200 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Maz., 1902. 
The advantages of mulching may be summed up as follows :— 
“(i) During the hot and dry summer months it prevents excessive 
evaporation from the soil, and thus not only preserves the moisture 
for the roots to absorb, but it also prevents the soil from becoming 
excessively hot by day, and cold by night, thus maintaining a more 
regular temperature. 
(Gi) In winter it protects the roots from frost, and also keeps the soil 
warmer. 
Git) When a rich mulch is applied to newly planted trees, shrubs, or 
vegetables, it not only has the above advantages, but the manurial 
matters contained in it are washed down into the soil and enrich it 
with food for the benefit of the newly formed or forming roots. 
(iv) A good mulching of rich manure to all kinds of fruit trees after 
they have set their fruits is highly benefieial in assisting them to 
swell rapidly and ripen more quickly. Once a piant—no matter 
whether a tree, shrub, or annual—begins to develop fruit and 
seeds, a demand is made upon its reserve materials. If these are not 
quite sufficient to meet the demand, it is easy to conceive that the 
extra food supplied by means of a good mulching will supply the 
deficiency.” 
On the subject of winter mulching the Fruitgrower remarks :— 
“Do winter mulches do harm or good? This may seem a curious question 
to many readers, but there is so much difference of opinion as to what consti- 
tutes a mulch that we are not surprised such a question should be put. Some 
say winter mulches do harm, that they are cold, or keep the soil cold, and 
consequently retard growth. Well, that again depends not only upon the 
nature of the mulch, but the season. What is a mulch? Well, a mulch, 
broadly speaking, may be made of anything almost, used as a covering round 
the roots of a bush or tree, or on the top of a bed. In summer we put on 
a mulch to certain crops to keep the roots cool, and that coolness comes 
from preventing the heat of the sun striking into the soil covered. It retards 
maturity, and is useful to that end, always provided that mulch is damp and 
of a lower temperature than the soil itself. Now, with regard to the winter 
mulch. Does it retard growth and do harm to crops? ‘hat, to a very great 
extent, depends upon the nature of the mulch and the conditions. For 
instance, a man claims that a winter mulching of stable manure acts as a cold 
sheet and retards growth, but, at the same time, he fails to see that a mulch 
of stable manure may not, properly treated, be itself of a lower temperature 
than the soil. If not, how can it retard growth? Take our mulch; it is 
composed of stable manure and loam, well mixed. It would never do to say 
that the application of such a blanket in winter time to the strawberry bed 
and plant could keep them cold and thus retard growth. On the contrary, it 
would protect the rootlets from a very severe and destructive frost, and furnish 
them with a good supply of plant food at the same time. We claim that the 
free use of this mulch, made up as it is of short stable manure only and loam, 
is productive of wonderful results, and especially when put on strawberry beds 
which are two years old and more. No grower can test this method without 
seeing that the improvement in the health of the plants and the size and 
quantity of the fruits are most marked, and when once used it will never be 
discarded. We quite agree that to throw on a lot of hard cakes of coarse 
manure loaded with straw and general refuse may retard the growth of an 
asparagus bed if it is done under certain conditions, but even only then. In 
winter—that is, when wintry weather prevails—the soil is as cold as it can well 
be, and whether wet mulch be put on or not will not make any difference. 
In open weather it is well, naturally, for the air and light to act on the soil; 
that is why such a mulch if used should be removed when the weather is open, 
to induce early growth.” 
: 
| 
