264 



ROLLER. -ROSE. ROSEMARY. 



ROLLER. — This is a heavy cylindrical instrumentj to 

 pass over lands, render them more compact, and answer 

 other useful purposes in field husbandry and gardening. 

 Many of the complaints we hear, of seeds not growing, 

 arise from their not being rolled. Many seeds will not 

 vegetate at all, and many others will vegetate slowly, 

 feebly, and unequally, if the ground be not rolled soon after 

 the seed is sown. " Those rollers w^hich are cut out of 

 free-stone, being heavier than wooden ones, are best to 

 smooth and harden the alleys in gardens. But w^ooden 

 ones answer better in tillage, when they are sufficiently 

 large. A roller for field-husbandry should be five or six 

 feet long ; so that it may perform much in a short time, 

 being drawn by a horse or yoke of oxen, for either of which 

 it may be easily harnessed. It should be made perfectly 

 round and smooth, that it may be drawn the more easily, 

 and press the ground more equally in all parts. And it 

 should be from eighteen to twenty-four inches diameter. 

 Being large, the pressure will be greater, and the surface 

 will be the more level." — Deane, 



Where there is no roller on the premises, the following 

 is recommended as a substitute : — After the seed is sown, 

 and the ground well raked, take a board or boards, of the 

 whole length of the bed ; lay them flat on the ground ; be- 

 ginning at one edge of the bed, walk the w^hole length of 

 the board ; this will press the soil on the seed ; then shift 

 the board, till you have thus gone over the whole bed ; and 

 in dry w^eather, cover your beds, for forty-eight hours, w^ith 

 boards laid flat on the soil, and the seeds will come up al- 

 mi>st immediately. If no boards are at hand, tread in the 

 seed with your feet, or strike on the bed with the blad* of 

 your spade or shovel. 



ROSE.— See Flowers, p. 125. 



ROSEMARY. — Rosmarinus officinalis. — " The rosemar} 

 is a hardy under-shrub, a native of the south of Europe. 

 It is ctn evergreen, rising sometimes six or eight feet high, 

 though rarely. The leaves are sessile, linear, dark-green 

 above, and grayish or whitish underneath ; the blossoms are 

 of a pale blue colour. The whole plant is highly aromatic. 



" Varieties. — These are. 



The gi-eea, or common. | The goW-striped, ] The silver-striped. 



Culture. — The green is hardiest as a plant, and is the 

 s'-Tt generally used. The finest plants are raised from seed, 

 sown either broad-cast or in drills, six inches apart. This 

 plant is also propagated by cuttings and suckers. Planted 



