136 THE OUTDOOR GARDEN 



towards us, it found new, thoroughly creosoted, 

 square posts ready to withstand all assaults. The 

 students took a very active part in replacing this 

 ornamental woodwork, but their most difficult task 

 lay in cutting out all the dead or last year's branches 

 from climbing roses in order to leave only the fresh 

 young green stems upon which next year's flowers 

 will come. This is a somewhat Herculean under- 

 taking, in a place where there are several hundred 

 climbing roses, without counting the dwarf ones, 

 which of course are pruned in the spring. 



There was one particularly stubborn, matted, 

 thorny entanglement of roses. I think it had, each 

 year, been left to the end of the pruning course 

 and consequently was sometimes overlooked or 

 neglected, for certainly it resembled a head of hair 

 that has been dried very vigorously after a shampoo 

 but has not been brushed or combed. This year, 

 a determined young woman undertook its treat- 

 ment, and as her secateurs busily worked in and out 

 of the dense thicket and a heap of discarded 

 branches flung upon the ground slowly increased 

 in height, I saw a look of relief upon her face. I 

 came back later and watched again as the work 

 neared its end. " I am glad after all I undertook 

 this one," she said ; " it is so satisfactory to see 

 that one has been able to do some good in helping 

 the poor plant to get air and sunlight." 



Her hands were sadly torn by thorns, and I feel 

 sure they must have hurt considerably, but women 

 never heed scratches or pin-pricks. They leave 

 this undisputed trait to the old-fashioned, rule-of- 

 thumb, jobbing gardener who talks about the rose- 



