98 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 
4. Many strawberry-growers are able to delay the 
ripening of fruit by mulching from two days to 
two weeks; but a week’s delay is usually about the 
limit of profitable results. 
5. Whilst mulching the ground may not retard 
the period of bloom, and thus enable the plant to 
escape frost, it is, nevertheless, often useful in pro- 
tection from frost because it holds moisture, and, 
therefore, tends to raise the dew-point, as explained 
farther on. 
Covering plants for protection.—The discussion of 
the mulching of strawberries in order to protect 
them from cold and from frost, as already described, 
really belongs here. It is, of course, well known 
that plants may be covered to protect them not 
only from the winter’s cold, but from the incidental 
frosts of spring. It is not necessary to discuss the 
various means of covering them, but to enter into 
only sufficient detail to enable the reader to grasp 
the capabilities of the operation. 
Many low-growing plants can be covered with 
earth for protection. Thus it is a practice in some 
places to plow a furrow or two over the strawberry 
rows when a frost is anticipated, Fig trees, and 
other low or flexible-stemmed plants, are often 
planted on sloping land, so that they may be bent 
to the surface and covered when occasion requires. 
In parts of Russia, and other cold countries, the 
trees of orchard fruits are often pegged down in a 
similar manner. 
Blackberries and raspberries are extensively laid 
