CHAPTER XIX. 



MULCHING. 



Among horticulturists there is a decided tend- 

 ency toward liberal mulching of orchard trees usu- 

 ally in connection with cover cropping. The theory 

 of mulching is generally misunderstood, and many 

 who try this method of tillage often fail to apply it 

 with sufficient care for tests to be fair, or success- 

 ful. It has been employed satisfactorily in Ohio 

 since 1879, and apple growers in New York have 

 adopted it for more than thirty years with excellent 

 results. Throughout the Southwest Stringfellow 

 has been its herald. At the experiment station in 

 Oklahoma remarkable increases in crops have thus 

 been made; the Georgia, Nebraska and "Wisconsin 

 stations endorse the practice; at Geneva the State 

 station has been conducting the most elaborate 

 comparative tests in order to definitely elucidate re- 

 sults in detail, and the Ontario station commends it 

 to Canadian farmers. It is an application of one 

 of nature's methods of conserving moisture, build- 

 ing soil and promoting decomposition of organic 

 matter ; for do not forest leaves and blighted grasses 

 furnish virgin soil its principal source of recupera- 

 tion? "Who has not noticed the marshy character 

 of grass lands in winter while cultivated ground 

 alongside has been dry? Green and Ballou state in 



