F O R E S T - T R E E .S. 131 



Let tliem therefore be gathered from the faireft and moft llou- 

 rifliing trees of the red kind (or if fallen from them, thcj are fo 

 much the better) in March or April, and kept in a dry place till 

 June, July, or Auguft, as the weather fooner or later becomes hot : 

 ^ At the moft favourable of thefe feafuns, fpread them on a mat 

 or canvafs expofed to the fun during the heat of the day, taking 

 them under cover in the evenings, and keeping them conftantly 

 from the rains and dews. In a few days the cones will expand, 

 and the feeds will rattle within them : When this comes to be the 

 cafe, put them in a wire-heve, and lliake them above a cloth, 

 on which you will find many of the feeds come out ; repeat the 

 fpreading of the cones in the warmeft expofures to the mid- 

 day fun for feveral days, (as the feeds will not all be difcharged 

 perhaps for fbme weeks, and with fundry fhakings), till having 

 bruifed fome of the cones, you find they contain no feeds that 

 are plump and frelh. Having thus procuj-ed them, let them 

 be kept in boxes or bags, placed in a dry room, till the fealon 

 of fowing. 



By colledling your feeds in this manner, (and the expence or 

 trouble is not great), you will have them unhurt, ripe and ge- 

 nerous, a pound of which will raife more plants than fix of that 

 ufually bought from the feed-gatherers : Nor is even this the 

 greaceft advantage; for every gardener knows, (or at leaft ought 

 to know) that on the good quality of the feed depends the fu- 

 ture luxuriant growth of the plant, as a difeafed or weak parent 

 is not likely to produce a healthy and vigorous offspring. It is 

 much to be vvifhed this circumftance were more attended to than 

 it ufually is, both in the. animal and vegetable creation, 



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