94 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ing. By the aid of phosphate rock I got a handsome growth of 

 clover. The first crop was mown and raked up near the trees a 

 mulch ; the second crop was allowed to go to seed. I propose to 

 continue this practice till the clover runs out. I question whether 

 there is on the whole anj' better way to feed an orchard than to reh' 

 wholly on mulch. Any kind of straw, grass or weeds will furnish 

 all the needed ingredients, and have only to be applied in sufficient 

 quantity to fully supply the demands of the trees and fruit. And 

 this brings us plump against one of the objections to mulching. 



First objection, its expensiveness. Now, to spread a little mulch 

 around the trunk of each tree will not involve a great expenditure in 

 a whole orchard, but to cover the entire surface would indeed cost 

 quite a sum of money, or a great deal of work. But so does fer- 

 tilizing by means of manure. A good farmer who had an opportunity' 

 to bu}' stable manure from an}^ of our New England villages and 

 wished to give a poor field a real good dressing would not think of 

 putting on less than forty dollars' worth. Now fort}' dollars ex- 

 pended in mulching would probably put on six or seven tons, and 

 that, I should think, would be a pretty good application for an acre, 

 and I have no doubt that its effects would last longer than those of 

 the manure. My friend, Mr. Weston of Belgrade, made this state- 

 ment as the result of his experience: "If," said he, "you put a 

 cart-body full of good barn-yard manure around an apple tree and 

 two cart-bodies full of swale hay around another similar tree, the 

 latter will show less eflTect the first season, an equal effect the second 

 season and far greater effect from that time on." 



Another objection which it seems should have some weight but 

 not be conclusive, is that the result of discontinuing mulching after 

 having employed it till the trees have attained considerable size is a 

 serious check to their growth and fruitfulness. Evidently, however, 

 this objection has nothing to do with the continued mulching of an 

 orchard. It is only an objection to abandoning the practice. 



There are j^et to be considered two objections, which have, it seems 

 to me, great weight, and which make me doubtful as to the advisa- 

 bility of mulching, after having satisfied myself that from every 

 other point of view it is the best mode of treatment. These objections 

 have reference to the hai-boring of vermin and the danger of fire. 



I have never observed amongst my own trees an3'thing that would 

 lead me to think mice were more likely to gnaw mulched trees than 

 those not mulched, but the testimony of others is quite strong. As 



