134 THE AMATEURS’ GUIDE 
planted further apart, a great portion of ground will be wasted, as 
they are not injured by being shaded by each other. Rhubarb 
should be planted in a shady or northern situation, as their stems 
will be finer and better when not too much exposed to the sun. 
Any rich soil will grow Rhubarb, which will require an annual 
top dressing of well-rotted manure. This should be applied in 
the autumn; for, during the winter, the nutriment which it con- 
tains will be conveyed down to the roots by the rain, and it will 
also cause the leaves to commence growing much earlier in the 
spring. As seedling plants do not produce stems fit for use till 
two years after the time of sowing, if plants are desired to be ob- 
tained sooner than they can thus be brought into use, the old 
plants may be taken up and separated into as many parts as there 
are crowns or eyes, leaving a portion of the root to each. These 
may be planted out when desired, and they will soon produce 
stems sufficiently strong for any required purpose. On the ap- 
proach of severe weather, seedling plants should be covered with 
straw or the branches of evergreens, which must be removed early 
in spring, and the ground well hoed and cleared of weeds. 
SALSIFY, OR OYSTER-PLANT. 
The roots of this plant are boiled like Carrots, as a vegetable 
dish, or, after being parboiled, made into cakes, with paste, and 
fried like oysters, which they closely resemble in both taste and 
flavor. The stalks of one year old are sometimes used in the 
spring as Asparagus. The seed may be sown, from the first to 
the middle of spring, in deep, rich loamy soil, moderately thick, 
in drills, an inch deep and twelve inches apart When the plants 
are two or three inches high, they should be thinned to the dis- 
tance of six inches from each other, and afterwards hoed. The 
ground should be kept clean and loose around the plants, by hoe- 
ing, and in the autumn they will be fit for use. The roots may 
be taken up late in autumn and secured in sand, or suffered to 
remain out, and dug up when wanted. 
