Cleaning and Sowing the Seed. 129 



sowing in frames. I remember seeing there some years since a vast number growing in a 

 wooden frame, the most of them apparently varieties of ROSA INDICA, and their health- 

 ful appearance and vigorous growth sufficiently attested the suitability of the treatment. 



If a frame cannot be spared for the purpose, the tender kinds, at least, should be 

 sown in pans, thoroughly drained, and filled with equal parts of leaf-mould and loam 

 well mixed together. After the seeds are sown they may be watered and covered over 

 with about half-an-inch of the same soil, sifted, and mixed with a little sand. The 

 pans must now be set in the best spot we can find for them in a cold frame or green- 

 house, if accessible, where they should be kept in a state of equable moisture. Here 

 they will vegetate as out of doors, and in Autumn or the following Spring they may 

 be transplanted as the others. 



If it be the intention to sow in the open borders, a sunny but sheltered situation 

 should be chosen : the aspect should be east, that the young plants may not be 

 fatigued with the afternoon's sun. When preparing the ground for sowing the soil 

 should be well loosened with a fork or spade to the depth of eighteen inches or two 

 feet, and made light and rich, the top being broken up fine, and laid level with a rake. 

 If drills are preferred, draw them about nine inches apart ; if broadcast sowing, the 

 ground is already prepared. 



It is desirable to sow rather thick, for in general not one-fourth of the Rose-seeds 

 vegetate, and of these only a portion the first year. After the seed is sown the earth 

 should be trodden down or beaten with a spade, and watered if dry, and covered 

 afterwards with from half-an-inch to an inch of light free soil. Care must be taken 

 to keep the earth moderately moist. Protect from mice. If sown in February some 

 of the seeds will germinate in April. So soon as they are seen rising through the 

 soil means must be taken to protect them from slugs, birds, and worms. 



Slugs and wood-lice have a great liking for seedling Roses, and will, unless pre- 

 vented, eat them off close to the ground when rising, which usually involves their 

 destruction. To guard against these pests scatter soot or lime over the bed, which 

 acts as a protection, and at the same time promotes the growth of the plants. Birds 

 will occasionally pull them up when just sprouting forth ; and whether this is done to 

 gratify the palate or merely from the love of mischief I cannot determine, but how- 

 ever it may be we are equally the sufferers.* The best scare-crow I can find is glass. 

 Let a stick be stuck in the ground in a bending position, from the end of which two 

 pieces of glass should be suspended with bast or twine so that they dangle in the air ; 

 striking together with every breeze, they keep up a musical chant around the seed- 

 lings which the feathered plunderers seem unable to account for, and the most daring 

 depredators are content to sit and chirrup at a distance. 



* The old stuffed figure which served well enough as a scare-crow in my boyish days is of no avail against the 

 superior intelligence of modern birds. I recently set up a well-contrived figure, but in less than half-an-hour that 

 incarnation of impudence, the London sparrow, was hopping on the head and shoulders and pulling out the interior 

 to build its nest with. 



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