November 2, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



379 



is described as " considerably resembling Devonshire Quarren- 

 den in shape, size, and colour." As grown hers the two ha,Ye 

 no resemblance to each other excepting probably in size, 

 Devonshire Qaarrenden being rather a shabby unpromiaing- 

 looking Apple, while Early Joe is quite the reverie. It is 

 hardy, and ripens perfectly on bushes here, and I should say 

 the climate must be a very late one where Early Joe requires 

 a wall. — D. D. A., Forfarshire. 



THE ROSE. ELECTION— THE BATTLE OF THE 

 STOCKS. 



In suggesting this addition to the Boss election I had no 

 idea that we should be able to settle the knotty question of 

 the best stock for Roses, for as Mr. H. Merryweather remarked 

 in his reply, " That would be as difficult as to settle a knotty 

 point between half a dozen different religionists." Mr. Merry- 

 weather further remarks that the question of stocks is in a 

 great degree a question of locality, and that certain soils 

 require oertain stocks for success. Oar stocks, something like 

 old Sam Weller'i?, " fluetooate " according to the ideas of the 

 different growers, and are moulded iu some fashion by their 

 soil. Certain opiaions seemed already tolerably fixed — that 

 the Briar did not succeed well ia poor light soil, whi'Bt the 

 Manetti gave better results in Euch situations. On the other 

 hand, Tea, Noisette, and Bourbon Ro3es appeared to like tin 

 Briar better than the Manetti, whilst most of the Hybrid 

 Perpstuals would prefer the Manetti— th9 summer Boses in 

 my opinion declaring that it was " six of one and half a dozen 

 of the other." On all hands it ssemed agreed that the Manetti 

 was not suitable for standards. Perhaps to all those proposi- 

 tions there are exceptions, even to the last. 



In days gone by I have given in my adhesion to the Manetti 

 as the mo:t servicmble stock for general purposes. I must 

 confess I am still its champion. Some few years back there 

 was, I think, no qtestion that the Manetti would have gained 

 the vote, but the introduction of the seedling Briar and the 

 marvellously successful results that Roses grown on this stock 

 have shown in Mr. G. Prince's hands, has made the advooates 

 of the Briar still more enthusiastic, whilst there aro growers, 

 not a few, who contend that even the seedling Briar is eclipsed 

 by selected Briar cuttings. 



No one who has looked at the seedling Briar plants eau 

 deny that there is a vigour about them peculiarly their own ; 

 and the lloorns that have oome from the Oxford growers have 

 shown in the exhibition tent a corresponding amount of 

 stamina. It may not perhaps be easy to decide who first 

 attempted the seedling Briar as a stock. Very many years 

 ago old Tom Cole of the Wellow Rosery near Bub, a placs 

 whioh the railway has I fear demolished, leaiarkoi to me, " If 

 you want good stocks that will not throw-up suckers, sow the 

 Rose seeds and bud below the radicles." He evidently had 

 tried the plan. Mr. Tapner in his reply on this subject says, 

 " Thirty-six years ago I raised seedling Briars, and found the 

 Roses did well on them." One wonders if the bloomB were 

 anything like those of Mr. Prince's that the praotic9 apparently 

 went out. 



The replies received on the question of stooks resolve them- 

 selves into several classes. Amongst these a large number 

 give generally the answers that I have perhaps imperfectly 

 Btated above as acknowledged data. For instance, the Rev. 

 Alan Cheales, Messrs. Burrell, Mayo, M. L. Davis, Jessop, 

 Wootten, Tapner, and B. B. Cant consider the Manetti beat 

 for Hybrid Perpetuals, and the Briar for Teas and Noisettes; 

 same amongst these also noting the difference in soils as 

 suitable to one or other of these stocks. Then the Bsv. H. 

 Dombrain, with Messrs. Smallbones, H. Davie, Berrington, and 

 W.Curtis consider both these stocks very good, Mr. Smallbones 

 leining towards the Briar and Messrs. Dombrain and Berring- 

 ton towards Manetti, Mr. Curtis adding that he prefers the 

 prepared Briar cuttings to the seedling Briar. Another divi- 

 sion, including Captains Christy and Rochfort, Messrs. Mawiey, 

 Atkinson, Scott, John Turth, G. Prinoe, and Corp, vote more 

 or less decidedly for the Briar in some shape, the majority 

 naming the seedling Briar ; Mr. Scott preferring the prepared 

 cutting even to this, and Mr. Atkinson remarks that it depends 

 somewhat on the situation. On the other hand, whilst admit- 

 ting the preference of Teas for the Briar, the Manetti is sup- 

 ported as a general stock by the Revs. C. P. Peach and Camm, 

 Messrs, Robson, Chater, Walters, Ewing, H. May, Davison, and 

 the returning officer; Mr. Ewing remarking that the Manetti 



has more merits than any other stock, whilst Mr. Peach adds, 

 " Under no circumstances the standard Briar; the more I see 

 of thsm the ltss I liko them, and I hope the day is not far 

 distant whan standard Bose trees will be things of the past. 

