FOREST NURSERY PRACTICE 151 



lengthwise of acre plats, even under a lath house, should have a breadth 

 of at least two feet. Paths between beds should be from fifteen to eight- 

 een inches broad. On an acre plot which is twice as long as it is broad 

 (195.16 feet by 147,158 fett) in which a two foot paths runs lengthwise 

 through the center and in which beds six and one-half feet broad are 

 separated by eighteen inch paths, there will be 19.65"% of the area in 

 paths. This does not allow any border paths and limits beds at one end 

 to five feet in breadth. 



At many commercial nurseries, the beds are only four feet broad ajid 

 eight feet long with paths arveraging eighteen inches broad. Occasionally 

 beds are narrower than this and the paths considerable broader. Many 

 of these nurseries are located on soil valued at $200 to $300 per acre 

 but the nurseryman believes that the small sized bed with fair sized 

 paths alloys a sufficient saving in labor to compensate for the loss in 

 productive capacity. 



*No description is given of the methods of seedbed preparation or seed 

 sowing in use by commerical nurseries for deciduous tree stock. 



Ordinarily, paths should not have a depth greater than two to three 

 inches. This is usually accomplished by packing the soil under foot while 

 the men are working in the nursery. Where the paths are deeper than 

 this, the sides of the beds are likely to be very irregular and cause a loss 

 in growing space. There is also considerable danger of drying out along 

 the edge of the beds causing the seedlings which border deep paths to be 

 weak or stunted because of the increased exposure. When nurseries are 

 established on slight or moderate slopes, the beds are leveled and boards 

 are placed along the lower sides t oprevent washing. Such boards are 

 also used in some nurseries on level land. 



In cases where flooding occurs during the 'rainy season, as it does in 

 southern California, it was the practice to use the paths to carry off the 

 water. In such cases, the paths were sometimes rapidly eroded but were 

 filled in agan by laborers as soon as the sever rains were over. It is 

 doubtful if this is good practice and it would seem than some special 

 drainage arrangement would be better. 



Seed Testing:. 



At all nurseries, the variable results obtained from forest tree seeds, 

 which were collected from different sources, during different seasons, of 

 various ages, and various methods of storing, showed the need of extensive 

 germination tests. Such tests are necessary to secure good results in 

 seed sowing and should also furnish a criterion in the selection of regions, 

 sites a,nd individual trees from which seed should be collected. The 

 various methods of seed testing which have been used are as follows: 



1. Color test; good seeds are usually brighter colored than poor 



seed. 



2. Frying pan test; good seeds pop open in a hot frying pan while 



poor seeds char. 



3. Jack-knife test; good seeds fill the seed coats, weak seeds partial- 



