26 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



follows, for we have never yet met an expert rose grower who 

 was not also an enthusiast. 



" CUT-BACKS." 



At the end of the selling season, there is bound to be a residue 

 of " unsolds." It may be that most of them have been passed 

 over as weaklings or as damaged goods, as it is seldom indeed 

 that any good saleable stuff is left on hand. They have, of course, 

 to be lifted, for they could not be profitably left, a scanty crop, 

 on a large piece of land ; neither would it be economical to scrap 

 them, seeing that most of them can, by due attention, be made 

 into healthy, saleable plants. So they are transplanted into new 

 ground, and in close nursery order, care being exercised to keep 

 each variety separate from the other. The unfortunate point is 

 that seeing sales are going on till the very end of March, and indeed 

 most always into April, the work of transplanting cannot be under- 

 taken till the latter month, and this is abominably late unless the 

 weather is propitious. By hook or by crook the work is always 

 done, and what might elsewise be wasted are turned into good stock. 



When lifting these plants, care should be taken to preserve all 

 the roots, and the ends of any which may be bruised or otherwise 

 damaged should be smoothly trimmed off. Cut away the dead 

 top of the stock (a process known as " snagging ") and plant just 

 deep enough to cover the union of the bud with the stock, and at 

 a distance of i foot from plant to plant and from 15 to 18 inches 

 between the rows. Directly growth becomes active in roots and 

 tops, prune hard back to good, healthy eyes, leaving as little of the 

 old wood as possible, so that practically a new plant may be formed. 

 From the new growth some of the best wood for " budding " may 

 be obtained ; neither is there any difficulty in disposing of the 

 plant the following season if well grown, for there are many people 

 who prefer " cut-backs " to maidens. If the term " cut-backs " 

 has grown to denote inferiority it is only applicable to plants which 

 have not been subject to the treatment here described, for in some 

 ways they may be distinctly superior. 



" Cut-backs " will produce an abundance of bloom, not as a rule 

 up to exhibition standard, but good, long-stalked blooms for selling. 



