DECEMBER. 
363 
only two or three inches thick, will keep out more frost than twice 
that thickness of litter; the reason is, that the hollow stems of 
fresh ^raw are uninjured, and are so many tubes of air, acting as 
non-conductors, which tubes or cells are partly destroyed when 
the straw has been used for bedding down cattle. As a protective 
material straw should always be used fresh from stack. 
RELATING TO ROSES.—No. 2. 
First. Dressing up. 
I am afraid that I go to the other extreme, and put moss roses 
into the box as zig-zag and awkward as I can do, trusting to the 
roses to speak for themselves. Extremes, it is said, are bad; any¬ 
thing, however, is better than an attempt to make roses look good 
that are really not good, nor worthy of a place in a rosery. It 
deceives the public, who are not versed in roses, and whose in¬ 
struction is one of the principal objects of a Rose Exhibition. 
My impression has often been, when at exhibitions, that Rosarians 
keep a valet and lady’s-maid, well stored with “ wimples and 
crisping pins.” Moss, though it is the best thing to convey roses 
upon, is nevertheless objectionable, as it enables persons to set off 
a worthless rose, and to support a rose that is in a state of flac- 
cidity, and which, being out of condition, should not be shown. 
Roses that are good need not the aids and supports of foreign 
substances, and you may truly say of them, as of beauty, that 
“ when unadorned they are adorned the most.” If roses were to 
be taken out of the boxes and their mode of location examined, 
how often would the examiner find a “moss prop,” or a hole 
scooped to support “a falling cause.” If roses were allowed to 
rest on nothing that supports the bloom, how few of the roses that 
now figure at our exhibitions would dare to show their faces. 
There, is one other objection to moss, viz., the inequality of its 
quality in different localities. Here it is little better than a brown 
door mat. Tree moss, which is scarce, is the best; and if we are 
compelled to show on moss, I must say that I envy those who can 
get good green moss. Tree moss is of mosses the best for prop¬ 
ping, and when I see it look “wavy” or uneven, I always suspect 
the roses. My plan is to damp the moss, and press it flat with 
my hand, and if a rose placed on it does not look well, I replace 
it with another, but I never “ prop.” I saw the following plan 
adopted at a country show a few years back. The roses, six in 
number, were placed in two tiers, on a white painted stand, in 
white glass bottles filled with water. I never saw roses look 
better ; I could see the stems through the water. The roses were 
as perfect as I ever saw show roses; they were. General Jacque¬ 
minot (quite full and cupped), Caroline de Sansal, Jules Margottin, 
Lamarque, Comte de Nanteuil, and Malmaison. They justly won 
the first prize in that class, and were the production of my friend 
Charles Ingram, Esq., an amateur general gardener of no ordinary 
merit. This mode of exhibition could not be practised on a large 
