EFFECT OF DEPTH OF COVERING SEED UPON THE 

 GERMINATION AND QUALITY OF STOCK 



By S. B. Show 

 Forest Examiner, Feather River Experiment Station 



The Feather River Experiment Station has completed a series of 

 experiments on the effect of depth of covering seed upon germination 

 and quality of stock. The species included in the experiment were 

 western yellow pine, Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, Douglas fir, white fir, 

 and bigtree. With the exception of sugar pine, which has been sown 

 both in the spring and fall, the conclusions regarding all the species are 

 based on spring sowing only. 



Sugar Pine 



Spring Sowing — The results fall into two groups : Sowing to 34 

 inch and ^ inch may be considered together, and % inch and 1 inch 

 together. 



The shallower sowing gave five times as many seedlings the first 

 year as the deeper sowing; the winter loss was heaviest in the shallow 

 sowing; the amount of holdover germination was the same for both 

 shallow and deep sowing. The net result shows nearly twice as many 

 2-0 seedlings from shallow as from deep sowing. 



Fall Solving — For the period of active germination, two groups as 

 before. During the period of growth and loss the ^ inch joined the 

 shallow group. Shallow-sown seed started germination and reached 

 the peak of germination two weeks earlier than deep-sown seed. The 

 final count shows the y/^-\nc\\, ^-inch and ^-inch sowings with an 

 average of 185 plants per drill, while the 1-inch sowing has 140. 



In the fall of 1915 the plants were lifted from 2 feet of drill from 

 each lot of both spring and fall sowing, and the plants graded into 

 firsts, seconds, and culls. The average weight and length of the tops 

 and roots of each lot of firsts and seconds was carefully determined. 



Table 1 summarizes the results of the grading: 



619 



