32 THE BANANA 



tion ; a mulch eight inches deep saved about 88 per cent., 

 and a mulch ten inches deep stopped evaporation almost 

 wholly." 



The Principal of the Lichtenburg Dry Land Station in 

 the Transvaal, according to United Empire (February 

 1913), has just reaped a crop of wheat which has been grown 

 this season without a drop of rain from seed-time to 

 harvest. This result is advanced as signal testimony to 

 the possibility of successful dry farming in the more arid 

 parts of the Union. 



Dry Mulch. Dry mulching is a covering of cut grass or 

 suitable " bush," and Dr. Watts has proved that the 

 prevention of water evaporation from the soil by this 

 means is more important than any system of artificial 

 manuring. It takes * three or four acres of good Guinea 

 grass to mulch one acre of bananas. The grass should be 

 wilted in the sun for a few days before handling. Wherever 

 the mulch rots down so as to expose the soil, it must be 

 immediately renewed. 



Mr. Barclay writes in Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural 

 Society (November 1910) : " There are bananas now being 

 grown on soils and in climates that a few years ago would 

 have been deemed absolutely unsuitable to grow bananas 

 commercially. Bananas of as good grade as anywhere 

 else are grown now in the red soils of St. Ann, and in the 

 rather dry soils of Trelawney, with a low rainfall. These 

 soils are first thoroughly forked, and then immediately 

 mulched heavily with Guinea grass. It costs about 2 10*. 

 per acre per annum to keep the plants mulched all through 

 to the depth of a foot or more, but then there is little, if 

 any, weeding to be done, and no forking for as long as two 

 years. Only when the bananas are grown out of the soil 

 forking has to be done, and the mulch turned in. The 

 surface mulch keeps the ground soft, and cool, and moist, 

 so that in these rather dry climates the expense of the 

 production of bananas is not greater in the end than in 

 districts of heavy rainfall." 



* H. Q Levy in Journ. Jam. Agric. Soc., xvi. 248 (1912), 



