The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-08-01

sissippi valley (prunus Pennsylvania
as a stock on which to grow our
cultivated cherries. The late Prof.
J. L. Budd, so long and favorably
known as the professor of horticul-
ture of the Iowa experiment station
at Ames, was one who recommended
the use of this native cherry stock.
do not know of any one who can
furnish the seeds of this native cherry
or the stocks.
+
When it comes to the peach, we
must remember what has been said
about the cultivated and highly de-
veloped fruits and those as found in
state of nature. Hence. Seeding
peach trees furnish better seed for
stocks than the highly developed types
like the Crawfords and the liberia.
It is quite common practice for
peach nurserymen to get their seed
from the seedlings of Tennessee. They
are harder and are supposed to be
less likely to be attacked by the vel
lows, which in some sections of the
country is a very serious disease.
Y
having IOlu DllSll{ nOW duu WuSIO
to secure the seeds for our stocks
for apples, pears. cherries and
peaches, the next thing to be con-
sidered is the care of the seeds and
their preparation for planting. If we
save our own apple seeds we should
select those of the hardy varieties,
like the Gilpin (Red Romanite), Mi
lam, Duchess and the like, and they
should be washed clean and dried and
then kept through the greater part of
the winter in a dry room. If they
freeze it will not burt them. Toward
spring the seeds should be soaked for
twelve hours, when the water should
be poured off and the seeds mixed
with sand. The seeds should be
placed in shallow boXes-in the sand,
of course-and set out doors of a
cold night and allowed to freeze up
solid and then set on the north side
of some building and covered with
straw and kept frozen till the ground
is sufficiently thawed for planting
The seed and sand should be planted
together. They will soon come up,
and should be kept clean and allowed
to make vigorous growth. The next
winter they can be cut up into pieces
two or three inches long and grated
with long pieces of scions, and kept
in the cellar till planting time. These
CRAFTS should be set down deep in the
ground with but one bud above the
surface. They will nearly all grow
if properly handled, and will make
trees on their own roots for all the
buds on the scions below the ground
will make roots. Some prefer to
graft only the top part of the young
Seeding and they call them whole
root CRAFTS. But many of our best
horticu1turists prefer the long scion
and a short piece of root I fully
concur in this view for reasons not
given here.
+
Pear seeds should be treated very
much as the apple seeds. The drupa-
ceous fruits, or those having hard
stony pits such as cherries and
peaches, are to be treated in very
different manner. They should never
be allowed to thoroughly dry out, but
they must be kept in a moist condi-
ton through the winter. They must,
however, be thoroughly cleansed from
the rotting fruit, for if fungi attack
them it is likely to impair their fer
tility. An important step with these
drupaceous seeds is to stratify them
This is usually done by mixing them
before they become thoroughly dried
out with sand in box, and then
burying the box out doors on dry
ground and covering the top with a
few inches of dirt or with old burlap
sacks. They should freeze and be
kept in that condition if it can be
done. This freezing causes the pits
to split open in the spring. If this
is not done they will rarely come UP