50 Select Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks. 
thoroughly incorporated, and leave the heap till 
required. Other feeding may be given in the liquid 
state while the plants are making growth. 
Sterilising the Soil——Every Carnation grower is 
aware of the danger of introducing wireworm and 
other pests, with virgin soil from a grass pasture or 
other source where the land has long lain in grass. 
Fresh turf should be stacked for a twelvemonth be- 
fore using it for potting purposes, especially if it 1s 
much permeated by the roots of grass and other 
plants. When breaking it up for potting purposes 
the careful cultivator will pay close attention to the 
presence of wireworms, earthworms, and _ other 
undesirable creatures and have them destroyed. 
Such soil may, however, contain various other 
insects, slugs, eelworms, seeds of weeds, and possibly 
the spores of fungi which the eye will be unable to 
detect. At least two methods of sterilising the soil: 
by means of heat have been devised. The older 
idea was to bake the soil on plates of iron over a 
fire, or on flues. While this destroys insects, worms 
and probably seeds of weeds and spores of fungi, it 
has the disadvantage of rendering the soil rather 
inert for the cultivation of plants. 
The other methed of sterilising soil is by means 
of steam. This plan is rather extensively pursued 
in America, where large quantities of soil are re- 
quired for cultivating Carnations and other plants 
on benches. For pot culture, a few hundred plants 
would require but a moderate quantity of soil, and 
means might be devised on many establishments for 
sterilising soil on relatively a small scale. 
A large wooden box without a bottom could be 
stood on wooden, stone, or even earth flooring. A 
short length of inch piping could be fitted up in this 
and connected with a steam boiler used for pumping 
water or driving machinery for the generation of 
electricity. The pipe should have holes drilled in it 
about 341n. in diameter at intervals of 81n. along each 
side. These holes might be bored in opposite pairs 
in the piping, and smaller short pipes made to screw 
into the holes. The main pipe should be closed at 
either end by caps and the steam introduced about 
the niddle. he short, lateral pipes should be open 
at the ends, and he horizontally on the bottom of the 
box or on the ground, so as to distribute the steam 
laterally, and make it permeate the soil instead of 
escaping by the top under pressure from the boiler. 
