Periodical Literature. 267 



again placed into the oven with reduced temperature from the 

 original 50° C. to 40° (wet cones being more sensitive to heat 

 than dry). First, the cones close tightly, then, when evapora- 

 tion begins, they open freely and completely. The expectation 

 that the second heating would produce a larger per cent, of sterile 

 seed was also agreeably disappointed. 



Not only was the number of full seed only slightly less, but 

 the germination per cent, practically the same and the story, 

 that the cones or scales which do not open contain infertile seed 

 disproved. 



Zur Frage dcr Kieferncapfengewinung. Naturwissenschaftliche Zeit- 

 srfirift fiir Forst- u. Jagdwesen. December, 1912. Pp. .S63-573. 



Details of losses to plantations suffered in 

 Unusual Prussia during the summer of 191 1 con- 



Weather tinue to be reported by Splettstoesser from 



Damage. his revier. 



Rohrwiese, which lies in West Prussia 

 some 80 miles south of the Baltic and 125 miles east of Berlin, 

 at an elevation of 80 to 150 meters above the sea has an 

 area of 4,850 ha- (12,125 acres) ; the soil is sandy, the stand 

 Scotch pine. The forest lies too far inland to feel the influence 

 of the sea and in summer hot days and cold nights are the rule, 

 x^griculturally, the region is declining due to such conditions as 

 were especially marked in 191 1. Less than eight inches of rain 

 fell in six months of the growing season (April to September) ; 

 the sun shone and winds blew, burying arable soil in sand ; ponds 

 dried up ; potatoes barely yielded the amount planted ; rye froze 

 in flower; serradilla was burned out entirely. 



In the woods the trying season upset many theories and re- 

 vealed the insufficiency of many practices developed under more 

 favorable site conditions. Disasters such as these teach convinc- 

 ingly that woods practice must be determined by conditions dur- 

 ing the worst season, not the average. 



Two frosts (May 20 and June 10) severely injured pines up 

 to a meter high especially such as grew in depressions or sur- 

 rounded by older stands. Areas aggregating considerably more 

 than 250 acres were thus set back. Young stands from sowing 

 and from planting suffered alike. 



After June 10 the summer was hot and very dry. Pine plan- 

 tations survived on bare soils where no heath or other weeds 



