324 WESTERN FRUIT BOOK. 



permit, and will require repetition by Midsummer, and 

 perhaps again during the season, unless we have applied 

 a most excellent adjuvant, the mulching of the surface. 



So much has been said and written of late years upon 

 the subject of mulching, that it must be familiar to all, yet 

 a few words will be in place. The object of mulching is 

 to preserve a certain degree of moisture in the soil; about 

 the roots, by preventing the rapid evaporation from the 

 surface, in our arid climate ; it will, therefore, be particu- 

 larly serviceable in sandy and gravely soils. The mulch 

 may consist of any light rubbish that may be at command ; 

 straw is generally used, and is applied to freshly-dug soil 

 to the depth of three or four inches ; this soon settles 

 down and forms a close coat that prevents rapid evapora- 

 tion, collects dew, and with it, ammonia, which it retains, 

 ready to be washed down into the soil by the next rain. 

 Chip dirt, from the wood- pile, or old tanbark, are very 

 suitable materials to be thus applied, and even loose 

 brush and twigs, the trimmings of the trees themselves, 

 which will retain the blowing leaves, will form a good 

 mulch, and keep the soil loose and mellow beneath ; but 

 where accessible, as from a saw-mill in the neighborhood, 

 there is nothing that so well and so neatly produces the 

 desired effect as coarse saw-dust, which, in stiff soils, may 

 be turned in at the winter digging, or scraped to one side, 

 and reserved for aj)plication the ensuing season. 



Young trees, freshly set out, especially those from 

 crowded nurseries, and where they have been cleanly 

 trimmed up with naked stems, just such as are generally 

 most admired, on account of their resemblance to walk- 

 ing sticks, perhaps, are frequently obnoxious to serious 

 evils when transplanted to open exposures. The smooth 

 bark is often scorched and blistered, and oftentimes fine 

 young trees are also destroyed by the larva of an insect 

 that lives upon the cambium or young wood just beneath 



