It is not sufficient to say that the plantation must be kept free from weeds, but the plant should be allowed to make one whole season’s growth before a single stalk is pulled.  And the pulling in the second season, and every season thereafter, should be moderate and careful, for every leaf removed weakens the plant, and it must be allowed-time to regain strength for the next season.  Some people know not when to leave off pulling Rhubarb, but appear unwilling to cease until there is none to pull; and it is a pity this should happen, especially as after the delicate supplies of early spring are past, Rhubarb is a comparatively poor thing, and to ruin a plantation to get stalks for wine is great folly.  For wine-making a special plantation should be made, from which not one stick should be taken for table use.  The summer stalks will then be of a suitable character.

Rhubarb is easily forced in any place where there is a moderate warmth, and it is only needful to pack the roots in boxes with moss or any light soil, or even rough litter.  The roots will push into any moist material and find sufficient food.  If entirely exposed to the light, forced Rhubarb has a full colour; but the quality is better, and the colour quite sufficient, if it is forced in the dark; hence when put under the stage in a greenhouse, or any other place where there is a fair share of daylight, it is well to put an empty box or barrel over to promote a certain degree of blanching.

When raising Rhubarb from seed sow in spring in light soil, and the young plants should have frame culture until strong enough to plant out.  If a great number are grown, they should all be kept in pots until the end of the season, and then the common-looking and unpromising plants should be destroyed, reserving the others for planting out in the following spring.  A new type of Rhubarb which is readily raised from seed will remain in bearing continuously if put out on good ground and given protection during severe winter weather.  Seed of this strain should be sown in March or April, in pots or boxes placed in a cold frame.  Plant out the seedlings in May and these will generally yield sticks in the autumn.  Seed may also be sown in the open ground in spring.

==Salads==

Although the art of making Salads is to some extent understood in this country, it must be admitted that much has yet to be learned from the masters of Continental cookery, who utilise more plants than are commonly used on this side of the Channel, and who impart to their Salads an endless variety of flavourings.  Here, however, we are only concerned with the plants that are, or should be, in requisition for the Salad-bowl at different seasons of the year.  But it will not be irrelevant to allude to the fact, admitted by medical men of high reputation, that the appetite for fresh, crisp, uncooked vegetables is a really healthy craving, and that free indulgence in Salads is a means of supplying the human frame with important elements of plant-life.  In the process of cooking, certain minerals, such as salts of potash, are abstracted from vegetables, while in Salads they are available, and contribute both to the enjoyment and the benefit of the consumer.