PERENNIAL 
a CROPS 
best strains of rhubarb will not produce good 
stalks if the land be hard or the sub-soil high and 
hard. The rows should be four feet apart to 
allow of horse tillage. The plants may be from 
three to four feet apart in the row. During 
the growing season they require the same sort 
of surface tillage that you would give to corn or 
potatoes. If you are making the most of your 
rhubarb bed, you will give it quite a heavy coat 
of manure in the fall, to act as mulch to keep 
the soil from freezing too deep, and also to pre- 
serve its texture. During the storms of winter, 
the manure leaches away somewhat and fer- 
tilizes the roots, so that they are prepared to 
make an early growth in the spring. 
The season for selling is short, as early in the 
summer the demand for rhubarb gives place to 
strawberries and other small fruits. It is the 
grower who has it early in the market who reaps 
profit from rhubarb. 
By means of the New Rhubarb Culture, rhu- 
barb may now be forced for market out of 
season, and then it brings the best prices of 
all. Roots are left in the garden until they 
have been frozen and are then transplanted 
to specially prepared beds and forced for the 
Christmas trade. These beds may be in the 
open field if one has a system of heating by 
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