328 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



Fig. 466. Diagram illustrating method 

 of planting seeds in patches in 

 woodland. 



for this reason some careful growers prefer always 

 to keep them mixed with dry sand in a cool shed. 



The seeds of the red cedar hang on the tree all 

 winter and must be picked by hand. They should 

 be soaked in strong lye for twenty-four hours, the 



fleshy covering 

 removed by rub- 

 bing them against 

 a fine sieve, and 

 then stratified in 

 sand, where they 

 will be frozen 

 during the winter. 

 Even with this 

 treatment they 

 will seldom grow 

 until the second 

 year. 



Stratification. — Stratification is a term used to 

 describe a certain method of storing seeds. It is 

 adapted to almost any of our seeds, but is especially 

 useful with the black walnut, hickory, basswood, 

 plum, cherry, mountain ash and hawthorn. When 

 only small quantities are to be cared for under this 

 method, it is generally best to put them in boxes, 

 mixed with several times their bulk of sand, and 

 bury in the dry ground out-of-doors ; but when 

 large quantities are to be handled they may be 

 mixed with the soil on the surface of the ground, 

 covered with mulch and left until spring. 



Seed-storing. — In the matter of storing seeds 

 it is difiicult to lay down any exact rule. How- 

 ever, it is perfectly safe to winter over all of 

 the seeds of hardy plants which ripen in autumn, 

 by burying them in sand out-of-doors, and yet the 

 seeds of ash, hard maple, box-elder, locust, and 

 other dry seeds may be stored to advantage in any 

 dry, cool room. It is very important to have them 

 thoroughly dry before they are stored in any large 

 bulk. A very good way of wintering seeds of the 

 ash, birch, hard maple and box-elder is to spread 

 the seeds on the surface of the hard ground and 

 cover with an inverted box. It is an advantage to 

 have a small ditch around the box to carry off the 

 water. 



Seed treatment. — The seeds of leguminous trees 

 should be scalded in order to get good results. 

 This applies to the black, yellow and honey locust 

 and the coffee tree. To do this successfully, the 

 seed should be placed about one inch deep in a 

 large milk-pan or similar vessel and hot water (130° 

 to 160° Fahr.) poured over them, perhaps three 

 inches deep. This should be allowed to stand until 

 cool, when it will be found that some of the seeds 

 have swollen. These should be picked out and the 

 remainder treated again with hot water, and the 

 process repeated until all have swollen. Seedlings 

 of this class are managed in much the same way 

 as those of ash and maple. 



Seed planting (Figs. 466-469). — Seeds may be 

 classified into three groups : (1) deciduous -tree 

 seeds that ripen in spring and early summer ; (2) 

 deciduous-tree seeds that ripen in autumn ; (3) , 

 coniferous-tree seeds. 

 Among the seeds that ripen in spring and early 



summer are soft and red maple, the elms, cotton- 

 woods and willows. These should be gathered 

 as soon as ripe, and, with the exception of the 

 red elm, should be sown in a few days or weeks, as 

 they retain their vitality but a short time. Red 

 elm seed will not grow until the following spring. 



The thousands of seedlings of Cottonwood, elm 

 and soft maple that naturally spring up along the 

 sand-bars and river and lake shores, show what 

 are the best conditions for the germination of 

 these seeds, but seeds of white elm and soft mapla 

 generally do well when sown in any good garden 

 soil. Cottonwood seedlings can be grown by scat- 

 tering branches bearing unopened seed-pods along 

 the furrows in moist soil and covering the seed 

 lightly, when they will shell out ; but they are 

 of such uncertain growth that most nurserymen 

 depend on the sand-bars and lake shores for their 

 supply. 



Willows are seldom grown from seed, as these 

 are difficult to raise, and the trees start easily 

 from cuttings. Elm, soft maple and mulberry seeds 

 generally grow well on any good moist soil, but 

 that which is somewhat sandy is best. They 

 should be sown thickly in drills eight inches wide 

 and three feet apart, when they may be easily 

 cultivated by a horse cultivator. Or they may 

 be sown in rows sixteen inches apart and culti- 



Fig. 467. Young oonifeicas evergreens growing under screen at 

 Sherman Nursery, Charles City, Iowa. For the first two 

 or three years evergreens of all kinds have to be screened 

 from the sun, after which they need no protection. 



vated by hand. Elm and soft maple seed should be 

 covered about three-fourths inch, mulberry about 

 one-fourth inch and soft maple about one inch. If the 

 weather is dry at the time the seed is sown, the 

 soil over the seed should be thoroughly firmed, and 

 if the weather continues dry the rows should be 

 watered. Watering, however, is seldom necessary 

 on good retentive land, .if the soil has been prop- 

 erly packed. When watering is resorted to, it is a 

 good plan to cover the drills lightly with some 

 mulch or litter, or shade them with boards, but 

 these should be removed as soon as the seed- 

 lings first appear. With proper conditions, seeds so 

 planted will start quickly and grow rapidly. The 

 seedlings of soft maple and white elm will gen- 

 erally be large enough for transplanting to the 

 young forest or windbreak the first season ; how- 

 ever, they may be allowed to grow another year in 

 the seed-bed without injury, but should generally 



