RHUBARB 113 



quires a good holding soil, but where it is naturally 

 light, and the sub-soil gravelly or sandy, it is a good 

 plan, in preparing the ground, to throw out the 

 top spit of twelve inches deep from a trench three 

 feet wide, to add to the bottom soil a heavy dressing of 

 half-decayed manure, which should be forked in and 

 mixed with that, and to re-fill the trench, adding more 

 manure with the top soil, then putting in roots, so that 

 the crowns are level with the surface, four feet apart in 

 the row. So treated the roots quickly become strong, 

 also the leafage and stems, and will in a year or two 

 produce an abundance of fine stems through the season. 

 Where the soil is naturally good and loamy below the 

 top spit, although it is well to break it up deeply and 

 to add manure, a less heavy dressing suffices. It is a 

 good rule to plant Rhubarb roots either in one corner 

 of a garden or in one or more rows across a garden 

 quarter, or if on an allotment in the same way, as, being 

 of a permanent nature, the general cropping of the 

 ground is little interfered with. Rhubarb is a gross 

 growing plant, needing liberal feeding with ordinary 

 manure, with nitrate of soda or with liquid manure. 



Good varieties for forcing are Hawke's Champagne, 

 Sutton's Rhubarb, Daws' Champion and Victoria. All 

 these are equally good for planting to pull from in the 

 open ground, indeed, none can be better. With regard 

 to the great value of Rhubarb for forcing, it is import- 

 ant that the best varieties for this purpose be also grown 

 liberally outdoors, as it is only in this way the stock of 

 roots for forcing can be maintained. To gain that end 



8 



