THE HANDLING OF THE PLANTS 



137 



soil. In the spring, the coarser parts of the mulch may be 

 removed, and the finer parts spaded or hoed into the ground. 



Tender bushes and 

 small trees may be 

 wrapped with straw, 

 hay, burlaps, or 

 pieces of matting or 

 carpet. Even rather 

 large trees, as bear- 

 ing peach trees, are 

 often baled up in this 



,\w, 



153. Covering plants in a box. 



way, or sometimes with corn fodder, although the results in the 

 protection of fruit-buds are not often very satisfactory. It is 

 important that no grain is left in the baling material, else mice 

 may be attracted to it. (The danger of gnawing by mice that 



nest in winter coverings is always to be 

 anticipated.) It should be known, too, 

 that the object in tying up or baling 

 plants is not so much to protect from 

 direct cold as to mitigate the effects of 

 alternate freezing and thawing, and to 

 protect from drying winds. Plants 

 may be wrapped so thick and tight as 

 to injure them. 



The labor of protecting large plants 

 is often great and the results uncertain, and in most cases it 

 is a question whether more satisfaction could not be attained 

 by growing only hardy trees and shrubs. 



The objection to covering tender woody plants cannot be 

 urged with equal force against tender herbs or very low bushes, 

 for these are protected with ease. Even the ordinary mulch 

 may afford sufficient protection; and if the tops kill back, the 

 plant quickly renews itself from near the base, and in many 

 plants — as in most hybrid perpetual roses — the best bloom is 



154. Covering plants in a 

 barrel. 



