THE IMPORTANCE OF MULCHING. 



if you have had no experience in the matter, dilute and use some on a single plant before 

 you undertake your whole border. After half a day you can tell how it works, and act 

 accordingly. What j'ou want is just strength enough to kill the insect, and not enough to 

 injure the young leaves. Yours, An Old Digger. 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MULCHING. 



BY A PRACTICAL MULCHER, DEDHAM, MASS. 



Though the subject we have placed at the head of this communication, has received some 

 attention from scientific cultivators in certain parts of the country, and allusions to its 

 use and importance have been made in " the Horticulturist," whose different volumes 

 form our best standard book of reference, yet it must be confessed that a thorough treatise 

 upon the subject is a very great desideratum, especially in this land of clear skies, arid 

 atmosphere, burning suns, and summer drouths. 



There are certain departments of horticulture, and certain processes and operations of 

 the gardener's noble and beautiful art, that either have been overlooked and neglected in 

 this country, or that have not yet had their time and opportunity for development. One 

 is the "Hybernation of Plants;" another "the Proper Feeding of Trees;" another 

 " the Value, Beauty and Cultivation of Evergreens;" and last but not least, " the Benefit 

 of Mulching," to trees, plants, seeds, &c. In some future communication, Mr. Editor, I 

 purpose to give you the results of my observation, experience and reflection upon the former 

 themes, should you allow me, while I confine my remarks, for the present, to the sub- 

 ject of " mulching." In England and on the continent of Europe, this matter is receiving 

 something of the attention it deserves, and yet, if the process has its value on the sea-girt 

 isle of mists and fogs, where old Sol himself shines hardly brighter than our harvest 

 moon, of what vastly greater importance must it be in this climate, where annual and long 

 continued drouths seem a part of the order of nature, and where the h3'grometer indi- 

 cates a greater deficiency of moisture than is known in any European atmosphere. Indeed, 

 I regard mulching as our jjrime and especial necessity, — the must indispensible thing in 

 North American Horticulture. For in the first place, the operation of mulching, — or 

 covering over the surface of the ground — prevents the evaporation of the moisture that is 

 so requisite to the rooting of new plantations, to the development of luxuriant foliage, and 

 the production of perfect flowers, and fair, juicy large sized fruits. Again: the operation 

 of mulching not only prevents, to a great extent, the escape of moisture, but also, and 

 what is of greater importance, the passing away from the earth of the volatile gases that 

 are held in solution in the water, and which, sucked in by the minute mouths of the radi- 

 cles or spongioles, give nourishment to the plant or tree. 



That mulching is of great value in the case of young and newly planted trees, by pre- 

 venting the process of evaporation, is universally admitted in theory, and to a certain ex- 

 tent carried out into practice; and yet, but few seem to be aware of its value in retainmg 

 the nourishment as well as the moisture in the earth, and thus, by both these means, 

 contributing to the luxuriant and hcathful condition o^ plants and trees already rooted, 

 and well established in the soil. But observation, however, as well as actual experience, 

 has fully convinced me, that trees will not only put forth more luxuriantly, and grow 

 more vigorously, but that the fruit will be far larger, Jairer, and juicer, for mulch 

 during the hot season. And I hazard the observation, that in the culture of pears 



