334 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ually be bought cheap or obtained for nothing, the owners of the land 

 being glad to have it removed in order to keep it from killing out the 

 grass where it lies. I have used considerable of this material and like 

 it very much especially if it is short and partly rotted. 



Wheat straw, when used alone for mulching, is of about the same 

 value as prairie hay. It is cheap and is to be had everywhere. When 

 bright and good it is too valuable to be used as mulch, but when it be- 

 comes damaged so as to be of little or no value for other purposes, be- 

 coming dark-colored, half-rotten and easily crumblad, it is still very 

 valuable for mulch, much better, in fact, than the good bright straw. 

 I think I ruined one patch of strawberries by mulching them in the 

 spring with bright straw 



The costliest mulch ever tried on my place, and the poorest, was 

 obtained by sowing oats thickly over the patch. I had seen this 

 recommended ver3' highly by an old fruit grower of the east — one who 

 had had much and long experience in the business. Having my mulch 

 to buy, and being naturally inclined to try experiments, I concluded to 

 try sowing one bushel. This was done at the time recommended — 

 during the first week in September. This soon came up nicely and 

 grew off luxuriantly until they were checked by the cold weather, when 

 they fell down, forming a fine winter protection. I thought j had 

 struck a bonanza, but when spring came, lo! they were still alive in- 

 stead of being killed by the winter as I had expected them to be. And 

 they were not only alive but they grew up so thick afid tall that I was 

 compelled to pull them by hand in order to save the berries. It may 

 be claimed that they were " winter" oats, and that if "summer" had 

 been sown instead the result would have been different. I grant that 

 in some respects it might have been so, but think that at the best it 

 can only be a " costly experiment." The plants were so shaded, 

 crowded and robbed of their food during the fall that they were very 

 inferior in size to those growing right alongside of them treated alike 

 in all respects until the sowing of the oats. The berries were greatly 

 reduced in numbers and still more reduced in size. I don't want any 

 more " oats for mulch." I am perfectly willing to leave that luxury to 

 those who admire it. If I wanted to try and induce a man to ruin his 

 berry-patch I would recommend to him that he try sowing " oats for a 

 mulch," otherwise I should recommend that he grow his oats and 

 strawberries upon separate pieces of land. 



