that you can wring any water out of it.
The best way to prepare this dry peat moss is to soak it in water and
wring as much water out of it as possible by squeezing with your hands.
Then mix it with half as much of the undampened peat. This will give you
approximately the right moisture coefficient. If stored in cans, the
bottom of the can must be punctured with a few holes about 1/4 of an
inch in diameter, well distributed on the bottom to act as a drain and
to admit some slight circulation of air. The same thing should be done
with the cover.

First, put down an even layer about 1-1/2 inches of this dampened moss,
then put in a layer of chestnuts or other nuts to be stratified, placed
evenly or well distributed but not touching each other. After the first
layer, carefully sift in more dampened moss about 1 inch thick and
repeat the process until either the can is full or all the seeds have
been stored. The last layer should be a 2-inch layer of peat moss before
the cover is placed on. Now the important thing about all this is to
place this can in a storage room of low temperature and yet it should
not freeze solid. But in a temperature of from 32 to 40 degrees is ideal
and preferably it should be on the ground floor so as to maintain the
moisture that is already stored in the seed and the moss. A mechanical
refrigerator which would constantly dehydrate might eventually dry them
out too much for good germination; otherwise such a refrigerator would
be ideal for the storage of small amount of seeds of this kind.

It would be well from time to time to inspect these seeds to see whether
they were in good condition and check the temperatures as well. If they
start to sprout all the better; they can then be planted with the sprout
downward and the nut barely covered with earth. Some years I have had
sprouts nearly six inches long on my chestnuts which had been so stored
and care will have to be taken not to break the sprout when
transplanting the nuts.

In planting nuts, great care must be taken not to plant them too deeply.
Large nuts, such as black walnuts, butternuts and English walnuts, are
often planted with a small part of the nut still exposed. Certainly, the
depth of the soil over a nut should never exceed the thickness of the
nut. Most seeds develop best when they are planted just under the
surface of the soil. The earth should be lightly tamped around the
planted seeds to eliminate air-pockets. A thin coating of