) CIRCULAR 77, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
the use of type-A paper in 18-inch widths was used. The paper 
was laid over slightly ridged rows and held with soil over the de- 
pressed edges. Suitable provision for transplants or for plant 
emergence was-made by splitting or cutting out disks at the desired 
intervals—a somewhat laborious process at present but one which 
can readily be handled at the paper mills if trials appear to warrant 
it. It is quite possible, moreover, that the machine laying of such 
prepared paper may be synchronized with the pianting. 
In the third method, as applied to the growing of drilled crops in 
field culture, accurately spaced machine seeding has been immediately 
followed by the iaying of strips of type-A paper held with staples, 
stapled laths, or edgings. Protection against wind damage was hard 
to secure with this method and type-A papers, and it constituted the 
most difficult problem in the use of paper mulch with drilled crops. 
A further problem was that of hand weeding within the row without 
destroying the paper. This method is shown in Figure 3. 
The above method 
was also used in the 
culture of celery, 
following accu- 
rately spaced field 
planting, and for 
various flowering 
plants grown for 
bulb or cut-flower 
production. 
Figur» 3.—Method of applying strips of paper mulch in In the th ir d 
block formation, as used with drilled crops in field cul- : : 
ture and in home gardens method, as applied 
to the growing of 
young evergreens, boxwood, and various types of perennial nursery 
stock, the laying of strips of type-B paper followed the lining out of 
the plants at suitably spaced intervals. The paper was held with 
wire staples, stapled laths, or edgings. 
A modification of the third method, as apphed to the growing of 
nursery stock, consisted in the use of a strip of paper with notches 
2 inches deep cut along one side at the desired intervals. Following 
the laying of one strip of this paper the plants were set within 
these notches, and the soil was leveled. The second strip of paper was 
then overlapped with the straight edge touching the plant stalks and 
held with stapled laths. Three holes were made in each lath, one 
near each end and one in the center, and through these holes were 
inserted straight wire pegs of No. 10 wire, 10 inches long and pro- 
vided with a double bend at the top to hold the lath. This method 
proved very effective protection against wind damage except under 
conditions of pronounced soil heaving with frost, and had the ad- 
vantage of a practically complete weed suppression. 
fn home gardens all three of the above methods were used with 
both the A and B types of paper. The type-B paper was clearl 
indicated as much more desirable for ali home-garden purposes. 
for ornamental home plantings the paper was covered with pine 
straw to efface the somewhat unsightly appearance of the black paper. 
