STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 209 



mometer about four years ago, and gave an account of these experi- 

 ments in Mr. Harris's Rural Annual, at Eochester. I found the soil 

 was 115®; and the soil under a closely-mown grass lawn, not, per- 

 haps, a dozen yards from it, was not much more than 85® or 90®. 

 There was a very great difference between the two, and every circum- 

 stance of exposure to the sun was precisely the same^ and the soil 

 under grass was colder and moister by a considerable degree than 

 that with the loose surface. It appears to me there is no getting 

 over these figures. You may imagine the soil is moister, but you 

 will find that it is not really so. We think this loosening of the 

 surface is favorable to moisture instead of a hard baked surface. 

 Letting the grass be long I admit that it bakes the surface hard, but 

 when you keep the grass mown short the state of affairs becomes 

 different. If you take an Osage orange hedge and let it run up 

 twenty-five or thirty feet high — then you will find that the roots 

 are only about as far away as the branches grow. Keep your grass 

 down, and you will find that the soil is looser and cooler than in the 

 other way. 



Mr. Earle — Have you seen tested what effect clover has compared 

 with common grass ? We^ in Southern Illinois, are trying red clover. 



Mr. Meehan — I should think that a crop of clover would do as 

 much harm as by leaving the soil entirely exposed. I should think 

 that the soil would be made particularly dry by the roots of the 

 clover. 



Mr. Earle — It leaves a very perfect mulch, does it not ? 



Mr. Meehan — It is simply returning to Paul what has been taken 

 from Peter. 



Mr. Earle — Would there be any compensation to the soil by the 

 decay of the clover roots ? 



Mr. Meehan — It seems to me that you would do better by covering 

 it with mulch, and jou would do more good by applying a top dress- 

 ing than by relying on the destruction of the roots. 



Mr. Bliss — If I understand it, the moisture is drawn from the 

 atmosphere. The atmosphere is kept moving very slow, and in sum- 

 is 



