318 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
CUJLTURE OF ROSES. 
“How must I plant my Roses'? what kirn* of manure 
must I give them 1 and how must I prune them '?” These 
and similar questions are so frequenily asked, that iqmay 
perhaps be acceptable to the ladies to see a few words 
about it. 
The soil can never be too rich nor too deeply worked 
for Roses, and will, in nearly all cases, require a heavy 
manuring. The thorough preparation of the ground is, 
therefore, indispensable to insure perfect success. This 
can easily be done where a whole new bed is to be planted 
in roses. Spread a good layer of manure (cow manure 
in preference) and work it in by trenching the bed two 
feet deep, taking care lo mix and tkoroughly ivxorporate 
the manure with the soil; that done, the roses can be 
planted without any further trouble, and will do well. 
It is, however, too often the case that roses are to be 
planted in beds already crowded with other shrubs, and 
under such circumstances it is often very difficult to make 
them thrive. The only way of insuring success is by 
digging a large hole for each rose, say three feet W’ide by 
twenty inches deep. In the bottom of this hole fill in 
four or five good shovelsful of cow manure, mix it 
thoroughly with the soil, and on tjie top of it place a layer 
0 ) three or four inches of earth, previous to planting the 
shrub, so that the manure may be within the reach of the 
roots, whenever they start. 'Then fill the balance of the 
soil around the plant, give it a bucket of water, in 
order to settle the earth, and the operation is done. 
If the ro.ses, are already growing, but weak, and want- 
ing strength and new life, dig a trench around the bush 
about ten inches deep, and at the least one foot from the 
stem At the bottom of this trench place some stimulat- 
ing manure. Night soil or Poudrette is the most power- 
fil, and two shovelsful for each rose is sufficient. In want 
of these manures, hen manure will answer. Fill the 
trench up level with the surface, and water it pie tifully 
that the strength of the manure may draw down to the 
roots. Where even this should be inconvenient, prepare 
a liquid manure made of guano or hen manure, five or six 
quarts dissolvea in a barrel of rain water, as frequently 
described in the Cvitivator. An application of such a 
watering will soon show a beneficial effect. 
If the rose bush is old and unsight y, with long and 
straggling branches, cut the whole bush down to within 
four inches ot the surface. This severe process ought to 
be dune in January or February, and the result will be 
astonishing. 
The pruning of a rose does not require much art nor 
skill. During the winter season cut down freely, and, 
wherever it suits, without disfiguring the form of the 
shrub, take the branches off near the ground, by which 
new strong sprouts wilUpring up again. All the branches 
may also be shortened, so as to give the bush a neat 
shape. 
V' lienever a rose has been blooming freely during the 
spring, It will rest for a while, and this is the time to give 
it a summer pruning, precisely in the same way, though 
not so severely. Robkrt Nklson. 
PruitUuul Nursery Augusta, Ga., Sept., 1857. 
IRISH POTATOES — HOW TO RAISE AND 
How to iteep. 
In the June number of the American Cotton Planter 
and Soil of ike South we find a communication from Mo- 
bile, under the signature ot “Au Revoir,” in which the 
writer professes to have found out a secret in regard to 
the cul’ure and keeping of Irish potatoes, which we trans- 
far to our columns for the benefit of those engaged in their 
cultivation. The w’riter says : 
I have found out a valuable secret in the cultivaticm of 
the Irish Potato in our section, worth knowing. The great 
trouble has been to preserve the Irish Potato any time af- 
ter our warm weather commences Well, I have ascer- 
tained from experiments that we must plant our Irish Po- 
tatoes in the early part of December and give them time 
to mature before our warm season commences. There is 
then no difficulty about keeping them until the January 
after. But, if planted in February or March, the warm 
weather kills the vines before the potato has sufficiently 
matured, which causes them to decay in the ground, if 
not immediately dug; and if not used soon after being 
taken from ihe ground they decay. The consequence is, 
we have potatoes here but a few weeks. Now 1 have no 
difficulty in keeping potatoes, planted in December, all 
summer. My potatoes w'ere as large as your fist, the vines 
not having been once killed the whole winter. I have 
ascertained that the killing of the vine by frost is no seri- 
ous injury to the crop, if planted properly. 
I am this year planted a new variety, that I procured 
from a friend in Connecticut wffiile visiting there last fall. 
This variety was produced by my friend from the seed of 
the potato. He had been plantiag them for three years, 
and had never seen a decayed one among them, and he 
does not usually commence using them until July or Au- 
gus, when other varieties a|e all gone or are to old for use. 
They are a superior variety in point of yield and flavor. 
I hey very much resemble the Mercer in the mealy charac- 
ter. The skin is of'a purple and white color, very white 
meat, and they cook mealy and light. 
To Kill Insects on Fruit Trees.— M. Tessier has 
sent a communication to the Imperial Horticultural So- 
ciety of Paris, stating that the ammoniacal water of gas 
works will destroy the insects which are so destructive to 
our fruits. In the neighborhood of cities, this is worth 
rial. The v/ater of the gas works should be diluted with 
three-fourths its own quantity, and sprinkled over the 
leaves and branches. Trenches should be dug in proper 
directions, to receive the water as it falls, and this will 
destroy the insects below the surface of the ground. 
Refinement and Horticulture. — In allusion tc the 
refining influence of Horticultural pursuits, a Kentucky 
correspondent says ; 
“ There is something ennobling and refining in these 
pursuits that is not to be met with in the ordinary voca- 
tions of men, and I do not know what stronger proofs of 
the truth of this assertion are necessary than that it was 
the first art (that of ‘dressing and keeping a garden’) that 
our race learned. I believe that refinement and the science 
of Florticulture are twin sisters, and go hand in hand ” 
Splitting Rocks Without Blasting.— It is stated 
that French inventors have taken out a patent in England 
for splitting rocks by the generation of heat without caus- 
ing an explosion. They use a substance composed of 
lOO parts of sulphur by weight, 100 of saltpetre, 50 of 
saw-dust, .50 of horse manure, and 10 of common salt. 
Ihe saltpetre and common salt are dissolved in hot wa- 
ter, to which four parts of molasses are added, and the 
whole ingredients stirred until they are thoroughly in- 
corporated together in one mass, which is then dreid by a 
gentle heat in a room or by exposure to the sun, and is 
fit tor use. It is tain, ed in the holes bored for bhisling 
rock in the same manner as powder, and is ignited by a 
fusee. It does nor. cause an explosion upward like gun- 
pov»^der, but generates a great heat, whicli splits the rock. 
