Vol. LXVI. No. 2997 
NEW YORK, JULY 6, 1907. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR. 
soil need not be cultivated or stirred. The trees grow 
in a large plot of fertile soil surrounded by other soil, 
which encloses the fertile plot and by gently dwarfing 
and yet root feeding brings them into bearing in about 
half the usual time, and half the usual space. 2. The 
growing plot can be kept fertile by wood ashes or hen 
or pig or any manure judiciously sprinkled on, or be¬ 
tween the mulches when they are renewed. Coal ashes 
used with muck or dirt in a dust closet are fine. The 
roots will work in the fertile soil, and go away down 
and away up to the mulch, but stay under the tree 
where they are needed. As the tree enlarges so should 
the mulched and fertile circle, and in so doing the 
growth of the tree may be checked, if desired, by root 
pruning, so as to keep it in bearing. Families of earth 
worms do the plowing and digest the leaves into ferti¬ 
lizer; while millions of microbes supply the nitrogen 
from the atmosphere. 3. The pyramidal plan of pruning 
should be adopted when 
the tree is young, so as to 
secure a well-formed head, 
that will need little cutting 
afterwards. Long shoots 
may, instead of cutting, be 
turned in and tied so as 
to give new growth and 
fruit where wanted at the 
bend. Fruit can be thinned 
on such trees and spraying 
easily managed. 4. To 
make sure that the blos¬ 
soms will bear have diver¬ 
sified planting with two or 
three hives of bees. Then 
have pigs enough to make 
sure of a good home mar¬ 
ket, in addition to the 
family consumption the 
year around. Poultry, 
pigs, bees and fruits with 
plenty of corn and clover, 
and a good garden, with 
the. chickens wired out, 
will soon make many an 
old farm and family look 
anything but abandoned 
or worthless. 5. The tools 
necessary, besides good 
head, arms, hands, ax, 
sickle pruner and wheel¬ 
barrow, are a good hoe, 
iron rake, long-handled 
shovel and fork with a 
“Mobile” single wheel hoe, 
cultivator and plow. With 
these even the cow and horse may wait, if only the 
mulching is plentiful. Nor are the woods robbed, for 
grass and clover may take the place of the leaves, where 
the trees are not too thick and the small trees and 
underbrush are kept out or down. Thus mulch and 
leaf culture may restore domestic fruit raising and 
domestic life over thousands of hills and dales where 
it has been supposed that “commercial planting” had 
rendered them impossible, and where it has under the 
old culture. t. b. wakeman. 
DID RUST MEND THE PIPE?—In the Winter of 
1905 our steam pump refused to work, the draft pipe 
evidently being frozen. A three-eighths pipe was in¬ 
serted and the ice located about 75 feet from the boiler. 
This pipe was connected with hose to the boiler, the 
ice melted, but still the pump would not draft, the ice 
having, as we supposed, burst the pipe. The following 
Summer our steam fitter had the pipe uncovered, but 
was unable to find any break. After searching for 
some time he asked for steam, and to our great sur¬ 
prise the pump worked perfectly. The only explanation 
SUMMER DAYS PrAVE COME AT LAST. Fig. 251. 
EXPERIENCE WITH HOME ORCHARDS. 
Mulch and Leaf Culture. 
