THE HANDLING OF THE PLANTS 137 
soil. In the spring, the coarser parts of the mulch may be 
removed, and the finer parts spaded or hoed into the ground. 
Tender bushes and TA 
small trees may be 
wrapped with straw, 
hay, burlaps, or 
pieces of matting or 
carpet. Even rather 
large trees, as bear- 
ing peach trees, are f 
often baled up in this 153. Covering plants in a box. 
way, or sometimes with corn fodder, although the results in the 
protection of fruit-buds are not often very satisfactory. It is 
important that no grain is left in the baling material, else mice 
may be attracted to it. (The danger of gnawing by mice that 
nest in winter coverings is always to be 
anticipated.) It should be known, too, 
that the object in tying up or baling 
plants is not so much to protect from 
direct cold as to mitigate the effects of 
alternate freezing and thawing, and to 
protect from drying winds. Plants 
s may be wrapped so thick and tight as 
154. Covering plants in a to injure them. 
bannel: The labor of protecting large plants 
is often great and the results uncertain, and in most cases it 
is a question whether more satisfaction could not be attained 
by growing only hardy trees and shrubs. 
The objection to covering tender woody plants cannot be 
urged with equal force against tender herbs or very low bushes, 
for these are protected with ease. Even the ordinary mulch 
may afford sufficient protection; and if the tops kill back, the 
plant quickly renews itself from near the base, and in many 
plants — as in most hybrid perpetual roses — the best bloom is 
