1885.] PROPAGATION OF TREES FROM SEED. 117 



must be either planted or put in boxes of earth as soon as possible. 

 If sown broadcftst they should be scattered thickly and evenly over 

 the bed, and pressed down with a light wooden roller or the back of 

 a spade, and covered with a little more than their own diameter of 

 soil, which if l)eech, chestnut, and oak would be nearly an inch, and 

 for hickory, black walnuts, butternuts, and horse chestnuts from 1 to 

 2 inches. 



The maples, with the exception of the white and red, which ripen 

 their seed in June, should be sowm as soon as possible after gathering, 

 and whether in drills or broadcast should not be covered more than 

 twice their diameter. If covered too deep, they sprout and rot. If 

 maple seed is allowed to get thoroughly dry, and kept so until 

 spring, very few will come up until the second spring. 



Ash must also be sown as soon as possible after gathering. The 

 hornbeam and hop hornbeam, unless sown in the autumn, will not 

 come up until the second year. The tupelo, flowering dogwood, 

 shad-bush, nettle tree, or hackberry and thorn, seldom come imtil 

 the second year, although there are a few exceptions. The plum, 

 peach, apple, and pear never come up evenly the first year unless 

 the seed has been frozen or kept in boxes of moist earth. A great 

 many roses will not come up the first year, even after having been 

 frozen, although the seeds of hybrids will, if frozen for a week or 

 two, come up in less than a month. 



Such seeds as those of the Judas tree, three-thorned acacia, 

 Yirgilia or yellow wood, and the Kentucky coffee tree, being very 

 hard, should have boiling water poured over them and stand for 

 twenty-four hours, and the swollen seeds separated by sieves of 

 proper size. It will be fit for sowing, and the rest should be treated 

 to another hot bath until they have all swollen, otherwise they will 

 keep coming up, a few at a time, for a year or two. 



The ailanthus, catalpa, mulberries, button-ball, birches, and alders 

 are best sown in spring as soon as the ground is dry enough to 

 work. The soil should be very fine and the seed lightly covered. 

 The white and scarlet maples, the elms, and the red or river birch 

 ripen their seed in early summer, and should be sown in freshly 

 prepared beds as soon as gathered. When a large quantity is 

 planted and no screens are at hand, birch brush laid thinly over the 

 bed is a great help. 



If well taken care of, the seedlings will make plants from 6 to 

 1 2 inches high the first season. In ordinary loamy soils seeds should 

 be covered their own diameter, or a little more, in depth, in very 

 light or sandy soils twice as deep, and in clay as lightly as possible. 



Such seeds as magnolias, roses, and mountain ash, which are 

 enclosed in a fleshy pulp, should be macerated in water at from 70° 



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