NOTIONS ON AETIF1CIAL RESTOCKING. 207 



have been prescribed for the preservation of seed. 

 The following are to be preferred. Large seeds like 

 the acorn, chestnut and beech-nut, cannot be kept 

 longer than from autumn to the following spring. 

 If the quantity is small, they may, after being spread 

 out and stirred about for a fortnight, be placed in 

 layers three to four inches deep between alternate 

 layers of pure and perfectly dry sand, or of straw. 

 They are thus put away in cellars in chests or 

 barrels supported on trestles. If the quantity is 

 large, they may be kept in the same manner in pits 

 dug in a dry soil and built round with masonry to 

 keep out mice. When the quantity is considerable, 

 the best course is to lay the seeds out in a heap four 

 to eight inches high, to stir them about now and 

 then, and cover them up with dry straw to keep out 

 frost. Immersion in water is often impracticable 

 and yields only indifferent results ; it is entirely 

 unsuited for the beech-nut. 



At the moment of sowing, one can judge if the 

 seeds are still good, by examining whether the 

 kernel fills its shell completely, whether it is still 

 white and fresh, whether the germ is still sound, 

 whether there is no mouldy smell, and, in the case 

 of the beech-nut, whether it has preserved its agree- 

 able taste, resembling slightly that of the hazel-nut. 

 Seeds ought not to be rejected if the rootlet has 

 begun to develop itself, or even if it is broken. 



The hornbeam and ash do not generally germinate 

 until the second spring after their fall ; these seeds 

 are liable to dry up. As these two species strongly 

 object to herbaceous vegetation, and delight in very 



