OF CHESNUTS. 251 



They should be laid up in the fruit-room or 

 granary^ on shelves, or on a dry floor. Re- 

 member to turn them frequently. The inferior 

 ones will do for sowing, or they may be given to 

 pigs or turkeys, who are very fond of them ; they 

 will be found very good for fattening poultry, espe- 

 cially turkeys. If during the Winter they should 

 become damp or mouldy, they should be turned 

 and carefully wiped ; and if spread at a moderate 

 distance from a fire, or dried in an oven after the 

 bread is drawn, and then packed in boxes, or jars, 

 with thorough dry sand, they will keep plump and 

 good. Observe not to put them into the oven 

 when too hot, as it will make them shrivel : and 

 those for sowing must not be dried in this manner, 

 as the heat of the oven would kill the germ. In a 

 fine warm season, I have seen them ripen as "well 

 and grow nearly to as large a size as foreign ones, 

 when the trees were healthy ; but in a middling 

 season they will do very well for sowing, or for 

 fatting pigs and poultry. Be careful to preserve 

 them from rats or mice, otherwise they will soon 

 destroy vast quantities of them. 



They may be sown in beds of light earth in the 

 month of November, if it be a dry Autumn, draw- 

 ing the drills about nine inches apart, and about 

 three deep. Plant the Nuts about an inch apart in 

 the rows, with the points upwards, as bulbous roots 

 are planted ; then cover them with moidd, and pat 

 it down with the back of your rake. The beds 

 should be four or five feet wide, and a little raised 



