8 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



may be at once washed down to the roots ; and it never fails to act 

 as quinine and Guinness to the weakly, and as generous wine to the 

 strong. During the extraordinary drought of last summer, I watched 

 day after day — nay, week after week — with a patience worthy of that 

 deaf old gentleman who would listen for two months to catch the 

 ticking of a sun-dial, or of him who undertook the tedious task of teach- 

 ing a weather-cock to crow ; and at last, feeling sure of my shower, 

 wheeled barrow after barrow with my own hands, not seeming to have 

 time to call for help, over the little bridge, and distributed it as a Lord 

 Mayor turtle to recipients more greedy than aldermen. Soon the big 

 rain came dancing to the earth, and when it had past, and I smoked 

 my evening weed among the Rose-trees, I fancied that already the 

 tonic had told. At all events, it is written in the chronicles of the 

 Rose-shows how those Roses sped. 



If only one application of manure is considered to be expedient, I 

 would advise a liberal supply of farmyard dung well decomposed, and 

 that this should be dug in, or, still better (in the case of light soils 

 particularly), left upon the surface, after the Rose-trees are pruned in 

 March. If not dug in, I should myself be inclined to defer the fruition 

 of this powerful diet for a month or so ; that just as the lanky school- 

 boy, outgrowing his strength, is placed upon a regimen of boiled eggs 

 and roast beef, Alsopp and Bass, so the Rose-trees may have " good 

 support," these nursing -mothers of such beautiful babes, when they 

 require it most. "It is believed," writes Morton, "by observers of 

 nature, that plants do no injury to the soil while they are producing 

 their stems and leaves, but that it is only when the blossom and the 

 seed requires nourishment that the plants exhaust the soil." 



Under no circumstances must manure be applied, externally or in- 

 ternally, when the ground is saturated with wet. 



And now majora canamus ! Let us wash our faces, and part our 

 hair down the middle, and go in, with a bow and a curtsy, as little 

 children to dessert, among the great warriors and counsellors of Queen 

 Rose. Let us hear what our chief English Rosarians say (would that 

 my information included the teaching of those Rose-loving brothers 

 over the border, for whom, as for all true gardeners, I have so much 

 regard), on this, which I believe to be the most important topic which 

 will occur for our consideration. 



Mr Rivers, whom I have just quoted, and to whom all will readily 

 give precedence, not only for " that good grey head, which all men 

 know," but for what he has done in the Rosarium, writes : — " I have 

 found night-soil, mixed with the drainings of the dunghill or even 

 with common ditch or pond water, so as to make a thick liquid, the 

 best possible manure for Roses, poured on the surface of the soil twice 



