MULCHING, SHADING, AND WATERING. 241 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MULCHING, SHADING, AND WATERING. 



Mulching. — Mulching is placing litter of various 

 kinds, as leaves, pine straw, or strawy manure, upon the 

 surface soil over the roots of plants and shrubs. If leaves 

 are used, a little earth may be required to keep them in 

 place. Mulching is used as well to prevent moisture from 

 evaporating from the soil in summer, as to prevent frost 

 from penetrating to the roots in winter. In summer a 

 mulch is usually applied to trees and shrubs newly trans- 

 planted, and to herbaceous plants that are impatient of 

 heat about the roots. Irish potatoes, mulched, produce 

 more abundantly, and are of better quality. Strawber- 

 ries, thinly mulched, with the crown uncovered, are much 

 more productive and continue longer in fruit. Rhubarb 

 and other plants, requiring a cool soil, can thus be more 

 easily raised; and so with many other crops. Summer 

 mulching should be applied directly after a rain, that the 

 moisture in the soil may be retained. It should not be 

 applied to potatoes or other tender plants until the dan- 

 ger of frost is over, as the increased evaporation from 

 damp mulch will produce a white frost when there is 

 none or little elsewhere formed. Fruit trees, by having 

 their roots mulched, are kept in better health and vigor. 

 Mulching not only wards off drought, but, in this way, by 

 keeping the ground moist, and by the decay of the mulch- 

 ing substance, a good deal of food is conveyed to the 

 plants. Some authors are of the opinion that ground will 

 become continually richer by being shaded. But the 

 great benefit of mulching is that a steady permanency of 

 moisture is retained, in spite of adverse circumstances, 

 and without stagnation. In general, the coat of litter 



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