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Gardening for Amateurs 



filled into a box or large pot, and boiling 

 water poured on it until that which is 

 draining away is too hot for the hand. 

 In the outside garden, say along a short 

 Sweet Pea trench, the same idea may 

 be carried out. Many gardeners use boil- 

 ing water in a different way ; a large 

 copper or tank is placed over a fire and 

 nearly filled with water, which is brought 

 to the boil. The soil is then filled into 

 pails or pots, and these are held in the 

 water until the soil is too warm for the 

 hand to be passed through it. Such a plan 

 is perhaps a little slower than the former, 

 but it has these merits : that it does not wash 

 any soluble manurial substances away and 

 the soil is ready for use soon after being 

 treated, whereas in the former method it has 

 to be left for a day to dry. With a square 

 tank, a good fire, and a few pails a man will 

 be kept working as hard as he can, and a 

 large amount can soon be treated ; the 

 plan is an excellent one for the amateur. 



Steaming. Owners of large gardens prac- 

 tise the steaming method, and this is the 

 most economical and speediest way of deal- 

 ing with large quantities of soil. Steam is 

 generated in a suitable boiler or engine 

 and passed at a fairly high pressure through 

 iron pipes. Sometimes these pipes are laid 

 flat on the soil, forming a gridiron pattern, 

 and 6 to 10 inches of loose compost are 

 spread on top. When steam is passed through 

 the pipes the compost is thoroughly steri- 

 lised, and the soil underneath the pipes 

 receives treatment at the same time ; large 

 areas can thus be speedily dealt with in a 

 most efficient way. An English Sweet Pea 

 specialist leads a long pipe down each 

 trench he has made, fills in the compost 

 loosely on top, and so sterilises his soil 

 each year. 



Another variation of the same method is 

 to force steam into the earth ; this is gene- 

 rally practised in sandy soils. A long pipe 

 is obtained, with prong tubes 6 inches long 

 and 12 inches apart. The soil to be steri- 

 lised is loosely dug, the prongs are pressed 

 into it with the main pipe on top, and some 

 loose soil piled over it. Steam is then 

 passed at a very high pressure ; it goes 

 down the hollow prongs and hisses out of 

 the narrow openings into the soil. The 



method is rather wasteful, but in quite a 

 short time the temperature rises to about 

 200, and when this is reached the pipe is 

 removed to another part of the garden. 



I have lately seen still another method, 

 where pots are steamed when full of soil. 

 They are placed in a tight receptacle of 

 any kind, and steam is passed into this at 

 as high a pressure as possible until the pots 

 have been enveloped for fifteen minutes in 

 the hot vapour. I have never tried this 

 method, and I consider it slow, wasteful, and 

 unreliable. The method in which a sieve 

 of soil is held over a tank of boiling water 

 until the steam warms it up is also slow 

 and disappointing. 



Baking and Burning. Baking, roast- 

 ing, and burning of the soil has long been 

 in practice among professional gardeners. 

 Soil is spread on a shovel or metal plate to 

 a depth of some 6 inches, and this is then 

 held over a fire until the hand cannot be 

 pressed without discomfort on the top 

 surface. When turves are being treated 

 they need not be broken up ; the grass side 

 is kept next the fire. If the soil is loose, 

 stir it up with a stick to mix it as soon as it 

 is removed from the fire. Remember not to 

 carry this roasting too far ; whenever a 

 heavy smoke is noticed this is a sign that 

 the humus is being destroyed, and the soil 

 must be immediately removed from the 

 fire. 



This baking method cannot be carried 

 out on a very large scale, but the same 

 principle may easily be adopted for a large 

 border. All the rubbish of the year is col- 

 lected and spread over the vacant soil on a 

 dry day ; cuttings, prunings, thorns, hedge 

 clippings, and the like are all added to the 

 heap, and the whole mass set on fire. If 

 this is carried out in late autumn most of 

 the pests are near the surface of the soil, 

 and with a good bonfire truly excellent 

 benefits are obtained. Why burn the rub- 

 bish outside when this plan can be adopted 

 and the rich ashes used to fertilise the 

 garden ? 



Danger and Disadvantages of Heat- 

 ing. " Fire is a good servant, but a bad 

 master." In sterilising soil this is only 

 too true, and the gardener must never heat 

 his soil too much. With boiling water, only 



