50 Years Ago
In arboriculture the word 'mulch' is usually associated with the compost of wet leaves, straw, etc., laid as a protection to the roots of newly planted or young trees, especially on inherently dry soils ... In the autumn number of the Esso Magazine (1962), an informative and well-illustrated account of a petroleum mulch evolved by Esso Research is given ... Briefly, this type of mulch is in fact an inexpensive emulsion of petroleum resins, used as an agricultural spray for improving the growth and yield of crops of all kinds. Its function is four-fold: to warm the soil, to reduce evaporation, to protect against soil-erosion, and to retard the dispersal by rain-wash and other agents of vital mineral and chemical constituents in the soil growth-zones wherever it is used ... Tests on cotton plants in Arizona in 1960 revealed that where this mulch was used, twelve days after planting, 121,900 plants per acre had emerged as against 8,710 per acre on the control area. The final yield in bales per acre was 2.2 with mulch and 1.65 without, an increase of 34 per cent.
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