, Appendix. 159 



mulched trees, not cultivated, grow into a different shape from those 

 that are thoroughly tilled. They head closer to the ground and make 

 a spreading shape, more like a bush than a tree, which in our country 

 is desirable on account of the scale and the high winds which sway the 

 trees. Last year I felt prepared to say that while the mulch will give 

 good results with apple, it is not so useful for peach. This year, how- 

 ever, the results with me have been excellent, fully equal to those of 

 apple. I have not obtained equally good results with pear on my soil. 

 My observation is that when the young trees are well mulched the 

 peach borer seems to lay its eggs higher up on the trees, where the in- 

 sects are easily found. On the other hand, the apple borer seems to be 

 worse under a thick mulch, and mice also nest in or under it. Where 

 the trees are wrapped at the beginning with wire cloth there is little 

 danger from these pests. A number of failures in mulching have been 

 reported, and in most cases I found on investigation that a mere hand- 

 ful of grass or weeds had been put around the tree, not enough, under 

 any circumstances, to keep the soil cool and moist. It requires nearly 

 the equivalent of a small hay cock to do the job properly. Whenever we 

 have been able to keep a thick layer of mulch around the young trees 

 the growth has been fully equal to that of ti-ees thoroughly cultivated, 

 and in some cases superior; in fact I think there can be no question 

 about this, the great trouble being to find the needed mulch material. 



THE ROOT SYSTEM. 



It has long been said that when a tree is mulched the feeding roots 

 all form at the surface and even work up into the mulch itself. From 

 this it was argued that if for any reason the mulch is removed, if fire 

 runs through the orchard, or if the soil is plowed, the orchard would 

 be ruined, as these surface-feeding roots will be destroyed. I have 

 never believed this, although unable to prove it, but the Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station seems to have showm the falsity of the argument. At 

 that station blocks of soil a foot deep were taken from under both 

 mulched and cultivated trees, and the roots were washed out and care- 

 fully examined to see where they went to. It was found that the net- 

 work of rootlets, which we find close up under the mulch is not, by any 

 means, the whole story, but only the upper story. Below the mulch the 

 roots were as numerous and as deep as they were in the cultivated soil. 

 In other words, the mulched trees had a more extensive root system than 

 those that were cultivated. You might take the mulch away or plow 

 the ground, and still have nearly as good a set of roots as in the culti- 

 vated tree. I think that anyone who will fork away a thick pile of 

 grass or weeds from around the base of a tree will easily se3 why and 

 how the Ohio station is right. You will find underneath that mulch the 

 soil is moist and cool, just exactly as it is under a door or wide plank 

 that lies on the ground. Countless earthworms and other insects are 

 found at work under the mulch, which had killed out all vegetation as 

 thoroughly as cultivation does. There are very few cultivators who 



