206 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUEE . 



hold one of the three necessary conditions, viz., 

 oxygen, moisture and heat. But in doing so, other 

 dangers arise. Fermentation and rot can be pre- 

 vented by taking care not to place the seeds in high 

 heaps, and above all by being careful, as soon as they 

 are gathered, to spread them out in a well-aired 

 place, and to stir them about once a day for a fort- 

 night. At the same time they must not be allowed 

 to dry too much ; to that end they should be kept in 

 a place which is cool without being damp. The 

 seed of conifers can be preserved for more than a 

 year by leaving them in the cones, which must not 

 be piled up too high, and which must be stirred 

 about from time to time. But seeds which have 

 been kept for more than a year are never trust- 

 worthy : many lose their germinative power, or do 

 not germinate until a year after being put into the 

 ground. Moreover, it is worthy of remark that 

 plants grown from old seeds are weakly and usually 

 of no promise. 



We have seen from the above considerations that 

 it is always better to sow seed as soon as it is 

 gathered. But this can seldom be done, as in that 

 case a large quantity must be used to make allow- 

 ance for the numerous causes of destruction; and the 

 price of seed forms a heavy item of expenditure. 

 This again is another argument in favour of plan- 

 tations, for then the young plants are brought up in 

 nurseries, a circumstance which diminishes to an 

 extraordinary extent the quantity of seed necessary, 

 and it is always easier to preserve a small quantity. 



According to the kind of tree different methods 



