April 12,1883.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
299 
practice, though during some seasons the early-pruned plants pro¬ 
duced earlier blooms, which were acceptable. During all that 
time, and among the thousands of plants that have been under 
culture, I have not observed any material injury result from 
bleeding. 
Early pruning results in the base buds starting into growth too 
soon, and if these are cut by such frosts as prevailed a fortnight 
ago the plants are permanently crippled ; and these growths are 
produced earlier in the south than in the north, as I have had 
incontrovertible proof, having had something to do with Roses 
both south of the Thames and north of the Humber. 
Mr. Moorman describes the safe plan, for a season like the 
present especially, on page 238. I went to see him a week after 
his letter appeared, and found him practising what he bad 
preached, for he was then busy with the secateurs. Many of the 
early growths towards the extremity of last year’s shoots were 
3 inches long, and in some of them buds had formed. These 
growths had all been killed by the frost, but there were plenty of 
bold buds on the lower parts of the stem as safe as if there had 
been no frost. To these buds the shoots were being shortened, 
and a strong free growth will be the certain result if the weather 
be even moderately genial, as we may fairly expect it to be now. 
I have also visited another garden in which the Roses were 
pruned in the autumn. The locality is south of the Thames and 
the position sheltered. On these Roses all the buds left had 
started previous to the frost, and at least 90 per cent, of the 
growths are killed. It is a question if some of the plants are not 
killed also, but there is no question as to their inability to afford 
even a half-satisfactory display of Roses during the ensuing 
summer. 
But will not the plants that had grown so freely before Mr. 
Moorman pruned them bleed ? I venture to say that not an 
ounce of sap will escape from a hundred of them. The frost, by 
killing the young growths, had checked the flow of sap, and that 
which is now supplied by the roots will be appropriated by the 
succeeding growths now just on the eve of starting. 
Another question. Have not the plants been weakened by first 
being allowed to grow so freely, and then cutting off these growths 
by the armful or barrowload ? The answer, though all persons 
may not accept it as satisfactory, must again be in the negative. 
The very production of the growths incited root-action in the 
same proportion ; and although the extension of the new roots 
would cease for a time by the removal of the branches, the roots 
themselves would not die. “ How do you know this ? ” some 
incredulous reader may soliloquise. I know it by having tested 
the matter on Roses grown in pots, and I am not quite sure that 
anyone is competent to refute it who has not made similar 
experiments. 
But the Roses themselves under Mr. Moorman’s care answer 
what may be termed the vitality question. They have always been 
pruned in the manner and condition indicated, and if the process 
were a weakening one the plants ought now to be miserable 
starvelings, and especially as they are growing in light gravelly 
soil and in a very dry position ; yet, on the contrary, they are in 
the most satisfactory condition, the growth being surprisingly 
good. On stronger real Rose-growing soil I have had growths 
6 feet long on plants that for years have been pruned after the 
bushes were a mass of green shoots. This, then, I submit is the 
safe mode to adopt; and whether it or any other method of pruning 
will result in a certain number of blooms being ready on a par¬ 
ticular day for showing depends, I fancy, more on the weather 
during April, May, and June than on any particular time that the 
shoots are shortened. What do others say ?— An Old Hand. 
WEATHER AND WORK. 
Last month will long be remembered for its severity, and 
coming as it did after a mild February and a very mild January, 
we cannot yet estimate fully its effects on vegetation, which was 
more than usually susceptible to its influence. Roses which passed 
two terribly severe winters unscathed, because the cold came 
before they were excited into activity, are this season the subjects 
of considerable anxiety. Many of them appear to be growing 
all right at present, but it is very probable they will show the 
effects of ruptured sap vessels before long. They were in February 
getting quite into vigorous growth, and it was a question whether 
pruning had not better be done then. Nearly two months have 
passed and many are still unpruned. 
Potato-planting was considerably delayed in its commencement, 
but with the dry weather and the extremely good condition of the 
soil we have made up arrears in this department. In accordance 
with our practice of late years no ground was dug before February, 
and as February was an extremely wet month none was dug then. 
