2O NOTES ON FORESTRY. 



in removal. Teak-seed, if collected and sown 

 immediately, will generally take a year or two to 

 germinate ; but if a pit be dug, and the bottom 

 filled to a foot deep with sand, the seed spread 

 thickly on this (2 to 6 in.), and covered with 

 another foot of sand, and the whole mass well 

 watered, it will be found, on opening it at the ex- 

 piration of three or four weeks, that germination 

 has already commenced. If it be now taken out 

 and sown, it will spring up almost immediately, 

 provided it be kept well watered. Many of my 

 readers will probably be acquainted with other 

 peculiarities of other seeds, but we want a ready 

 means of communicating such small but not un- 

 important items of experience. 



In any ordinary system of sowing, we cannot 

 count on more than a small and irregular per- 

 centage of the seed germinating ; we have conse- 

 quently to sow far more seed numerically than 

 we want trees. This involves an early and unrepro- 

 ductive thinning, or the plants are left to struggle 

 with each other until the thinnings have a market 

 value. This struggle, which ends in the weaker- 

 plants succumbing, is always carried on at some 

 little cost to the survivors, but its lasting injury 

 is inappreciable if the thinnings in the next sub- 

 sequent stages are conducted with prudence and 

 moderation. 



