236 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



less vigorous, less hardy, and consequently shorter lived. At any rate,. as 

 nearly all of the natural seed comes from Virginia and Tennessee, where 

 " yellows " is not known to be, there will be less danger of obtaining the 

 germs of this disease in them, than when pits of improved varieties 

 are used, unless one is familiar with the source from which the seed comes. 

 The pits from canning factories that obtain their fruit from infected dis- 

 tricts should be looked on with suspicion. The natural seed can readily 

 be distinguished from that of the improved varieties, as it is smaller, 

 more nearly spherical, and lacking the wing that is so noticeable around 

 the edge of the latter; the canals upon the surface of the pits, also, are 

 not so large nor deep as in the latter; the halves of the shell are more 

 firmly united, and the kernels are firmer and thicker. The pits should, if 

 possible, be obtained in the autumn, and although they may at once be 

 planted in nursery rows, it is not the best plan, as the pits thus treated are 

 not all of them sure to germinate the first year, if at all, and an uneven 

 stand will result. It frequently happens that, when thus treated, part only 

 of the pits sprout in the spring, others appear the following year, and still 

 others may show themselves the third year from planting. 



STEATIFYING THE SEED. 



In order to secure the prompt germination of the pits, they should be so 

 treated that they are exposed to the action of frost. If only a few are to be 

 planted, they should be placed in thin layers, alternately with an inch 

 or so of soil, in boxes, and after that closed up so that the moisture can not 

 escape, and placed on the north side of a building where they will be out 

 of the way of the drying influence of the sun. To secure the full action 

 of frost, the seed should be soaked for twenty-four hours before being 

 placed in the box, and it will be well to thus treat the seeds, however they 

 may be stratified. When nurserymen stratify large quantities of seed, 

 much the same course is pursued, except that they excavate a trench, ten 

 inches deep and large enough to hold the seed, in some moist but well- 

 drained soil. In this the seeds are placed in alternate layers of soil to a 

 depth of eight inches and covered with two inches of sand. Unless the 

 soil is moist it will be found well to wet the bed down thoroughly before 

 covering it up. Another method is to spread out the seeds upon the sur- 

 face to the depth of three inches, and then spade them in, taking pains to 

 have them all covered. Treated in either way they will be exposed to the 

 freezing and thawing of winter and the shells will be so loosened that as 

 the seeds swell in the spring most of them will fall apart. When the time 

 for planting comes they can be taken out, separated from the soil by means 

 of a screen, and all that have not opened carefully cracked with the ham- 

 mer. When an even stand is desired, and especially in localities where 

 moles are troublesome, another method of stratifying will be found still 

 more reliable. The pits are scattered on the surface in a single layer, 

 forming a bed four feet wide and of the necessary length, and cov- 

 ered with two inches of soil. In the spring they will be so well cracked 

 that most of them will sprout and send up shoots; as soon as they are 

 three or four inches high they should be carefully taken out and trans- 

 plaBted with a dibble to the nursery rows at intervals of eight inches, 

 placing them so that they will be about two inches deeper than they were 

 in the seed-bed. By keeping the plants in pails of water, so that they 



