MULCHING AND PRUNING, 



71 



In reply to this, we give an extract from the report of one 

 of our well-known Florida growers, and another from a promi- 

 nent planter engaged in orange culture at Pass Christian, Mis- 

 sissippi. 



The Florida man says : ''It has been urged that mulching 

 makes the orange tree tender, and more liable to freeze. Believ- 

 ing a statement of this kind, I was kept from mulching for three 

 years, and then I only began by, the trial of a few trees at first. 

 I am satisfied, by careful experiments and observation, that no 

 harm can come to trees on that account if properly applied. 

 Old trees and young trees — trees just set out, and trees bearing 

 five hundred oranges each — have been alike benefited. Trees 

 that were mulched during the freeze of last winter, came out of 

 it much better than those that were without mulching ; and now, 

 during the present dry weather, while other trees are becoming 

 yellow and curling the leaf at mid-day, the mulched trees retain 

 a dark green, healthy color, and are growing right along." 



So much for our Florida witness ; now for the voice from 

 Pass Christian. "My grove of five thousand trees escaped very 

 serious damage during the severe cold of two seasons ago. I at- 

 tribute this exemption to a thorough mulching of the soil, which 

 protects them from the intense heat of summer as well as the cold 

 of winter." Surely the experience of these two men should count 

 for something, especially when in almost every paper we glance 

 at we see notes, here and there, showing that others have made 

 the same discovery. 



Altogether, mulching bids fair Jo play no unimportant part 

 in the future of orange culture. 



The least expensive way of mulching is to spread dried or 

 partly decayed vegetation (no woody fibres) around the trees in 

 the way we have already mentioned, several inches deep, a foot 

 from the trunk and two feet beyond the outer roots — grass, weeds, 

 leaves, straw, pine needles, well-rotted sawdust, bagasse ; all these 

 are good, and always to be had in quantity, merely for the labor 

 of gathering them. When the mulching becomes thin, as it will 

 in time, when the lower portions decay and work down to feed 

 the little rootlets, replace it, and at the same time enlarge its 



