114 



THE PRACTICAL GARDBNER. 



The seeds of various species of the P'lnus family will re- 

 tain their vegetative properties for two or three years, if left 

 within the cones, but soon lose that property after being 

 extracted from them. Nurserymen, therefore, seldom take out 

 the seeds until near the time of sowing, and, in a great mea- 

 sure, calculate upon securing a crop of firs by strictly attend- 

 ing to this point. In April, the seeds should be sown in beds 

 of any convenient breadth, in ground which has been pre- 

 viously prepared by digging, ike. ; and if the ground be poor, 

 manure should be added ; but if manured for a light previ jas 

 crop, it will be better. Ground, upon which a crop of peas 

 has been grown the preceding summer, or any other kitchen- 

 garden vegetable, excepting carrots, will be very suitable for 

 a crop of seedling firs. The ground should be well broken 

 in the process of digging, and should be raked as that process 

 proceeds. When the beds are laid off', the seeds should be 

 regularly sown on them, so that the plants may come up about 

 a quarter of inch from each other. It is very necessary that 

 care be taken in covering the seeds, that they be not buried too 

 deep, nor yet left too near the surface ; upon an average, half 

 an inch may be considered the proper depth at which they 

 should be covered. After the seeds are sown, a watch should 

 be kept over them, as they will be liable to be destroyed by 

 birds of various kinds ; the usual methods of protecting seeds 

 in gardens should be had recourse to, and pei*severed in, for 

 if the birds once find their way to the seeds, it will be no 

 easy matter to keep them off. When tlie seeds vegetate, and 

 are a little advanced, they should be carefully gone over and 

 hand-weeded, for, however trifiing this may appear, nothing is 

 so injurious to crops of young firs, than to allow them to be 

 overrun with weeds in the first stages of their growth. The 

 earlier this work is performed, the less injury the crop will 

 sustain, and the less time it will take to perform. " A thick 

 rising crop of seedlings," says Sang, " is often converted into 

 a thin one by delaying the weeding: while a thin crop is much 

 improved by a timely and continued attention to weeding. A 

 nurseryman who can neglect his young trees in the above 

 respect, or even walk through his grounds when his young 

 plants languish under weeds, without the severest compunc- 



