174 SEEDING AND PLANTING 



is removed from the sand and sown in the nursery. The beds 

 must be made very early as the seed begins to germinate during 

 the first warm days of spring. 



38. STORAGE IN RUNNING WATER 



The seeds of most species keep over winter in excellent condition 

 when placed in coarse, heavy sacks or wire boxes and firmly an- 

 chored in the bed of a moderately rapid stream. The seeds should 

 be completely submerged. If the water is stagnant they are likely 

 to spoil. Acorns keep well in this manner, and the weevil or 

 other insects infesting them are destroyed by the water. Cieslar 

 says that germination is retarded if the seed is stored in cold 

 springs. 



39. THE TREATMENT OF INSECT-INFESTED SEED 



Sometimes as the time approaches for storage it is found that 

 the seed is more or less badly infested with weevil or other in- 

 sects. When such is the case the insects should be destroyed be- 

 fore storage. Various oaks, hickories, chestnuts, and leguminous 

 species are particularly subject to this manner of injury. The 

 best method for destroying the insects is to subject the infested 

 seed to the fumes of bisulphide of carbon. 



A few bushels of the fruit or seed are taken at a time and placed 

 in a tight box with bisulphide of carbon in the proportion of ap- 

 proximately 4 ounces of the bisulphide to a bushel when the fruit 

 or seed fill the box. The amount of bisulphide depends upon the 

 size of the box. The poison is placed in an open vessel on top of 

 the seed and the cover of the box tightly closed. The fumes 

 permeate all parts of the box within 12 to 48 hours and destroy 

 all insects which they reach. 



40. THE TRANSPORTATION OF SEED 



Tree seed is often gathered long distances from the region 

 where marketed or used for seeding. It is usually shipped as 

 clean seed. Sometimes, however, cones and the dry fruit of 

 broadleaved species are shipped before the seed is extracted. 

 Thus, pine cones gathered in Maine and Minnesota have been 

 shipped in carload lots to New York for seed extraction. All 

 seeds when in condition for storage can be sent short distances in 

 dry wrappings. When seeds are sent long distances, however, 



