30 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



those seeds which require much time with constant and uniform 

 moisture as well as warmth. 



Another writer who had previousl}' advocated mulching as a 

 good practice, testified to his continued faith in its advantages, and 

 said that his dwarf pear trees made masses of fibrous roots in a 

 single season, and quite double the amount made by other trees 

 similarly situated but not mulched. He also testified to the ex- 

 cellence of tan bark for strawberries. 



Andrew J. Downing was an advocate for the use of tan as a 

 mulch for strawberries, preferable to straw, litter, or leaves. A 

 covering of two inches of tan gave good protection against frost, 

 and the plants came out of the winter in better condition than 

 those mulched with an\' other material. He had a special word of 

 commendation for the use of spent tan bark as a mulch for newly 

 transplanted Norway spruces. 



In the South it was noted that thorough mulching was a great 

 benefit to fruit trees which had been recently transplanted from 

 Northern nurseries, and obviated one great difficulty in the accli- 

 mating of such trees in the South. 



In December, 1847, after the ground had frozen solid, a gentle- 

 man mulched about three-fourths of his strawberrj- bed with some 

 old spent tan bark that had been upon his place for eighteen 

 months. The tan was spread evenly over the entire surface to the 

 depth of three inches, and for three j^ears the diflference between 

 that part of the bed and the other was very marked in favor of the 

 application of the tan bark. 



In the fall of 1850, having about one-fourth of an acre of fine 

 strawberry plants that were put out in th6 previous spring, seeking 

 to profit bj^ his successful experience, he proceeded, just before the 

 ground was frozen, to cover them with fresh tan bark riglit from 

 the tannery. The result was quite unexpected and equally unsatis- 

 factory, for in the spring nearly all the plants were either dead or 

 utterl}" ruined, and he was greatl}' puzzled to know what did the 

 damage. His only consolation was to know that a neighbor of his 

 also lost all of his plants in the same wa}', and from the same 

 cause. Another neighbor, who had for ten years used tan as a 

 mulch for strawberries, was ready with his explanation ; he attrib- 

 uted the loss to an excess of the tan bark covering over and 

 around the crown of the plant. He was accustomed to use not 

 more than a quarter of an inch in thickness immediately around 

 the plants, but covered the rest of the surface from one to two 



