146 VEGECULTURE 



STERILIZING THE SOIL. The compost is placed in a large shovel, 

 and held over a fire until it is heated through, so hot that the fingers 

 cannot be borne in it a temperature of about two hundred degrees. 

 This will destroy all insects and fungi which may be in it. Another way 

 is to pour boiling water on the compost, but this makes it very wet, and 

 there is some little danger of the seed rotting instead of coming up if the 

 temperature should be rather low. But the soil should always be thus 

 treated well in advance of the time when it will be used. 



