236 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUEE. 



always possible to imitate. Indeed it mast not be 

 forgotten that the price of seed forms an important, 

 sometimes the most important, item of expenditure. 

 It is therefore impossible to scatter seed as abun- 

 dantly as Nature does. Besides this, these seeds 

 are not placed under conditions favourable for resist- 

 ing frost, while the ravages of those animals, of 

 which they constitute the food, are another danger 

 to their preservation. This last danger is greatest 

 for acorns, beech-nuts and chestnuts, which ripen 

 and fall in autumn, but germinate only in spring, 

 and are greedily sought after by wild pig and the 

 small rodents. Hence it is necessary to keep them 

 until spring according to the methods described in a 

 former section. As for the seeds of the elms, the 

 birch, alder and other species, which it is impossible 

 to keep, they must be sown immediately after they 

 are shed. Hornbeam and ash seeds do not generally 

 germinate until the second spring after their dissem- 

 ination. They ought to be kept in pits until then, in 

 order to avoid the risk of seeing the soil overgrown 

 with grass, which they fear exceedingly, and which 

 is abundant in the soils which they affect, viz., very 

 moist soils. 



As for conifers, sowing in spring generally agrees 

 with natural indications. Indeed, with the excep- 

 tion of the silver fir, which sheds its seed in autumn, 

 and of the spruce fir, which possesses the same 

 characteristic in favourable aspects, the other indige- 

 nous conifers scatter their seed during the first 

 warm days of spring. But seeds of the spruce keep 

 very well ; those of the silver fir, however, are easily 



