236 THE SMALL COUNTRY PLACE 



When the tops have fallen down and begin to turn 

 yellow, the crop may be dug and sold, or stored if one 

 has a cool, dry place in which to put them, but they 

 are as likely to keep well in the ground as in a n^)ist, 

 warm cellar. Where there is a tendency to decay, 

 dusting with air-slacked lime or plaster to take up the 

 moisture will often stop this tendency. For digging 

 large crops the potato-digger will be found very eco- 

 nomical, though it requires a very heavy team to draw 

 it, especially if the ground is moist and heavy. They 

 should be dug in bright, sunny weather, but not put into 

 bins until well cooled off. Potatoes keep best at a tem- 

 perature of 40. A continued temperature of 33 to 35 

 often chills the potato so that they become sweet and 

 do not sell as readily as when kept at a higher temper- 

 ature. The price this crop sells for varies from 50 cents 

 to $1.50 per bushel, the average for New England being 



about 80 cents. T , . . 



Varieties. 



Among the standard kinds are the following in order 

 of earliness: Irish Cobbler, Bouvee, Beauty of Hebron, 

 Early Ohio, Rural New Yorker, Carmans No. i. 



RHUBARB. 



This is an early and often a profitable crop on a warm, 

 rich soil with a southern exposure, and one that may be 

 forced by placing sash over the beds in the spring or 

 in the winter by putting the roots into a warm cellar 

 a single old plant will often make a dozen new ones. 

 To obtain large stalks, roots containing one or two buds 

 (Fig. 34), are set out in the spring or early summer 

 and kept growing all summer, and in the fall the ground 

 is covered with six to eight inches of stable manure to 

 prevent deep freezing. In the spring the coarsest of 

 this should be removed and the finer spaded in about 

 the roots on a bright, sunny day. This will cause an 



