CONSIDERATIONS EEGAEDIXG MULCHING. 27 



To this end about eveiy material that seemed suitable to covei' 

 the soil as a mulch has been used first or last ; leaves of both 

 evergreen and deciduous trees, straw, haulm, ha}^ both from salt and 

 fresh meadows, rushes and sedge grass, spent tan, sand, sawdust, 

 chips, and bristles have all been tried with a great variety of 

 crops and an equal!}' great uniformity as to the results. 



The horticultural literature of from thirty' to thirty -five years 

 ago was occasionally flecked with the experiences of enthusiastic 

 amateurs, and it may be of interest toda}' to recall some of them 

 in their chronological order. 



In 1845 a gentleman of Ithaca, N.Y., planned an arbor over one 

 of his garden wallis and, in anticipation, planted eight or ten 

 grape vines of difljerent varieties (York Claret, Isabella, and 

 Catawba) on the sides of the walk. • Subsequently, and without 

 any reference to the vines, he covered the walk thickly with refuse 

 or spent tan bark from the tanner}'. The next year, having changed 

 his mind as to the arbor, he removed the vines to another part of 

 the garden, and was surprised to find that they had sent vigorous 

 roots from one to three feet into the tan, in some instances even 

 to the very surface, and had filled it with a multitude of small 

 fibres, to the extremities of which small particles of bark adhered. 

 The vines appeared to be perfectly healthy and vigorous, and 

 the circumstance so impressed liim that he afterwards continued 

 to make a liberal use of old tan bark with success in the treatment 

 of his vines ; but, being an amateur, he omitted to mention it lest 

 it should prove to be new only to himself. 



In the spring of 1847 a hundred and fifty fruit trees were set 

 out in an orchard having a good, dry soil ; one-third of them were 

 mulched with litter six inches deep ; the season was hot and dry ; 

 of the mulched trees all lived and thrived, while of the others fif- 

 teen died. 



Mr. H. W. S. Cleveland, in New Jersey, found that mulch of 

 old chips prevented pears from cracking and seemed to impart a 

 superior flavor to the fruit ; the bark of the trees also had an in- 

 creased smoothness. 



Native grapes were saved from rot and mildew by mulching. 

 In the fall it was drawn back from the stems of the vines to avoid 

 harboring mice and other vermin. 



In 1848 a writer in the "Gardeners' Chronicle" treated the 

 subject of mulching more as a matter of top-dressing, claiming 

 that much food is thus speedily furnished to a sutfering tree. He 



