26 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in eveiT summer month except Jul}', in wliich there was an excess 

 of 2f inches, and this 3'ear (1880), with a deficiency of nearly 12 

 inches below the average for ten years, was a year of good harvests, 

 although the scarcity of rain in April, May, and June, with exces- 

 sive temperature, gave a light hay crop ; while 1881, with a rain- 

 fall 3.43 above the average for ten years, was a j-ear of drouth and 

 failure of crops. I give these two 3'ears as an illustration of the 

 fact that the record of total rainfall is no measure of the fruitful- 

 ness of the year ; but we can rest pretty certainly assured of one 

 thing, — that wljile, for a period of fifty years, records have shown 

 the earth receiving an undiminished average amount of moisture 

 and heat, still the periodical distribution is unequal and unfavor- 

 able ; so that in New England we may count upon a continuance 

 of the experience of the Pilgrim Fathers, which has come down to 

 us with our other inheritance, — a legac}^ of periodical and fre- 

 quently recurring drouth. 



The effects of drouth are so baneful and discouraging to the 

 cultivator that men in everj' age have sought eagerl}' to counter- 

 act it. The means employed generally correspond with the meas- 

 ure of the skill and experience of the times in which they are 

 undertaken. 



In the few thoughts and experiences which are here arranged 

 there is no claim to originality or special authority ; but the writer 

 has been at some trouble to collect and summarize points which 

 seem to be essential in the recorded observations of those who 

 have given time and study to the subject, and which appear to 

 cover the matter prett}' well, — only this and nothing more. 



One resource, toward which many hav6 instinctivel}' turned, is to 

 cover the soil about the plant to be protected with some cheap 

 and abundant material which will break the force of the sun's rays 

 and check the evaporation of moisture with the consequent radia- 

 tion of heat ; this has been termed mulching. 



It is one of the most natural things in the world for a reflecting 

 man to think that, as he finds in the forest a mossy carpeting 

 which covers the ground and keeps it continually' moist, even so 

 a similar covering in our gardens and about trees and vines" 

 would repress noxious weeds, resist the drying action of the sun 

 or wind, and generall}- prove to be a very useful thing. Men 

 argue that in the realm of nature everything seems to work about 

 right ; that checks and balances are there prett}' evenly distributed, 

 and that it is generall}- safer and wiser to follow natural processes. 