With the sunshine and frost in the early part of March all avail¬ 
able strength was put on to digging whenever the ground was not 
too hard for the purpose, and the surface quickly became pulverised 
and in the best possible condition. Loth to lose a chance of 
planting the Potatoes while the weather was dry, as the season 
was getting along fast, I took a leaf out of Mr. Coleman’s book, as 
detailed in this Journal for March 8th, and placed the sets on the 
surface, or rather drills were made about 1^ inch deep, so that 
the Potatoes when laid down had their surface about level with 
the surrounding soil, and then they were earthed up about 3 inches 
deep. It wil be seen I have not followed Mr. Coleman’s plan 
exactly, but I am indebted to him for the idea of placing the 
tubers on the surface, and I have no doubt it will be an advantage 
on our soil, which, like his, is cold and heavy as well as shallow. 
We usually plant Champions 30 by 15 inches, but as the ridges 
will be higher than usual by the time they have received their 
final earthing, and of course more soil will be used for the purpose, 
we have given them a greater breadth between the rows and less 
between the sets. They are now 36 by 12 inches. 
No manure has yet been applied, as in the ordinary way it would 
have been applied at the second digging and planting, but the 
ground is in very good heart, and we shall apply some artificial 
manure at the final earthing-up, which will take place as soon as 
the rows are visible. 
I believe many a cottager’s crop of Potatoes is spoiled by 
earthing up too late. The rows are often not more than 
18 inches apart, the Potatoes are allowed to grow 6 or 7 inches 
high, by which time their roots meet between the rows, and 
earthing up at that time certainly does more harm than good. 
Like “ Single-handed ” (see page 238), we plant late Potatoes 
before the midseason varieties, as will be seen by my report in 
the Journal, and that plan is generally practised about here by 
the cottagers, although I believe it is not common in many 
places. Peas, too, could not be sown in the ordinary way. The 
ground was too wet to dig, and had the Peas been sown they 
would have been quickly devoured by the little black slugs which 
eat out the centres and then curl themselves up in their shells. 
We therefore took out the soil a spade’s width and 3 inches deep, 
making a little bank with it on the east side of the trench, a little 
dissolved bone was scattered over the bottom and covered with an 
inch of fine soil. The Peas were then sown, after being red-leaded, 
and they were covered with 2 inches of burned clay. Although 
they were a long time coming through, owing to the cold weather, 
they did come at last, and they look ext^mely well. A second 
sowing made a month later was done in a similar manner, and 
these are nearly as forward as the first in appearance, but being 
of the best class of Marrows will, of course, be longer in coming in. 
Our Peach trees had many flowers expanded in February. We 
knew it was of no use trying to save such as were open then, 
so the frost was allowed full play, the covering, excepting a coping 
board, being deferred till the end of March. The result is that, 
although most of the early blooms are killed, those which were 
not expanded, and the foliage as well, were retarded, so that there 
is now a fair prospect of a crop from the late blooms. Peach 
blooms while dry are much hardier than many people imagine, 
and many a crop is spoiled by too much covering. Apricots are 
much more tender as well as earlier, and are gone beyond all 
hope.—W m. Taylor. 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1882.—No. 3. 
ROSES. 
A never-ending theme, and yet, I believe, to the readers of the 
Journal a never-wearying one. There are so many aspects of it, so 
many different experiences, so much variety of opinion, that there 
is never to the true rosarian much fear of his getting too luxurious 
a diet—indeed he is pretty nearly in Oliver Twist’s condition, ever 
asking for more; and therefore, however homely and egotistic my 
remarks may seem, I yet feel that I need not apologise to the 
readers of the Journal for placing them before them. 
And I have this one great comfort in so doing, that I do not set 
up to be a Rose-grower par excellence, and, as is well known, am 
not an exhibitor. I do not, therefore, ask anyone to judge of my 
Rose-growing by the exacting requirements of an exhibitor. My 
soil is not naturally a good one for Roses; but as I have always 
maintained that this is quite a secondary point to climate, and as 
in our beautiful county we can put forward no plea of deficiency in 
that respect, I am sure that I could grow my Roses to the perfection 
required by the present high standard of our exhibits. As it is I 
have two objects in view in my Rose-growing : one is to have the 
opportunity of seeing and studying their various habits and whims, 
the other of growing the newer varieties, so that 1 may be able to 
see what is their character; and when they come before me in 
