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The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



JuNB 2, 1004. 



Scale D. — Scale of points on apeclmen blooms 

 Cor commercial purposes. 



Color 25 



Form 25 



Fulness 16 



Size 16 



Stem and foliage 10 



Substance ._. 10 



100 

 Scale E.— Scale of points on specimen blooms 

 Cor exhibition purposes. 



Distinctiveness 25 



C!olor 16 



Form 15 



Size 16 



Stem 10 



Foliage 10 



Fulness lo 



WO 



Brian Boru. 



SOIL STERILIZATION. 



We print below some extracts from 

 an interesting lecture on this subject de- 

 livered before the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society by Prof. G. E. Stone, 

 of the Hatch Experiment Station, Am- 

 herst, Mass. 



The treatment of soil by heat, or 

 sterilization as it is called, has been car- 

 ried on at the Hatch Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Amherst, for some years in con- 

 nection with troublesome organisms 

 which thrive in the! soil and prevent the 

 production of healthy crops. It should 

 be borne in mind, however, that when 

 we speak of sterilization of the soil we 

 do not mean absolute sterilization, but 

 what we actually accomplish is a sort 

 of Pasteurization or partial steri^za- 

 tion; in other words, our soil is steril- 

 ized so far as the presence of some 

 obnoxious organism is concerned. Cul- 

 tures of soil treated with steam which 

 attained a temperature of 212 degrees F. 

 would show a considerable bacterial flora, 

 and the subsequent and continual ex- 

 posuref of the soil to the air and the ap- 

 plication of water will enable the soil 

 to become subsequently supplied with a 

 host of organisms which are beneficial, 

 indifferent or otherwise. In order to 

 obtain absolute sterilization and main- 

 tain those conditions we? would have to 

 make use of the methods employed by 

 bacteriologists. Absolute sterilization 

 we do not desire; and all that it is nec- 

 essary to accomplish is to destroy the 

 obnoxious pests which cause damage to 

 the crop. A uniform temperature of 

 180 degrees F. maintained for a short 

 time would accomplish this, but in prac- 

 tice it is far better to exceed this tem- 

 perature in order to be on the' safe side. 

 « • • 



The heating by steam is now done 

 largely by the aid of perforated pipes 

 and in some cases use is made of two- 

 inch porous tile, although this method 

 is not so practicable. If finefly perfor- 

 ated tile could be obtained in the mar- 

 ket at a reasonable cost their use would 

 be of much more value for this purpose 

 than at present. The various contriv- 

 ances made out of perforated pipe vary- 

 ing from one inch to three inches in di- 

 ameter and usually placed from seven 

 to twelve inches apart are made up into 

 frames from ten to twenty feet or more 

 in length and into any desired width. 

 The size and number of the perforations 

 vary much in different appliances. 

 Where they are rather large (one-fourth 

 inch) they are frequently covered with 

 burlap. In some appliances the per- 

 forations are one-fourth inch in diameter 

 and are only one and one-half inches 

 apart each way; in others the perfora- 

 tions may be only one-eighth" inch in 

 diameter and from three to six inches 



apart with two or three rows of such 

 holes extending along the pipe. Some 

 of these appliances are not made up into 

 permanent frames but are in sections 

 easily put together or taken apart and 

 are so constructed that they can be 

 readily extended to any length or width 

 desired. These forms are provided with 

 headers placed transversely which are 

 pipes of larger diameter containing per- 

 forations, and nipples are inserted at in- 

 tervals which readily fit into the exten- 

 sion pipes. In some instances the head- 

 ers are placed at each end, thus form- 

 ing with the extension pipes a frame 

 composed of a series of rectangles. In 

 this form a complete circulation of steam 

 can take place through the apparatus. 

 In othets the headers are in the middle 

 and the extension pipes lead off into oo- 

 posite directions. In the latter case the 

 ends of the extension pipes are plugged 

 with wood and no circulation of steam 

 takes place. 



• • • 



The methods generally adopted by let- 

 tuce growers in heating their soil is to 

 place the sterilizer on the surface of the 

 bed. If the bed is twenty feet wide then 

 it would be most convenient to have the 

 sterilizer ten feet wide and twenty or 

 thirty feet long. This is placed midwav 

 in the bed and the soil to the depth of 

 one foot or more is dug up on either 

 side and thrown on top of the sterilizer. 

 The steam is then turned on and the 

 soil heated. After sufficient steaming 

 has taken place the pipes can be pulled 

 out and made ready for the next treat- 

 ment. The soil previously treated is cov- 

 ered up with old canvass and allowed 

 to stand some hours, after which the 

 top portion is shoveled back to where it 

 was taken from. Not only is the one 

 foot or fifteen inches of top soil heated 

 by this method, but the soil underneath 

 the apparatus is equally well sterilized, 

 providing too much haste is not made in 

 removing the treated soil. 



