Soils and fertilizers . does a mulch. The results of some experiments insemi-arid Montana indicate a high degree of usefulness forthe mulch. Table 16. — Moisttjrb Content op Mulched and UnmttlchedEastern Montana Soils. Average of Three Years Depth of Sample Percent Moisture in Soil on Oct 6. Firstfoot Second foot Third foot Fourth foot Fifth foot Average Mulched Unmulebed The investigator comments on these results as follows: If the wilting point of this soil is 6 percent, the mulchedarea contains more than twice as much available p
Soils and fertilizers . does a mulch. The results of some experiments insemi-arid Montana indicate a high degree of usefulness forthe mulch. Table 16. — Moisttjrb Content op Mulched and UnmttlchedEastern Montana Soils. Average of Three Years Depth of Sample Percent Moisture in Soil on Oct 6. Firstfoot Second foot Third foot Fourth foot Fifth foot Average Mulched Unmulebed The investigator comments on these results as follows: If the wilting point of this soil is 6 percent, the mulchedarea contains more than twice as much available percent of available moisture by which the mulchedsoil excels the unmulched is equivalent in a five-foot depthto about 250 tons of water, enough to increase the crop bya ton of dry matter. SOIL WATER 77 92. Other devices to prevent evaporation. — Plowing in theearly spring or immediately after taking off a crop ofsmall grain is a means of preventing evaporation. In regions ES»CAPirso moisture: yfctntziltrT HO MlllCh. Fig. 14. — The effect of a soil mulch is to break up the capillary spaceswithin the mulch itself and thus to prevent the upward movement of waterthrough it. Water, therefore, remains in the lower soil instead of evaporat-ing from the surface. This condition is shown in the right-hand no mulch is maintained the soil dries at the surface and then cracks,which allows it to dry more rapidly below. in which grain crops suffer for moisture in the early spring,it is not uncommon for farmers to harrow the small grain,following the drill rows with a spike-tooth harrow with itsteeth turned backwards. This practice is likely to be verybeneficial. 78 SOILS AND FERTILIZERS Windbreaks are effective in decreasing evaporation bylessening the velocity of the wind. King found that evapora-tion from a moist soil was twenty-four percent less at a dis-tance of twenty to sixty feet from a black oak grove than itwas about three hundred feet distant. 93. Rolling and subs
Size: 1566px × 1596px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauth, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfertilizers
