MULCHING. 209 



growing ; for example, we find, if we have a warm spell 

 in fall when, for a week or so, the temperature has been 

 at sixty-five or sevent}^ degrees at night with ten to fifteen 

 degrees more in the open air, that a slight frost will kill 

 or greatly injure such half-hardy plants as Carnations, 

 Geraniums, or monthly Roses ; but should the weather 

 be such as to gradually get colder, so that the tempera- 

 ture has been lowered twenty to twenty-five degrees, a 

 slight frost then coming w^U do little or no injury to 

 such plants. When the frost is penetrating into a green- 

 house or room in which plants are kept, and the heating 

 arrangements are inadequate to keep it out, the best 

 thing to do is to cover the plants with paper (newspapers) 

 or sheeting. Thus protected, most plants will be en- 

 abled to resist four or five degrees of frost. Paper is 

 rather better than sheeting for this purpose. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



MULCHING. 



Litter of any kind placed around newly-planted trees 

 to prevent evaporation from the soil was the original 

 meaning of mulch; but it is at present extended to in- 

 clude a covering of the soil applied at any time, and for 

 very different purposes. Good cultivators apply hay, 

 straw, or other litter to the surface of the soil to protect 

 the roots of certain plants against the action of frost, it 

 being useful, not so much against freezing as to prevent 

 the alternate freezing and thawing that is apt to occur 

 in our variable and uncertain climate, even in mid- win- 

 ter. As stated under ''Strawberry Culture," the mulch 

 applied in the fall protects the roots during winter. It 

 is allowed to remain on the bed, where, if thick enough, 

 it keeps down weeds, and prevents the evaporation of 



