1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
719 
FORCING RHUBARB IN THE DARK. 
How to Get Ready. 
Last Winter we printed a series of articles by J. E. 
Morse, on forcing rhubarb through the Winter. These 
articles came too late for many readers, as the roots 
were frozen solid in the ground. In order to be on time 
this year we print the following round-up article. Now 
is the time to start. 
AUTUMN CULTURE.—Now that the season of the 
outdoor crop is over, the resulting exhaustion from 
the Summer’s growth may be compensated for by 
careful cultivation through the much-needed period of 
rest. The ground should be thoroughly cleared of 
weeds and grass, and well worked, especially close 
around the plants. A liberal dressing of fresh ma¬ 
nure spread upon the surface, and well worked into 
the hills, to be carried down to the roots by the Fall 
rains, will be found especially beneficial. This point 
cannot be too strongly emphasized, as the forcing 
process is very exhausting, and feeble or worn-out 
roots will be unprofitable. The work should be done 
at once, in order that the roots may gather all the 
strength possible for the work which is to follow. 
THE FORCING SEASON.—This will vary with the 
season and locality. It may be hastened somewhat 
by careful attention to the weather, and plowing out 
the roots just previous to a sudden freeze, as the 
roots will freeze more readily when turned out on 
top of the ground. It has been thoroughly demon¬ 
strated here that freezing is absolutely essential to 
profitable work in ordinary cellars. The work at the 
Rhode Island Experiment Station, as mentioned in 
The R. N.-Y. of September 2, fully supports this 
theory. Do not experiment with unfrozen roots in 
the ordinary forcing cellar. As a rule, the earlier it 
can be put on the market the better the prices, and, to 
obviate the delay from freezing, a successful method 
of handling the unfrozen roots was given in The R. 
N.-Y. of January 21. 
TRANSPLANTING. — Many people 
have roots scattered here and there, 
which, while of sufficient age and size, 
have been too much neglected to be 
profitable for this year’s work. Such 
roots will be greatly benefited by 
transplanting to new ground this Fall, 
where with good care they will be in 
prime condition for next season’s 
work. If too old or worn-out to re¬ 
gain their vigor in the above manner, 
divide into single eyes, and, in that 
case, two or three years’ growth will 
be necessary. Young roots obtained 
from the seed or from nurserymen will 
do well transplanted this Fall. 
The great object is to get in on the 
ground floor, by starting as soon as 
possible, and not to wait two or three 
years to see if it is best to go in. Just 
here let me offer some words of cau¬ 
tion. It is wise to make haste slowly, 
and not rush into the business with 
the idea of supplying the entire market the first year. 
Do what you can this Fall, and enlarge the business 
as experience and circumstances shall indicate. It 
takes time to get established in the work, with a 
supply of roots for each successive year. It takes 
time for the roots to attain a profitable forcing size. 
They must also have a period of growth and rest after 
the forcing. But remember, the ground may be prof¬ 
itably utilized for catch crops the first year, and the 
rhubarb ought to yield a sufficient crop to pay ex¬ 
penses the second and third years, if left that long. 
So the time from starting the roots to the forcing 
age will not be lost. With these facts in mind it may 
be well to look at 
FUTURE PROSPECTS.—There is much of encour¬ 
agement to the northern farmer and gardener, as this 
crop bridges over their slack season. Southern com¬ 
petition will not interfere for the present, and the de¬ 
mand will increase as the people become accustomed 
to its use. Far more rhubarb was grown last Winter 
than ever before. When the potato and vegetable pits 
were all frozen up, and very few vegetables could be 
moved at all, the rhubarb growers were smiling at a 
demand for their product far greater than the sup¬ 
ply. As nearly as I can estimate, from the last of 
December to the middle of April, prices averaged 50 
cents per dozen or over. It can be grown under favor¬ 
able circumstances at 20 cents or even less. One 
cellar in which two crops were grown last Winter, 
already described in a previous article, yielded some¬ 
thing over $160. There is labor, of course, as in 
everything else; but taking into consideration the 
time of year, with no tillage, no drought or unfavor¬ 
able weather to guard against, and no insects to fight, 
it is certainly not a bad showing. This is the sunny 
side; but many will see, or think they see, 
THE OTHER SIDE.—They will not undertake it as 
a business, and wisely so, perhaps. But the methods 
are so simple that every farmer and gardener may 
easily have a home supply. For the sole purpose of 
showing how easily and cheaply it may be done, I 
was at the pains, last Winter, of preparing a small 
bed in my house cellar. The bed contained but 10 
roots, and was placed at the end of the cellar close 
beside a potato bin. 
