118 IMPORTANT TIMBER TREES 



planting of White Oak is not as successful as when the 

 acorns have been properly stored and the sowing done in 

 early spring. All seeds stratified in moist sand should be 

 sown as soon in the spring as conditions and soil will per- 

 mit, for Nature has, by this time, begun her work of ger- 

 mination, and delay is then dangerous ; nor should the seeds 

 then be permitted to become at all dry. They should not be 

 taken out of the sand until everything is in readiness for 

 sowing and they should then be at once placed in the ground. 

 If sown as soon as they fall not all tree seeds will germ- 

 inate in the spring next following. They largely do so, but 

 some from the same tree may require another year. There 

 is evidently a sort of ripening then going on for a time 

 before the germ is ready to burst into life, and this ripening 

 appears to be hastened when seeds are stratified in moiat 

 sand, and that feature should be recognized. 



