ROSB PROPAGATION IN THE MINNESOTA NURSERY. 247 



left on two or three weeks before cutting. In nearly all varieties 

 the bud remains dormant during winter. 



In early spring the stock should be cut off immediately over the 

 bud, so that when the growth begins the whole flow of sap will be 

 thrown into the bud and force its growth as rapidly as possible. 

 As soon as it is about three inches long, this growth should be 

 pinched off, which will induce it to throw out lateral branches. It 

 is necessary to support the plants with stakes, as without this the 

 young growth will very soon blow to pieces. Thorough cultivation 

 should be maintained. Do not forget the spray, especially in the 

 late summer and early fall, or the so-called black spot will cause 

 all the foliage to drop before the plant is well matured for winter. 



The Chairman : I would like to ask Mr. Nordine whether he 

 has had any experience in the way of budding roses in the spring 

 and cutting them back as soon as the buds are grown fast ? 



Mr. Nordine: No, I have not. I understand in the east they 

 are using that system of propagation for peaches, but we have never 

 tried it with roses at our place. 



The Chairman : I h?.ve seen roses imported from England that 

 I am positive were budded in the spring with the terminal bud. It 

 made a beautiful stock during the brief season they had to put them 

 in. 



Mr. Kellogg: Does the Madame Plantier readily layer? 



Mr. Nordine : Yes, it does ; we grow it entirely in layers. 



Goats as Mowing Machines— A flock of Angora goats was put on a 

 rocky hillside that it was desired to have cleared and gotten into grass, says a 

 writer in Country Life in America. It was such a tangle of brush and briers 

 that it was with difficulty one could make a way through it. The goats actu- 

 ally ate their way in until it was penetrated with paths in all directions. After 

 the leaves within reach were eaten they would stand on their hind feet, with 

 their fore-feet in the branches, and so eat the leaves higher up, or, if the 

 brush was not too large, would throw their weight against and bend it to the 

 ground where others of the flock would help strip it of its foliage. The leaves 

 would come out again only to be eaten off, then sprouts would come from the 

 roots to share the same fate, until at the end of the second summer everything 

 in the shape of a bush not over six feet tall, except the pines and laurel, was 

 completely killed, and white clover was beginning to appear. These goats, 

 with their long, curly, white fleeces, attracted more attention, probably, than 

 anything else on the place; but, as can be imagined, they had to be well 

 fenced in, for they would run over a stone wall like dogs. 



