Show w GOOD MULCH IS VALUABLE Its Application Is an Adaptation of Natures Method of Protecting Plants By J A Legg There Is considerable said of recent years concerning the value of tho mulch for orchards small fruits and Indeed many crops I have noticed where I put a mulch of litter and straw about the apple trees that the small roots take possession pos-session of the soil up to the very surface sur-face Tho trees seem to respond to the mulch especially In dry season If wo go to tho forest wo find that nature keeps the surface of the soil covered with H mulch of leave and trash of one kind I and another Where the ground Is exposed to winds and the leaves are blown away we arc very apt to find dwarfed growth of timber and a 1 pretty badly exhausted soil while the soil where the leaves from these exposed places are deposited Is correspondingly richer A few years ago I was sowing some clover seed At one end of the field there was a small plot of very hard dry clay It had never produced any grain and It had always boon a waste of seed to put It to any crop I had drawn my corn to this corner and husked It and stacked the stover there There was a pretty good coat of shatters scattered over the ground I scattered clover seed over the litter ahd I never saw a better set of clover It grow rapidly until late in the summer sum-mer when a very severe drought sol In which almost killed It out In spite of the mulch The growth of this clover clo-ver was wholly duo to tho mulch on the surface as it would have hardly sprouted without a mulch A few years ago I put some planks over early beans to protect them from frost After the danger of frost was past I put part of them between tho rows and left them for some two weeks The balance were removed entirely There was a rather dry spell while the planks lay on the ground When I removed them I found that the beans where the planks lay between the rows had made double the growth of the ones where the planks had been moved entirely away This was entirely due to the moisture mois-ture saved by the planks acting as a mulch Frequent shallow cultivation makes the surface soil act as a mulch to conserve con-serve moisture |