g in the hayfield a hot
summer day. And even if you can not keep it cool the acid contained in
the juice still makes it a delicious and stimulating drink where you
would loathe the taste of a stale beer. There are about a hundred other
ways to prepare rhubarb, not forgetting a well cooled rhubarb mush
served with cool milk in the evening or for that matter three times a
day; nothing cheaper, nor healthier. The fresh acid contained in the
rhubarb purifies the blood and puts new vigor in your body and soul, is
better and cheaper than any patent medicines, and from the growth of 50
to 100 plants you can eat every day for six months and preserve enough
in fresh, cool water in airtight jars to last you all winter. But you
can do still better with your rhubarb. You can add three months more and
make it nine months of the year for fresh, crisp, delicious fruit. I
will tell you how.

When your rhubarb gets 3-4 years old and very big and strong clumps of
roots, divide some of the best and make a new planting and dig some of
the balance before frost in the fall. Leave them on top of the ground
until they have had a good freeze--this is very essential to
success--then place the roots as you dug them in a dark corner in your
cellar or in a barrel in your cellar, exclude all light, keep the soil
moderately wet and after Christmas and until spring you will have an
abundance of brittle, fine flavored stalks that are fully equal to and
perhaps more tender than the outdoor grown. Years ago in Chicago I grew
rhubarb in a dark house 36x80 ft., built for that purpose, and the
stalks generally commanded a price of 12 to 15c a pound in the right
market in January, February and March.

It is better not to pull any stalks the summer you transplant, at least
not until September. Next year in May and June you can have stalks from
1/2 to 1 pound and over. When you pull stalks don't take the outer two
or three leaves but only the tender ones, and strip them off in
succession so you do not come back to the same plants to pull for four
to six weeks or more. Just as quick as the plant shows flower stems cut
them off close to the ground and keep them off, never allow them to show
their heads.

I have grown rhubarb for market and for domestic use for about forty
years, having one time as much as five acres, and I will assure you if
you will follow directions you will appreciate rhubarb more than before
and get out of it all it is worth.

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