82 SMALL FRUIT CULTUEIST. 



should be removed in spring, leaving about half an inch in 

 depth, allowing the plants to grow through it, thereby 

 affording a mulching that will- keep the fruit clean as well 

 as shading the ground. 



Saw-dust and tan-bark are sometimes used for mulching, 

 but there is usually so much fine dust among them that the 

 fruit will become more or less splashed during heavy rains. 



Spent hops from a brewery is a most excellent material 

 for mulching the Strawberry ; besides, few insects will 

 attack the plants or fruit where it is used. The young 

 runners strike root very readily in spent hops, showing 

 that it is an excellent fertilizer. Fallen pine leaves are 

 found to be very good, as they keep the fruit clean, while 

 at the same time they will have decayed so much as to 

 interfere but very little with the growth of the plants. 

 Some have suggested that the peculiar flavor of the 

 Pine varieties is imparted to others by the use of this 

 kind of mulching, but this is probably more in imagina- 

 tion than in reality. 



Salt meadow and bog hay are excellent for a mulch, as 

 also is straw or corn stalks cut fine. 



When the plants are cultivated in rows, the mulching 

 should only be removed from the crowns of the plants, 

 and the entire amount allowed to remain on the ground 

 between the rows. 



Another method of protecting the plants is to cover 

 them 'with soil. This is done by passing the plow along 

 each side of the row, turning the soil on the plants in 

 the fall, and then removing it again in the spring. This 

 plan might answer in light soils, but then a mulching 

 would be still needed in summer to keep the fruit clean. 

 This method has been practiced in a few places, but with 

 what success I am unable to state. 



