CHAPTER X. 



SOIL, SITUATION AND PLANTING. 



HE most suitable soil is a strong, rich loam, 

 A or vegetable mould mixed with about one 

 quarter its bulk of well-decomposed stable 

 manure. If the soil of the garden where 

 the roses are to be planted, differs materially 

 from this, it should be made to approach it 

 as nearly as possible by the addition of the 

 requisite soil and manure. In a good vegetable garden, the soil, 

 with the addition of a little manure, will grow the Rose well. 

 When the soil, however, is of an inferior character, holes should 

 be dug three or four times the size of the roots of a well-grown 

 rose bush and filled with compost of the above character. 



Rivers recommends, as the best compost for roses, rotten dung 

 and pit-sand for cold, clayey soils ; and for warm, dry soils, rotten 

 dung and cool loams. He also states that he has found night 

 soil, mixed with the drainings of the dunghill, or even with com- 

 mon ditch or pond water, so as to make a thick liquid, the best 

 possible manure for roses, poured on the surface of the soil twice 

 in winter — one to two gallons to each tree. The soil need 

 not be stirred till spring, and then merely loosened two or three 

 inches deep, with the prongs of a fork ; for poor soil, and on lawns, 

 previously removing the turf, this will be found most efficacious. 

 He directs this compost to be applied in the first two winter 

 months, but as our ground is frequently frozen so hard at that 

 time that it cannot absorb the liquid, it would probably be 



