14 BUSH-FRUITS 



that the plants may go into winter quarters with a 

 deficiency of moisture in the soil. In Nebraska con- 

 tinuous cultivation gives good results. 



Mulching to replace tillage is often suggested. In 

 the home -garden where tillage is often difficult, owing 

 to the smallness of the plots or the inconvenience of 

 getting at them with a horse, mulching may be the most 

 satisfactory, but in field culture no other mulch is so 

 practicable as that formed by a layer of mellow, fre- 

 quently-stirred soil. The chief objections to mulching 

 are the difficulty and expense of obtaining material, the 

 labor involved in applying it and the fact that mulching 

 induces surface rooting of the plants. In tilled land 

 the roots are kept below the part which is stirred and 

 if neglected this part remains to protect them. With 

 mulching the roots come close to the surface, where they 

 are quickly injured if the mulch is allowed to disappear. 



On very rich soils in moist climates continuous culti- 

 vation may induce too rampant wood -growth. Under 

 such conditions cultivation is sometimes abandoned 

 after the second year, the ground being seeded to clover, 

 which is cut when the fruit begins to ripen and left on 

 the ground for a mulch. A practice in vogue on the 

 Thayer farms in Wisconsin is to grow clover on other 

 land, to be cut and spread along the rows, while tillage 

 is maintained in the spaces between. 



Cover-crops have not been largely used among bush- 

 fruits heretofore, but there is good reason to believe 

 that they can be employed with advantage. If legumes 

 are used all the nitrogen which is needed may be thus 

 obtained. If too much results, non-leguminous crops 



