RUIT TREE MULCH

Many kinds of material ranging from paper to glass wool have been used
as mulches for fruit trees, discloses J. H. Gourley, of the Department
of Horticulture at The Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. Straw, hay,
and orchard mowings have been most commonly used.

In some areas, sawdust and shavings are available in quantity and have
been used to some extent for mulches which raises the questions of
whether they make the soil acid.

The Experiment Station has used both hardwood and pine sawdust and also
shavings for a number of years in contrast with wheat straw, alfalfa,
timothy, and others. No difference in appearance or behavior of the
trees can be noted. Sawdust packs and gives poorer aeration than straw
and it requires a large amount to mulch a tree. This mass also absorbs a
large amount of rainfall before passing through to the soil but no
injurious effects have been noted.

The chief question has been about soil acidity and it may be stated that
after 12 years of treatment the soil is little or no more acid than it
is under bluegrass sod. The soil under the latter has a pH of 5.22, the
hardwood sawdust 5.07, the softwood sawdust 5.07, hardwood shavings
5.20, and wheat straw 5.35. Contrary to the common conception, no
objection to sawdust from the standpoint of soil acidity is justified
from Station experience.

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TWO FAMOUS TREES

(Taken from "Bruce Every Month," December, 1938, page 17. Published by
E. L. Bruce Company, Memphis, Tennessee.) Living monuments to a great
governor of Texas are two nut bearing trees, a pecan and an old
fashioned walnut. The last wish of Governor James S. Hogg was that "no
monument of stone or marble" be placed at his grave, but instead there
should be planted--"at my head a pecan tree and at my feet an old
fashioned walnut; and when these trees shall bear, let the pecans and
walnuts be given out among the plains people of Texas so that they may
plant them and make Texas a land of trees." His wish has been fulfilled
in its entirety, many trees from these two parent ones adorning the
lawns of schools and court houses throughout the State of Texas.

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OHIO TREES SERIES

No. 1.--Black walnut (Juglans nigra):--Black walnut is one of the most
valuable of the forest trees native to the United States. It is regarded
as the country's premier tree for high grade cabinet wood; it produc