 Every dog has its day, aud the Dog Rose as a standard has 

 had its day." 



In this verdict of Mr. Peach's I most heartily coincide. I 

 determined year3 ago never to plant another standard Briar ; 

 relenting, I tried thorn again, and again I arrived at the same 

 conclusion. I ee9 them in other gardens where the Rose is 

 not so much an object of consideration, and there I see these 

 dead standards make a convenient pole for the Convolvulus'. 

 Much as I admire the latter, what a fall was there ! What 

 cm be more horrible to a Rose enthusiast than a pole more or 

 less, aud generally more than less, covered with lichen, with 

 a head that diminishes yearly in size, but in its own simplicity 

 attempts to make ample amends for this by growing out 

 thoroughly at the bottom. Fired with the great results 

 obtained by Mr. Prince, and thanks to his kindness in sending 

 me some seedling Briars, I thought to myself, Here is an end 

 to my old favourite the Manetti ; but though not averse to 

 the seedling Briar stock, if I must vote I must again revert 

 to my old favourite, believing that for general purposes it is 

 the mo3t serviceable and manageable stock. I grant all the 

 splendour of the seedling Briar roots, which are beautiful, and 

 account for the vigour of tho plants as compared with the 

 mopsticks that so frequently have nothing worthy the name 

 of roots ; but I contend that budding the seedling Briar is a 

 far more difficult and less successful affair than performing 

 the same operation on the Manetti. The seedling Briar root- 

 stem is often anything but straight— it is as gnarled as the 

 giant Oak of the forest, though only a seedling, and the result 

 is, in my clumsy manipulation, deaths many ! a pitiful array 

 of plants that the following season are still only seedling 

 Briars. Again, owing doubtless to the same cause, I have not 

 found that absence of euokers which I expected. There is an 

 irrepressibility about the Briar that will not be put down — 

 that makes a root on the eurfaee of the soil form a bud on the 

 slightest provocation. The splendid head that the vigorous 

 seedling makes rsaders tho art of budding a great difficulty, 

 and in my hands a doubtful experiment. Nor am I alone. 

 Last year I had an expsrt budder to pat in some forty or fifty 

 buds ; his success has not equalled my own. Now, with Manetti 

 of my own manufacture I have no trouble — the operation is 

 comparatively easy, and it is rarely unsucjessful, whilst the 

 results of blooms are so little different, that, being essentially 

 lazy, I throw up ray hat for the Manetti. 



I have still to note that Mr. Harrison prefers the Napoleon 

 stock, then the selected Briar cutting, having scanty faith ia 

 the seedling Briar; whilst Mr. George Paul gives us a word 

 of advice which is useful, that the best results are obtained 

 by working each separate Bose on that stock, whatever it may 

 be, that gives us the best results — there is in fact no universal 

 stock. — Joseph Hinton, Warminster. 



P.S. — Mr. Jowiu's address, which was not attached to his 

 list of Boses, is Tho Old Weir, near Hereford. — J. H. 



MT PRACTICE WITH GRAPES DURING THIS 

 SEASON. 

 In the autumn of last year I gave the outside Vine border a 

 good mulching of half-decayed cow manure, and allowed it to 

 remain until about the month of April of this year, when I 

 removed th9 most rough and slightly forked-in the remainder. 

 Last winter, after pruning the Vines and washing the houses, I 

 took off a little of the surface soil from the inside border and 

 gave the border a top-dressing 4 inches deep of the following 

 compost : — To one barrowful of fibry loam well chopped up I 

 added half a stone of half-inch bones, half a stone of wood 

 ashes, an 8-inch potful of soot, and a sprinkling of flowers oS 

 sulphur. I believe very much in a change of food for the 

 Vine. Soot ia a healthy ingredient for vegetation and a good 

 preventive of mildew, and wood or stick ashes prevent the 

 Boil from beooming sour, aud are, I think, a good colouring 

 agent— at least they contain potash, which is one of the con- 

 stituents of the Vine, and I should say that in a soil void of 

 potaBh Vines will not thrive. 



When the berries were about half swelled I mulched the 

 inside borders with oow manure, whioh no doubt helped tho 

 Vines greatly during the very hot weather. In former years I 

 s; ringed the Vines until the colouring period. This year I 



