RHUBARB OR PIE PLANT.
The druggist sells a bitter tonic extracted from the rootstocks of a wild plant called rhubarb, that grows in Thibet and northwestern China. The acid of the sorrels is in the whole plant, which has come into cultivation for its fleshy leaf stalks which are eaten in the spring.
Heart-shaped leaves a foot or more across the blades, stalks two inches in diameter, and more than a foot long, are common enough in kitchen gardens, in England and the United States. The wild plant would probably be very disappointing in the role of "pie-plant." It has taken many years of cultivation and selection to get the huge stalks, thin-skinned, free from coarse fibres, rich in flavor and color. Only the richest, finest, and deepest soil produces such choice quality.
Special demand for rhubarb comes in early spring. The growers keep up the cutting of the leaves until the early berries come to market, and people are tired of pie-plant pie, and turn gladly to strawberry short-cake. With the approach of
hot weather the stalks become more corky and lose flavor.
The earliest pie-plant is raised by the gardener who protects the crown, and stimulates growth by spreading stable litter, or other heating, ferment ing fertilizer, about the plant. A half barrel set over the plant is an admirable plan for the small garden. This covered wind guard conserves heat, and moisture, and the darkness makes the leaves stretch up for light. These conditions produce long, blanched, tender stalks.
After the rosette of leaves is fully developed the I rhubarb plant sends up a jointed stalk crowned with a series of axillary flower clusters, that pro claim the plant's relationship with buckwheat, sorrels, docks, and smartweed.
The way to make new plants is to divide the crown and roots. About four years is as long as one plant should be allowed to grow. After this the crowding of the roots makes inferior leaves.