122 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



CHAPTER XL. 



MULCHING. 



Litter of any kind placed around newly planted trees 

 to prevent evaporation from the soil, was the original 

 meaning of mulch, but' it is at present extended to in- 

 clude a covering of the soil applied at any time, and for 

 very different purposes. Good cultivators apply hay, 

 straw, or other litter to the surface of the soil to protect 

 the roots of certain plants against the action of frost, it 

 being useful, not so much against freezing as to prevent 

 the alternate freezing and thawing, that is apt to occur 

 in our variable and uncertain climate, even in mid-win- 

 ter. As mentioned under strawberry culture, the mulch 

 applied in the fall protects the roots during winter, it is 

 allowed to remain on the bed where, if thick enough, it 

 keeps down weeds, and prevents the evaporation of mois- 

 ture from the soil during the dry time we are apt to have 

 between the flowering and the ripening of the strawberry. 

 Besides all this, it makes a clean bed for the fruit to rest 

 upon, and should a driving shower come up as the fruit 

 is ripening, there is no danger that the berries will be 

 splashed with mud and spoiled. The utility of a mulch 

 is not confined to the strawberry among fruits ; raspber- 

 ries and currants are much benefitted by it, and by its 

 use a gardener of my acquaintance succeeds in growing 

 fine crops of the fine varieties of English gooseberries, a 

 fruit with which very few succeed in our hot summers. 

 Newly planted trees, whether of fruit or ornamental 

 kinds, are much benefitted by a mulch, and its applica- 

 tion often settles the question of success or failure. We 

 have known a whole pear orchard to be mulched, and the 

 owner thought its cost was more than repaid by saving 



