48 TREE-PLANTING. 



should be mixed with sand or light soil, in the pro- 

 portion of two bushels of sand to one of seed, and 

 allowed to remain in the pit for fifteen months, and 

 turned over at least six times in that interval, which 

 will bring them up to the end of February, when they 

 should be sown in open dry weather. 



A writer has pointed out that Loudon in his 

 "Arboretum Britannicum," p. 1224, directs that the 

 seeds, which are ripe in October, should be taken to the 

 rotting heap, where they should be turned over several 

 times in the course of the winter, " and in February 

 they may be removed, freed from the sand by sifting, 

 and sown in beds of any middling soil. The plants," 

 he continues, " may be taken up at the end of the 

 year, and planted in nursery lines." " Now," the writer 

 in question remarks to a nurseryman, "this error is 

 harmless enough, because he knows at the end of 

 the year the plants will not be in existence ; but an 

 amateur expecting a crop as stated, concludes they 

 are lost, and probably directs the soil to be dug up, 

 in order that he may plant something else in their 

 stead. The reason for allowing the seeds to lie 

 exactly fifteen months is, that if sown earlier the 

 tender plants would appear too soon, and suffer from 

 frosts." 



In planting the seeds, the soil should be first 

 carefully dug over, and afterwards raked, and the 

 beds marked out to the width of four feet, with an 

 alley one foot wide between. The beds should then 

 be uncovered for the reception of the seed, which 

 should lie half an inch apart from one another. The 

 covering should then be drawn on with a rake, or a 

 small clean spade, spreading the soil with an even hand, 



