SPECIALTIES 361 



or setting around them chicken-wire frames, 

 and filling the enclosures with leaves or straw. 

 The best fertilizers for roses are decayed 

 cow manure, hog, sheep or chicken manures 

 sparingly applied and old horse manure. Com- 

 mercial fertilizers may be used either alone or 

 to supplement the natural manures. Ground 

 bone is the best, but nitrate of soda, applied at 

 the rate of about a teaspoonful to a plant, is 

 useful as a stimulant early in the season. It 

 should be followed, however, by more substan- 

 tial fertilizers later on. The Reverend A. Fos- 

 ter-Melliar, an expert rose-grower and writer 

 on the subject, recommends the following espe- 

 cially prepared fertilizer: 



Superphosphate of lime 12 parts 



Nitrate of potash 10 parts 



Sulphate of magnesia 2 parts 



Sulphate of lime 8 parts 



Sulphate of iron 1 part 



His advice is to apply this mixture in March 

 at the rate of one-quarter pound to each square 

 yard. 



Roses should be pruned in early March. It 

 is an error to prune them, as some persons do, 

 in the autumn. Use the shears on the hardy 

 roses, both the climbers and the bushes, by 

 March fifteenth if the season is of average 



