32 
inches to one foot will be about the average length. 
It will be found that after long pruning has been 
repeated several years, the plants will have become 
somewhat exhausted; in fact, many of the shoots 
which at first grew five or six feet will now be often 
less than eighteen inches ; consequently, to give the 
plant more strength, it will require to be pruned 
down somewhat closer than was first recommended. 
In the course of years the plants which have under- 
gone the long-pruning system will possibly become 
leggy, overgrown, and somewhat unsightly in 
appearance. It will therefore be found necessary, 
when such is the case, to cut them back hard, so as 
to form entirely new wood and better-shaped heads. 
Cut into the old wood as far back as may be 
thought necessary, new eyes will soon form, even in 
wood five or six years old, provided the plant is in 
good health ; by this means well-furnished plants 
with young wood are reproduced. 
The Austrian Briar Roses require a system of 
pruning peculiar to themselves. If pruned as 
recommended for moderate or close pruning, they 
will produce but few, if any, blooms. Therefore, 
such as are required to bloom must be left unpruned 
with the exception of a little thinning, and merely 
the ends of the shoots being taken off. This treat- 
ment may be continued from year to year with the 
Harrisonii and a few others, but the Persian Yellow, 
to be kept in vigorous health, must be pruned down 
hard every alternate year ; otherwise it will soon 
become exhausted. When this is done, of course, 
no blooms are produced until the following season. 
