The Sterile Seed-bed 413 



land. A drill cannot be worked in hard, dense and lumpy 

 soil. Seed-drills, wheel-hoes and smoothing-harrows make 

 better gardeners. If a seed-drill is not used, the seed-fur- 

 rows for ordinary use may be made by drawing the end 

 of a hoe handle or rake forcibly through the soil. A gar- 

 den line should be used to keep the rows straight. 



When sowing in the open, wait until ground and season 

 are ready. Earely is anything gained by sowing before 

 this time. The seeds rot, or the seedlings are weak. The 

 soil must be fitted after the plants are up. Have every- 

 thing ready, then make the plants grow. 



Sterilizing the soil. 



If the soil is infected with damping-off and other fungi, 

 with nematodes (eel- worms) and insects, it may be steri- 

 lized. This is a common practice in greenhouses, and it 

 should be oftener undertaken in hotbeds and outdoor seed- 

 beds. If the soil is exposed to hard freezing, as in the open 

 in the Central and Northern States, the nematodes are dis- 

 patched. Par South, however, they are very troublesome, 

 as also in greenhouses and forcing-houses. One must not 

 run the risk of infecting the garden, even for a single 

 season, with soil or plants from the greenhouse. 



The usual process of sterilization of soil is heating it 

 with steam until a potato buried in it is thoroughly 

 cooked. The outdoor bed is heated by inverting over it a 

 tight metal or board box, four to five inches deep (and the 

 size of the bed or of a part of it), banking the sides well 

 to prevent leaking, and then turning live steam under pres- 

 sure into the box. The steam is provided by a portable 

 boiler or traction engine. It is conveyed to the sterilizing 

 box through an iron nipple inserted in the side or end. 



