110 The Farm Woodlot 



the sunshine, or by artificial heat. This drying causes the 

 cone-scales to separate and the seeds may then readily be 

 shaken out. After all the seed has been obtained from the 

 cones, the wings should be rubbed off and the seed sepa- 

 rated by fanning. This seed is then best kept over 

 winter in its natural dry state. On the farm it is very 

 well kept by placing in a bag and suspending from a rafter 

 or a joist in some out-building safe from mice, and where 

 the inside temperature is the same as outside. Seeds 

 kept this way are ready for planting the following spring, 

 either in the seed-bed or in the woodlot. 



Storing seeds over winter. — Seeds of the conifers are 

 kept over winter as described above. Also seeds of the 

 birches, the sugar maple and the basswood may be kept 

 in the same way, but they are likely to lose a consider- 

 able percentage of their vitality. Heavy seeds like 

 acorns and chestnuts must be kept moist, and this is 

 accomplished best by stratifying in moist sand. For 

 the woodlot owner, the process of stratifying is very 

 simple, since the variety and the amount of seed is usually 

 small. 



Stratifying consists of alternating thin layers of seed 

 with layers of moist sand in a box or pit so that all the 

 seeds may remain moist. For small quantities this is 

 best done in a box. Place a layer of wet sand a few inches 

 thick in the bottom of the box, then a similar layer of seed, 

 followed by another of sand and a layer of seed, and so on 

 until all are stratified. Small seeds that may become 

 badly mixed with wet sand are better tied into loose 

 packages made of cheesecloth, or any thin cloth, and these 

 packages then packed in sand. This keeps the small seeds 



