AN AGRICULTURAL DISCOVERY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19056, 8 July 1924, Page 9

AN AGRICULTURAL DISCOVERY

While heretofore Burbank, the Californian plant wizard could boast of having made two potatoes grow where only one grew before, now an innovation in agriculture is supplying the way for any man. woman or child who has a garden to do likewise. And the factor which supplies this possibility is known technically as Pabco Thermo-Gen. It is an asphalt-treated felt used for covering the soil and serving to increase the growth of-plants, it is laid in rows on the soil, and causes the retention of heat and moisture in the ground. And it Is doing something which is causing farmers of the Pacific Coast to watch the experimental work being conducted with interest; it is killing Morning Glory, the bane to the farmer’s existence. The invention was evolved by C. F. Eek eart, of Hawaii .after years of toil and exepcrimentlng. Tn the islands tne new idea was first used to stimulate the growth of pineapples. It stimulated them to the extent of 40 per cent., and became such an important adjunct to the cultivation of these delicacies that to-day virtually every grower uses it. Scores of tests have proved successful: others nre still in their experimental stage, with indications pointing toward eventual, success. At the University of California’s experimental station at. Davis the new moisture retainer was used , with great success in cultivating the I growth of raspber’'«*.—The New I York American. 1