34 METHODS OF PRESERVING AND OP PLANTING SEEDS. 



Elm-seeds ripen in Juno, and if they find congenial soil and coudi- 

 tiofls, will make good growth the first season. 



Ked-cedar berries should be bruised early in March, and mixed with 

 an equal or greater bulk of wet wood-ashes. In three weeks the alkali 

 will have cut the resinous gum, when the seeds can be washed clean 

 from the pulp. In preparing the seed-beds, dig the ground a foot or 

 more in depth, mix for three or four inches at the surface a liberal dress- 

 ing of well-rotted leaf-mold (or wood.soil) and sharp sand. Lay oft" the beds 

 four feet wide, and sow, screen, and cultivate as elsewhere described for 

 other evergreens. They may be watered occasionally in the evening in 

 case of drought. The shading should be removed and a mulching of 

 leaves two inches deep put along the rows. They may be transplanted 

 to nursery rows the second spring, and three years after the alternate 

 rows should be taken out.^ 



ECONOMICAL MODE OF PRESERVING ACORNS IN LARGE QUANTITIES 

 THROUGH THE WINTER. — METHOD PRACTICED IN FRANCE. 



Acorns when kept over winter in large quantities, are liable to various 

 accidents that injure or destroy their germinating power. They may 

 become too dry ; in large heaps they will heat and mold ; or, if too wet, 

 they will sprout sooner than is desired. To obviate these dangers, the 

 following cheap mode of keeping them in large quantities has been 

 mentioned as practiced in France, which might be equally adapted to 

 the middle latitudes of our own country, with such modifications due to 

 greater dryness of climate as experience would suggest: 



A place is selected in a forest where the soil is sandy and dry, the 

 surface level, or slightly inclined to the south, and the shelter of large 

 trees low and abundant. It should be fenced in, and if liable to the 

 drainage of water from adjacent grounds, a small ditch may be dug 

 around it. The acorns are spread on the ground as gathered, but no- 

 where more than four or five inches deep, the leaves and litter being 

 first removed. From the beginning, they should be raked an hour or 

 two daily, with great regularity, during the first month, and after that a 

 raking once in two or three days will be sufiflcient. By the end of De- 

 cember their tendency to heat will be over, and during very cold weather 

 they should be lightly covered with leaves or ferns ; but these should be 

 taken off early to prevent sprouting. In temperate climates, no cover- 

 ing is needed but the shelter of the trees. In very rainy winters, the 

 raking may be renewed from time to time, and continued till time for 

 planting. 



TREE-SEEDS — ilETHODS OF PLANTING. 



In a report of a committee upon forestry, made to the Iowa State 

 Horticultural Society in 1875 (p. 298), by Prof. Henry H. McAfee, the 

 following practical statements are made upon this subject: 



Seeds may be classified for purposes of treatment into three sorts, viz, nuts, hard 

 seeds, and soft seeds. The nuts should always be planted Vv'hero they are to remain 

 permanently, as the nut-trees do not usually transplant without considerable injury, 



*S. Edwards, of Lamoilo, 111., in Transaclions of Wisconsin Af/ricullitral Socictij, 

 IS-'iB-lSoQ, p. 506. In this article, preference is jriveu to the red cedar in Illinois beloro 

 any other evergreen for ordinary screens of motlerato height. For screens to orchards, 

 buildings, and stock-yards, the Norway spruce would do better. Mr. Edwards has 

 tried and rejected as not hardy, the cedar of Lebanon, Deodar cedar, Mount Atlas 

 cedar, Douglas spruce, Menzies spruce, Araucarian pine, English and Irish yews, Chi- 

 nese arbor-vitae, and golden-leaved yew. The sea-pine and European silver-lir were 

 rtot sufficieutly hardy unless protected in winter. 



