216 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
July. 
farteltitril Dmrtment. 
Mulching. 
This process/although known and practiced for 
many years by a few cultivators, has become ex¬ 
tensively adopted only at a very late period.. It 
seems peculiarly adapted to our hot and dry sum¬ 
mers, and operates chiefly in preserving the mois¬ 
ture of the surface, and in preventing the growth 
of weeds. The moisture at the surface of the 
earth from rains and dews is quickly dissipated 
under a hot sun; and if this surface is allowed to 
become covered with a dense growth of living 
grass and weeds, these pump out of the soil and 
throw off into the air a much larger quantity of 
moisture than is evaporated by a bare surface 
of earth only. But if this surface is covered 
with a few inches of old straw, hay or leaves, the 
moisture is retained in the soil, and the growth of 
weeds prevented. As a general rule, we have 
found it most advantageous to leave the surface 
bare and keep the soil well mellowed till near mid¬ 
summer, and then to apply the mulching. For a 
covering of litter, while it promotes the humidity, 
also prevents the heating of the soil, and in this 
way may retard early growth if applied too soon. 
There are exceptions, however; one in the case of 
large, deeply-rooted trees not affected by nor need¬ 
ing mulching, and the other where small plants, 
which are removed .in summer, need the careful 
and constant retention of the moisture of the earth. 
¥e have succeeded^, with scarcely one failure in 
fifty, in transplanting the strawberry in the drouth 
and heat of summer, by simply giving the surface 
a mulching of two inches of barn manure, and on 
which the watering was poured when necessary. 
Indeed, there is nothing that better prevents the 
ill effects of baking by surface watering, than a 
covering of this sort of a moderate depth. Mulch¬ 
ing will, however, promote moisture in the soil, 
even when neither artificial nor natural watering 
is given, simply by arresting such as rises upwards 
through the earth. In one instance a striking illus¬ 
tration of this effect was furnished during a very 
long season of drouth, which injured and threat¬ 
ened to destroy a row of newly transplanted apple 
trees. Their leaves had already begun to turn 
yellow, and growth had ceased, but on coating the 
ground about them with a crop of mown weeds, 
a change was soon effected, and in three weeks 
the leaves had returned to their deep green hue, 
and in some instances growth had recommenced. 
But on no kind of tree is mulching more necessary 
than on newly transplanted cherry trees. Thou¬ 
sands of these are lost every season, after they have 
commenced growing, by the drying heat of mid¬ 
summer, and the evil is sometimes increased by 
superficial watering. A deep mulching will gene¬ 
rally prove a complete remedy if seasonably ap¬ 
plied. 
Some interesting facts on this subject were 
stated, and valuable suggestions made at one of 
the conversational meetings of the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society. S. Walker remarked 
that he had used tan, sawdust, litter, leaves, &c., 
but he believed short, newly mown grass one of 
the best things,—he had mulched a great deal 
with it, and found it laid close to the soil. He 
also recommended the succulent weeds of the gar- 
den or roadside. He found tan and sawdust to be 
useful merely by retaining the moisture. D. 
Haggerston had found sedge from salt marshes 
best, particularly if cut short: a good watering 
upon it. made it lay close to the ground. He found 
it excellent for strawberries. He had also found 
tree leaves excellent, if they had partly decayed, 
so as not likely to be blown away. Old hot-bed 
materials made of leaves and manure had proved 
particularly fine. Several spoke of the ill effects of 
too deep a mulching, but we think the more com¬ 
mon error is in spreading the covering of the soil 
too thinly. 
Mulching is a very easy and cheap practice, and 
the season is now at hand when our readers may 
prove by varying experiments the best mode of 
performance. —— 
Thinning out Vegetables. 
It was Cobbett, we think, that remarked, when 
speaking of the ill effects of thick planting, that one 
cucumber plant in a hill would bear more fruit than 
two, two more than four and so on, and if there 
were fifty plants in.a hill, the whole of them put 
together would bear no cucumbers at all! The 
truth is, there is a much greater loss in allowing 
vegetables to stand thickly together, than most 
are at all aware of. To insure a crop, plenty of 
seed is sown, with the intention of thinning at the 
proper time; but when thinning day arrives, it 
requires rather more nerve to commit what ap¬ 
pears to be the merciless havoc of tearing out 
nine-tenths of the beautifully growing young 
plants, than most persons possess. A crop of 
beets has just commenced forming handsome 
bulbs, precisely one inch asunder in the row; 
certainly something of the boldness of the surgeon 
it needs to lay nine-tenths of these withering in 
the sun—cucumbers are just beginning to throw 
out their runners and to show their yellow blos¬ 
soms, and it seems to some a hard matter to tear 
out three-fourths of the dozen now growing in the 
hill. It must however be done—all the surplus 
plants in a bed of beets or turneps, or in a hill of 
cucumbers, squashes or melons, are to be regard¬ 
ed as so many positive, downright weeds , obstruct¬ 
ing the growth of the rest and yielding but little 
or nothing themselves. If our crops are to be 
crowded and stunted, we would quite as willingly 
have it done with pig-weeds and fox-tail, as to 
have them smothered and the soil exhausted by 
weeds of their own species. 
Many years ago, when the cultivation of the 
ruta baga was first introduced, we could invaria¬ 
bly distinguish the crops of the novice, by the 
thickly growing, half-developed bulbs. “ O! but 
they had thinned them to a very great extent— 
they had cut out three-fourths, and reduced them 
from one inch to four inches in distance,” whereas 
none should ever stand nearer than a foot to each 
other, if the soil possesses any thing like a fair 
degree of fertility; but this looked too much like 
indiscriminate slaughter, and could not be thought 
of for a moment. The finest specimens of garden 
products, which we see exhibited at horticultural 
shows, are those which have been well thinned 
and allowed every opportunity to develop them¬ 
selves freely; and the same is true of orna¬ 
mental plants, where a full, rich, and luxuriant 
growth and bloom, are obtained through the 
adoption of the same principle. 
