136 THE PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE 



225. Seeds may regerminate. That is, if 

 germination is arrested by drought, the process 

 may be renewed when congenial conditions recur, 

 even though the young root may be dried and 

 dead. This is true of wheat, oats, maize, pea, 

 onion, buckwheat, and other seeds. Some seeds 

 have been known to resume germination five 

 and six times, even when the rootlet had grown 

 half an inch or more and the seeds had been 

 thoroughly dried after each regermination. 



226. Bony and nut -like seeds must generally 

 be softened by lying long in the earth ; and 

 the softening and splitting of the coverings is 

 hastened by freezing. Such seeds are peach 

 pits, walnuts, haws, and most tree seeds. Gar- 

 deners bury such seeds in earth in the fall, and 

 plant them the following spring. The seeds are, 

 also, often mixed with sand, or placed between 

 layers of sand in a box, and if the seeds are 

 from hardy plants the box of sand is placed 

 where it will freeze throughout the winter. This 

 operation is known as stratification. 



3. Propagation by Buds 

 3a. Why and how bud propagation is used 



227. When varieties do not "come true" or do 

 not reproduce themselves from seeds, it is neces- 



