THE LARCH. 213 
those produced by healthy free growing trees, as such yield 
the largest cones, the largest seeds, and the strongest seedling 
plants. 
Various methods of extracting the seeds are recommended 
by different authors. That of boring and splitting the cones, 
although well suited for manufacturing a few handfuls, and 
well adapted to the circumstance of the times a century ago, 
is now far too tedious. The present prices of larch plants 
cannot afford the time and labour of dissecting the cones 
individually. Another method recommended in some books’ 
on this subject is to “scatter the cones on the prepared seed- 
beds, to let them lie there till natural chemical action makes 
them discharge a sufficient number of seeds, and then to rake 
them off, either for dispersion on other seed-beds, or for pre- 
servation till another season.” Plausible though this method. 
may appear, it is not practicable in the climate of Britain, and 
can never yield a crop. The influence of our sunshine does 
not extract the seeds from the larch cones with any degree of 
regularity even at the hottest season of the year, and that is a 
period at which the crop does not admit of being sown. 
- To extract the seeds of larch safely and speedily, the cones 
should be placed on a timber kiln. Brick or metal covers 
are unsafe, and the cones should be heated on wood. They 
should be laid on about six inches thick. The temperature 
should be raised to 100° Fah., but not above 110°; with this 
heat the cones will be quite dry in about ten hours, during 
which time they should be turned twice, and the seeds which 
fall out at each turning should be immediately removed. The 
heat may be kept at a lower degree, but in that case the time 
for drying will require to be extended. The vegetative 
powers of the larch seed cannot be destroyed by a degree of 
heat considerably higher, but even at a higher temperature 
very few of the seeds escape from the cones. The object 
therefore of drying the cones is to render them brittle, pre- 
paratory to their being thrashed. When dry they should be 
removed from the kiln in a warm state, and laid about six 
inches deep, on a floor formed of a fine stone causeway, where 
