ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 33S 



The purposes for which mulch is used are varied in character aud 

 five in number. The best mulch is the one that will come the nearest 

 to filling- perfectly all of the requirements or purposes for which mulch 

 is used. It should afford protection from the rigors of winter and the 

 freezings and thawings of spring. It should keep down the weeds; 

 should protect the fruit from the soil ; should retain the moisture in 

 the soil, and it should furnish nourishment to the growing plants. 



AVhat I shall write will be written with special reference to the 

 use of mulching for strawberries. I have had but little experience in 

 its use for any other purpose. 



The best mulch ever used upon my place was obtained from the 

 livery stables in town. It was a coarse, trashy manure. It was made 

 by giving the horses an abundance of bedding, and, of course, cleaning 

 out and renewing the bedding daily. Anyone having a horse to care 

 for can make enough of such material during the fall and winter to 

 mulch quite a large patch of ground, using old straw or hay or leaves, 

 or all for bedding. I like a great many leaves mixed in. I regard this 

 material as the best mulch because it is light ; because the straw or 

 hay used is usually broken up short and hence it can be spread easily, 

 rapidly and evenly ; because it is one of the best materials that can be 

 used for preventing the evaporation of moisture from the soil and is 

 unexcelled for preventing the growth of weeds, provided it is free 

 from seeds, as it should always be, and last though most important of 

 all, because it contains a large amount of fertilizing material which is 

 washed out by the rains aud snows and absorbed by the top soil where 

 it helps very materially to increase the size of the berries and in carry- 

 ing the crop through, good sized to the last picking. The cost of this 

 material depends entirely upon circumstances. The Carthage livery- 

 mien charge about twenty cents per two horse load for it, but it can 

 oftan be obtained for the hauling, and in some towns no charge is ever 

 made. When one makes it himself it costs practically nothing at all 

 except a little labor. 



Some fruit growers buy up old straw stacks during the summer 

 and haul them to the cattle yard where they are spread out and left 

 until needed. The straw is soon broken up fine and well mixed and 

 saturated with the voidings of the cattle. This doubtless makes a 

 very superior mulch and is well worthy of trial by anyone who is sa 

 fortunate as to possess both a strawberry patch and a herd of cattle. 



Prairie hay makes a good mulch. In this county large quantities- 

 are cut and stacked in the field. There is always more or less of it 

 gets damaged by rains, etc., and is left upon the ground. This can us- 



