SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 283 



plants when taken out for setting. As to place and arrangement 

 in clusters, hedges or jingle trees, the taste and fancy of the 

 owner must decide. Hedges are easily cared for, and admit of 

 all sorts, color, kind or habit; with plenty of ground, they will 

 repay all the care and labor bestowed upon them. For single 

 trees, the habits of the plant must be studied; ingenious pruning 

 with the habit of the plant must decide the effect to be produced. 

 In clusters, the centers should be. .kept high, the effect of the nat- 

 ural habits of the plants from outer edge to center being far 

 more pleasing than any results from pruning can give. Start 

 with an outer row of the Little Button or Burgundy Rose, raising 

 by half a dozen additional rows, to a center tree of George the 

 4th, Lady Douglas, or some pillar rose; but a limited use of the 

 knife will be needed, if any. If you must cut, let your knife and 

 fancy run free upon single stands. Propagating I do not consider 

 profitable, to the amateur, (except for the pleasure and satisfac- 

 tion it affords) while varieties are so numerous, and obtained at 

 so little cost from reliable salesmen. 



A description or discussion of seedlings, cuttings, suckers, 

 layers, budding, or grafting, would not be profitable here. Al- 

 most any person having either to give would most likely be able 

 to furnish prescription for treatment. With me, fall pruning, as 

 fall planting, has proven the greater success, cutting away all, or 

 the most, of the old wood, tipping the tender ends of the new 

 growth, and in case of Hybrid Perpetuals, cut back from one- 

 third to one-half of all new growth. In hedge growing, I follow 

 the natural tendencies of the plant, without any endeavor to keep 

 a uniform height. The knife destroys the effect when in bloom. 

 Protecting in winter, we find, is forcing itself upon us with each 

 year. Hill up the earth slightly around the plant; a box, barrel 

 or keg set over it, filled with hay or straw, a board over the top 

 to keep out snow and wet, gives plenty of air, protects as 

 securely as any plan tried. 



The rose yields to cultivation as promptly as any plant grown, 

 while with much more certainty than most others. When quantity 

 without regard to quality is desired, and the wish is for distant 

 effect, the knife may be dispensed with entirely; good soil, 

 proper care in all directions, judicious irrigation and use of knife, 

 will insure perfect results. The rose will feel at home, and do 

 its own house-work. 



We should not expect too much from a plant the first year. 

 We should be satisfied with possession, forego the bloom by 

 pinching all buds and supeifluous growth, quietly awaiting with 

 careful attention for its full perfection by the third year ! Then 

 would we find far less poor varieties, and fewer florists to con- 

 demn for putting inferior sorts upon our hands. You will find 

 from experience it does require that length of time to test a plant 

 in all the qualities we expect from it — the first year the perfection 



