28 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1880. 



it on, and the contribntions they made to its exhibitions, and I 

 wonder wh^^ the interest is not kept up by their children. Do 

 they not feel that it is left with them to carry on the work that 

 their fathers and mothers began ? Young ladies don't like to don 

 the garden hat and gloves, and, trowel in hand, raise flowers to 

 decorate their homes and themselves, because it is dirty work, 

 and they are afraid they don't look as well as they would in fresh 

 muslins, reading a novel, or doing some fancy work. And young 

 gentlemen think it more elevating to go fishing or boating, or 

 something of the kind. I say to botli, don't be afraid of digging, 

 there are treasures to be found in garden work, which will soon 

 make you forget the dirt and only look for the results. Mothers ! 

 remember it is better to take your little ones out with you, and, 

 if too young to have a garden of their own, give them a pile of 

 sand. Don't be afraid of soiling their clothes. Teach them to 

 dig, and however young they are, you will soon find them watch- 

 ing you and trying to imitate. After a season of this, you will 

 find their strength and muscle in a much more healthy condition 

 than if thej were left to their nurse girl to be trundled through 

 the noisy, crowded streets. 



I am glad that at last the "queen of flowers" is asserting her 

 rights. The rose fever is in its first stages, and the pulse runs 

 higher and higher each succeeding year. When it will reach its 

 highest may not be in our day, but it is truly wonderful the pro- 

 gress that has been made in the last twenty years. Now let us devote 

 a little time to our best loved, much abused flower, the Rose ; 

 abused, because with the attention we pay to even the commonest 

 annual, we may have the rose in its perfection. Too many people 

 think because some kinds of plants will grow and bloom in poor 

 soil, all will. No greater mistake was ever made. The rose is a 

 gross feeder, and demands a rich, close soil, well drained and 

 enriched at least once a year by old well decomposed dressing 

 from the farmyard or stable, left on the surface if applied in the 

 fall, and dug in in the spring ; or if in the spring forked in, so 

 the roots may derive immediate benefit. In growing the hybrid 

 perpetual roses (I think remontant is a better name), rose grow- 

 ers dififer on the point of budded roses, or grown on their own 

 roots. One half the people don't know, or seem to care, which 

 they have. One firm sends out budded roses, unless otherwise 

 ordered, and another sends on their own roots, unless otherwise 

 ordered. Now what is the result in the case of the budded rose 

 unless care is taken in setting ? Sometimes the bud is well above 

 ground, sometimes below. Everybody who would grow the h}-- 

 brid perpetuals should know that they are a cross between some 

 of our finest June roses and the ever-blooming class, — Bourbons, 