THE ILLUSTRATION shows the bed in full bear¬ 
ing, with lamp and lantern for heating. The bed was 
shut off from the rest of the cellar by simply tacking 
an old hemp carpet to the floor and sleepers above, 
letting it fall to the cellar bottom. The wall formed 
one side of the enclosure, and the carpet was so 
nailed to the floor above as to form the other side 
and ends. The heating cost less than two cents per 
day, and was only used at intervals. The bed was for 
family use. The bearing season was prolonged at will 
by using the heat only occasionally. The yield was 
something over 10 dozen bunches, worth at going 
prices about $5.10. j. e. m. 
Detroit, Mich. 
THE SHORT COURSE FOR GROWN MEN. 
I took the short course in agriculture at Purdue 
University, Lafayette, Ind., last Winter. Though I 
am nearly 50 years old, I have felt a need in my farm¬ 
ing, and in writing and speaking on agricultural 
topics, of a more thorough study of the subject. I 
was pleased with the helpfulness of the means of il¬ 
lustration associated with the lectures. For instance, 
Prof. Bitting, in describing the horse, and stating how 
to detect unsoundness, showed us on the model horse, 
and also on the skeleton, where such imperfections 
occur and how they look. He brought in the jaw¬ 
bone of a cow showing lumpy-jaw. A practical 
thought he gave was that this disease, when confined 
to the bone, does not render the animal unfit for food, 
and that if one happen to have such an animal, fat 
enough for market, it may be sold, after inspection. 
See that some dishonest salesman doesn’t put you 
off with pay for the hide, claiming that it would not 
sell, and pocket the value himself. 
Prof. Plumb brought in a fine Hereford cow before 
the class. By this he taught far more clearly than 
one can in a simple lecture the characteristic points 
of pedigree stock. His talk on in-and-in breeding was 
very practical. With the animal before us he showed 
in what ways animals should agree or may differ 
and be mated successfully. I remember that he said 
the farmer often crosses the Poland and the Berk¬ 
shire hog; that this makes a good cross for feeding 
for market, but that if he keep on breeding from the 
offspring he will soon deteriorate his stock. Is not 
this one reason why we farmers have continually to 
go back to the breeders of purebred stock for fresh 
blood? 
Dr. Coulter taught us what he could, in the few 
lectures alloted to him, of the general principles of 
plant life. I remember how he warmed up as he em¬ 
phasized the thought that the plant is a living thing, 
therefore it exerts a positive influence on its environ¬ 
ment, and is susceptible of being influenced by it. It 
becomes a positive factor in life. He also emphasized 
the fact that the leaf is the plant. All other parts, as 
root, stem, and branches, are simply accessories to 
lift the leaf into the light, and to furnish it with 
food and moisture; that plants grow tall in search of 
light, and that the sunlight relation is a most prac¬ 
tical thought in agriculture. We thin our corn and 
keep down weeds to conserve light and moisture. 
Then came Dr. Arthur, who spoke of fungi, and 
showed that they are the most numerous of all kinds 
of plant life; that they are forever busy in every foot 
of soil, hastening decay, and making plant food solu¬ 
ble. They also are the busiest bodies on earth in 
almost every department of agriculture, though oc¬ 
casionally they trespass on what we choose to call 
our interests. This requires intelligent self-defense. 
Prof. Troop, in teaching the great question of horti¬ 
culture, of which we farmers know so little, illus¬ 
trated from his orchard and garden, e. it. colons. 
FOREST LEAVES IN THE GARDEN. 
