THE ROSE AND ITS CULTURE. 



It has always been a wonder to us, as much as this plant is professedly admired, as 

 numerous as its claims are, and as easy of cultivation as it is, that it has, by the mass 

 of mankind, received no more attention. True, almost every country door-yard has a 

 bu.sh or two of some humble, unpretending variet}', introduced perhaps by a female mem- 

 ber of the family, who, on advice of "the lord of creation," a class far too apt to suppose 

 that any embellishment to the homestead, beyond a plot of beans or a hill of potatoes, as 

 frustrating the designs of Providence, or as coming directly in opposition to his own utili- 

 tarian views of things, has given it a location in a sterile and unfrequented corner, where, 

 struggling with quack grass and pruned b}^ ruminating animals, it struggles on in gloomy 

 uncertainty betwixt life and death — doubting in spring whether its feeble energies can pro- 

 duce a bud or unfold it to a blossom. If it does give a stinted bloom, it is such a sad 

 abortion, compared with what it would have produced under favorable circumstances, 

 that it is no wonder that the parent shrub, if it lives at all, lives on umambitious of future 

 beauties and future sweets. Yet every one is loud in their praises of the rose — hailing its 

 beauties with rapture from the first rich tints its opening bud discloses, inhaling its sweets 

 with expanded lungs amid loud panegyrics to its worth, until the beautiful and perfect 

 flower falls into decay. 



A beautiful and perfect rose ! ATill it be uncharitable to suppose that three-fourths of 

 the population of our country have never seen so rare and fascinating a flower ? If they 

 have, it must have been at some floral exhibition, Avherethey were so much occupied with the 

 beautiful and wonder-exciting things around them, where the)' gazed in extatic astonishment 

 on things in general, without going into detail of rare and beautiful olijects in particular. 

 It is certain the ill-formed, half-starved objects we have alluded to, cannot belong to this 

 class, and it cannot be supposed that more than one in ten of the landholders in this 

 countr}' are in possession of any other. 



Now, although there are a large number of varieties of the rose, and many of them ap- 

 proach some other variety of the species so closel}' that it requires the eye of a connoisseur 

 to trace the difference; and though all may be so cultivated as to become perfect in their 

 variety, yet there are varieties which, constitutionally, will admit of greater perfections 

 than the rest, under similar circumstances. These, it should be the object of the cultiva- 

 tor to obtain. Although the first cost may be a trifle greater, they require no more ground 

 and no more labor in cultivation than ordinary and inferior kinds, while one bush of the 

 best will yield more satisfaction than half a dozen sickly, mean, almost good-for-nothing 

 plants. 



In its demands on cultivation, the rose is modest in proportion to the remunerative satis- 

 faction it affords. It loves a deep loam; so if the soil is shallow, it should by all means 

 be trenched. If straw or coarse manure is laid in the bottom of the trench, a benefit will 

 be found from the continued lightness of soil it will aftbrd, and by its drainage in taking 

 ofFsuperflous water in heavy storms. The soil round the roots should be kept light and 

 free from weeds. Like all plants and animals, it must have a sufficient territory to occu- 

 py, and healthy aliment. To afford a desirable supply of food, rotten manure .should 

 be forked into the soil around the roots to give an abundant and healthful wood for the 

 next year's bloom. Mulching with leaves or coarse manure, alter the ground is put in 

 order for the season, is highly beneficial, as it preserves an equilibrium of cold and heat, 

 dry and moisture, essential to the health of the plant. 



Its greatest enemy of the insect tribe, that we know of, is the Slug, which fastens on 

 der side of the leaf, and feasts upon its juices, until it is reduced to a skeleton, dis 



uring the plant. The best remedy Ave know of for its ravages, is found in keeping the 



