32 MANUKES. 



For a top dressing " Metro " Sulp'hate is a mag- 

 nificent fertiliser for Roses, but it should only be ap- 

 plied when trees have started to show bud or to bring 

 on a backward crop of bloom. In warm weather 

 after a storm of rain the results are quite electric, but 

 great care must be taken not to use too much. How- 

 ever, when blooms are backward and shows are too 

 near to be pleasant, a little ** Metro " is a great 

 friend. Slow-acting fertilisers, such as bone meal and 

 shoddy, are best dug into the soil at planting time or 

 forked lig^htly in round established trees. The roots 

 of trees benefit in coming in contact with such, and 

 with some shoddies, such as wool waste, fibrous root 

 growth is certainly encouraged. I am a great advo- 

 cate of the use of wool waste for Rose trees, and con- 

 sider it to be one of the safest and best fertilisers on 

 the market. Wool waste owes its value as a fertiliser 

 to the high percentage of nitrogen wfhich it contains. 

 When dug into the soil decomposition sets in quickly, 

 and is maintained steadily, with the production of am- 

 monia, which is subsequently converted into nitrate. 

 Wool waste is largely used on the light soils of Kent 

 in the fruit and ihop growing areas ; it is also used on 

 the heavy land of the West Country with equally good 

 results for most crops. Roses delight in it, prin- 

 cipally, I think, because it helps to retain the moisture 

 in the soil, and, lasting, as it does, for two or three 

 years, it is of real value to the grower who has diflfi- 

 culty in securing manures in large or small quantities. 



In a moist soil or after a wet season decomposition 

 is likely to begin at once, giving rise to a steady and 

 continuous supply of nitrates, so essential to the de- 

 velopment of the Rose. Mr. L. T. Donnelly supplies 

 more than one grade, but any of them will serve the 

 Rose. 



In discussing manures and fertilisers, you will 

 often find the word Humus used by the expert as being 

 essential to the soil. Of course, it is, for decayed vege- 

 table matter, which is virtually Humus, is the source of 

 all those foods \Vhich assist in the proper development 



