74 WESTERN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



time and again with such success that it does not require a 

 prophet to say that soon tulip bulbs will be planted by the 

 thousand every autumn in Winnipeg- and throughout the 

 West. 



Allow me to call attention to some general considerations 

 which are of importance before going on to note the methods 

 to be employed in the case of each species. 



It is very desirable in the case of a half hardy or tender 

 plant that it should be prepared so as to enter the winter in 

 as good a condition as possible. In other words the woody 

 part of the plant should be ripened as well as possible. Let 

 the g'rowth be as rank as you like in the spring and early 

 summer but do not by abundant watering or by the use of 

 manures encourage a strong growth in the late part of the 

 summer. The pinching back of raspberry canes is usually to 

 make the plant branch out and so bear more fruit, but it is 

 good for this purpose too that it hinders growth late in the 

 season, so the cutting back of roses will prepare the bushes 

 for going into winter quarters in a much more satisfactory 

 condition . 



Again, of the conditions of success in winter protection 

 one is to have a substantial covering over the plant so that 

 the alternate freezing and thawing of spring days and nights 

 will not injure it ; and the other is not to have this 

 covering so close as to smother the plant. Leaves, which 

 are so often recommended in eastern horticultural journ- 

 als, are unsatisfactory because (not to speak of being 

 hard to get) they are so liable to blow off and leave 

 the plant exposed. Strawy manure is liable to the same 

 objection in windy situations and when there is nothing else 

 to be used, as in the case of strawberry beds, it is well to add 

 a few branches of trees which not only keep the straw from 

 blowing about but they have the additional merit of holding 

 the snow. 



To obviate the smothering of the plants the best method 

 in my experience is to cover the plants with inverted sods 



