64 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



rely upon the heavy interim waterings and the perfectness of the 

 drainage to carry away any impurities that can foul or sour the soil. 

 Let the general practice be " little and often," for to overload 

 the soil in a pot with rich food would react upon the plant just 

 as the overloading of a child's stomach with rich and heavy foods 

 would upset its entire digestive and alimentary system, poisoning 

 the blood and bringing disease. 



MILDEW 



We will now revert to the practical. A very special study of the 

 model rose grower must be that of the diseases which attack the 

 rose, the most familiar and the most virulent of which is mildew. 

 It worries us, it baffles us, is altogether inexplicable to us. Gallons 

 of ink have been trailed out concerning it ; years have been spent 

 in research as to its cause, many withers have been wrung over it, 

 and all to little purpose, for we have made but little progress toward 

 stamping it out. So far as we know, no one is in a position to 

 dogmatise about it, and we feel very little inclination to take up 

 space by discussing abstract theories, but we can and do offer a 

 few observations of our own while recommending every grower 

 to follow as closely as possible the results of investigation as described 

 by eminent scientists. 



There may be, there probably are, a dozen predisposing causes 

 for mildew, yet it must at once be conceded that some varieties 

 in other respects quite vigorous and hardy are more susceptible 

 and suffer from it more than others. That magnificent and glorious 

 variety, Crimson Rambler, is going out of existence because its 

 constitution has been ruined by this disease. When the writer 

 stood in wonder before the first plants of this in the Slough nurseries, 

 and knew not how to adequately express his admiration, he little 

 thought that this particular scourge should by and by exterminate 

 it even as the white scourge destroys so many of the fairest and the 

 best of our own race. But so it is ; and this fact points strongly 

 toward varietal weakness, a weakness confirmed by a score of 

 equally susceptible varieties, among which must unfortunately 

 be included that ever popular Killarney in both its forms. We 

 have heard a great deal recently about the need for raising varieties 



