EXPERIMENTS IN MULCHING. 



SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS IN MULCHING. 



BY W. R. COPPOCK, BUFFALO, N. Y. 



Dear Sir — All facts tending to the improvement of practical results in the processes of 

 gardening, are what are sought for by the readers of the Horticulturist, &c. And al- 

 though much creeps into our magazines that is desultory, and of accidental origin, oft- 

 times misleading the anxious inquirer, to the neglect of sound practical and philosophical 

 operations, yet it is to them reference must be had, if we would keep up with the spirit 

 of the age, and reap the advantages that are daily being developed in this subject. 



Heretofore, we have been but copyists — of great schools we admit — but whose chief 

 greatness lay in the adaptation of their genius to the peculiarities of the climate they ori- 

 ginated in. Their processes in the acclimation of plants — the art of propagating, — sys- 

 tems of pruning, and the routine of tree and vegetable culture, has attained the acme of 

 perfection, which we, having reference only to the details, have closely followed; any "in- 

 novation from those standard authorities being looked upon as doubtful, if not altogether 

 futile in purpose. 



That the spirit of horticulture has received an impetus with its kindred sciences, needs 

 no demonstration here. The nation is alive to the subject, and throughout our land the 

 features of embellished nature are beginning to attract the eye of the traveler, and delight 

 the lover of rural refinement. 



The peculiarities of climate, superinduce specific methods, whether in reference to 

 animate or inanimate things. Thus we find animals of a colder or higher country, cannot 

 be safely treated in their accustomed method, when transferred to a hotter country, or to 

 lower grounds. 



The same facts apply to plants under similar removal. Even on the same isothermal 

 line do we find promiment deviations. The quality of constitution is inherent in all or- 

 ganised beings; and in no wise is that feature of life less marked in the vegetable than in 

 the animal kingdom. Hence the treatment of hybrid and cross-bred varieties of plants, 

 cannot be successfully attained in these varied localities, without modified adaptedness to 

 constitution and habit. Herein, then, lies the great study of horticulture. The analyti- 

 cal structure of soils for specific purposes — the altitude, aspect and position, for one class 

 — dryness or moisture for another — the nature and effect of special manures, in ameliorat- 

 ing wbat are termed worn out soils — the peculiar efiects of climate and hybridization 

 upon vitality and longevity' — specific analysis of the various trees composing che circle of 

 hardy fruit culture— and last, though not least, a strict inquiry into the habits of all those 

 insects depredatory upon fruits and trees. 



My design in this paper is not to inflict upon you an elaborate essay upon these subjects, 

 but to simply make known the results of some few practical results on the subject of viulch- 

 ing trees — a practice which I believe will be found indispensably necessary to the success- 

 ful growth of many plants, and especially those of large fleshed varieties; such plants are 

 usually loose in their tissues, making growth rapidly during the rainy season. This sea- 

 son of luxuriant growth, followed by our hot and dry summers, subject fruit culture to se- 

 rious ills, such as scalding, or spongy and blighted wood, as in the apple and pear, and to 

 drying and then bursting of the bark, as in the cherry, plum, and peach, causing the ex- 

 udation of gums, and its attendant diseases. Such trees, and especially those recently 

 transplanted, are highly benefitted by checking the too rapid transpiration through the 

 bark, by a loose bandage of straw or hay ropes. The latter can be readily made in any 



