The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1928-09-14
PAPER USED AS WEED
DEsTROYER

Equally Beneficial Elsewhere
Because a Hawaiian planter rebel
led against weeds In his sugar fields
he invented process that may bring
I the NEEDLESS garden to every yard.
His vision OF plantation devoid OF
noxious growth stimulated him to
work toward realization of the
hopes of gardeners and agriculture
lists throughout the world-a crop
ping system in which the weed is a
thing of the past.
Spreading from sugar to pineap-
pies, the NEEDLESS crop has reached
the American garden through re-
search conducted by scientists of the
United States Department Of Agri-
culture.
The new method, according to
them, brings quicker growth. larger
yields and superior products. COM
bined with the elimination OF hoeiug
and cultivation. Such slight weed
ing as is required is confined to the
actual rows. Wedding between
rows will be needless.
The process that may take the hoe
out of the garden is no more compli-
Gated than papering a room.
The up-to-date crop producer sim
/ ply applies the paper to the floor of
his garden rather than to the inner
He of hic 1xvn1lix,r Tho voror
saturated with asphalt, shuts off the
growth of weeds between rows and
permits the real crop to obtain the
full benefit of the moisture and plant
food contained within the soil.
A few years ago Charles F.. Eek
art, weed-scourged Hawaiian
planter, figured that his cane fields
needed mulch that would not decay
and invite Objectionable growth to
sap the vitality Of his crops. He
conducted experiments with heavy
paper impregnated with asphalt, laid
it over the seed cane and anchored it
at the sides by strip. OF overturned
soil. In these tests it was found
that the sharp shoots Of the cane
pierced the paper, but that the weed
could not penetrate it.
Continued application Of paper in
sugar and pineapple cultivation
made it clear that the new process
did something more than eliminate
the hoe. BY causing an increase in
the temperature of the soil, the pa
per stimulated the micro-organisms
which promote growth; and by pre-
venting evaporation it conserved soil
moisture.
The result has been the striking
increase of production from given
area, attended by quicker maturity.
and the northerly extension of crop
ranges brought about by the short
ened growing season required for
full vegetative development. The
range expansion finds definite DEM
onstration in the recent production
of fine sweet potatoes in Upper YER
mont. region in which previous eff
forts with this crop had failed.
| A home garden at Aurora Hills,
Iva, furnishes an object lesson in
what paper mulch will do for the
American producer of vegetables.
The owner of this plot OF ground is
DR.. L. H. Flint, physiologist for the
UNITED States Department Of Agri-
lculture. In 1925 DIR. Flint conduct
led paper experiments on heavy clay
Isoil. Tomatoes, potatoes and string
beans were, grown in neighboring
rows for purposes of comparison.
On some rows the paper mulch was
employed; on others this protective
towering was absent: AS compared
with the unpapered area, the pro-
tected rows showed 80 per cent in
crease for tomatoes, SO per cent for
potatoes, and 113 per cent for green
beans.
In 1927 the experiments were con-
Quoted on larger scale in the Flint
garden at Aurora Hills, with results
even more startling. Eggplant.
watermelon, cucumbers. peppers and
muskmelons showed increases rang
ing from 43 per cent for the musk
melons to 266 per cent for the water
melon crop. Corn increased ESQ
per cent, while potatoes gained by
Al to in weight of yield to the
average plant.
Coincident with these expert
ments, trials were conducted at the
Arlington Experiment Farm of the
Department of Agriculture. The
tests of 1925 were confined to sweet
potatoes. in which the paper brought
an increase of l26 per cent as COM
pared with yield of adjacent rows
in which the mulch was not employ
ed. In 1926 the farm broadened
the nations cotton belt by a practical
doubling OF the crop poundage to the
acre as compared with paintings In
which the paper did not figure.
Previous experiments without pa
per had shown that Arlington was
definitely north of the area in which
there could be successful cotton rails
ling as originally conducted. In the