Show MULCHING THE SOIL TO SAVE MOISTURE covering must be the kind that will not blow away dust duct and straw except in orchards or berry patches not satisfactory water will ate quickly prepared by the th united states department 0 of agriculture thirty years of investigation by the united states department of agriculture and the much longer experience of practical formers farmers have demonet demonstrated rat that about the only way of 0 conserving soil moisture for the use of agricultural plants in the regions of scanty rainfall Is to provide a suitable seedbed seed teed bed for their germination and early growth and to prevent useless weeds that would otherwise compete coral ete with them theoretically leallY covell ng or mulching the soil tor for tile the purpose of preventing the loss of soil moisture Is very efficient practically it has very narrow limitations there are several things required of a soil covering or mulch besides simply preventing the loss of mols tui litt 1 e among these may be mentioned tile the following it must stay put that t Is to say it must be of such h character rac that it will not be blown aft aay ay by the high winds common to all arid regions tills this rules out nut all dust arid and straw mulches mulbe except possibly in orchards or berry patches and in them tile araw ornia boulch is frequently objectionable tio on oil of its harboring har borine rodents especially field mice A soil covering must anif t lot rain into the soil this rules out tile the dust Is almost it if not quite ho impervious pervious to rainfall as it 11 puddles producing a sheet of paste over tile the surface fac that prevents the lla water front from reaching the roots of tit lie crop plants A straw mulch it if thick enough to prevent tile growth ol 01 weeds will absorb most if not all of in an ordinary rainfall the water oater thus absorbed will evaporate very quickly quI eLly as soon as the rain ceases and the sun begins to shine on the mulch neer reaching the h roots of the rop crop plants the heating of the soil by the suns rays and its aeration by exposure to the winds are important factors in the growth of agricultural crops many wild woods and swamp plants thrive without these conditions but nearly linearly all of our agricultural plants have been developed devel Olied through long periods of time in toil soil open to the afree tree acceus t ot of the sun run and the wind band and these conditions seem to have become necessary to ther their fullest development |