• • • 



Mr. W. W. Rawson claims that it cost 

 him $50 to sterilize a house three hun- 

 dred by forty feet which would be at 

 the rate of about $4.16 per one thou- 

 sand cubic feet. This is undoubtedly 

 a very fair estimate of what it costs to 

 sterilize soil when undertaken on a large 

 plan. 



Mr. Sargent maintains that two men 

 can sterilize a house one hundred and 

 sixty by fcwty-five feet with his apparatus^ 

 in three days. Assuming that it will 

 take forty-two cents worth of coal to 

 heat one thousand cubic feet of soil to- 

 gether with the labor required in setting 

 up the apparatus it would cost about 

 $1.66 to sterilize one thousand cubic 

 feet. This is assuming that the boiler 

 is already in operation for heating the 

 houses and a fireman is employed to run 

 it. It should be understood that there 

 is no shoveling of the soil required with 

 the "use of this sterilizer, hence we 

 should expect a saving of expense. When 

 soil can be sterilized at $2.00 per one 

 thousand cubic feet or even at $5.00 

 there is no longer any question concern- 

 ing the practical application of this 

 method in greenhouses for the exter- 

 mination of some of its worst enemic* 

 which interfere with the production of 

 healthy and profitable crops. Even whero 

 the cumbersome tile method is employed, 

 the cost of sterilization is less than one- 

 half what it costs to remove the old soil 

 from a house and supply it with new. 



It is not possible for us to give an 

 adequate estimate in dollars and cents 

 as to the amount of money that has been 

 saved by the practice of sterilization, as 

 we do not know the amount of loss ex- 

 perienced by floriculturists and market 

 gardeners in this state due to infested 

 soils. The value of any method of treat- 

 ment will not be considered for one year 

 alone but for a period of years in order 

 to obtain an idea of its full significance. 

 As a rule lettuce growers have suffered 

 a loss of from fifteen to fifty per cent 

 from the "drop" alone and in some in- 

 stances even greater losses have taken 

 place. There are, however, other bene- 

 ficial results derived from the practice 

 of sterilization other than those of rid- 

 ding the soil of disease producing germs. 

 Some market gardeners have practiced 

 sterilization for three years, not whollv 

 for the sole purpose of ridding the soil 

 of certain disease producing organisms, 

 as that can be accomplished by one treat- 

 ment when properly done, but largely 

 for the purpose of increasing their crops. 

 We have made many experiments with 

 various crops in which the growth of 

 plants in sterilized soil was compared 

 with the growth of the same species of 

 plants in precisely similar earth not 

 sterilized. The effect of sterilization is 

 quite marked in such experiments. 



For the purpose of determining on a 

 larger scale than we had heretofore 

 shown the effect heating the soil had 

 upon the acceleration of a crop of let- 

 tuce we grew a crop from the seed to 

 maturity in sterilized and unsterilized 

 soil. The results showed a gain of 

 thirty-three per cent in weight in favor 

 of the sterilized plats. Plants grown in 

 sterilized soil are always lighter colored, 

 more tender and it is not a difficult task 

 for an expert to pick out such plants 

 in the market. Neither is it difficult to 

 ascertain from market specimens what 

 temperatures lettuce crops have gener- 

 ally been subiect to. In houses where 

 the soil has been treated twice the dif- 

 ference in the color of plants is very 

 marked indeed showing that the pro- 

 longed heating of the soil is m^c^ more 

 favorable to the growth of the plant 

 than a brief period of heating. 



There was two and two-tenths per 

 cent more water in those plants grown 

 in treated soil than in the untreated as 

 well as a corresponding decrease in the 

 unburned residue representing organic 

 matter, ash constituents, etc. From the 

 color and texture of the lettuce grown in 

 sterilized soil this might be expected. 



A BIG BLAZE. 



Under the above heading and with 

 the sab-head "Elwell's Greenhouse on 

 Fire," the following appeared in the 

 Sioux Falls Leader for May 14: 



"Fire Chief McKeever was called to 

 Elwell's greenhouse, 1015 S. Main, which 

 he found ablaze with scarlet geranium 

 blossoms. Water was of no avail, as it 

 only increased the ruddy glow; so the 

 chief decided to reduce the fiery aspect 

 by ordering a quantity of plants for 

 bedding purposes, and declared that it 

 was the only blaze in the city that he 

 had failed to extinguish. The green- 

 house contains an ezcelloot Btock of the 

 best kinds of plants for beds and win- 

 dow boxes and is quite worth a visit." 



Brooklyn, N. Y. — Hitchings & Co. are 

 building a house 28x115, for J. M. Keller, 

 451 Sixtv-sixth street. 



