Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-07
CULTURE OF THE PIE PLANT.

| The growth popularity known as stpie
| plantn is rhubarb-the Rheum rhaponticum
Of botanists. The leaf stems are cooked
| and employed in making pies. hence the
| common name. It is looked upon by
| scientists as one of our most wholesome
acid foods, a fact due, according to Pro
fessor Wood, to the presence of oxalate of
| lime.
Peter Henderson, in his handbook Of
plants says rhubarb should be found in
every well-appointed kitchen garden. 1t is
of the very easiest culture, and will grow
in open sunshine or in partial shade; but
for its best development a deep, rich and
well drained soil in open sunshine is most
favorable. Where wanted only for private
amply sufficient. and the roots for starting
these can be had cheaply from almost any
nurseryman; but when wanted in larger
quantity for market purposes it is best to
procure seed and SOW it in a seed bed,
trans planting the young plants when large
enough to handle. The only thing against
this seed plan is that the rhubarb not
coming entirely true to variety from seed,
may give plants not entirely uniform in ap-
pearance, which would make somewhat
against a market product. On this account
the Massachusetts PlOughman thinks a
patch set by root divisions would generally
be more preferable even though it did cost
a little more. With root divisions one is
sure to secure uniformity, and also
moderate crop the first year after planting
which last could not be expected of seed
lings
In planting by root division the old roots
are cut up with Ratchet into sets" con-
tanning one or two good eyes each, with
good piece of root attached; these sets are
planted at any convenient time in early
spring; or, if more convenient, they may be
planted in the fall. Plant the sets in rows
four feet apart, one good eye in aplace distant
three feet apart in the rows. the land hav-
ing been made very rich previously with a
heavy dressing of manure. Clean culture is
all that is required the first year, and little
or no cropping of the stems allowed. The
next year about half crop of stalks may
be pulled, and later for several years the
bed, if well MANFRED and cultivated, will
yield very heavy crops; but after cropping
five or six years the old roots spread and
crowd so much that the stalks grow small,
and then it will save labor in punching and
selling to pow up and reset the beds.
The chief labor required for this crop is
the pulling of leaves and trimming and
punching the stems for market. \ little
system in the work helps much in despatch
ing it, and in getting the product into mar
ket in attractive shape. Pulling begins
when the leaf stalks are only six or eight
inches long; the man who pulls them lays
them down in handful.s along the row,
another follows with sharp knife and
trims off the leaves in the field, the stalks
are then gathered up in wheelbarrow and
carried to the wash-house or shed, where
they are tied up neatly in punches, the
frame i'll which the punches are formed be-
ing placed on platform scale so as to have
all the punches of even weight; a little care
in packing the stalks will be well repaid by
attractiveness of appearance of the punches.
The varieties of rhubarb usually grown
toria. The Linueus is grown only in small
quantities for its earliness, being less at
tractive than the other, which is the staple
variety. When well grown on rich land,
says the PlOughman, rhubarb is very pro-
ductive-forty tons per acre is not an unus-
uaI yield; the price ranges from ) cents to
one-half cent per pound, averaging usually
about l cent to u cents for the season. 1t |
is an extremely easy crop to grow and one
troubled by neither disease or insect enc |
mics
Rhubarb grows well in Texas and might |
doubtless be made a paving crop here for |
our market gardeners, though, strange to |
say, it seems 10 be almost wholly neglected |
Our people use great deal OF it early in |
the season, shipping it from Kansas and |
other regions above US. Its regular price |
at Fort Worth for the present season has
been 121I cents pound
Now, figure 4 little on what forty tons of |
rhubarb would come to at 1919 cents
pound ar,d you will have an array of figures
somewhat startling. While there is no
'eason whatever for supposing that Texas
night not grow as much rhubarb to the
lcre as could be grown in any other region
If country, it is scarcely probable tnat we
hall soon be aspiring to so princely an an
lual return on an acre of Texas soil. One
ent 4 pound would be generally looked
lpon as 4 good enough thing for US, we take
t, on forty tons to the acre, costing no more
o raise than an acre OF cabbage or Irish
potatoes. But the exhibit is full OF interest,
evertheless as showing what we are pay
ag out for an acres product of some other
ection, the which might just as well be
aised here, and at cost OF less than half a
undred dollars
There is no more guess work about rhu-
arb's doing well in Texas, for many private
ardens here and there over the state have
lants of it growing splendidly. It is purely
spring crop, hence as a crop it would en-
rely miss our possible summer drouths.
'ur truck farmers might make good thing
it as an early crop to ship North, where
ley could put it upon the market month |
r so in advance OF the home product By
0rcing it in cheap greenhouses they could
ave it on the market there throughout the
inter.
Should we desire to make rhubarb one of :
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