56 THE NEW RHUBARB CULTURE. 



grown in the warmer position beneath the greenhouse 

 bench. Stalks growing in the light also vary in color, 

 owing doubtless to individual characteristics of the 

 plants as well as to differences in the condition of light 

 and heat. The color is best preserved in cooking by 

 placing the product over the fire in cold water and allow- 

 ing it to heat gradually. Hot water applied at first 

 extracts much of the color. 



* * * A comparison between the normal leaf 

 development of light-grown and dark-grown stalks is 

 shown in the illustration "Leaf Development in Light 

 and in Darkness.^' The product grown in darkness is 

 far more attractive than that grown in the light; if 

 not forced too hard it possesses a bright cherry or ox- 

 blood color, and the leaf is very small. That grown 

 in daylight possesses a darker and duller color some- 

 what mixed with green, and the leaf is large, as when 

 grown in the open air. The contrast in leaf develop- 

 ment, both in size and color, is very striking. The waste 

 product is, in the one case, large, in the other almost 

 nothing. 



SUMMARY. 



* * * Summing up these fragments, I wish 

 to impress upon every one who has a garden with rhu- 

 barb in it, the fact that he and his family may be enjoy- 

 ing in February and March of next year, a more beauti- 

 ful product than ever grows in the open ground. To do 

 it he will need to transfer a few roots to a dark corner 

 of the cellar after they have frozen in the fall, packing a 

 little fine mellow earth about them, and then simply 

 see that tlie plants are kept moist. Whoever owns a 

 garden witli.no rhnbarl) in it, sliould see tliat some is 



