86 ANNUAL REPORT. 
habits and value. He referred to blight and illustrated how the 
animate as well as the inanimate could be affected with this disease. 
His address was inimitable in matter and manner, earnest, truth 
ful, convincing, humorous, and a happy one in every particular. 
It was loudly applauded by the students and by his brother horti- 
culturists. 
President Folwell introduced Prof. Porter, the recently elected 
professor of the theory and practice of agriculture in the Univer- 
sity. 
Prof. Porter responded briefly. 
The report of the committee on finances was made and siltrpted: 
showing a balance on hand of $33.71, exclusive of receipts of the 
present meeting. 
MRS. ATWATER’S PAPER—THE WINTER TREATMENT OF ROSES. 
The most prominent idea which presents itself in connection with the culture: 
of roses in this country is that of the ditticulty of keeping them in good condition 
through our iong severe winters. All roses, except the Briars, Sweet, Scotch 
and Yellow and the homely old Cinnamon, must be heavily covered to winter 
safely. At what time to cover, what material to cover with, and how much or 
how little to use, are questions therefore of the first jmportance and of no little 
perplexity and difficulty. 
In my early experience J began with the use of the garden refuse such as pe- 
tunia, potato and tomato vines, trusting to the snow to supply deficiencies, but 
in three out of four winters the snow was a fraud, and the consequence was that 
June roses barely survived and Hybrid Perpetuals died, root and branch. I 
next tried leaves, with much the same results. 
My third experiment was two-fold. I covered part of my roses with gardeu 
soil, and part with coarse manure from the horse stable. The earth covering 
was satisfactory wherever it remained intact, but in the absence of snow it 
cracked and crumbled away, leaving the branches lying uppermost, exposed to 
the cold weather of March, which was not infrequently as severe as any during 
the winter. The unsightly mantle of manure proved the most gratifyimg in its 
general results, and I have depended on it solely for the last twenty years, with 
fair average success. 
As to the amount of covering, it is safe to be exceedingly generous. One can 
hardly err in this direction. 
The question of time is, as every rose culturist in this country well knows, one 
of extreme perplexity. I have covered at varying dates between the 25th of 
October and the 15th of December. When one played croquet on the lawn the 
10th of December, it was a good time to cover plants then; but in the following 
season, when the mercury went to flirting with the twenties below zero the last 
of October, it was anything but good to have the branches snap short off on at- 
tempting to lay them down, and to be compelled to leave them unprotected. 
Fortunately in this case, a deep snow fell previous to the severest cold period, 
and sufficient fell all through the winter to save the roses from utter destruction. 
