CULTURE OF THE ROSE. 89 







It is always better to prepare beds for roses in the 

 autumn, that they may have the benefit of a thorough ex- 

 posure to the winter frost. With this view, the soil should 

 be thrown up into ridges as roughly as possible. It will 

 then be thoroughly frozen through, and subjected to all 

 the changes of temperature during the season. This will 

 not only tend to destroy worms and noxious insects, but 

 it will separate the particles of the soil, and leave it light 

 and pliable. Soil thrown into ridges can also be worked 

 earlier in the spring than that which is left at its natural 

 level. 



The cardinal points of successful rose-culture are a good 

 soil, good pruning, and good cultivation. By cultivation, 



* 



we mean a repeated digging, hoeing, or forking of the 

 earth around the plants, by which the surface is kept open, 

 and enabled freely to receive the dew, rajn, and air, with 

 its fertilizing gases. Plants so treated will suffer far le ss 

 in a drought than if the soil had been left undisturbed ; 

 for not only will it now absorb the dew at night, bat it 

 will freely permit the moisture which always exists, at 



