Vol. LXV. No. 2964. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 17, 1906, 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER. YEAR. 
THE MULCH METHOD OF ORCHARDING. 
There have been so many questions about “mulching” 
of late that we print here the substance of a paper read 
by H. W. Collingwood before the New York State Fruit 
Growers’ Association at Fredonia, N. Y. 
WHAT IT MEANS.—What do I mean by mulching a 
young tree? I plant trees either in sod or plowed ground, 
as is most convenient, usually in sod. I dig a small hole 
and closely prune both roots and top of the tree, then 
I pack the tree hard in the little hole. The sod which 
is dug out is put in the hole upside down, and packed 
down hard around the roots of the tree. As soon as 
possible after planting, a pile of coarse mulch, straw, 
weeds, grass, forest weeds or trash is thrown close 
around the tree. As grass or weeds which grow in 
that field are cut the crop is raked and piled around 
the tree, thus having a mass of decaying vegetable mat¬ 
ter there all the time. In one peach orchard we have 
cut the grass and hauled it out for hay, then we gath¬ 
ered weeds and trash of all sorts and threw that around 
the trees. This method, however, is not what I call 
the mulch system, as when properly carried out all the 
grass which grew in the field should be cut 
and piled like a young hay stack around the 
foot of the trees. I imagine that 75 per cent 
of the reported failures of the mulch system, 
especially for young trees, have been where 
the grass was hauled away from the orchard. 
I planted one orchard in an uncleared field 
and cut brush, cedars, briars and sweet-fern 
bushes, which were piled around the young 
trees. Under these different conditions the 
growth of the young trees has ranged all the 
way from poor to excellent, depending upon 
the amount of mulching material we had put 
around the trees, other treatment being equal. 
Where we have been able to obtain sufficient 
mulch material the growth with us has been 
quite equal to well-cultivated trees. At the 
Ohio Station the growth of the mulched trees 
was ahead of those cultivated or planted in 
cover crops. These mulched trees also came 
into bearing earlier. That appears to be true 
of our own trees. I also notice that the 
mulched trees, not cultivated, grow into a 
different shape from those that are thoroughly 
tilled. They head closer to the ground and 
make a spreading shape, more like a bush 
than a tree, which in our country is desira¬ 
ble, on account of the scale and the high winds 
which sway the trees. Last year I felt pre¬ 
pared to say that while the mulch will give 
good results with apple, it is not so useful for 
peach. This year, however, the results with me have 
been excellent, fully equal to those of apple. I have not 
obtained equally good results with pear oil my soil. 
My observation is that when the young trees are well 
mulched the Peach borer seems to lay its eggs higher 
up on the tree, where the insects are easily foiuid. On 
the other hand, the Apple borer seems to be worse under 
a thick mulch, and mice also nest in or under it. Where 
the trees are wrapped at the beginning with wire cloth 
there is little danger from these pests. A number of 
failures in mulching have been reported, and in most 
cases I found on investigation that a mere handful of 
grass or -weeds had been put around the tree, not 
enough, under any circumstances, to keep the soil cool 
and moist. It requires nearly the equivalent of a small 
hay cock to do the job properly. Whenever we have 
been able to keep a thick layer of mulch around the 
young trees the* growth has been fully equal to that of 
trees thoroughly cultivated, and in some cases superior; 
in fact I think there can be no question about this, the 
great trouble being to find the needed mulch material. 
THE ROOT SYSTEM.—It has long been said that 
when a tree is mulched the feeding roots all form at 
the surface and even work up into the mulch itself. 
From this it was argued that if for any reason the mulch 
is removed, if fire runs through the orchard, or if the 
soil is plowed, the orchard would be ruined, as these 
surface-feeding roots will be destroyed. I have never 
believed this, although unable to prove it, but the Ohio 
Experiment Station seems to have shown the falsity of 
the argument. At that station blocks of soil a foot 
deep were taken from under both mulched and culti¬ 
vated trees, and the roots were washed out and carefully 
examined to see where they went to. It was found that 
the network of rootlets, which we find close up under 
the mulch is not, by any means, the whole story, but 
only the upper story. Below the mulch the roots were 
as numerous and as deep as they were in the cultivated 
soil. In other words, the mulched trees had a more 
extensive root system than those that were cultivated. 
