Vol. LXI. No. 2749 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 4, 1902 
*1 PER YEAR 
THE HITCHINGS APPLE ORCHARD. 
WHAT DOES THE MULCHING ACCOMPLISH? 
Bacterial Hired Men Under Ground. 
A FAIR DISCU88ION OF ALL KINDS. 
Part II. 
Now what do these bacteria do? The full story is 
too long to attempt to give here. Briefly stated the 
work required of them in the orchard is to decompose 
and eat. They break up organized bodies. For in¬ 
stance, the nitrogen in a blade of grass or a weed 
may be so closely tied to other substances that the 
roots of a tree cannot dissolve it out and absorb it. 
The bacteria pick it apart and prepare it for plant 
food. Again, the bacteria use portions of the organic 
matter as food, and void it as excretions which may 
be called manure as well as the excretions of other 
farm animals. We all know of orchards on soil so 
thin and sterile that 
trees make a poor and 
feeble growth, if any. 
Yet in these same or- 
chards weeds and 
coarse grasses may 
grow sturdy and thick, 
showing that they can 
utilize plant food which 
is not so available to 
the trees. If we cut 
these weeds and grasses 
and throw them around 
the trees they will, in 
time, rot. In other 
words, our little friends 
the bacteria decompose 
them and make the 
plant food which they 
contain available to the 
trees. By packing these 
cut weeds into a thick 
mat we moisten and 
cool the ground under 
it, and thus increase 
the action of the bac¬ 
teria. 
Thus the grass and 
weeds take plant food 
from the soil and in the 
end give it back in 
small but constant 
quantities to the trees, 
thus feeding them in 
the most effective way. 
It was thought at one 
time that this action of 
bacteria was confined 
to breaking up organic 
matter or humus in the soil. If this were true there 
would surely come a time when extra fertilizers 
must be used in the orchard. Granting that the grass 
and weeds take plant food from the soil and give it 
back to the trees there is a steady loss each year in 
the fruit taken from the orchard and in the wood 
growth. Unless new plant food is added in the form 
of fertilizers or manure there must come a time when 
the available fertility in the soil will be lacking and 
the trees will suffer. That was the old belief based 
on the understanding that the bacteria work only 
in organic matter. It is now known that some species 
of bacteria do not require organic food but are able 
to live wholly upon mineral matter. There is evidence 
to show that bacterial action helps to break up and 
destroy large rocks and, in the soil, which is mostly 
powdered or crushed rocks, they do a vast amount 
of work. The bacteria which break up mineral com¬ 
pounds of sulphur and iron have already been dis¬ 
covered and their action has been well defined. It is 
reasonably believed that bacteria not only decom¬ 
pose the organic matter but that they actually attack 
the mineral compounds in the soil and slowly render 
them available for plants! This being so it will be 
seen that Mr. Hitchings may get more from his bac¬ 
terial workers than he expected. The boy who cov¬ 
ered a part of his little garden with straw never lack¬ 
ed angle worms for bait and found that these worms 
so dug up and changed the soil of his garden that his 
crop was greatly increased. We must not overlook 
the advantage gained by preventing evaporation. The 
mulch keeps the soil cool and moist and as the roots 
of the tree are close to it they will not suffer from 
drought Cases have been reported where cultivated 
orchards suffered greatly in dry seasons. Sometimes 
the thorough stirring proves a detriment. The feed¬ 
ing roots are driven down from the surface. A light 
rain falls—barely enough to wet the upper soil. The 
moisture fails to reach the roots and is quickly dried 
out of the soil. This happened in many orchards 
during the recent years of drought, but in a mulched 
orchard there is every reason to suppose that prac¬ 
tically all of that rain would have been available, for 
the mulch would have held it close to the roots. I 
have observed in my own farm that fruit trees in cul¬ 
tivated fields often suffer from drought while in the 
woods near by where there is a thick mulch of leaves 
the timber trees are fully supplied. 
As an experiment I have piled flat stones around 
young trees so as to keep the soil well shaded, in 
every case of this kind I have observed good results 
to the tree. The orchard as it stands is a living ar¬ 
gument in favor of the mulch method. To be entire¬ 
ly fair we must consider the objections which can be 
urged against it. Men like J. H. Hale and others who 
advocate clean culture, as I understand them, say that 
the thing is impossible for long-continued success. 
They cite hundreds of cases where orchards in so- 
called sod culture have failed. When confronted 
with Mr. Hitchings and his apples they say that it 
is either the man or the location that makes the suc¬ 
cess. Put Mr. Hitchings anywhere, they say, and he 
will develop a good orchard. Put any man of com¬ 
mon sense on his hillside and he cannot help grow¬ 
ing good fruit! It is just as fair to say this of the 
cultivating method. I know plenty of people who 
pretend to “cultivate” and yet they have very poor 
fruit! Their orchards are just as strong arguments 
against cultivating as the orchards where poor grass 
is cut and hauled away as hay, and the trees are 
never manured or sprayed, are arguments against 
“mulching.” The scientific men with whom I have 
talked say that the locality where Mr. Hitchings lives 
is peculiarly adapted to a method of this sort. The 
earlier part of the season is likely to be wet, and the 
growing grass prevents the soil from becoming too 
moist. The later sea¬ 
son is usually dry and 
the mulch keeps the 
soil cool and prevents 
evaporation. They also 
think that the sod 
around the trees will 
be likely to give borers 
a better chance. A 
small space around the 
young tree is kept 
hoed, anu I do not think 
the borers are so nu¬ 
merous in the shade of 
these low-headed trees. 
Speaking of peach trees 
the scientists say that 
they can see no reason 
why root-pruning or 
mulching should 
lengthen the life of a 
tree. That being so, we 
shall lose one and per¬ 
il a p s two crops of 
peaches, since the 
mulched trees are slow¬ 
er to grow and come in 
bearing. I thinK our 
scientific friends expect 
that in some way which 
they are not prepared 
to explain, the “mulch 
method” will in a few 
years fail to give satis¬ 
factory results. I think 
they reason that, for 
general advice cultiva¬ 
tion and cover crops 
are a safer method than 
mulching.” There is shrewd sense in this when we 
think how few farmers there are who would have the 
nerve to let tons of good grass rot on the ground. 
Most of them would haul it out as hay and still claim 
that the orchard was mulched. The danger from firo 
in such an orchard seems to me considerable. During 
Winter and early Spring the ground is covered with 
a thick mass of dry grass. If by accident fire should 
be started among those low-headed trees the orchard 
would be severely injured. Again, the feeding roots 
appear to be close to the surface, spreading all about 
under the mulch. Should it ever be necessary to plow 
or work the soil with any deep-running tool the trees 
would be badly hurt. This would do far more damage 
than plowing an orchard that had been cultivated or 
in which the grass had been cut and taken away or 
pastured, because under these conditions the root sys¬ 
tem will be lower down in the soil. Why such an or¬ 
chard should be plowed will be discussed next week. 
