APRIL. 
67 
older kinds. I should state that those marked with an asterisk are sometimes 
used for the table, though more properly adapted for the kitchen. 
In providing for a supply of the newer sorts for the future, I do not find it 
advisable to cut down all the old trees in one year, thus destroying the present 
supply; but by introducing fresh kinds gradually the crop is not materially 
diminished. 
Apples, I may observe, were very abundant in the south; and I think they 
coloured better than they have done for some years. They ripened very quickly, 
and I think this induced some of us to gather them too soon, for they have not 
kept so well generally as in former years when they have hung longer. 
Crcibivood , near Southampton. J. C. Higgs. 
ROSES—THE MANETTI STOCK. 
I am never desirous of obtruding my observations on Roses, or on any other 
commodity ; but, as I am in a great measure responsible for the Manetti stock, 
or rather for Roses on it, I will ask leave to stand up once more in its defence. 
I may say, I believe with truth, that there is no private individual in England 
who has had such long and extensive experience of Roses on the Manetti as I 
have had. The more I know of it, the more I like it. Nurserymen propagate 
Roses on this stock, and sell out annually; and they cannot propagate it suffi¬ 
ciently to meet the yearly increasing demand for Roses on this stock. Few of 
them, I believe, have any “ continued experience” of Roses on this stock; but 
I can speak of it from continued experience as an admirable stock, whether you 
view it per se, or as an easy and certain introduction of Roses on their own 
roots. I have given away this year between seven and eight hundred Roses, 
chiefly on the Manetti stock, most of which have been here in my home, dry, 
chalky soil for eight or ten years—some for a longer period. I bought some 
of these of Mr. Davis, of Newbury, and of Mr. Gill, of Blandford, many 
years ago. They went through the terrible winter of 1860 unscathed. The 
Briar Hybrid Perpetuals, almost to a totality, died out, or died afterwards. Of 
the summer Briar Roses, I lost hardly any. 
As “ A. D.,” in the last Number of the Florist and Pomologist, solicits 
information, I beg to subscribe this. I have read his article attentively. I 
cannot conceal from myself that he has wrongly treated Roses on this stock. 
Fie has given the reasons of his failure. I must observe that the last summer 
was quite an exceptional one; the earth was as hot as a fryingpan—in fact, 
without abundance of water, nothing could live. That Avas supplied here ; and 
I never had a more prolonged and glorious Rose season—from the 14th of May 
to the frosts of winter, six months. I ask, in passing, what other flower will 
do that ? 
“A. D.” speaks of his land being a yellow loam, 2 feet deep. I suppose it 
is either clay or sandy loam; in either case, he had no business to fail with 
Manetti Roses, or Briar Roses. I have no such soil. My home garden, with a 
west aspect, is chalky, shallow, dry, and resting on a dense chalk, that reaches 
probably to New Zealand. My north-east garden, on the other side of the 
valley—where I have about 1200 Roses, chiefly on Manetti, some of which 
have been transferred from my home garden, and some of Avliich have been 
there from all ages up to ten years—is rich, friable, blackish soil, but shallow, and 
resting on a gravel substratum, so hard that you could not move it without a 
pickaxe. Indeed, as Manetti Roses require to be covered over the point of 
union, and as the soil is so shallow, I am obliged to put a covering of black 
dung over the gravel, then a little earth, and then the radius of the Manetti 
