330 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



favor of mulching the raspberry and the blackberry. Two years 

 ago I mulched a half acre with straw and cultivated another piece 

 three times a week for two months. I do not think I missed once 

 except we had a heavy shower of rain. It was very dry- two or three 

 years ago in July and August. I found that the blackberry field 

 that was mulched with straw gave me very much better returns than 

 the other field that was cultivated. When I dug into the soil below 

 the surface of the cultivated ground I found it dry, and in stirring 

 the soil great lumps would come up, but under the straw when I dug 

 in with a fork I found the soil mellow and loose, and it seemed to me 

 the straw kept the soil in better shape than did the dust mulch, and 

 if I had to make a choice between cultivation and mulching I would 

 mulch my berries every time. 



Prof. Robertson : I want to make one assertion that may be 

 disputed, but I hold it is true. Everybody said that the proper time 

 to mulch was in the winter, and I say the proper time is about the 

 last of June. Put on your mulch right after it rains and then you 

 will get the greatest benefit. 



Mr. \\'yman Elliot : What would you do in a season like that 

 of 1900 when we had no rain for eight months? 



Prof. Robertson: That is just when you will retain the mois- 

 ture that is then in the soil. Now, if we had gone to those old 

 straw piles and taken the straw that was allowed to go to waste 

 and put it on the ground after we had done some of our cultivating, 

 then we would have found that it kept the moisture there during the 

 summer. When you do not get the rain after plowing then it is 

 making its greatest draft on the soil. So I think if the ground had 

 been mulched with straw you would have found throughout all this 

 summer the same conditions existing as described by the gentleman 

 who just spoke, that under that dry straw where no rain had come 

 you would have found a nice moist soil. W^here you attempt 

 to keep your dust blanket you must go around every day to keep it 

 in nice shape, while this straw will serve as a blanket to conserve 

 the moisture for two or three months during the summer. 



]\Ir. R. H. L. Jewett : I was requested to add a word or two to 

 the last paper that was read, and we have fully discussed the next 

 paper under this one. In the cultivation of our grounds we have 

 used the dust mulch almost exclusively. I was led to look into this 

 question somewhat upon observing the effects upon a grove of trees 

 we had that were naturally mulched with leaves and weeds. I 

 thing that many of our trees, large and small, show the effects of 

 the drouth, and I found upon investigation that nature had pro- 

 vided this mulch and the roots came close to the surface. \\'e no- 

 ticed the effect upon the forest trees, and the trees we planted in the 

 orchard we set pretty deep. We planted them about twenty-four 

 inches deep and tried to get a good growth of roots as far below the 

 surface as we could and then kept on a dust blanket. If we kept 

 a straw mulch on we would produce the conditions found in the 

 grove, and that same mistake continued for a year or two would 

 leave the roots of our trees exposed to the sun. We are trA'ing an 

 experiment. W^e have one row of trees covered with straw six feet 



