CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING MULCHING. 25 



confessed to a lack of practical information upon the subject of 

 mulching, and expressed a wish that some one might give light 

 upon the subject. 



"Without presuming to be able to add anything to what has pre- 

 viousl}' been uttered, or to furnish any great amount of light, the 

 writer can give the result of a good deal of reading, considerable 

 observation, and some practical experience in the matter from 

 twenty to twent3'-five years ago, together with his deliberate con- 

 clusions derived from these sources. 



Mulching was tried by him as thoroughly and. fully as it could 

 be by anybody, with vines, fruit trees, shade trees, strawberries, 

 and raspberries ; and the outcome of it was just what it will con- 

 tinue to be with each successive generation as it comes along 

 and gets its experience in the old-fashioned, practical waj'. 



More recently but little has been said about this subject ; and, at 

 the risk of repeating much that man}' are familiar with, the writer 

 has summarized what seemed of interest to him while he was 

 enthusiastic over the matter, that those to whom the subject is 

 comparatively new may avoid useless labor and experiment. 



About all of the discussions nowadays that relate to crops of any 

 kind, before they are finished, take into consideration more or 

 less the rainfall or drouth. One has a vivid recollection of some 

 dry season or earl}' frost, and as the rains descend in June and 

 July, causing summer floods and spoiling the hay crop by an insuffi- 

 ciency of sunshine to cure it, he thinks that more rain falls now than 

 when he was a boy. Another remembers with greatest distinct- 

 ness an exceptional year of rains and freshets, and now there are 

 not man}' years in New England when he will not think that the 

 early and latter rains, as a rule of the seasons, are deserting us, and 

 soon to be forgotten. Recollections of youth give but a poor 

 means of comparative meteorology, and the most accurate obser- 

 vations and records of specialists in this department are often 

 misleading. 



A year of greatest rainfall may be also a year of such scarcity 

 of moisture, at the proper season, as to be a year of drouth, while 

 another year of less than average rainfall may be a year of fruit- 

 fulness and abundance. 



In the year 1881 15 inches more rain fell in Boston than in 

 the preceding year, and still 1881 was a year of drouth, because 

 there was a deficiency of moisture during the months of April, 

 July, August, and September ; while in 1880 there was a deficiency 



