1902.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 85 



tioD of healthy and profitable crops. Even when the cum- 

 bersome tile method is employed, the cost of sterilization 

 is less than one-half the cost of removing the old soil from 

 a house and supplying it with new. So universal is this 

 method of treating greenhouses devoted to lettuce, cucum- 

 bers, and in some cases to those devoted to violets, carna- 

 tions, chrysanthemums and roses, that we are unable to give 

 at the present time the number of acres which have been 

 and are being treated. The method, we are told, is to be 

 tried on onions next season grown out of doors. It has 

 already been utilized in the culture of out-door lettuce and 

 celery to a small extent, and tobacco growers are beginning 

 to use sterilized soil in which to start their seedlings. We 

 understand that it costs $65 to weed an onion bed of one 

 acre in extent. It remains to be seen whether the weeds 

 can be eliminated by the use of steam for a less price, to 

 make it an object to use it. Such a treatment would cer- 

 tainly be of great value in the control of smut. 



It is not the object of this division to recommend this 

 method too enthusiastically or as a cure for all difficulties. 

 On the other hand, we are desirous of seeing the method 

 tried wherever there is reasonable possibility of its suc- 

 cess. In the mean time, we prefer to see the method devel- 

 oped as it is now being done, by practical men who have to 

 reckon with the question of dollars and cents, for, after all, 

 they are the ones who must render the final judgment on any 

 process of treatment. Our facilities have not been sufficient 

 to test this sterilization method on a large scale, neither are 

 we confronted with the economic conditions which commer- 

 cial men have. For these reasons we have drawn quite 

 extensively on the results obtained by practical men, 

 who apply the method on a large basis, rather than on our 

 own experiments, in discussing this subject at this time. 



