Mulching ' 117 



grow again in the spring, becoming weeds. This method 

 is not advisable, except in the North, and then only with 

 hill or hedge-row plants set on strong land and well tilled 

 through the early part of the season, so that the crowns 

 are strong. Even under these conditions it is risky ; if the 

 fall is dry, the plants may be seriously injured. 



Crab-grass mulch in the South. 



The counterpart of the foregoing method in the South 

 is the weed or crab-grass mulch. In Delaware, eastern 

 Maryland, eastern Virginia, and southward, and in 

 southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and southward, a 

 weed mulch is used frequently. The South is abundantly 

 supplied with a weed that is peculiarly fitted for this 

 service. If tillage is stopped in midsummer, the straw- 

 berry field quickly becomes a mat of crab-grass. This 

 is allowed to grow at will; big weeds are chopped out 

 by hand. Crab-grass is shallow-rooted; if the season 

 has normal rainfall, it will not interfere materially with 

 the growth of the strawberry plants. The first heavy 

 frost kills it, leaving a thin covering of herbage upon the 

 ground. Usually, this is enough to protect the plants 

 from winter injury and heaving, which are not serious in 

 the South, and to protect the berries from sand, but it 

 is not heavy enough to be of much value for conserving 

 soil moisture in the spring. It helps to crowd out chick- 

 weed and other winter weeds. Fields handled in this 

 way ripen berries several days earlier than fields that are 

 unmulched, or are mulched with straw ; hence the method 

 is valued in those parts of the South where early ripening 

 is of prime importance. In the Norfolk district the 

 growth of crab-grass is often so heavy that it is mowed 

 in the fall and part of it raked off for hay, but this 



