RAISING TREES FROM SEED 



fers, both the white and red pine, the Scotch 

 pine and the native hemlocks, can easily be 

 raised from seed, which, though a slow process, 

 is one most interesting, as well as quite simple, 

 and well worth trying where the estate is of 

 any size. Cones may be gathered in Septem- 

 ber and spread upon a sheet in a light room of 

 a tool house or other dry place where they will 

 dry ; the seeds will fall out from the cones and 

 can then be collected and stored through 

 the winter in boxes, or the seeds may be 

 bought in the spring from any reliable seeds- 

 man. The seed-bed should be made in the 

 same way as are the seed-beds for flowers: it 

 should be raised about four inches above the 

 surface of the ground, to secure perfect drain- 

 age; a good size is four by six feet. At the 

 four corners of the bed, stout stakes, eighteen 

 inches high, should be driven into the ground, 

 and a board a foot in width running around 

 the bed nailed to the stakes. When the ground 

 is warm, about the time that we would plant 

 beans in the vegetable garden, the ground 



101 



