412 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



and the latest and most reliable results have been obtained from an 

 experimental, calorimetric kiln, in which were treated cones from 

 two quite different sources, both in a green state and after various 

 periods of air drying. Both seed production and seed extraction 

 studies led, in the final analysis, to the germinability of the seed pro- 

 duced. Hence there was developed a system of seed testing which 

 has been previously described,^ and which was applied not only to seed 

 extracted in the course of experiments, but to all seed used in for- 

 estation operations. The germination tests with lodgepole pine have 

 now reached an aggregate of little less than two thousand, each in- 

 volving 500 seeds. A large mass of data of great value was collected in 

 this routine process. 



Finally, it became obvious that since the conditions for germina- 

 tion in the greenhouse were so much more favorable than cotild be 

 expected in the field, there was little possibility of securing the full 

 greenhouse germination, and for the economic, yet successful use of 

 the seed in forestation, it was decidedly necessary to have some 

 measure of the field possibilities of each lot of seed. Hence there 

 were made during three seasons, comparative tests of the greenhouse, 

 nursery and field germination of a number of different seed lots, the 

 last being performed not only with all of the seed lots under identical 

 conditions, but with each sown at a point in the field near its source. 



With this brief description of the work which 'has been done in 

 \arious lines of experimentation, I wish to point out a few of the 

 conclusions which may be drawn from an analysis of the results. 

 First, what is shown with regard to the origin, migration, and present 

 habitats of lodgeix)le in our limited region. The greenhouse germina- 

 tion tests show that lodgepole pine is much slower in its germination 

 than either Douglas fir. Engelmann spruce, or yellow pine, requiring 

 thirty-one days for what these other species accomplish in twenty-one 

 to twenty-five days. The field tests, also, show that the seed has much 

 of the "hang-over" quality of Finns monticola, germinating nearly as 

 much in the second as in the year of its sowing. These facts point 

 to an origin at a high northern latitude. When we consider, also, that 

 seed from northern Wyoming germinates almost as promptly as that 

 from central Colorado, while Douglas fir seeds from these two locali- 

 ties show decidedly different characteristics, it becomes apparent that 



Bates, C. G., "The Technique of Seed Testing." Proc. Soc. Am. For., VIIT, 2. 



