Propagation of Plants 99 



presume this reluctance to take another's experience is 

 Nature's way of enforcing her truths upon each individual, 

 for nothing is really ours until we have made personal proof 

 of it. 



To come back to those who timidly confess that the com- 

 partment of knowledge labeled "mulch" is empty. Mulch 

 is half-rotten straw, hay or like substance with which plants 

 are covered to prevent the alternate thawing and freezing 

 of winter. It is also placed in summer about the roots of 

 certain plants that suffer from drought, to keep the ground 

 moist. In our severe winters only a slight mulch is needed; 

 for a heavy blanket of snow, which falls early and disappears 

 late takes its place, and when the ground once freezes, it 

 remains frozen. Mulch is not so much to keep the ground 

 from freezing as to prevent the alternate action of thaw and 

 freeze, which not only throws the roots of plants out of the 

 ground, but allows a plant to awake to life only to be nipped 

 by the next freeze. Mulch prevents the sunlight from get- 

 ting to the earth, and keeps it frozen until warm weather 

 arrives. 



Various things are used as mulch. Coarse manure, which 

 gives the best protection from cold, also promotes an unsea- 

 sonable growth, owing to its heat. It must be banked high 

 over tea-roses and hybrid teas, also spread from six inches to 

 a foot deep over some lilies; but for most plants I think it a 

 very questionable thing to use, except in great moderation. 

 One of the best mulches is coarse straw, hay or grass, pro- 

 vided it is free from weeds. It is light, porous and effectual. 

 Another good mulch is leaves, provided they are not put on 

 deeper than three to five inches. They mat down closely 

 when wet, and will suffocate plants if too heavy. 



Another mulch is pine boughs, or other evergreens. We 

 have these in abundance and Adam finds them invaluable 



