28 THE ROSE GARDEN. 



be to drain them. After this, stiff loam, or pulverized clay and burnt earth, may 

 be brought upon the surface, digging two spit deep, and well mixing the foreign 

 substances with the natural soil, as advised in the improvement of clay soils. 



The worst soils for Roses are those of a sandy or gravelly nature. In such 

 they often surfer fearfully from the drought of summer, scorching up and dying. 

 Soils of this kind are sometimes bad beyond remedy. The best plan to pursue 

 under such circumstances, is, to remove the soil to the depth of about twenty 

 inches, as the beds are marked out, and fill up again with prepared soil. Two- 

 thirds loam — the turf from a pasture, if attainable — and one-third decomposed 

 stable manure will make a good mixture. If a strong loam is within reach, choose 

 such in preference to others ; and if thought too adhesive, a little burnt earth or 

 sand may be mixed with it. A good kind of manure for mixing with the loam is 

 the remains of a hot-bed, which have lain by for a year and become decomposed. 



Opoix, a French apothecary, whom we have previously quoted, attributes the 

 superiority of the Roses grown for medicinal purposes, in the neighbourhood of 

 Provins, to peculiar properties of the soil, which contains iron in considerable 

 quantity. "We are told that the selection of inorganic manures for plants may be 

 fixed upon by an examination of the composition of their ashes.* "We know, by 

 the research of chemists, that the petals of the Rosa Gallica contain oxide of 

 iron; and I have long thought that the iron which abounds in the soil of one of the 

 nurseries here is an ingredient of importance in the culture of Roses. I would not 

 say that it is indispensable, but beneficial. 



On turning up the soil, its ferruginous nature is in places distinctly seen. In 

 an undrained field adjoining the Nursery the water frequently collects on the 

 surface in the form of a thick brown liquid, like so much rust, which is covered here 

 and there with a film, on which the sky is distinctly mirrored. When the soil in this 

 nursery is hoed or forked, the rapid increase of growth of vegetation is striking 

 beyond measure. The practice is known to promote growth in all soils ; but the 

 extent to which it does so here, is, I think, due to the oxygen of the air changing 

 the iron contained in the soil from a substance pernicious to vegetable life, 

 into one favourable to its development. 



We have hitherto been speaking of the improvement of soils preparatory to the 

 formation of the Rosarium, or beds of Roses. But it is often desirable to improve the 

 soil in beds already formed, and which probably have existed as such for a number 

 of years. This is usually done by the addition of animal or vegetable manures, 

 which are very good so far as they go, but are not in every case all that is required. 

 Roses increase in bulk every year, and draw inorganic as well as organic matter from 

 the soil. Although a portion of this may be returned by the fall of the leaf in autumn, 

 and by the manures employed, yet a great deal is deposited in the branches and stem : 

 and when we consider what a quantity of branches we cut from some Roses, and 

 carry away every pruning-season, it will appear reasonable that we may, in the 



* Liebig. 



