MANURES. 25 



Manures and soils shoiild really form one Chapter 

 and be dealt with together, but the subjects are far 

 too larjfe, and as I have already pointed out, I do not 

 intend to go into an analysis of either beyond that 

 which is absolutely essential. I simply rely on the 

 testimony of growers and my own personal experi- 

 ences. Remember this, good reader; your Roses will 

 have to be fed if the trees are to do well for many 

 years. The soil may be ever so good, but it will 

 jfradually become exhausted of all those properties so 

 necessary to Rose life ; while if the soil is poor the 

 building up of the same will be an annual considera- 

 tion. So much depends upon what you can get. It 

 is an easy matter for the man who keeps cattle and 

 poultry to obtain all that he requires, but not so Fbr 

 the suburban gardener who neither keeps a horse or 

 pig, nor lives near a farm. But most difficulties can 

 be overcome, and in these days the cost of artificial 

 manures is so reasonable that the Rose grower can 

 generally secure those essentials his garden requires. 

 If I divide up all manures under two headings, natural 

 and artificial, I shall doubtless be better able to suc- 

 cessfully deal with the subject. Under natural 

 manures I w^ould place Farm Yard manures, such as 

 that of the cow, pig, horse, sheep, fowl, pigeon; 

 House manures, such as soot, the cesspool and night 

 soil ; Garden manures, such as leaf mould, green re- 

 fuse, burnt ash, and turf. Outside these come Bone 

 meal, Fish manure, Guano, Shoddy, etc. Under 

 Artificial manures we have a variety of compositions 

 all containing in various quantities those ingredients 

 so necessary for plant life, namely, Lime, Nitrogen, 

 Phosphates and Potash. 



No matter what manure we use, a plant will only 

 assimilate a certain quantity of those ingredients 

 necessary for its well-being. If too much of any of 

 its foods be given to it the results are disastrous. 

 Like a greedy child it will devour more than is good 

 for it, and suffer in consequence. The earth, with its 

 inexhaustible stores, is so ordered that seldom do we 

 find in soils sudh an overplus of foods as to be detri- 



