CHAPTEE lY. 



POSITION AND SOIL. 



The first requisite in the culture of roses is 

 the selection and preparation of a suitable place 

 for planting. This is very important, as all that 

 follows depends upon the care used in this first 

 step. 



To begin with, then, choose the best place you 

 have in the garden, a place where you can offer 

 sufficient protection by means of hedges or board 

 fences from bleak sweeping winds. When 

 fences are used, their general ugliness can be 

 most appropriately clothed by roses themselves. 

 A warm, sunny position is also requisite ; if so 

 situated that there is an exposure to the morning 

 sun, and the hot rays during the afternoon are in 

 part or wholly shaded, all the better, but a cer- 

 tain amount of sunlight is as essential to a rose's 

 welfare as to our own, though many of us do not 

 show our appreciation of the blessings of sunlight 

 as gratefully as do our roses. Besides scattering 



