The Canadian Horticulturist. 385 



RHUBARB. 



HE garden rhubarb, or pie-plant, is a perennial of the same natural 

 family as the common dock. The varieties now cultivated are 

 hybrids and have supplanted the original species, Rheum rhapon- 

 ticum, palmatum, and undulatum, excelling them in size, earliness 

 and delicacy of flavor. The best sorts are the Early, which is of 

 but medium size ; Myatt's Linnaeus, rather early, and yielding large 

 crops of large leaves, and the best flavored of all, Myatt's Victoria, 

 which is two weeks later; stalks very large and good ; Downing's Colossal, and 

 ( 'ahoon's Mammoth, very large varieties of good flavor. 



Rhubarb is remarkable for the quantity of phosphates and soda it extracts 

 from the earth. Crude soda might be added to the soil. Guano and bone 

 dust are very beneficial. Rhubarb succeeds best in a rich, deep, rather light 

 loam and in a situation open to the air and light. It may be raised from 

 seed, but thus grown, sports into new varieties. It is best propagated by 

 dividing the roots, reserving a bud to each piece. These may be set about 

 two inches deep, in rows three feet apart, and from eighteen to thirty inches 

 (according to the sort) in the row. All the culture required is to keep the 

 surface soil light and free from weeds. The plantation may be made in the 

 fall, after the leaves are killed by frost, and protected by litter, or as early in 

 the spring as the weather and soil permit. It should not be disturbed after 

 growth commences. Pluck no leaves the first year, after which the crop will 

 be abundant. Make a new plantation about once in five years. If a plant 

 or two in summer dies out, as it is apt to do in the South, it is best to remove 

 next autumn the old plant, together with the soil in which it grew, and supply 

 fresh soil. New plants to reset the vacancy can be obtained by uncovering an 

 old crown and cutting from it a bud with a piece of root attached. 



To obtain the largest product, the flower-stems should be broken off 

 when they appear, for the plant is weakened by permitting it to. seed. A 

 yearly surface dressing of well rotted manure should be given, for the stalks 

 to be good must be quickly grown. 



This plant is forced by placing a large flower-pot over the roots, and 

 covering with stable manure. The more common way is to surround the 

 plant with a small barrel without a head ; a cover is placed over it at night 

 and in cold days, and it is then surrounded with a pile of stable manure built 

 up in as sharp a cone as it can be made to form. If the root is good, it will 

 soon fill the barrel with shoots. The plant should be permitted to rest after 

 this crop through the season, and others be selected for the purpose next 

 year. This operation at the North, is common enough, but at the South 

 it is generally death to the plant. — White's Gardening. 

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