INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN IN SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. 141 



In regard to the sowing of the seed, the following are the 

 instructions given ; " The seed may be sown on alternate bands, of 

 from 66 centimetres to a metre in breadth, or by placing a few seeds 

 each in a shallow hole somewhat sheltered, but not much shelter is 

 requisite. In southern slopes covered by heaths, on which the pine 

 is often sown, it is necessary to adopt a particular precaution in 

 preparing the soil, namely, to dig the bands or the holes to the layer 

 of soil below the blank soil found on the surface, and which is 

 generally designated heath soil [peat ?] In sowing the seed on heath 

 soil, which has no firmness, which is incapable of retaining moisture, 

 and which, from its colour, absorbs heat in a high degree, the seeds 

 almost always fail ; and frequently the heath soil contains an acid 

 principle which makes germination completely abortive, 



" It is stated that this is acetic acid, and it has been proposed to 

 neutralise it by employing ecohuage, or burning the turf, which, by the 

 ashes which it produces, would accomplish this end. This operation 

 may suffice to prepare for the culture of certain plants which require 

 little moisture, and for the growth of such as return to the soil 

 almost the whole of the mineral elements of their structure, in such 

 a way as to mix with the layer of earth the mineralogical element 

 of the soil. But for forest trees it would not be the same, for in 

 abstracting from the ground one noxious principle, the ashes would 

 add to the lightness of the soil already too great, and to its 

 defective power of absorbing moisture from the air. 



" The seeds ought not to be covered to a greater depth than from 

 4 to 6 millimetres ; it may even suffice to mix them with the earth 

 by means of a rake. Ordinarily the young plants appear at tlie end 

 of from four to six weeks, when the sowing has taken place in spring, 

 which is most advisable; but it also often happens when the seeds have 

 been too deeply buried, or too much heated in the extraction, that 

 they do not germinate till the second year. 



" In some parts of Germany, where the seeds of the pine are very 

 abundant, they are accustomed to sow simply the cones in the bands, 

 or in the holes prepared for this purpose ; then, as the heat of spring 

 begins to act on the scales, they shake the cones roughly with a rake, 

 to cause the seeds to fall out and to distribute them as equally as 

 possible. This proceeding has first the advantage of saving the expense 

 of extraction and divesting the seeds of wings ; in the second place, 

 the seeds are generally of the best quality ; and the cones which cover 

 the soil may give some protection to the sprouting plants. But, on 

 the other hand, a portion of the seeds are lost, for they can never 



