92 COMMERCIAL ROSE CULTURE 



etc., and may be obtained from the chimneys and boiler flues, 

 but the burned out scrapings from boiler tubes are of no value. 

 They should all be saved when cleaning out flues, etc., and 

 stored away for use. Imported Scotch soot is a good article to buy 

 and is a good fungicide as well as fertilizer. For a topdressing, 

 mix soot with about twice its bulk of good fresh soil which will 

 make less dirt when using it. Spread thinly on the bench, 

 using about one bushel to 500 square feet of bench surface. 

 For liquid feeding, mix with soft water, using one peck of soot 

 to one hundred and twenty gallons of water. This may be en- 

 closed in a bag with a string on the end and shaken around 

 the tank occasionally. Apply this when the plants are growing. 

 It will greatly increase the vigor of stems and foliage and im- 

 prove the color of the flowers. As a preventive of fungous dis- 

 eases soot has been found valuable under glass and outdoors. 

 Dust over the foliage the same as sulphur. If used when the 

 growth is being made, it can be well washed off before the 

 flowers develop. 



THE USES OF LIME 



Lime is a fertilizer and sweetener of the soil that has been 

 used for ages, not so much as a direct fertilizer but as an agent 

 by which insoluble potash is changed into available food. It 

 is possible to use too much lime, for then the soil is depleted 

 of potash, and clay soils may be cemented by its exclusive use. 

 Light sandy soils, as well as clay soils, are benefited by the 

 use of lime. It should always be applied on top of the ground 

 and lightly raked in as it will work downward. 



Agricultural, or land lime, can be bought fairly cheap and 

 is better to use than air slaked lime from the fact that the action 

 of the carbonic acid of the air converts the lime into carbonate 

 of lime (the form in which it existed before being burned). 

 Hydrated lime, sold as land lime, is fresh burned lime slaked 

 and pulverized by machinery. Less of this is required than 



