After walnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts and hazels have been gathered, they should be dried until the hulls have lost most of their moisture.  The husks should be removed from filberts before they are dried.  While this preparation is not essential, nuts are less likely to mold if they are dried somewhat before they are planted.  However, I have planted freshly-gathered black walnuts and butternuts and most of them sprouted.  If nuts are to be stored in large quantities, the drying-out process is absolutely essential and should be carried to the point of completely drying the hulls.  The system I followed in doing this is to gather the nuts after they have fallen and spread them out in the sunlight on roofs or floors where air can circulate around them.  After the hulls are dry, such nuts as black walnuts, English walnuts and butternuts may be put in barrels or burlap bags and stored in an unheated basement without seriously deteriorating.  English walnuts are most safely stored when they are hulled before being packed in burlap bags.  These bags should be suspended above the floor of the cellar by a rope or wire.  These are additional precautions which allow better circulation of air, further prevention of mold, and safety from mice and squirrels.

Chestnuts, beechnuts and acorns require more care when they are to be stored, for their viability is very sensitive to dryness.  I have found that these soft-shelled species of nuts should be treated in a different manner than the walnut and hickory types of seeds if we are to get the most out of their germination.  Since chestnuts are very prone to molding or rotting, the best way to maintain their viability and freshness over winter is to stratify them in a can or box between layers of a peat moss.  This peat moss must be decidedly on the acid side and must be dampened, but must not be so wet 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.