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pistillate on another, there may be difficulty in securing 

 fertile seeds. Unless the male and female trees stand close 

 enough for the fertilizing pollen to be borne from the 

 former to the latter, by winds or insects, there is no pos- 

 sibility of fertile seeds being produced, unless both kinds 

 of flowers are borne on the same tree, which is a disputed 

 point. There is no doubt but that this peculiarity accounts 

 for so few seeds germinating, as nurserymen well know 

 that not more than forty per cent can be depended upon 

 to grow. 



The tree blossoms before the leaves are fully developed, 

 and the seeds are ripe by the first of October. They should 

 be promptly gathered and either sown at once, or cared 

 for where they will not get very dry or become wet and 

 mouldy. If allowed to dry, many seeds, though fertile, will 

 not germinate until the second year after being sown. The 

 seeds should be sown in the nursery in rows twelve inches 

 apart, an inch apart in the row, and covered from three 

 eighths to one half inch deep, with soil gently packed or 

 rolled. The bed should be kept as uniformly moist as pos- 

 sible until the plants are an inch or so high. By that time 

 the roots will have penetrated the soil more than twice 

 that distance and they can then endure dry weather fairly 

 well. If conditions are favorable, the seedlings may be ex- 

 pected to reach a height of from six to fifteen inches or 

 more the first year, while the roots will have gone down 

 two or more feet. This fact makes it necessary to remove 

 the seedlings from the seed-beds when one year old, to se- 

 cure the best results. They may be transplanted directly in- 

 to the forest, but would best be placed in the transplant nur- 

 sery for a year. As the tree throws out lateral roots early 

 in life, no great injury comes from cutting off the tap-root 

 some six inches below where the surface of the ground was 

 when it stood in the seed-bed, providing the fibrous roots 

 are abundant on the part to be left ; if not, the root should 

 be left somewhat longer. Care should be taken in removal 

 from the seed-bed not to destroy the fibrous roots, which 



