Does Mulching Hetakd the Maturity of Fruits? 259 



George J. Kellogg, tTanesmlle, Wis., delays the bloom a week, but it is 

 sometimes caught by late frosts. 



I have for years left the mulching ou to keep strawberries back in 

 the spring. Carefully handled, it will keep back the bloom about a 

 week. Last spring we left a heavy mulch of manure on one end of six 

 rows, probably twenty rods long. The plants were so completely covered 

 that we lost three-fourths of the crop where mulched. We thought 

 the plants would push through, but we lost the fruit although the 

 plants lived. The mulch will hold the frost about a week, usually. 

 Sometimes we have found the retarding a detriment. The May frost 

 that does the damage, usually the last week in May (at Janesville, 

 Wis.), is preceded by two weeks of fine weather without frost, so that 

 where the mulch has been removed the fruit may have fully set and 

 passed that point where fruit injures, although nearly all varieties con- 

 tinue in bloom three weeks. 



I have repeatedly tried mulching apple trees after the ground has 

 frozen 12 to 24 inches deep, but it does not retard the buds or bloom 

 more than a day or two — there is sufficient sap in . the tree above 

 ground to supply the buds and blossoms until the retarded sap from 

 the frozen roots is able to aid the circulation. 



GfiOKGK J. Kellogg. 



F. Wl Loadon, Janesville, Wis., finds thatmuleh delays berries a week. 



Our practice here is to mulch strawberries liberally with straw or 

 marsh hay, for winter protection, as in this region we can not rely upon 

 the snow. In the spring, about the time the plants begin to grow, 

 usually the first week in April, we draw the mulch away from over the 

 plants, just enough to admit the light. By this method, our straw- 

 berries are usually a week later than our neighbors' in ripening. I 

 allude to those who take their mulch completely off and haul it away. 

 When they are first in the market, our berries are very much larger 

 and finer. Also we escape the ill effects of the severe drouths that are 



apt to occur during the fruiting season. 



F. W. Loudon, 



-B, F. Adams, Madison, Wis., delays blossoming a week and thereby 

 escapes frosts. 



Mulching strawberries retards blossoming fully one week on an aver- 

 age through a series of years in this climate. My experience covers a 

 period of thirty years in growing this fruit for market. Our danger 

 here comes from late frosts in May, and my practice is to keep this 



