SEEDS 35 



Summer), the rows should be covered with burlap which will con- 

 serve the moisture and hasten germination. 



2. Soaking seeds. Garden seeds, especially Beans, Peas, Beets, 

 Squash, Cucumbers, Celery, Parsley, and Parsnips, may be soaked 

 in water. Such soaking should be continued only until the seed 

 coats are softened; further soaking injures the seeds, causing them 

 to decay when sown in the moist soil. Proper soaking hastens ger- 

 mination and is beneficial, but it is better not to soak them at all 

 than to allow them to remain in water too long. 



In some experiments carried out in France, and described in Le 

 Jardin, seeds of Radishes and other cruciferae were made to germi- 

 nate in less than eight minutes by plunging them in hot water and 

 then laying them between rags soaked in boiling water in a small 

 flower pot nearly filled with moist earth, and keeping them at a 

 warm temperature. 



3. Filing seeds. As an example of a very hard seed we may 

 take the Canna, a seed which is as hard as shot. F. P. Avery 

 describes an experience with starting seed. He says: "March 22d 

 I received some seed. I have access to an emery wheel, and I ground 

 down to the white meat on every seed. That same evening I poured 

 hot water on them, and kept them in hot water until the evening of 

 March 27th, giving the seeds a five-day bath. I then found four 

 seeds showing a white germ the size of a pinhead. I put the lot in 

 a big dish of sand, covering them about an inch. The dish stood in 

 a hot place over a stove, where the seeds luxuriated in bottom heat 

 and had hot sunshine. Fifteen days after I put the seeds to soak 

 there were more than two hundred plants, averaging two inches in 

 height." Instead of using an emery wheel, the seeds are frequently 

 nicked with a file. Ipomcea and Musa ensete seed need to be filed 

 in this way. 



4. Stratifying seeds. Certain hard seeds, including many nuts, 

 are often "stratified" in flats over Winter. A layer of sand is placed 

 in the flat, then a layer of seeds, then more sand and so on until the 

 flat is full. The flat is then placed where the soil will alternately 

 freeze and thaw, this action tending to crack the coats of the seeds. 

 In the Spring the seeds are dug or sifted out of the sand and sown 

 in the usual way. (See shrub and tree seeds, pps. 41-44.) 



5. Scalding seeds. Seeds which are not affected by freezing are 

 frequently scalded. Boiling water is poured over them and allowed 

 to cool. This process is used with seed of the Honey Locust, the 

 Kentucky Coffee Tree, Acacia and Chorizema. 