You might take the mulch away or plow the ground, 
and still have nearly as good a set of roots as in the 
cultivated tree. I think that anyone who will fork 
away a thick pile of grass or weeds from around the 
base of a tree will easily see why and how the Oh>o 
A MULCH-GROWN NORTHERN SPY APPLE. Fig. 360 
Station is right. You will find underneath that mulch 
the soil is moist and cool, just exactly as it is under 
a door or wide plank that lies on the ground. Countless 
earthworms and other insects are found at work under 
the mulch, which had killed out all vegetation as thor¬ 
oughly as cultivation does. There are very few culti¬ 
vators who work their soil more thoroughly during the 
season than the earthworm works under a pile of grass 
or weeds. The ground is honeycombed and the soil is 
thoroughly worked over, brought to the top and back 
again by the insects. This lets the air into the soil, and 
by digging down into it you can easily see that the root 
system is deeper instead of being at the surface. I have 
every reason to believe that one great advantage of 
sowing Red clover with Timothy is that the deep roots 
of the clover, when they decay, open passages down deep 
into the subsoil, while the Timothy roots follow. My 
own mulched trees appear to make their best growth 
later in the season than those that are cultivated, and 
yet I notice that they always harden up the wood and 
are seldom, if ever, injured by frost. 
CROWBAR PLANTING.—I am very confident that 
the root system of a tree can be deepened by cutting 
the roots closely, to short stubs, and planting in small 
holes with the dirt packed hard around the roots. I 
will go so far as to say that this system of planting 
seems to be an essential part in successful sod or mulch 
culture, more so, I think, than where the trees are to 
be cultivated. We have also found that the use of lime 
seems to be of special benefit in connection with a 
thick rotting mulch. If a man were to start out to 
grow trees in this way by simply sticking them into the 
sod, without mulch enough to keep the ground moist, 
I should think it would be the worst thing he could 
possibly do. He would do much better to plow and 
cultivate those trees, or never plant them out. To make 
a fair comparison with cultivated trees we must, as I 
have said, use what amounts to a small haystack around 
each tree. I don’t believe that the mulch system is 
adapted to all conditions. There are, without doubt, 
some sections where thorough culture is more sensible. 
You cannot lay down any cast-iron rules for growing 
a tree, because soil, climate conditions and varieties of 
trees all differ. On some level, naturally moist lands, 
which are naturally grass lands, I can understand why 
sod, not mulch, would pay better than culti¬ 
vation, especially in a very wet season. The 
constantly growing grass would take the sur¬ 
plus water out of the soil, as I believe the 
trouble with such soils is not that there is 
need of more water, but that there is too 
much. When, however, the drought comes, 
such soil, left by itself, appeared to be the 
worst possible place for trees to grow, be¬ 
cause it bakes up as hard as a brick. I have 
found that such soils, especially where they 
are close to rocks, are greatly helped by a thick 
mulch. Therefore, in a wet season I would 
let the grass grow, while in a dry time I 
would cut it and pile it around the trees. I 
think the best success with the mulch system 
will be found where we can start the tree with 
roots closely pruned and keep it mulched. 
ORCHARDS ON ROUGH LAND.—This 
mulch method can be used to good advantage 
on the rough or steep lands where cultivation 
would be out of the question. The trouble is 
to find the mulch. In parts of Ohio and West 
Virginia fruit growers in the hill lands are 
buying straw from the farmers who live on 
the level bottom. In my own case I have used 
weeds, grass, rotten sawdust, brush and any¬ 
thing that will finally rot, with the aid of 
lime around the trees. It may be asked why 
go to this rough land for fruit growing, when 
our best results thus far have been obtained 
on the more level rich land. In my judgment these 
rough hills are to produce the fruit for future millions. 
When this mulch method is more generally understood 
these rough hills can be, and will be, utilized as a busi¬ 
ness proposition. Thus far it has been impossible to 
apply to these hills the methods which have made fruit 
growing a large business. We shall learn in the near 
future that we must adapt our culture to the condi¬ 
tions of the land. Many of our present successful 
orchards are on rich level land that would pay better 
in other crops. I also believe that in the course of 
time insects and fungus diseases will accumulate so on 
these level lands that the business will be far more 
expensive and hazardous. The clean new lands on the 
hills are cheap, because their possibilities in fruit pro¬ 
duction have never been demonstrated. With this new 
system properly worked out, the hill lands are destined 
to revolutionize fruit growing. This will become very 
evident within a few years, when the beautiful fruit 
comes rolling down the hill out of the young orchards 
that are now being started. Above all else let us con¬ 
tradict the impression that this mulch system of rais¬ 
ing fruit is of necessity a lazy man’s method. The 
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