ng._ A man-devised method for hastening the ripening of a matured
seed or fruit, is usually carried on in a more or less enclosed space
where the moisture and temperature conditions are kept carefully
regulated, or in a place where the seeds are kept away from direct
contact with sunlight and the earth. Ordinarily, the nuts are placed in
trays 2" to 3" deep, 2' to 2-1/2' wide and 5' to 6' long. The bottom
tray is then placed upon a pair of sawhorses or other device, in a shady
place and 2' to 2-1/2' above the ground then the other trays are placed
on and above the first one until all the nuts are in the tier of trays,
or until it is 2' to 3' tall. Sometimes a current of heated,
circulating air is used to doubly hasten the curing process, but this
practice is to be discouraged as too often the undue heating of the nut
germ while in this stage of ripening injures it, and thus the nuts are
rendered unfit for reproduction. The nuts in the trays should be
frequently stirred or turned over during the first week or ten days
while curing.

In the case of chestnuts, the crop should be harvested as soon as
possible after the first nuts fall so that the damage from weevils may
be kept at a minimum. Immediately after the nuts are surface-dried they
should be treated to an application of carbon disulphide, one ounce to a
tightly closed capacity content of an apple barrel; time of treatment
about 24 hours. While this treatment probably will not kill all the
weevils it will insure a much larger percentage of germination than
there would be otherwise.

After fumigating the nuts should be spread out on wire-cloth bottom
trays and placed under a shed or trees, where a free circulation of air
will in a few days sufficiently cure the nuts, so that they may be
stratified and set away in a pit in the ground on the north side of a
building, wall, hedge-row or evergreen trees, thus insuring them ample
moisture and protection against sudden changes of temperatures and the
ravages of rodents and other pests.

Other nuts of the temperate zone may, in a general way, be treated
without any special care other than that required to keep them from
getting moist and warm, or destroyed by rodents or other nut-eating
animals, or by fungous troubles.

On the whole probably the best method of treatment for the amateur or
small grower of seedling nut trees, is to stratify the nuts as soon as
harvested, assuming that the nuts have been fairly well cured