i 4 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



very apparent when " lifting time " comes in November, and the 

 plenitude or paucity of roots reveals whether the culture has been 

 thorough or only moderate. 



It is possible to put cuttings in, in more open order, on ridges, 

 give them quite intensive culture and when rooted level down the 

 ridges and bud straight away, thus saving a year. But this is not 

 to be thought of in mass production, as involving too much space 

 and too much labour ; it can only be indulged in by amateurs 

 whose requirements are very limited, but whose time is not so 

 limited. Still, it may be done by any who have a use for it, and is, 

 as a rule, successful. 



The process which we have tried our best to describe and make 

 clear applies to all the varieties of stocks we have named, viz. the 

 brier, manetti, de la Griff eraie, laxa and rugosa. Given intelligent 

 treatment, there is no reason why 75 to 80 per cent of successes 

 may not be looked for, especially if the season prove at all favourable, 

 but not if any quantity of immature unripe wood is used. The 

 thickness of the wood is of secondary moment, for though fairly 

 stout wood is naturally chosen, the thinner wood, if solid and ripe, 

 will root equally well, and their first season's growth will swell 

 them to the size required for budding. The budder will always 

 take care to use up his small buds in the thinner stocks and his 

 large ones in those that are stouter. The building up of the stock 

 is the first important step in the life of the rose, for it cannot impart 

 a health and vigour which it does not itself possess. 



SEEDLING BRIERS 



The seedling brier as a stock has much to recommend it. Its 

 principal and perhaps only defect is that it is more difficult to 

 get at to bud because it has practically no stem. The ripe, scarlet 

 heps are gathered from the hedgerows and commons in the autumn 

 and put in a heap to rot, being mixed with an equal bulk of sand and 

 frequently turned and bruised. In the spring, when all the flesh 

 of the heps has decomposed, the residue is scattered thinly along 

 drills about 2 inches in depth and covered in like any other seed. 

 It will germinate slowly and indeed grow but slowly afterward, 

 so that the seedlings usually stand two years before being trans- 



