196 
THE FLORIST. 
ON MULCHING CROPS. 
The advantage of mulching vegetables and fruits during the summer 
is scarcely so well understood in this climate as in France and Belgium, 
where cultivation during the heats of summer would fail entirely were 
it not for this safeguard to growing crops. The intense heat of the last 
three weeks has compelled me to make use of it largely, and I am, 
therefore, in a position to speak as to the benefit to be derived from 
its use, more especially on dry or gravelly soils, vegetation on 
which soon burns in hot seasons. The materials I use are just what 
there is to spare; the grass and sweeping of lawns I usually commit to 
my Asparagus beds ;—any litter from the stables and cowyard is placed 
round the roots, in fact covers the entire soil, where my Raspberries and 
bush fruits grow I place it 3 or 4 inches thick, and the effect on the health 
and productiveness of the crops is very great. I calculate that on my soil 
it is lully one-third more. As for Strawberries, I have them littered down 
with fresh stable dung in April, having first well limed the ground under 
the plants to destroy the slugs. The dead leaves of my Strawberries 
are always cut away when the crop is gathered ; and, as I allow only 
as many runners to grow as I want, when these are taken away, the litter 
(by August become quite rotten) is pricked in between the rows, and the 
plants make a clear fresh growth and continue many years in full bearing. 
The dead canes of my Raspberries are also removed when the fruit is 
over, and then the mulching is forked in, and I may say the same by 
the Currants and Gooseberries ; as I make it a rule to remove all the 
spare w^ood in August, when the same treatment follows, which is all the 
digging between my fruit bushes get. My crops of summer vegetables, 
as they are planted out, are also all mulched—that is, the principal 
part of them, as Cauliflowers, Lettuce (always sown where to remain). 
Peas, Broad and Scarlet Runner Beans, Cabbage, and Spinach. I 
find that on my soil it is much better to place the manure on the 
surface as a mulching than to dig it in, and I have this season 
entirely followed this practice, and am satisfied that I am right, and 
can therefore recommend the system to others working land similar to 
mine. 
The advantages of mulching, as it appears to me, are the following :— 
1st. It arrests evaporation and consequently helps to keep the land moist 
in dry weather. 2nd. It saves a deal of labour, watering, &c. 3rd. It 
encourages an abundance of surface root to fruit-bearing shrubs and 
berries ; and lastly, the mulching becomes in a fine state for forking in 
at the end of the season; for when it is laid between the crops in a 
fresh state, which I do not hesitate to do when short of other materials, 
the soil gets the benefit of all its fertilising properties, and the mulching 
is in a completely decomposed state before forking it in about the roots, 
or digging it in, after a crop of vegetables. Let those who, like me, 
have a quick dry soil, try what I suggest, and I am certain, after a trial, 
they will continue to adopt it. Allow me, as an amateur, to thank your 
kind correspondent, the Rector of Rushton, for many valuable hints, 
which I have adopted. 
Hampshire. G. W. S. 
