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.. •~ was applied only to 2:1 slopes which are the slopes that mould • be inaccessible to co~eational seed drilling equipment. The drill seedin3 method and straw mulch were applied only to 4:1 slopes because these slopes are accessible to a seed drill and a straw crimper. Excelsior blankets were applied to all slopes and aspects. Mulches are expected to decrease fluctuations 1a soil surface temperature by intercepting some of the solar radiation at the soil surface. The mulch is also intended to " reduce the rate of soil moisture loss because of cooler soil temperatures, and diminished exposure to air movement at the surface. Figure 2.1-1 is a diagram of the plot design. Due to space con- straints, only one control renlicatinn vas installed for each mixture on each slope. The lack of control replication, and the lack of all possible mulch treatments oa all slopes results is as unbalanced statistical design. The effect of this design on the statistical analysis is dis- cussed is the Data Analysis section. '~ 2.2 Plot Construction "F" seam coal refuse was provided by Atlantic Biehfield for the purposes of this research. Th1s material is composed mainly of roof sad floor shales and sandstones, and vas estimated to be similar to the waste material which will be generated by the coal preparation pleat. This refuse material vas pushed into a pile and graded to create the eonfigureatioa shove in Figure 1 an Bear Coal Company property near Somerset, Colorado (T 13S, R 90W, Sec 9). Grade sad height for the pile were established by a surveyor. The pile was assembled with a front-end loader, which permitted a close approximation of the desired slope grades, but also resulted in some variability is grade across the plots. The plots were completed in September and October 1977. Ten 2:1 plots sad tea 4:1 plots were created oa both the north sad i~ south slopes of the refuse pile. The 2:1 plots measured approximately 3