ROSES. 363 



on. If possible, let the morning sun greet them "with his earliest 

 beams, and the shadows faU upon them as soon as can be after 

 the meridian is passed. 



The soil most congenial to the Eose is a "weU drained, clayey 

 loam, and if abounding in lime, so much the better. It needs to 

 be well enriched, indeed it can hardly be made too rich. In 

 such a soil all the strong-growing Roses will luxuriate. The 

 weaker-growing varieties will prefer a proportionably lighter soil,, 

 but a dry, gravelly soil, or a thin, sandy one, is a poor soil in 

 which to grow fine Eoses. Such soils require to be considerably 

 improved by a very liberal mixture of sods from an old pasture, 

 composted with an equal quantity of manure. Clayey soils, 

 having a yet more tenacious sub-soil, will require to be well 

 imder-drained, by putting down a few tile three to four feet below 

 the surface, if there be sufficient faU at the outlet. A small bed 

 may be very cheaply under-drained, when one does not wish to 

 imder-drain the whole garden, by sinking a pit near the lower 

 side of the Eose bed, and filling it with stone, into which the 

 drain from the bed may be maded to empty. It will, of course, 

 be necessary to dig the pit large enough and deep enough to take 

 all the water that will run into it. 



If the soil be very heavy and tenacious, it may be rendered 

 more friable, and therefore better suited to the culture of anything, 

 by burning a portion of it slowly and then returning it to the 

 bed and thoroughly mixing it with the unburnt soil. By gathering 

 a pile of small sticks, and intermingHng with these some knotty 

 bits or tough roots and stumps, and setting them on fire, and 

 then covering the heap with the clay, so that the burning pile 

 shall smoulder away slowly, the tenacious character will be taken 

 from the clay, and it will be made an excellent fertilizer. The 

 fire should not be allowed to bum fiercely, but clay added as 

 often as it breaks out, and the whole kept in a state of slow com- 

 bustion, after the manner of a charcoal pit. With this burnt 

 clay may be added coarse barn-yard manure, until the soil becomes. 

 loamy and friable. Where snows do not keep out the frosty 



