FOREST-TREES. 



cannot afPedl them ; therefore I deferred gatliering the cones tili 

 the months of March or April, when they eafily part with the 

 tree, and many of them drop from it, v/hich arc flill better than 

 thofe plucked. The cones thus procured, fully ripe, fliould be 

 fpread in a dry covered place, till the weather become warm, in 

 May or June, when they ought to be expofed on glafs-cafes at 

 the bottom of windows fronting the fouth, or any other way 

 moft convenient, fo as to receive the warmefh influences of the 

 fun : This muft be repeated (taking them into a warm place 

 every evening before the dews fall) for feveral weeks, when the 

 cones will open, and many of the beft feeds come out, by fliaking 

 them in a wire fieve ; but as all of them will not, therefore fplit 

 the cones afunder, by driving a fmall piece of fliarp iron through 

 the center, from the bottom to the top of them : Let thefe be a- 

 gain expofed to the fun for a fev/ days, when many more feeds 

 will lhake out, and all that is good of them feparate from tlie 

 huflc, or be eafdy pick'd off with the point of a knife. t 



Tho' the feeds of thefe trees in the cone are good for {pur or 

 five years, yet, when divefted of that, they lofe their gro-wing 

 quality in a few months ; therefore, as foon as they are got out, 

 let them be mixed with fine dry fand, and preferved in bags till 

 the feafon of fowing. 



In the beginning of March, or as fopn after as the weatl^er v/ill 

 permit, having prepared a fliady border, expofed only to the mor- 

 ning fun, of loofe, mellow, rich ground, fow your feeds very thin 

 in beds three and a half feet broad, vAth alleys of eighteen inches ; 

 clap the feeds gently into the bed with the back of a fpade, fo 

 as, by making it fmooth and level, it may receive an equal cover- 



