34 MASSACHUSETTS HOKTICrXTURAL SOCIETT. 



hundred single loads of stuff, which must cost, at least, fifty or 

 sixty dollars to spread and remove. How many times could you 

 go over an acre, with a cultivator, for fifty dollars? Certainh* more 

 than thirty. 



It has been always observed and mentioned by experimenters 

 that the use of mulching induced a profuse growth of fibrous roots 

 to push up to the surface in their search for moisture and nourish- 

 ment, more particularly and decidedly when the mulch contained 

 nitrogenous matter, or other elements which stimulated the growth 

 of the plant. 



It is also not a little remarkable that none of those who have 

 recorded this fact so repeatedly have noted that this is not a use- 

 ful result. As a permanent condition of a plant to enable it to 

 resist all the vicissitudes of our climate, its feeding roots should 

 be below the surface ; and although the ill effects of their being 

 too near the surface may not be so apparent in those crops which 

 are annual as the}- are with the strawl)erry, yet with all plants of a 

 permanent character, such as vines or fruit trees, the pushing of 

 these fibres to the surface should be discouraged. 



Vegetation should be encouraged by aU means to go downwards 

 for its moisture, wherever it maj- ramble for its nutriment. 



The roots of the strawberry and clover have been traced five 

 feet below the surface, and the grape root has been found at the 

 depth of eleven feet. They will always descend in search of 

 moisture to the depth at which the ground waters stand in the soil 

 during the season of greatest activity and growth. Wherever the 

 air can penetrate the earth depend upon it that a root will find it 

 out and follow. 



How can the temporary advantages of mulching be otherwise 

 attained permanently? A little thoughtful examination will indicate 

 the answer. Careful investigation of the condition and mechanical 

 effect of lieat and soil uix>n moisture develops the fact that, except 

 when the rains are replenishing the earth, moisture is continually 

 ascending in the soil by the process of capillary attraction, to be 

 absorbed at the surface b}- the air with which it comes in contact.^ 

 In a well-cultivated field, not more than from one-tenth to one- 

 eighth of the rain that fell u^x^n the soil finally passed off b}' per- 



3 Ib Englaad, daring ten years' ob&ervaiions, only 4-3.4 per cent of the rainfall percolated 

 into the soil and passed atear through the draine; while 6o.6 per cent nae accounted for as 

 eraporated from the Eurface of the uncoitivated £oiL With cropped land the evaporation was 

 yet more coneiderable, varying with the crop. 