did well, and came into bearing in about half the usual 
time. After two or three crops the peaches took the 
yellows badly, and had to be cleared out. The other 
trees continued to grow and bear well, and were the 
wonder and curiosity of the neighbors. But in the 
eighth year the wealthy bought the place. The orchards 
were torn out to make lawns and parks—so they ended 
in another “crying disappointment”—but not the fault 
of the mulch. My next attempt was started on a wild, 
mostly deserted stony farm on Hardscrabble Road, at 
North Mianus, Conn. Rocks, stones and hills prevented 
the plowing and strip planting; but rows were indulged 
in where possible, among the swales and pockets of 
good soil, among the rocks and hills. Japan plums were 
the temporary crop instead of peaches, for they do not 
indulge in yellows and borers, and the young fruit has 
a “tang to it” that discourages the larvse of the curculio 
—although she practices industriously. Just as these 
trees were in and began to look up well, I was called 
to Oregon to practice pedagogy, and there I started 
another similar orchard. I was gone six years when 
health failure compelled our (wife and I) return to the 
glacial soil and water of old Connecticut. Our place 
there had been vacant or, worst for the fruit, rented 
meanwhile. And what a sight! The San Jose scale 
and all of the fungi and borers had had their way, and 
most of the trees were dead or dying. The dead were 
replaced, and the sick called back to health by pruning, 
spraying and mulching chiefly with abundant leaves 
from the woods, which prove to be just the thing. The 
trees are doing well. Those which survived are bear¬ 
ing, and the new ones growing hopefully. 
These are my conclusions from these trials and much 
other observation. 1. Mulch, and especially leaf culture 
is the most natural, scientific and best practical method 
of raising all kinds of fruits. The holes or plowed 
trench for planting should be suited to tl^ size and 
nature of the tree, and be filled with good top soil. 
Then if the mulch is put on and kept on, and the neigh¬ 
boring grass an4 weeds are kept down, the rest of the 
Experience has made me an enthusiast on the sub¬ 
ject of the mulch method in orcharding. I am now in 
my seventy-third year; was a farmer’s boy, and though 
a “professional man” for over 40 years I have always 
had one hand in the dirt; have set out five orchards, 
and am now retired to start another on an “abandoned 
farm.” Leaf-mulching is my chief reliance—and this 
is why: I began mulching in a front garden in the 
upper part of New York City in 1859, where I was 
raising dwarf fruits, especially pears and grapes. The 
trees, with roots rather short and smoothly cut, were 
set about three inches deeper than before in a circular 
hole about two feet deep and four feet wide, and filled 
with top soil well packed around the roots. A mulch of 
straw and stable bedding with house and garden litter 
was kept about a foot 
thick, and for three feet 
out from each tree and 
vine; the house slops were 
also thrown around them, 
and some coal and wood 
ashes, but not much. 
Within five years they 
were bearing well and 
then for 15 years they 
were the delight of the 
family and neighbors. 
There were 30 varieties of 
grapes, raised as the news¬ 
papers said, “under the 
law of correlation,” and 
to great satisfaction. In 
time the dwarfs rooted 
into standards, and yet 
bore well—till modern im¬ 
provements demanded 
their home, and many 
eyes not dry saw them cut 
and torn from their soil. 
Meanwhile two orchards, 
apple, pear and other 
fruits had taken their 
place at Oyster Bay, L. I., 
on a different soil, and 
set in a larger application 
of the same method of 
mulching to standard pear 
trees. But neighboring 
woods gave an abundance 
of leaves. These seemed 
to be the true natural 
food of trees, and were 
used in place of other mulch. Some ashes and street 
dirt from the city were occasionally thrown on the 
mulch, and the circle enlarged a foot or so, and the 
grass cut and used for hay, for they were set in sod. 
These trees did well, until they passed into other hands 
and were neglected, so that cattle and blight have 
ended many, but the survivors remember their youthful 
mulch, and gave a fair and surprising crop this year, 
though over 25 years old. 
Meanwhile another orchard (really two) were started 
at Stamford, Conn., to test mulching on a new plan. 
It was in meadow sod, but instead of digging holes 
strips were plowed 25 feet apart and six feet wide, and 
the trees were set in the middle with clean-cut, short¬ 
ened roots—pears and apples in alternate rows, and' 
peaches between the rows for temporary crop till the 
other trees should come to bearing. The grass in the 
meadow was cut and used as mulch on the rows, to¬ 
gether with other growth of weeds, leaves, and stuff 
that could be found, with the usual sprinkling of wood 
and coal ashes. The grass was kept down along the 
rows so as not to draw much from them. All the trees 
