246 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



Mulching the young orchard has some advantages over 

 cultivation, but except in the proximity of the salt-marsh- 

 es of the East, or near the great straw piles on the vast 

 grain fields of the Western prairies, it is almost impossi- 

 ble to procure mulching materials for extensive orchards ; 

 so that, unless we consider the clover and other legumes 

 as a living mulch, or grow such crops upon the land it- 

 self, to be used in this way, we shall be thrown back upon 

 culture of the surface, which, in the mellow soil thus pro- 

 duced, furnishes a most admirable mulching, that fills all 

 the indications, at least in the season when it is most need- 

 ed. This is a matter of the greatest importance, especi- 

 ally during the first year after planting, when our trees so 

 imperatively demand the protection of a mulch ; and it is 

 found that when the usual applications of straw or similar 

 material cannot be obtained, or are unsuitable for the situa- 

 tion, especial attention to the condition of the upper layer 

 of earth about the trees is of the greatest importance ; 

 this should be kept thoroughly loosened and finely disin- 

 tegrated for the admission of air and moisture. 



Mulching, even of an old and apparently exhausted 

 orchard, has been found to exercise a most happy effect 

 upon its health and productiveness. Such a one growing 

 upon a tenacious clay, which had ceased to yield any 

 crops for years, was restored to abundant fruitfulness by 

 covering the ground with a couple of inches of spent bark 

 from an adjoining tannery, and similar effects have been 

 produced by the application of straw, and of the bagasse 

 from sorghum, where those materials could be procured ; 

 but these were necessarily limited to a small number of 

 trees, and they can never be adopted in the treatment of 



