68 



PEACTICE or GABDENING. 



by this plan the beds are trenched out to the usual depth, 

 and the plants are earthed up by placing the soil between 

 two boards, one against each row, and when a suffi- 

 cient quantity of soil is thus prepared between the 

 boards, they are carefully removed, leaving the soil in a 

 ridge between the rows, which is then placed about the 

 plants with the hand. This practice cannot be recom- 

 mended, as it renders the plants more liable to rot. 

 Though this plant grows naturally in moist ground, wet is 

 more injurious than frost to the blanched plants, which 

 are tender and easily rotted. In very severe weather, a 

 small quantity of dry litter should be shaken over the 

 plants to preserve them from frost. It is not a very pro- 

 fitable crop for a small garden, as it takes so much manure 

 and room, but it is among the least unprofitable of mere 

 garden luxuries, and may follow summer cabbages or kale, 

 while the manure will prepare the ground well for any 

 other spring crop the next season. One of the pricked- 

 out (not the blanched) plants may be left to go to seed, 

 which, when ripe, is to be hung up to dry. A small fly 

 grub often deforms the leaves with white patches by 

 mining into them. Celery should be principally eaten 

 in the early part of the winter, before the severest frosts 

 have occurred ; as it always becomes more or less rotten 

 daring winter, and a large part of the crop is thus lost. 



6. — Rhubarb, 



The inside of the leaf-stalks of rhubarb, so much used 

 in April and May for pies and tarts, contains some sugar, 

 a good deal of pulpy fibre, and an agreeable and whole- 

 some acid, consisting of the malic and oxalic acids. 



There are many sorts of rhubarb, but the Elford and 

 Wilmot's early are the best, though a sort raised by Mr. 

 Myatt, Deptford, and called the Victoria, is now culti- 

 vated for the London markets, and produces immense 

 stems. Rhubarb should be sown in the month of April, 

 in a border with a northern aspect ; the seeds should be 

 scattered thinly in drills of about two inches in depth and 

 a foot apart, and slightly covered with soil. When the 

 plants appear, they should be thinned out to about six 

 nches from each other, and afterwards to a foot, and the 



