1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
799 
MARSH HAY STRAWBERRY MULCH. 
We have been unable to get clean straw for mulching, so 
have procured marsh hay for the purpose. IIow thickly 
should this be applied? May it be placed directly over the 
plants as thickly as straw, or only sparsely, lest it smother 
the plants? May it be applied as early and left as late as 
straw? There was some swamp goldenrod, wild sunflower 
and a little seed of marsh grasses in the material. Will 
these grow on high ground in the beds? Grass was cut 
about the middle of August. H. 
Michigan. 
Marsh hay is an excellent material for mulching 
strawberries, and those so fortunate as to have it avail¬ 
able, as a rule, prefer it to straw. There is no danger 
of injuring the vines by a moderately heavy applica¬ 
tion, but, of course, if used in too great a quantity, 
would be injurious to the plants if left on the rows 
too late in Spring. A mulch that will cover the 
plants just out of sight is a sufficient application of 
any material. I am not sure that the swamp golden- 
rod referred to is our common goldenrod. However, 
there is always more or less danger in applying mulch¬ 
ing material containing weed or grass seeds. Some of 
the sedges have been known to give trouble in the 
strawberry bed by having 
been introduced through 
mulching with marsh hay. 
F. H. BALLOU. 
With the exception of 
the grass and weed seeds 
it may bring in, marsh hay 
is just as good for straw¬ 
berry mulch as clean 
straw, and can be applied 
fully as heavily. My plan 
is to wait until the ground 
is frozen in the Fall, then 
cover the entire field, say 
two inches deep, or a cov 
ering that will take about 
two or three tons of mulch 
hay per acre. 
J. H. HALE. 
I have never had any ex¬ 
perience with marsh hay 
because of the expense of 
getting it here, but have al¬ 
ways thought it would 
make an ideal mulch. It 
would lie a little closer 
than straw, so would prob¬ 
ably need to be applied a 
little more sparsely. 
THOMAS R. HUNT. 
Excepting good stable 
manure, salt hay or mead¬ 
ow grass, as it is some¬ 
times called, is perhaps the 
best mulching material for 
covering the strawberry bed 
and protecting the plants in 
Winter. Referring to salt 
hay, it should be under¬ 
stood that we mean the 
grass that grows on that 
part of the meadows that is 
very frequently covered 
with salt water at full tides, 
and where but few other 
grasses appear to thrive; 
consequently there are but 
few weed seeds in such 
grass, while the grass or 
hay that is cut on swampy 
meadows, containing more 
or less weeds and wild 
flowers, is quite objection¬ 
able, and should never come in contact with cultivated 
soil. The greatest objection we find, however, in 
using salt hay for Winter covering, is to keep it 
where you want it until packed down by the Winter 
rains and snow. It has been our experience that in 
exposed places the high winds will invariably blow it 
away unless weighted down by soil or some other 
method. But where it can be placed evenly about one 
inch thick and kept in place, on such plants as straw¬ 
berries, spinach and pansies, it is indeed a most ex¬ 
cellent Winter protection. Some years ago, before we 
began to use stable manure altogether for mulching, 
it was our usual custom to buy the bottom layer of 
the salt haystacks. This is usually cheap, because 
unfit for baling and packing purposes, but somewhat 
better for a mulch material than the better grade. 
This is usually damp and partly rotten, and is there¬ 
fore not difficult to keep in place. Where strawber¬ 
ries are grown in the matted row there is very little 
danger of smothering the plants to any extent, as 
there is always an abundance of plants in Spring and 
they will usually stand thick enough for good results. 
But when the plants are confined to the hill system or 
spaced evenly in rows, they attain a-large size and 
contain several fruiting crowns each, and the loss of 
many such plants means considerable; therefore, it 
pays well to do the job right by first placing the ma¬ 
terial on either side of the plants, and under the 
leaves, leaving the crowns only uncovered until later. 
When the ground is once frozen hard, then cover 
lightly the entire plant with the hay, thereby keeping 
the frost in the ground until Spring if possible. Do 
not uncover in Spring until the frost is entirely out 
of the ground, and the plants show signs of growth; 
then remove ha'y from the crowns only. Plants thus 
treated will always come through the Winter in fine 
shape, and sometimes without the loss of any foliage. 
