72 Imported Seedlings. 
In propagating chestnuts it is always better to select for seed the largest, 
finest, and healthiest nuts; in the fall or beginning of winter the nuts have 
to be planted in a box of damp sand, by layers, the bux being kept in a 
cellar. The nuts may be planted, too, in a hole in the open ground, a layer 
of chestnut leaves being first thrown in the bottom of the hole, on top of 
that a layer of nuts, then another layer of leaves, and so on to the top, 
which has to be properly covered with two or three inches of earth so as to 
prevent the frost injuring the nuts. In February or March, according to 
location, the nuts are taken out and planted in drills to a depth of three to 
four inches; less for smaller seed like American chestnuts. 
In planting out pits or nuts, if they have sprouted when 
taken out of the sand or hole where they have been kept during 
the winter, as is most generally the case, they must be planted 
with the sprout up or sideways, but never the small end down. 
So it is with walnuts, almonds, and filberts, and also the pits of 
peaches, apricots, and plums. This point is quite important 
with chestnuts and walnuts, so as to obtain straight stocks and 
shapely roots; then when the nuts are planted wrong, upside 
down, the sprout is liable to remain buried in the ground, where 
it will finally rot. 
Imported Seedlings —A very large proportion of some kinds 
of fruit trees produced in this State are worked upon imported 
seedling stocks. Almost all the cherries, and it is estimated 
that nine-tenths of the pears and one-third of the apples, are 
thus grown. These stocks are cheap, convenient to handle, 
and are therefore popular. ‘It is easy enough to grow peach, 
almond, apricot, and Myrobalan seedlings, but small seeds, like 
apple and pear, often do not show up well in the spring, espe- 
cially if the soil is of a kind that crusts over with rain and sun- 
shine. Therefore our nurserymen import these seedlings in the 
winter, plant them out, as has already been described, and bud 
in the following summer, grafting the next spring where the 
buds fall. If the seedlings are large when received, they are 
often root-grafted at once, and then one summer in the nursery 
gives a tree suitable for planting out. These stocks are of bet- 
ter budding size during their first summer than California seed- 
lings, which are apt to overgrow. 
To succeed with cherry seeds requires special treatment, as 
has already been described, and the nurseryman usually finds it 
cheaper to buy his stocks. 
Myrobalan plum seedlings were formerly imported to a large 
extent, but are now chiefly home-grown, and seedlings are used 
instead of cuttings, which formerly were employed largely. 
This stock has secured great favor for plums and prunes, and, 
in some situations, for the apricot; but some growers report a 
very marked dwarfing effect on the apricot, and do not approve 
its use. 
Prof. Newton B. Pierce, of Santa Ana, has discovered in 
