28 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



regarded with satisfaction the great number of surface roots which 

 he observed to be encouraged by top-dressing, and considered 

 them to be an evidence of permanent benefit. He deemed it one 

 great advantage of mulching that, when, under its stimulus, the 

 tree makes a too rampant growth, by the removal of the mulch in 

 whole or in part, the tree may be thereby checked and subdued in 

 its growth. 



With currant and raspberry bushes the use of mulching was 

 recommended ; also the addition of five or six inches of good soil, 

 which stimulated and nourished a strong growth of surface fibres. 



In the autumn of 1848 a gentleman who had previously ob- 

 served the grievous efi'ect of drouth upon his trees planted some 

 nuts of native forest trees, which in due time germinated, and the 

 young trees received constant care and attention. While gathering 

 the nuts in the fall a quantity was left in a hole in the ground, 

 and subsequently covered with some prunings of trees. In July 

 he observed that green shoots were forcing their waj' through the 

 brush, and upon examination found that some of them had made 

 a growth of three feet from the nut, while his carefully tended 

 seedlings had grown only four inches. The reason for this seemed 

 so apparent to him that he immediately forked up the soil about 

 all of his trees, both great and small, and watered and mulched 

 them well, but with what material he omitted to state. In two or 

 three days new buds made their appearance ; in three weeks, trees 

 whose leaves had previously fallen made shoots nearly a foot in 

 length. 



In the spring of 1849 a quantity of fresh spent tan bark was 

 hauled directly from the tanner}', and a heavy dressing of it was 

 put upon a vine-border ; the remainder, amounting to six or eight 

 cart-loads, was put in a heap at the distance of a few feet from an 

 Isabella grape vine. Upon examination in the autumn it was 

 found that the vine had sent its roots up into the tan heap more 

 than a foot above the surface of the ground, and their fibres had 

 spread in every direction. Never had so fine grapes been raised in 

 the graper}' as after this dressing of fresh spent tan was applied. 



A writer in May, 1850, stated that he had tried mulching with 

 all sorts of material, — straw, litter, seaweed, and whatever else 

 he could get of a like nature, — not only upon newly transplanted 

 trees, but also upon all kinds of garden vegetables, melons, and 

 flowering shrubs. He seemed to think that the great advantage is 

 with newly transplanted trees, and he had found it easy thus to 



