THE ROSE GARDEN. 27 



will spread through the whole heap ; and any amount of earth may be burnt, by 

 continually adding to those places where the fire appears the strongest. The soil 

 burnt here is the stiffest loam that can be found within our limits, and which is 

 of rather a clayey nature ; also turf from the sides of ditches and ponds, in itself 

 naturally sour and full of rank weeds. 



Burnt earth has been found beneficial in every instance where applied. In 

 black garden mould, rather wet, in which peach-trees were disposed to sucker 

 and canker, despite of the use of various manures, two or three annual dressings 

 of it appear so to have altered the nature of the soil, that they now grow clean, 

 vigorous, and healthy, are free from suckers, and produce roots completely matted 

 with fibre. The like success has attended its application to various other trees. 



But to our Roses. In the summer of 1842 six beds of Tea-scented Roses were 

 manured with the following substances: 1. bone-dust; 2. burnt earth ; 3. nitrate 

 of soda ; 4. guano ; 5. pigeon-dung ; and, 6. stable manure, thoroughly decom- 

 posed. The soil in which they grew was an alluvial loam. The adjacent fields, 

 which are of the same nature, grow large crops of wheat and potatoes. The par- 

 ticles of the soil run together after rain, presenting a smooth cemented surface ; 

 the soil, in dry weather, becoming hard and harsh. But for the results. The 

 guano produced the earliest visible effects, causing a vigorous growth, which 

 continued till late in the season ; the foliage was large, and of the darkest green, 

 but the flowers on this bed were not very abundant ; the shoots did not ripen well, 

 and were consequently much injured by frost during the succeeding winter. The 

 bed, manured with burnt earth, next forced itself into notice : the plants kept up a 

 steadier rate of growth, producing an abundance of clean, well-formed blossoms ; 

 the wood ripened well, and sustained little or no injury from the winter's frost. The 

 results attendant on the use of the other manures were not remarkable: they had 

 acted as gentle stimulants ; the nitrate of soda and bone-dust least visibly so, 

 although they were applied in the quantities usually recommended by the vendors. 



The beds of Roses were all planted at the same date, and in the same soil ; and 

 there was no undue advantage given to any one kind of manure. The fertilizing 

 influences of the burnt earth were no doubt due partly to its drying and 

 opening the soil, thus rendering it more permeable to air; and partly to the 

 power it is said to possess of fixing the ammonia conveyed to the soil by rain. 

 But further, earth is reduced, by burning, to its inorganic constituents, and 

 thus becomes a concentrated inorganic manure, from which many soils benefit 

 largely; and the ashes of the wood, and other substances used in burning, although 

 of small amount, would add to its value under this point of view. A portion of the 

 earth comes from the heap red and hard, and a portion black or dark brown. The 

 latter, which may be more correctly called charred earth, is highly beneficial to 

 most soils. I think burnt and charred earth the best manure that can be applied 

 to wet or adhesive soils, and would advise all who cultivate such to use it. 



Peat soils, although not of the best kind for Roses, are found to grow them 

 tolerably well. For the improvement of such, if wet, the first effort should 



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