444 The Principles of Vegetable- Gardening 



the crowns and allowed to lie between the rows until the 

 crop is harvested. Some growers hill up the rows in fall 

 by means of a plow and do not apply a fall mulch. 



The commercial rhubarb season is short. It rarely 

 extends over more than two months. The leaves are 

 pulled, and they separate readily at their insertion. 

 Only the largest and best leaves are harvested. Others 

 are usually allowed to remain unless they are very nu- 

 merous, in which case the larger part of them are pulled 

 off in order to allow the strength to go to the main ones. 

 After the market season of rhubarb is past, the plants 

 are allowed to grow as they will except that the seed- 

 stalks are cut off as fast as they arise in order to force 

 the energy of the plant into the production of foliage 

 and roots. A heavy crop of rhubarb in any year de- 

 pends to a large extent on the strong leaf -growth of 

 the year before. In order to renew rhubarb plantations, 

 the roots are sometimes taken up and reset; but it is 

 usually a better practice to trim the roots with the plow 

 or the spade, breaking off the strong projecting parts. 



Ordinarily, rhubarb is propagated by means of divi- 

 sion of the roots. The root may be cut into as many 

 pieces as there are strong eyes, and as much as possible 

 of the root is allowed to remain w^ith each eye. These 

 pieces are planted 3 or 4 inches deep. The plants should 

 grow two years before a cutting is made, and they will 

 not give a full crop until the third year. Rhubarb is 

 readily grown from seeds, but this requires a year's more 

 time and the seedlings are likely to vary to some extent. 

 The seeds may be sown early in the spring in drills 18 

 inches apart, or closer if the land is valuable, and the 



