VII 



STOCKS 



111 



with wet leaves and grass, and collect them as I come 

 back. I then cut an elm sucker as a withe and make 

 a little faggot, which, regardless of the sufferings of my 

 poor coat, I carry home rejoicing. Those stocks which 

 are taken from an old stool may probably require 

 trimming at home with a more powerful saw, and some- 

 times it may be better to reserve till then the work of 

 the pruning-knife, in shortening bruised roots, smooth- 

 ing saw cuts, shaving off suckers, and carefully cutting 

 out all semblances of buds below the ground surface. 



In selecting standard stems, if there is plenty of 

 choice, take only two-year-old shoots ; next three-year- 

 old, avoiding one-year-old shoots unless they be 

 extra well ripened, and old stems unless you are very 

 hard up. I have seen a great many stocks in nursery- 

 men's quarters that I should never take unless I was 

 very short — old, spotted, and cankered. For it is 

 instructive to notice that canker may certainly be found 

 on the wild Rose, in its natural state, even where there 

 seems to have been no outward injury to the stem. It 

 is true that some of the grey hidebound old stocks 

 will make very good growth when cut back and 

 transplanted, but some will not, and you never can tell 

 where they will break. A sharp frost, after they are 

 moved, will be fatal to a large number of the one-year- 

 old stems, which are too soft and pithy to stand the 

 ordeal of transplanting. A stock without any fibrous 

 roots at all on the main root will often grow, and if it 

 does, do well, but it cannot be depended on and should 

 only be used if quantity is required. 



There are a great many varieties of the Dog-Rose, and 

 a great difference will soon be noticed in the general 

 appearance of the stems. It used to be said that the 

 red-barked, very thorny, variety is the best, and perhaps 



