HOSE-FORCING IN AMERICA. 



467 



not new it is customary to burn flowers of sulphur in each house before it 

 is planted, to kill any germ -spores left from the preceding year. Then the 

 ground under the benches is thoroughly sprayed with Bordeaux mixture 

 to make the cleansing as complete as possible. All this is done from a 

 conviction that it is better to keep the plants in healthy growing condi- 

 tion by providing a suitable environment than to try to cure some pre- 

 ventable fungous disease later on. The next step is to carefully cleanse the 

 benches and give them a coat of whitewash, to which has been added 

 thirty pounds of flowers of sulphur to each bushel of lime. When this 

 is first put on it is bright yellow, but it becomes a clear white on drying. 

 A thin covering of straw is laid on the benches to keep the soil from 

 sifting out. Now all is ready for the soil ; whence does it come, where 

 and how ? The Rose-grower may be fortunate enough to have the soil 

 near at hand, so that a short waggon haul is all that is required. Perhaps 

 the best Nature could do was to make a fine deposit some eight or ten 

 miles away, so that a railroad haul is added to the waggon work. The 

 soil unloaded, it is stacked, — two-thirds soil and one-third good cow 

 manure. Some growers recommend only one quarter manure, while 

 others recommend one half. It is cut down at once and well mixed if it 

 be spring-laid soil ; if autumn-laid, it stands over winter without being cut 

 down. Just here is one of the puzzles of American Rose-growers. There 

 is a difference between autumn- and spring-stacked soil, whether mechani- 

 cal or not no one knows. It is probably due to the alternate freezing and 

 thawing of the winter season. Spring-stacked soil is more satisfactory. 

 Unfortunately, spring at times takes matters into her hands and rains 

 steadily for weeks, so that if dependent on spring-stacked soil the planting 

 is seriously delayed. 



After the benches are filled with soil a sprinkling of air-slaked lime 

 and ground bone is put on. About 100 pounds of bone are used to 150 ft. 

 of house 20 ft. wide. Artificial manures, save bone and hard-wood ashes, 

 are not used to any great extent. In the early spring a light coating of 

 wood ashes is put on, giving the soil a greyish colour. After the middle 

 of January liquid manure is given once in ten days, and later in the season 

 once each week. If the feeding is not given in this form a top-dressing 

 of well-rotted cow manure is put on when needed. This has the disad- 

 vantage of bringing many angle-worms into the house, as well as a great 

 deal of litter and dirt. The liquid manure is made in a tank built for 

 that purpose. Its sides are sloping and lined with bricks which have 

 been coated with cement to make them watertight. At a point about 

 two-thirds of the length of the tank the side-walls are carried out to 

 form projections about 8 in. wide, and reaching to within 1 ft. of the 

 centre of the tank. When the work is finished there are practically 

 two tanks with a sluice-way between, whose dimensions are 2 ft. by 

 8 in. by the depth of the tank. Each side of the sluice-way is covered 

 with wire screening, and the intervening space filled with straw. In 

 this way all the solid matter is kept from the pump. The larger end 

 is filled with manure, proportionately one load of stable manure, one of 

 cow, and one half-barrel of hen manure. Sheep manure may be substi- 

 tuted for the hen. W T ater is run in at this end and soaks through to the 

 smaller end. Some growers suspend a bag of soot in the water-cud of 



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