THE FORCING OF ROSES. 5 



at all events, a soil for roses should contain decomposed 

 pasture sods and cow manure. The sod should be ob- 

 tained during the previous summer from some old pas- 

 ture with a thick, fibrous sod, if possible, and should be 

 piled up with alternate layers of cow manure, using one 

 part of the manure to from four to six of the sods, ac- 

 cording to the character of each. The sods should be 

 cut just thick enough to remove the thick, fibrous por- 

 tion, and if from an average loam soil, neither very 

 heavy nor light, but with a good admixture of clay, the 

 compost prepared as above will be of a suitable charac- 

 ter for the rose benches, but if the sods come from a 

 sandy loam soil the addition of one part of clay to five 

 or six of the mixture will be desirable. On the other 

 hand, if the soil is inclined to be heavy, an equal quan- 

 tity of sand should certainly be added. While consider- 

 able clay is desirable in soil for roses, there is danger of 

 its being too heavy, as, even in shallow benches, if the 

 soil at any time becomes too wet, particularly in the fall 

 before the fires are started, or during a cloudy period in 

 the Avinter, it will not only be longer in drying out than 

 a lighter soil, but "black spot" and other diseases will 

 be much more likely to follow. 



Early in the spring the compost pile should be 

 worked over and the coarser sods broken up. After 

 lying in the pile for two or three weeks more it will be 

 ready to place on the benches. When the houses are 

 long, it will be convenient to have openings in the side 

 walls, through which the soil can be thrown upon the 

 benches, and if there are side ventilators this can be 

 readily done. If it is not feasible to have openings in 

 the sides of the houses, it will be a great convenience if 

 a small car can be run along the edges of the benches. 

 As an entire chapter was devoted to "Rose Houses" in 

 the companion volume, "Greenhouse Construction," in 

 which the form and width of house best adapted to the 



