C»e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
32S 
Steam Sterilization of Soil 
Outdoor Work. —In soveral different 
is.sne.s of The R. N.-Y., have recently no¬ 
ticed queries and ai'ticles regarding soil 
sterilization. The past Summer we ster¬ 
ilized a plot of ground outdoors, 50x250 
feet, and two greenhouses, each 45x225 
feet. The methods employed and the re¬ 
sults obtained may possibly interest 
others who contemplate experimenting 
with this method of weed control, and 
fungus eradication. A neighbor also stoj- 
ilized a tract outdoors of possibly to 
two acres, using a traction engine boiler 
and an inverted pan, comsuming a few 
weeks’ time on the job, with possibly as 
many weeds the past Summer as ever be¬ 
fore. It is possible, but not probable, 
that weeds can be killed by the inverted 
pan method. h''or tobacco plant beds 
many farmers are enthusiastic in their 
praise of this method in Lancaster Co., 
I do not doubt bu^ that it would prove 
effective against fiingus in the soil to a 
depth of a few inches, and also kill weed 
seed to the same depth, if the steam were 
carried at sufficient pressure for qirte a 
Plan of Steam Pipes for Sterilizing Soil 
period of time. This surface heating ap¬ 
parently kills the seeds of weeds that 
germinate early in the Spring and cause 
so much annoyance to the farmers among 
the tobacco plants. The seed is sown as 
soon as the frost is out of the ground, it 
germinates very slowly, which allows .a 
heavy crop of early germinating weeds to 
almost smother the tobacco plants before 
they have opportunity to attain suffi¬ 
cient size to resist the incursion, which 
necessitates expensive hand weeding. 
Gree.miouse Experience. —Our object 
in sterilizing outdoors was purely to 
kill weed .seed, in which we were only 
l)artially successful. In the greenhouse 
we were more successful in this respect, 
though in the first house not entirely so, 
while in the second house very few weeds 
have germinated to date. In this house 
after the pipes were in place and soil 
leveled off thoroughly we turned a suffi¬ 
cient quantity of water upon the surface 
to level the .soil and saturate it several 
inches deep. This retained the steam 
and appeared to heat the .soil evenly, in¬ 
stead of blowing out in different places 
as was the re.sult where the soil was 
simply leveled off without the water ap¬ 
plication. I took the temperature some 
12 to 15 inches from the pipe at the 
surface of the bed after the steam had 
been blowing into the soil 45 minutes, 
and it registered 200 degrees. We used 
the same method outdoors; the cause of 
our failure we deduced afterwards to be 
too di’y soil, through which the steam 
easily penetrated without thoroughly 
heating it. 
Greenhouse Crops. —In the gi’een- 
houses we have planted carnations and 
sweet peas, transplanted from the field 
into the sterilized soil. We found the 
carnations transplanted from the field 
into the sterilized soil as easily as in 
other houses where the soil had been re¬ 
newed during the Summer, this being the 
third season for the soil inside. Most 
successful growers renew soil every sea¬ 
son. With sweet peas the results have 
been different. I think the heating pro¬ 
cess liberates, or at least, transforms 
some plant food that otherwise would 
remain inert into an easily available 
state, which has caused much trouble in 
trying to get sweet peas started. In 
.some instances the first sowing nearly all 
died when an inch or two high, and they 
kept on dropping off until six to eight 
inches high. To get an even stand we 
had to replant from two to four times. 
This trouble, and another affecting the 
sweet pea detrimentally, called root rot, 
we had hoped to overcome entirely, and 
were certainly disappointed. Another 
feature that we cannot determine to 
date, whether a detriment or advantage, 
is a much stronger growth of vine. Dur¬ 
ing midwinter this extra strength to vine 
is not an advantage; the larger leaves 
retard the young growth, causing an 
added number of buds to drop. Of course 
the final outcome we do not know now. 
but hope this may keep the vine in a 
healthy blooming condition longer than 
otherwise would result. j 
Plan of Operation. —Summing up i 
results to January 10 we find weeds 
eliminated, carnations doing as well as 
in new soil, sweet peas making stronger 
growth, dropping more buds, and being 
practically free from brown root disease 
or black rot. The method employed is 
shown in sketch, AA being two lines 
of iy 2 in. pipe, length of house 225 feet 
with a 3-16-inch hole drilled every 12 
inches on one side, the holes being turned 
down when in place in soil. B is main line 
of steam pipe three inches part way, and 
2 y 2 inches the remainder, placed outside 
of house; G is a 2-inch pipe 20 feet long 
taken from B with an ell and nipple and 
having a swing joint at C, made up of 
two-inch ell and nipples to allow pipe D 
carried across house as pipes AA are 
moved from one location to another. The 
pipe I) is connected to AA by RT con¬ 
nections of lyo foot pipe and 1%-inch 
sockets. This allows quick up.set and 
connection of fitting when moving pipe 
AA to different locations. There were 
four sets of pipes C D used to carry 
.steam to pipes AA in the 225 feet length 
of house. The pipes AA were buried 
eight to 10 inches deep, a furrow being 
plowed by a one-horse plow, and a sub¬ 
soil plow being run in the bottom of the 
furrow to allow steam a better peneti’a- 
tion. Each end of the pipe A A .should bi 
closed with a cap or plug. The pipes 
were placed about 12 to 14 inches apart 
throughout the house. After pipes were 
placed in soil and connected, the soil 
was leveled off to hold steam and towards 
end of job was watered with results above 
stated. Our boiler is 125 horsepower, 
which we found most too small to carry 
the two lines of pipe mentioned. At the 
start we carried 125 to 150 lbs. of steam 
which turning into the api)aratus drojiped 
to 70 lbs., and before end of steaming 
period, which was about 45 to 55 min¬ 
utes, the pressure was down to 20 lbs. 
We opened the valve gradually, as turn¬ 
ing the full head of steam on at once 
simply blows holes in the soil above each 
outlet with little consequent benefit to 
the adjoining soil. It required about 2^4 
days to sterilize one house 45x225, five 
to seven men working intermittently 
throughout the day, about as much time 
being required to change the location of 
the pipe as for the steaming period. We 
used about one-half to two tons of coal 
per day. This is an unpleasant, hot job, 
but it looks now as though on the whole 
it was a paying proposition. The cost 
of weed removal throughout the season 
would be greater than the sterilization 
expense. In the vegetable growing dis¬ 
trict adjacent to Ashtabula, O., acres of 
greenhouses are treated in this manner 
each season. elmer j. weaver. 
Sister Nancy was going the round 
of ward in the big hospital for wound¬ 
ed soldiers, taking temperature.s. Reach¬ 
ing the side of one hero, in whose mouth 
she had left the thermometer a few min¬ 
utes before, she wa.s horrified to find, on 
withdrawing it, that it registered 120. 
Swiftly she summoned the house doctor. 
On arriving he was seriously perplexed, 
as there was nothing in the patient’s 
condition to account for the sudden rise. 
“Look here,” he said to the soldier, 
“have you dropped this thermometer or 
been fooling about with it?” “No, sir. 
Only been stirring me tea with it!”— 
Credit Lost. 
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No Implement on your farm 
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fTkO in small furrows from the curved coulters of the fast- 
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