STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 93 



be termed the cream and the lower layers the milk, which is effect- 

 ually skimmed when we allow any other vegetation to take possession 

 of the cieam, or by frequent cultivation prevent the roots of the trees 

 forming in it. A mulch not only keeps down other vegetation but 

 prevents the soil getting too dry to yield its manurial substances to 

 the trees. 



The fertilizing properties of a mulch have not, I think, generall}- 

 received due attention. Any kind of vegetable matter contains 

 fertilizing ingredients which are made available b\' their digestion by 

 animals ; but this is not an indispensable process, for if spread on 

 the ground, exposed to moisture and the ordinary heat of the air, 

 they will decay and then yield all their ingredients, in just as avail- 

 able form. A ton of clover hay fed to animals adds to the manure 

 heap, if both solids and liquids are saved, about seven dollars' worth 

 of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. Spread on the ground it 

 will yield twenty-five per cent more, or about nine dollars' worth, and 

 there will be no such loss as occurs in most barns, where thirtj' or 

 forty per cent of the value is lost by escape of the liquids. A ton 

 of Timothy hay is worth some seven dollars in the same way. Straw 

 is worth about three dollars. Now let it be remembered that these 

 are the contributions of the several ingredients to the fertilitj^ of the 

 soil in addition to whatever effect they ma}- have by their direct action 

 as a mulch, which, it seems to me, we ma}' fairly estimate at not less 

 than two or three dollars. This would make wheat straw worth five 

 or six dollars per ton for our purpose, Timothy, nine or ten, and 

 clover eleven or twelve dollars. Swale hay has a prett}- high manurial 

 value ; indeed, the analyses just now accessible to me rank it so high 

 that I dare not use them as a basis for computation. Doubtless some 

 one will wonder what clover and Timothy have to do with the mulch 

 question, and I make bold to reply that under some circumstances it 

 might be advisable to use either of them as a mulch. It sometimes 

 happens that they are spoiled by bad weather at haying time, and it 

 would then be better to haul them direct to the orchard than to put 

 them into the barn. Sometimes an orchardist has a surplus of hay 

 and is tempted to sell. I made up my mind some time ago that no 

 Timothy or other upland hay should ever leave my farm at a less 

 price than nine dollars per ton, and I have had many tons of some- 

 what weedy but still salable hay hauled out from my barn and spread 

 under the trees. As to clover, I must own having used it in prime 

 condition as a mulch. I had a voung orchard which needed enrich- 



