l8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



lamp, however, one can become a really veracious " weather" prophet 

 and announce that there is to be a very warm time for the weeds. 

 If the surface is shghtly disturbed with the iron hook, whilst the 

 lamp is being used, the permanence of effect is more marked than 

 if the surface is untouched ; moreover, any casual larger weed may 

 be made to suffer. Lastly, the lamp may be used for soil sterilization, 

 by heat, on a comparatively small scale. For this purpose a piece 

 of pipe, such as 2 J or 3 inch spouting, preferably with a bend attached 

 to the end, is buried in the soil, and the flame of the lamp directed 

 into the pipe, at the other end of which a broken crock may be used 

 as a damper. By moving or changing the soil with a trowel or a 

 spade a considerable amount of soil may be heated without any 

 elaborate preparation. In the coming season, I design treating 

 some patches in the open for seed-beds, and a narrow border by a 

 wall which has had two successive tomato crops upon it. 



The blow-lamp has a considerable range of usefulness in the garden, 

 first to destroy young weeds, second to prevent weeds from seeding, 

 third to destroy some pests, fourth to sterilize soil by heat, and 

 lastly to tidy up a green or weedy path at very short notice. 



Notwithstanding the addition of explosives and blow-lamps to our 

 gardening apparatus, I think that you will probably agree with me 

 that we have not yet arrived at a sort of horticultural millennium 

 when all the deep cultivation will be done with explosives, when the 

 ordinary digging will be replaced by injections of carbon disulphide 

 or toluene, when the surface weeding will be done with the blow-lamp, 

 and specimens of the spade and the fork become some of the most 

 valued antiques in a museum of a Royal Horticultural Society. 



