344 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



more feeble lateral shoots, leaving two or three of the upper and 

 stronger. Suckers from below must also be removed. The latter 

 operation is most easily and eflfectually performed when rain has just 

 softened the soil around ; and weeds, which evince in times of drought 

 such a rooted antipathy to eviction, may then be readily extracted 

 without leaving fibre or fang. 



The stocks may be budded in July, and I advise the amateur who 

 wishes to bud them, to learn the art, by no means difficult, not from 

 books, but from some neighbour Budhist, who will quickly teach him 

 as much of transmigration as he desires to know. If he learns to make 

 one slit only, so much the better, the transverse cut being quite un- 

 necessary, and liable to cause breakage if too deeply made. 



Select strong buds from your Rose-trees. It requires some little re- 

 solution to cut away the cleanest, most healthful wood, but the recom- 

 pense is sure and ample. Do not expose your cuttings to the sun — 

 a watering-can, with a little damp moss in it, is a good conveyance — 

 and get them comfortably settled in their new homes as soon as it can 

 be done. In three weeks or a month you may remove the cotton ; in 

 November you may shorten the budded shoot to 5 or 6 inches from 

 the bud ; and in May you may cut it close to the bud itself. You must 

 now keep a constant supervision over your budded stock, removing all 

 superfluous growth, and having your stakes in position, so that you may 

 secure the growing bud against those sudden gusts which will force it, 

 if not safely fastened, "clean out" of the stock. These stakes must 

 be firmly fixed close by the Briers, and should rise some 2 feet above 

 them. To this upper portion the young shoot of the Rose, which 

 grows in genial seasons with marvellous rapidity, must be secured 

 with bast. Look out now for the Rose -caterpillar, that murderous 

 "worm i' the bud." I generally employ a little maid from my village 

 school, whose fingers are more nimble and whose eyes are nearer to 

 their work than mine, who prefers entomology in the fresh air to all 

 other ologies in a hot school, and who takes home to mother her diurnal 

 ninepence with a supreme and righteous pride. 



Towards the end of May apply the surface-dressing which is recom- 

 mended in Chapter VI. — I presuppose a liberal supply of farmyard 

 manure in autumn, as advised in the same chapter — and at the same 

 time take off freely the lesser and numerous Rosebuds which surround 

 the central calyx. A painful process this slaughter of the innocents, 

 this drowning of the puppies of the poor Dog-Rose, but justified in 

 their eyes who desire to see the Rose in its brightest glory, and who 

 prefer one magnificent Ribston Pippin to a waggon-load of Crabs. 



We must revert here briefly to the parental trees, from which the 

 buds were taken in July. Although they cannot, speaking generally. 



