About the first of November, before the ground froze and while we 
were still gathering roses, we hilled up our plants. To do this we dug 
a trench between the plants and covered the main stalks and lateral 
growth of the plants with earth to the height of five or six inches. 
We filled the trenches with well rotted cow manure in order that the 
Autumn rains might carry this food to the roots before the ground froze. 
When the ground was frozen to four or five inches, after Christmas, we 
boarded in the outer edges of our borders with eight inch boards and 
packed leaves tightly on the plants to the depth of eighteen inches 
holding them in place with dead branches. We cut off only the very 
long waving branches which might have caught the wind. The other 
growth we left exposed to freeze during the winter. Cutting may mean 
bleeding even at this time and bleeding means more severe winter killing. 
Our first season is over and it has been a tedious task with small 
reward. Our experience has been that this course of care and self-denial 
makes strong roots and fortifies the plants to withstand the hard win- 
ter. Our percentage of winter killing is very, very small. This year 
we carried through 3500 plants, including the field plants, without loss. 
The last of March, 1915, the second season, we uncovered our 
plants. We uncover as early as possible, to prevent the mice from 
eating the young shoots which otherwise might start under the heavy 
blanket of leaves. We removed all of the leaves but threw back a 
few which caught here and there on the scraggly branches and pre- 
vented the merciless March sun from burning the tender bark. 
Our last year's care had given us strong, sturdy wood which had 
wintered well and when we came to pruning, we found well established 
plants with wood as large as my forefinger in the strongest growing 
varieties. This we cut back to five to six eyes, always to the outer eye 
and the weaker shoots in proportion. We prune mercilessly and if there 
is a choice of eyes, we choose the fourth rather than the fifth in the strong 
shoots for the shape of the plant counts largely in the strength and 
length of the stems we shall get. After the beds were raked free from 
twigs and leaves, we worked in the manure of last November to which 
we had added, that Spring, a thin dressing of bone meal and wood ashes. 
This coming Autumn, the plants having been in three seasons, 
we shall add a liberal dressing of lime to the manure we put on in 
November between the hills, to sweeten the soil. This must be done 
to all soil where manure is used so liberally. 
After pruning, we sprayed with copper solution and followed the 
same routine of spraying as we did in the first year with this exception, 
the plants were well established by this time and we could afford to 
force the wood without detriment to the roots. When the buds were 