I have for the past 35 years always covered my 
strawberries with fine salt marsh hay. I never use 
the three-square (as it is called), because it is too 
light and blows off with but little wind. The fine 
salt hay, if cut early, will not seed the land and the 
wind does not blow it off. I commence to cover soon 
as ground freezes (before the snow falls), here about 
December 1; cover all vines about one inch deep, or 
just deep enough so that the plants or leaves do not 
show through, and warm suns in Winter do not 
thaw the ground under the covering. If covered too 
deeply mice are apt to work under it and thus injure 
the plants. The only object in covering the plants is 
to keep the ground from thawing on warm days in 
Winter. If salt hay cannot be obtained, then light 
layers of cornstalks, dry straw or any other material 
that is clean or free from seed, and will not blow off, 
will do. I always take off the covering as soon as it 
is done freezing and grass starts in Spring; then as 
soon as I clean out my strawberries by hoeing and 
the vines commence to bloom (here about first of 
May), I put the salt hay between the rows as close 
as possible to the vines in order to keep the fruit 
clean. This acts as a good mulch, and keeps the 
ground moist in dry weather and prevents weeds from 
coming up between the rows. henry jerolaman. 
MORE ABOUT BONE FERTILIZERS . 
Does not your article on “Fertilizers With a Bone 
Basis” on page 682 leave out of consideration a very 
important point? Your comparison, as far is it goes, 
is correct, but it proceeds on the assumption that bone 
basis means ray/ bons, As a matter of fact, tbs term, 
as it is generally used in the trade, means a fertilizer 
in which the phosphoric acid is derived from (al¬ 
leged) dissolved bone in whole or in part. Now dis¬ 
solved bone reverts as rapidly, under the same condi¬ 
tions, as dissolved phosphate rock, and the one is no 
more lasting in its effects than the other. Of course 
raw bone is a very valuable and lasting fertilizer, being 
rich in nitrogen as well as in phosphate of lime, but 
the farmer who is fertilizing for a particular crop, 
and aims to supply its special needs, should be warned 
that it will be necessary to allow for the fact that only 
a portion of the plant food in the raw bone will be 
available for the growing crop, while the phosphates 
of the acidulated rock or bone are all available, and, 
if intelligently applied, will nearly all be used by the 
crop, leaving little to be lost by reversion. If the ap¬ 
plication is excessive, there is doubtless loss, but how 
many farmers give their crops more fertilizer than 
they will greedily take up? Put a couple of sacks 
of acid phosphate on an acre of hungry cabbages, and 
how much of it will they allow to revert? So far as 
the writer’s observation and reading go, there seems 
to be no tangible difference 
between acid phosphate 
from bone and that from 
rock, but there is a very 
great difference in the 
price. Add to this the fact 
that many of the alleged 
bone fertilizers derive their 
phosphoric acid from phos¬ 
phate rock in fact and it 
seems to me the farmer 
should view with doubt the 
claims of the bone-basis 
agent. a. a. b. 
North Carolina. 
R. N.-Y.—We answered 
the question just as it was 
put. A fertilizer was of¬ 
fered in which the phos¬ 
phoric acid was guaran¬ 
teed to be from bone. We 
think that comparatively 
little raw bone is now 
used. Most of it is 
steamed to extract the fat 
or glue. The best bone 
goods are now ground to a 
fine powder, which makes 
then more available. We 
understand that soluble 
phosphoric acid in dis¬ 
solved rock begins to “re¬ 
vert,” or combine with other 
substances very quickly af¬ 
ter being put in the soil. 
If it remained an entire 
season without change 
what our friend says would 
be entirely correct, but it 
does not do so. When the 
dissolved rock is used year 
after year, especially on 
sandy land, a good share 
of the soluble phosphoric 
acid is made insoluble. By 
all means avoid paying 
money for “alleged bone.” 
Never pay extra for 
“bone” goods unless you 
feel sure that the guarantee 
which goes with them is ab¬ 
solutely reliable. A good 
microscope will usually 
show the difference between bone and acid rock. 
A TAXATION TALK. 
I was much interested in A. C. P., page 715, on 
“Tax Improvements,” and he struck a “keynote” when 
he wrote: “It is well to think about the effect of our 
tax laws, and consider how they can best be changed.” 
I have been assessor in my town for 10 years, and am 
now more fully convinced than ever that there should 
be a change in our tax laws. The assessment of all 
railroads in this State should be done by the State Tax 
Commissioners. As it is now along the lines of some 
railroads, appeal day has to be adjourned one to two 
weeks to accommodate the lawyers and tax agents as 
they must meet the assessors at several places along 
i le railroad. In case they bring suit for a reduction of 
their assessment and the town has “grit” to defend it, 
the case is drawn out and runs for years, and perhaps 
the assessors are dead before the case is decided. I 
have in mind a poor town that is now defending its 
third suit against a railroad company. This last suit 
has run for five years, and the evidence that has been 
collected runs up to thousands ox pages, and the rail¬ 
road’s lawyer has gone from house to house collecting 
evidence ; even asked for the income from a few hens 
New York. s, f, 
ROSE KAISERIN AUGUSTA VICTORIA. MUCH REDUCED IN SIZE. Fig. 401 / 
See Ruralisms, Page 804. 
