WINTER MEETINa. 269 



My intention is to experiment on this line as long as able, and if 

 any success attends the efforts, the public shall be told of it. 



The long trip and the fatigue attending it, will most likely prevent 

 my being present at the Neosho meeting, but you all have my best 

 "Wishes for a good, pleasant and useful meeting. 



Samuel Miller. 



Importance of Mulching. 



Mulching forms a very important part in horticulture. It is next 

 to impossible to grow good and clean strawberries without it, and by 

 using straw for the mulch, this queen of berries receives its name 

 ■^'strawberry." 



Mulching does not only keep the berries from being spattered with 

 dirt, but it keeps the soil moist and cool — two very essential points in 

 strawberry culture. 



For currants, mulching is much better suited than cultivation, on 

 account of their roots being shallow and coarse. Manure is the best 

 material used for this fruit, as it gives the plant great thriftiness, at 

 the same time keeping the soil moist and cool, which the currant craves 

 so much. All that can be said in favor of mulching currants may be 

 applied to gooseberries, though the American varieties can be grown 

 by cultivation alone. 



When it comes to raspberries and blackberries, the mulching of 

 the row and cultivating the middle is about the most profitable, and 

 the cheapest; but nature always depends on mulching alone, and is 

 generally very successful. 



In all kinds of orcharding mulching is very beneficial, especially 

 in plum culture; much of this fruit is gathered from the ground as it 

 falls, and if gathered from the mulched ground it is scarcely ever 

 bruised by the fall, and is nice and clean. 



For apple culture I am more than ever convinced that a well- 

 mulched orchard, "though this may be done by cutting the clover, 

 grass or weeds," and leaving then on the ground for a mulch and to 

 form a mould, will hold its fruit b&tter during August and September, 

 than one that i3 cultivated. I am not prepared to explain why this is 

 so, but it may be because the mulched orchard has all its feeding roots 

 left entire, whereas the cultivated one loses many by being cut in cul- 

 tivation. With sufficient mulching steep hillsides can be successfully 

 managed in fruits, including grapes, that would ruin the ground by 



heavy washings. 



G. F. EsPENLAUB, Rosedale, Kansas. 



