230 Forestry Quarterly. 



Before describing the system used, a few general words as to the 

 Prussian Seed Collecting policy may not be amiss. 



Until recently, the Prussian foresters bought almost all their 

 seed from wholesale seed houses. Especially at Darmstadt did 

 this trade assume huge proportions. The universal system of 

 clear cutting and artificial regeneration increased the demand for 

 seed to such a point that dealers, in order not to lose their cus- 

 tomers, resorted to the importation of foreign seed of the same 

 species. Especially was this done in the case of the common pine 

 (Finns syhestric) where during fail years in Germany, huge 

 quantities were imported from France, Belgium and Hungary. 

 While of the same species, there were seeds of distinct varieties 

 {Finns sylvestris aquitana; F. s. batava and F. s. pannonica, 

 respectively) and, true to their ancestry, gave wretched results in 

 Germany, being slower of growth, poorer of form, and more sub- 

 ject to the diseases common to their new environment. So un- 

 satisfactory were the results and so uncertain the source from 

 which the seed dealers derived their seed, that the Prussian 

 government resolved to secure its own seed from home grown 

 cones. 



This experience in heredity is one from which we can well 

 profit. Other things being equal, the native seed of native trees 

 is by far the best for native environment. Were this not so, the 

 law of natural selection would not be true.* 



The earlier Prussian "Darren" were rather crude affairs — com- 

 parable to a chest of perforated drawers through which the hot 

 air from a furnace below circulated. Of this type is the Ebers- 

 walde Darre mentioned in Forstmeister Wiebecke's article. It 

 is not a satisfactory system because of the unequal temperature 

 throughout the room and hence the more rapid drying of certain 

 drawers as against others. All this necessitates sorting and 

 changing — hand labor. 



In the Darre at Annaburg an entirely different system is used. 

 Here the cones are dried in two huge revolving cylinders, the 

 liberated seeds fall down a chute into bags. The system is shown 

 in the two accompanying sketches: Fig. i. A complete cross sec- 



*The interested reader is referred to the masterly exposition of these 

 facts in C. Wagner's, "Die Grundlagen der raumlichen Ordnung im 

 Walde," 1910, Part I. 



