PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 17 



Mr. Rork : She can let them bear if she wishes to, but I desire to pre- 

 vent her setting them at that time. 



Mrs. Perlvins: Is it best to keep the plants back in spring, to avoid 

 frost, by mulching or otherwise? 



Mr. Rork: We never have tried that much; but what little we have 

 seen, it appears to be a pretty difficult thing to keep anything back in the 

 spring and make much of it afterward. You may keep the roots frozen, 

 but the top of the tree will come out if the atmosphere is right. You may 

 mulch them so deeply that nothing will get to them, and then you smother 

 them so that they will not amount to anything; and if you keep it up 

 you will only get a few feeble berries. I never have succeeded at it, 

 and I am very skeptical about mulching. 



Mr. Gebhart: I tried it two years ago on a nice patch, and mulched 

 heavily with manure. Four rods of this patch I kept covered with 

 mulch as long as I dared. I saw they were becoming white. I began to 

 uncover them and let them have a little sunlight. Finallv I uncovered 

 them entirely. They grew very rapidly after they got the light, and 

 blossomed and fruited about the same time as those which had not been 

 covered, in the same i)atch. It did not seem to make any difference what- 

 ever. 



Mr. Morrill: Did you ever suffer any loss by frost, where mulching- 

 was practiced? 



Mr. Gebhart: I suffered a loss on those three acres, all over. It was 

 mulched all over, except a little patch, and that came out better. They 

 were tougher, and I picked from them the bulk of my crop; they seemed 

 to be stronger and hardier, and produced quite a nice crop. 



Q. That was on higher ground? A. Probably three feet elevation. 



Mrs. Perkins: ^Vhen plants are set three feet apart, in mulching how 

 do you do, Mr. Morrill? 



Mr. Morrill: I have had some disastrous experiences. I have read 

 a good deal (more than I ought to, 1 think, sometimes), and I have done 

 a good deal of w^ork where I would better have saved my money and 

 material; and one of the things which has proven the most complete 

 loss, is the attempt to winter-mulch strawberries. I have made the great- 

 est failure in strawberries, where I have practiced it. Perhaps my condi- 

 tions are diflereut. The next greatest failure is to attempt spring culture 

 the bearing year. I came to the conclusion, after a few trials, that there 

 was a good reason for it that I should have understood sooner. We are 

 likely to get spring frosts after the bloom is started. If the soil is uncov- 

 ered, it will absorb heat from the sun and air. That heat is given off 

 during the night by radiation and often protects an open piece of land 

 that has not been stirred, giving off a little heat, sufficient to save a crop. 

 Where mulched, if there is any warmth in the soil the radiation is broken, 

 and frosts strike through quicker. On my own place, a piece that was 

 mulched was killed, while a patch within six feet, where not mulched, 

 came through all right. Another peculiar experience I had, and I don't 

 believe anyone can tell me anything about it, was mulching with clover 

 chaff. I once mulched a large field with straw. I didn't have quite straw 

 enough, but happened to have a lot of clover hullings. It struck me 

 that they would be an excellent mulch, and I put them on. There was one 

 3 



