CHAPTER XVII. 
RHUBARB. 
Rhubarb seems to be gaining in popular favor, for we 
hear of rhubarb specialists and their large crops, and we see 
the construction of great stretches of framework over rhu- 
barb beds that by the addition of sashes become forcing 
houses in the spring of the year. 
Allusion has been made in an earlier chapter to the pro- 
duction of rhubarb under greenhouse benches. Some of the 
Philadelphia growers follow this plan. 
Louis Reichner, Belmont avenue and Ford road, takes 
roots of the Paragon variety from the open field in the late 
autumn, packs them a foot apart on the ground under one of 
his greenhouse benches, and pulls the stalks twice in the 
early spring. His bed of 1896 was 4% feet wide by 150 feet 
long. ‘The roots are permitted to die after use. 
The bunches are made of from three to five stalks, and 
the wholesale price in winter is $8 to $10 per hundred bunches. 
There is a space of about two feet from the top of the 
rhubarb bed to the bottom of the bench or stage above it; 
no loss of valuable room. New roots are brought in each 
year from the open garden. 
Daniel R. Comly, of Bustleton (Philadelphia), employs 
a sash-covered pit, or sunken cold frame, for forcing rhubarb 
in the early spring months. 
John Davis, on Richmond street, Philadelphia, forces 
rhubarb on the natural level of the ground, where it grows 
all the year, by raising the sides of ordinary cold frames so 
as to afford sufficient space for the development of the leaves. 
Forcinc RHUBARB IN NEW ENGLAND. Our observa- 
tions in Massachusetts in 1896 brought our camera within 
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