In discussing the matter of fertilizing a village gar¬ 
den with an old gardener, he highly recommended 
Autumn leaves. In the Autumn of 1897, when the 
streets were full of fallen leaves, I made up my mind 
to try them. After a good rain I hired a village cart- 
man to collect them for me, and dump them in a 
compact heap in a place in the garden, where a wagon 
could enter without doing harm. He dumped eight 
loads, charging me only 20 cents a load. Being gath¬ 
ered from the gutters, where they lay in heaps, hav¬ 
ing drifted thus in the rainstorm of the previous 
day, it was an easy job, and he did it in a half day. 
In the Spring of 1898 they were not sufficiently de¬ 
composed to be desirable, and I left them undisturbed. 
Last Spring a single handling made them as fine as 
could be desired. In fact, this leaf mold was worth 
to me three times its cost in commercial fertilizer, 
for it supplied a want which no commercial fertilizer 
can supply—humus. I shall continue the practice, 
adding annually a little potash (muriate) or wood 
ashes to the pile, the latter of which I get from an 
open-grate wood fire, in Spring and Fall, in our sit¬ 
ting room. 
My old friend who so strongly recommended this, 
had a garden in which he had been obliged to raise 
the soil to a proper level, and really good surface soil 
was not to be had, so he had to use such as he could 
get, much of it being subsoil when he 
dug the cellar for the residence. He 
could furnish the nitrogen, potash and 
phosphoric acid from the dealers in 
those things, but the indispensable 
vegetable humus he had to look for 
elsewhere, and lie found it. It takes 
two Winters thoroughly to decompose 
the leaves, but they are worth the 
time and trouble it takes. I have be¬ 
gun arrangements for gathering them 
this Fall, and when frost comes. I 
shall double the quantity gathered. 
The present supply will be used in 
making the garden next Spring. 
There is no place where leaves can 
be thus collected so easily as in vil¬ 
lages where shade trees are abun¬ 
dant, and this qualification is growing 
year by year, as we are becoming 
better educated in their beauties, but 
of course, in many rural places other 
than villages, they are to be had at 
a slightly increased expense, e. a. f. 
R. N.-Y—The leaves will also be found useful to 
the amateur gardener, as they are to the florist, in 
his compost heap, to be used with potting soil. The 
florist usually has what he terms his rot-pile, where 
everything in the way of dead plants, leaves, and 
vegetable rubbish is mixed with spent soil from pots 
or benches. The soil weathers under the influence of 
sun and frost, until, mixed with this humus, it is 
again available. 
The Texas Stockman, speaking of diversified farming, 
says that on a farm in Georgia, the following crops were 
grown in one year: Hay, corn, pigs, chickens, cotton, 
pepper, cassava, cushaws, peanuts, millet, syrup, pears, 
sorghum, wheat, peas, rice, turkeys, cattle, geese, col- 
lards, oats, pumpkins, sugar cane, rye, potatoes, grapes, 
pea vines, watermelons and Kaffir corn. 
The Attorney General of Arkansas is named Jefferson 
Davis. He has had some dispute with the Governor over 
his ability to control the trusts. Lie challenges the 
Governor—not to fight a duel, but to a public debate! 
Imagine what would have happened 40 years ago under 
such circumstances, if you think that we are not “mov¬ 
ing.” 
As evidence of western -prosperity, the Breeder’s Ga¬ 
zette says that a large land credit company holding 
mortgages of about $10,000,000 on farm property in Illi¬ 
nois and neighboring States, yielding interest of $674,978, 
reports only $971 overdue from three to six months, $1,965 
from six months to 12, and none more than a year over 
due. This company states that the credit of American 
farmers now compares favorably with mercantile and 
industrial credits. 
Portable Fence.— Every year some one tries his hand 
at making wooden panels for a movable fence. Two 
barbed wires are cheaper and better, with stakes set with 
a crowbar about a rod apart. Such a fence is quickly 
put up and quickly taken down by two or three men. It 
is true there is some trouble if openings are needed, but 
temporarily to fence off a crop, It is very efficient. We 
have four heifers one side of such a fence in rowen feed, 
and a corn field on the other. Barbed wire hasn’t any 
sentiment, but it “saws wood.” E. c. b. 
RHUBARB FORCED IN A DARK HOUSE CELLAR. Fig. 266. 
