DIRECTIONS 



For Putting Up and Transmitting 



SEEDS AND PLANTS 



(Accompanying the Letter of the Secretary of the Treasury 

 of September 6, 1827) 



With a view to the transmission of seeds from distant 

 countries, the first object of care is to obtain seeds that are 

 fully ripe, and in a sound and healthy state. To this the 

 strictest attention should be paid; otherwise, all the care and 

 trouble that may be bestowed on them, will have been wast- 

 ed on objects utterly useless. 



Those seeds that are not dry when gathered, should be 

 rendered so by exposure to the air, in the shade. 



When dry, the seeds should be put into paper bags. 

 Common brown paper has been found to answer well for 

 making such bags. But, as the mode of manufacturing that 

 paper varies in different countries, the precaution should 

 be used of putting a portion of the seeds in other kinds of 

 paper. Those that most effectually exclude air and moisture, 

 are believed to be the best for that purpose. It would be 

 proper, also, to enclose some of the seeds in paper or cloth 

 that has been steeped in melted bees-wax. It has been 

 recommended that seeds collected in a moist country, or 

 season, be packed in charcoal. 



After being put up according to any of these modes, the 

 seeds should be enclosed in a box; which should be covered 

 with pitch to protect them from damp, insects, and mice. 

 During the voyage they should be kept in a cool, airy, and 

 dry situation;— not in the hold of the ship. 



The oil seeds soonest lose their germinating faculty. They 

 should be put in a box with sandy earth, in the following 

 manner:— first about two inches of earth at the bottom, into 

 this the seeds should be placed at distances proportionate 

 to their size; on these another layer of earth about an inch 

 thick; and then another layer of seeds;— and so on with 

 alternate layers of earth and seeds until the box is filled 

 within about a foot of the top, which space should be filled 



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