CORNELL 



R^ural School Leaflet 



SUPPLEMENT FOR THE TEACHER 



Published monthly by the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, from 

 September to Mav and entered as second-class matter September 30, 1907, at the Post Office at 

 Ithaca, New York, under the Act of Congress, of July 16, 1894. L. H. Bailey, Director 



ALICE G. McCLOSKEY, Editor 



Professors G. F. WARREN and CHARLES H. TUCK, Advisers 



Vol. 



ITHACA. N. Y.. MAY 1908. 



No. 9. 



MORE ABOUT GARDENS 



I. THE GARDEN MULCH 



By C. E. Hunn 



On many school gardens as well as on many home gardens, the lack of 



a good supplv of water often results in a partial failure of the crop or 



means hard work in carr}'- 



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1 



Fig. 80— J hmnmg the plants 



ing water. This lack of 

 water may be overcome by 

 the use of some kind of 

 mulch. The mulch serves 

 several purposes : conserving 

 moisture in the soil by 

 preventing evaporation; 

 keeping the surface of the 

 soil loose; protecting the 

 plant roots from injury b\- 

 frost; and to a certain 

 extent with some materials 

 adding plant food to the 

 .soil. The first two con- 

 siderations arc pcrhajjs the 

 most important in the school 

 garden, and even where water 

 mav be used in quantity, it 

 is often better to mulch the 

 ground around the plants 

 than to use water freely. 



On hea\'\' soils constant 

 watering will cause the soil 

 to become sodden and sour, 

 w^hen by using two or three 

 inches of mulch the soil will 



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