68 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [189Jt. 



seed of these trees for northern growths are collected on the 

 eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, where the summers are 

 hot and the winters are cold. Hence the necessity of having 

 the seed from the best trees near by or from those grown in 

 similar climates. Seeds should be as fresh as possible, and the 

 sooner they are cleaned and sown the better results. Many 

 seeds which would germinate the iirst season if sown as soon as 

 gathered, would lay in the ground until the second season if 

 thoroughly dried before sowing. 



Of course when seeds have to travel a long distance they must 

 be thoroughly dried or they are apt to mildew and spoil. Many 

 seeds, such as Cherry, Plum and Peach, unless subject to hard 

 freezing, will not germinate the tirst year. Many will not 

 germinate until the second year under any artificial condition, 

 and often seeds will lay in the ground three years and then 

 germinate. It is well, if you have not the ground in the con- 

 dition to plant, to stratify all seeds as soon as cleaned, that is, 

 put them away mixed with layers of sand or earth and keep 

 them in a cool cellar or frame until spring. When small 

 quantities are used they can be put in small boxes and mixed 

 with sand, or if large lots they can be stratified out-of-doors. 

 It is well to have the sand or soil used fine enough to run through 

 a sieve. By having different sized sieves the seeds can easily be 

 separated from the sand. 



In all large nurseries, where there are quantities of Peaches, 

 Plums, Hawthorns, Cherries, Lindens and Junipers, the seed is 

 mixed with piles of earth on the surface of the ground, stacked 

 up, left covered with sods or boards until spring. Such seeds 

 as Honey Locust and other hard and bony seed which have 

 become thoroughly dried, should be treated with hot water (so 

 as to swell before planting, otherwise they would come up 

 scattered at intervals for several years). 



The first consideration is what you desire to plant ; the 

 second, to have the seed as fresh as possible ; and the third, soil 

 and situation to plant in : the fourth is to know what depth to 

 plant the seed and how long to wait for the seed to come up. 

 In this sort of a paper it is hard to give many details, so that I 



