280 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



this vicinity, a profit of $250 per acre annually from the 

 date of planting ; in many places where there is less 

 competition, no doubt double or treble that amount may 

 be realized. Rhubarb is a most simple and convenient 

 plant for forcing, which may be done in the following 

 manner : Tho roots are dug from the open ground in 

 fall, put close together in a box or barrel, and soil sifted 

 in to fill the interstices between the roots ; they are 

 then placed in a situation where the temperature will 

 range from fifty-five to about seventy-five degrees, with 

 a moderate amount of moisture. By this treatment 

 Rhubarb may be had from January to April. The roots 

 may be placed wherever there is the necessary temper- 

 ature. Light is not at all necessary ; in fact, the stalks 

 of Rhubarb are much more crisp and tender when forced 

 without exposure to direct light ; hence the roots may 

 be placed in the furnace room of a cellar, under the 

 staging of a greenhouse, or in an early forcing grapery. 

 A florist in Boston told me a few years ago, that he had 

 sold enough Rhubarb, grown under his greenhouse stages, 

 to pay his coal bill (over $100), besides having all he 

 wanted for his family use. Rhubarb is forced quite ex- 

 tensively by some of our market gardeners ; the method 

 pursued by them is to lift the roots from the open 

 ground in the fall, place them as closely together as pos- 

 sible in such pits or frames as are used for hot-beds, but 

 about two feet deep, sifting in soil so as to fill the spaces 

 between the roots. On the approach of cold weather, 

 the whole is covered over with a foot or so of dry leaves, 

 and so remains until about February first, when the 

 leaves are removed and sashes placed 011 the frames. 

 Sometimes this is not done until March, the sashes being 

 then used which have been covering Cabbage plants 

 through the winter. But little ventilation is given to 

 the frames at this cold season, as it is necessary to raise 

 the temperature of the frame by the action of the sun's 



