GINSENG. 39 



shells of some seeds will begin to crack open about eleven months 

 after it has been harvested, while some will not open until about 

 eighteen months after harvesting. The sprouting season varies from 

 about the middle of April to the first or middle of June; and with 

 but rare exceptions of a few individual kernels, it seems that seed , 

 can not l)e induced to sprout or grow at any other time of the 

 year. If during the sprouting season the ground in which it is 

 planted should become too dry, the seed is likely to lay over anoth- 

 er year and thus not sprout until about thirty months after it 

 has been harvested. 



Many experiments have been made in trying to force the 

 seed to germinate the first season after it has been harvested, but 

 up to the present time no method has proved sufficiently success- 

 ful to be recommended to the novice, leaving nature's way the 

 best and safest to follow. 



There are two safe methods of caring for the seed. The 

 first is to plant it immediately after picking, which is nature's way 

 and probably the safest method for the inexperienced to follow. 

 To follow nature's way strictly, it would necessitate planting the 

 seed in the berry, i. e. without first removing the pulp; but as 

 many berries contain more than one seed (from one to five) some 

 of the plants produced from it would be crowded. To avoid this 

 we can improve on nature's method by first removing the pulp 

 from the seeds and separating them, which can easily be done by 

 placing the berries in water and rubbing them between the hands. 

 After the pulp has been rubbed or washed off, the good seed will 

 sink to the bottom, while the pulp and worthless seed will float on 

 the surface and can be poured off, leaving all good seed separated 

 ready for planting. 



STRATIFYING SPED. The second method of caring for seed is to 

 stratify it in moist sand. This is done by taking a box of convenient 



