60 
PRUNING. 
pose. Wherever a sucker comes up through the ground, use a fork and 
take up as much root as you think suck a plant ought to have; the 
operation must be performed quickly, and with a very sharp knife, 
for the root must not dry under the operation, and they must be 
planted directly. The graft need not be put in wedge fashion; any 
other way is as good, if the join be smooth, well fitted, and tied firmly. 
But we do not recommend grafting of any kind as the best means of 
propagation. Nothing is so simple as budding, and scarcely anything 
so efficacious. The propagators of roses by root grafting are very apt 
to grow the suckers in pots for a considerable time, so that they get 
completely established after being broken away fro'm the parent root, 
before they are submitted to the operation of grafting, and this 
becomes then almost a matter of certainty; whereas we have known 
the roots of suckers bleed so much, that they have lost the root, 
and have been indebted to the graft striking root for not losing it 
altogether. 
PRUNING. 
The principal objects to be attained by pruning roses are—first, to 
compensate, by reducing the part to be nourished, for the loss of the 
root that has to nourish it, which loss, greater or lesser, is always 
suffered by removal. The proper way to do this pruning depends 
much on the state of the plant when you have planted it. If it be 
very bushy, cut away’ all the weather branches, leave not more 
than three or four of the best of the shoots, and shorten even those 
down to a few eyes. If you wish the plant to continue dwarf and 
bushy, you may cut down to the last eye or- two of the new wood, 
but leave no thin half-grown shoots on at any rate. If the plant is a 
matured bush, with numerous branches, and pretty strong generally, 
shorten the new wood down to two eyes, which will show what more 
you need do. It may be found that you have then a great many 
more branches left on than you require; cut one half of them close 
off, and that half must be the thinnest; but it may be that the plant 
Will be improved by cutting some of the main branches clear away, 
