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vigour of growing trees. In fact, such a mulching of the whole ground as nature pro- 

 vides in the forest by the annual fall of the leaves, may be said to be unknown in arti- 

 ficial culture, so rarely is it practiced, yet its immediate effect in promoting new and 

 vigorous growth is such as would seem almost incredible to one who had not witnessed 

 it, and affords one of the most beautiful illustrations of nature's methods of securing the 

 most important results by such simple and incidental means that they escape our notice, 

 though going on right under our eyes from year to year. 



Of course the richest food for plant consumption is in the soil near the surface, but 

 if that soil is subjected to alternations of temperature and moisture, sometimes baked in 

 clods, and at others reduced to the consistency of mire, no roots can survive the changes. 

 In the forest, as I have elsewhere said, these changes are prevented by the shade of the 

 foliage and the mulching of fallen leaves. The rich mould of the surface soil maintains 

 an even temperature, is always moist, and is everywhere permeated with fibrous roots 

 drawing nourishment from' the rich sources which surround them, and this process may 

 be artificially imitated, and the same results attained, by mulching, if properly done. It 

 does not suffice to pile a few inches of straw or manure around each tree for a short dis- 

 tance from the trunk. If the tree stands singly, at a distance from others, the mulching 

 should extend on every side beyond the spread of its branches ; and in the case of an 

 orchard, or young wood, the surface of the whole area it occupies should be covered with 

 leaves, straw, shavings, chip -dirt, tan-bark, or whatever material is most available, to a 

 depth of several inches. I first learned the value of the process when a young man, on a 

 coffee plantation in Cuba, where a portion of the hands were constantly employed in col- 

 lecting refuse vegetable matter of all kinds, and spreading over the whole ground between 

 the rows of the coffee bushes, to such a depth as served to keep the surface cool and of 

 even temperature, and also to prevent the growth of grass and weeds, and thus supersede 

 the necessity of ploughing between the rows. 



Afterwards, when engaged in fruit culture in New Jersey, I practiced it in my vine- 

 yard and orchards with most satisfactory results, of which an account was published more 

 than thirty years ago, in the Horticulturist, then edited by A. J. Downing.* 



The trees and vines responded at once to my efforts in their behalf by such increased 

 luxuriance of growth that it was easy to distinguish the portions that had been mulched 

 as far as they could be seen, and, on digging into the surface soil under the mulching at 

 any point, I found it filled with fibrous roots precisely as is the case in the leaf mould in 

 the woods. No fruit-grower who has once tried this experiment will ever after forego 

 the advantages it offers, and I have spoken of it thus at length from the obviously vital 

 importance of its bearing on forest culture. A moment's reflection will show that in the 

 opening and thinning of native wood which had grown thickly together, a heavy mulching 

 of such portions of the ground as may unavoidably become exposed, may be of most es- 

 sential service in preserving the health and vigour of the trees that are to be retained. 



It is difficult to lay down specific rules by which a novice could be guided in the 

 work of opening and thinning out the wood of a native forest, except by fully impress- 

 ing him with the importance of preserving, so far as is possible, the conditions which 

 nature shows to be the most favourable to vigorous growth, and proceeding very cautiously 

 when it becomes necessary to change the relative proportions of the influences which 

 affect the vitality of the trees. The age and condition of the wood at the time the work 

 is begun, are, of course, important elements for consideration. If the growth is not more 

 than ten or fifteen years, and the trees have not sprung up so thickly as already to have 

 become a mere thicket of hoop-poles, but have preserved a reasonable degree of symmetry, 

 its management can be much more easily controlled than if it has attained a more mature 

 age, and especially if the object is to create an ornamental grove composed of fine speci- 

 mens of individual trees, a process by which the value of desirable residence sites in the 

 vicinity of cities or large towns might often be very greatly increased. 



Whether this be the object, or the development of timber, the first thing to be done 

 is to select and place a distinguishing mark upon every tree which is ultimately to be re- 

 tained. Then remove at first from its immediate vicinity only those which are actually 



* Horticulturist, Vol. 3, p. 113. 



