it must make a rapid 

 growth in spring. 



Cover the roots with coarse litter in fall, and 

 work this into the soil in spring, adding a gen- 

 erous amount of well-rotted manure from the 

 barnyard, at the same time. Do this as soon 

 as the frost is out of the ground. 



Be sure to keep all flowering stalks cut 

 off. If it is allowed to develop seed, the 

 plant will throw all its energies into this per- 

 formance, and next season you will be likely 

 to have a greatly weakened plant as a natural 

 consequence. 



You can have rhubarb very early in the 

 season by setting a headless barrel over a plant 

 as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and 

 banking up about it with horse-manure. The 

 young stalks, , from such forcing, will be ex- 

 tremely delicate in texture, and of the finest 

 flavor, and will lack the acidity which charac- 

 terizes the later growth. 



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