Mulching to Retard Fruits. 93 
every means be used to escape late spring frosts. 
Efforts must also be made to reach the market when 
there is least competition from other sources, and, in 
the north, at least, this competition comes 
chiefly from early products produced in states 
to the southward. A rehearsal of experi- 
ments made to test the efficiency of mulching 
for these purposes will indicate the nature 
of the problem. 
The tests were made at Ithaca, New 
York. The ground froze deep in December, 
and the frost did not leave it until the mid- 
dle of March. Upon the 28th of February, 
1893, the snow being well settled and a foot 
and more deep in the open fields, heavy 
mulches of coarse manure and litter from 
horse stables were placed about apples, 
almonds, buffalo berries, blackberries, rasp- 
berries, currants, gooseberries, grapes, June- 
berries, peaches and quinces; and straw- 
berries were mulched later. Observations 
were also made upon roses which were 
mulched in the fall for winter protection. 
The apples and other tree-fruits com- sige pane 
prised trees which were set in the spring of mulch upon 
of 1889. Half of a large wagon load i 
of mulch was placed about each tree, 
covering the snow deep for a distance of three feet 
or more in all directions. The small-fruits were 
mulched heavily to the middle of the rows, or three 
and a half to four feet in each direction. A heavy 
