SEED CHARACTERISTICS IN CONIFEROUS FORESTS 3 



Mountains of Washington, may carry an occasional seed for a long distance, 

 but satisfactory reproduction over large areas never results from a few 

 seeds sown in this way. 



Animals play a rather incidental part in seed distribution, and the 

 carrying of seed by birds may account for the occasional trees found in 

 unusual places. The most striking instance of animal distribution is seen 

 in the yellow pine regions where squirrels, chipmunks, and mice collect 

 and cache seeds and cones. Usually the caches are under logs, in 

 stumps, or other hiding places. Often on the grassy slopes of the yellow 

 pine region squirrels store separate cones under tufts of grass. The writer 

 has examined and collected cones from such caches that covered areas 

 200 square feet or more. Mice also cache small piles of clean seed under 

 grass tufts. Naturally rodents do not find all of the stored cones and 

 seed, and in this way they become planters of seed even though they take 

 heavy toll for their work. This accounts for the patches of yellow pine 

 reproduction on some of the grassy slopes of western Montana and Idaho. 

 Tufts of yellow pine have been found containing from ten to twenty 

 seedlings. 



METHODS OF STUDY 



To determine seed distribution, belt transects 8}^ feet wide were run 

 2> chains apart, covering 5 per cent of the total area, thus crossing it 

 often enough to get representative areas under all conditions of moisture, 

 shade, exposure (as to slope), and soil. 



The belt transect shows the continuous conditions through the vege- 

 tation of a formation and gives graphically the relations of the various 

 aspects and situations. It furnishes a record of the heterogeneity of the 

 area in respect to species and soil conditions. The transect is preferable 

 to the plot or quadrat in most instances, because the quadrat gives only 

 a local record, and does not give topography and circumstances leading 

 from one homogeneous formation to another. 



Notes were taken on the kinds of soil, whether silt, sandy, rocky, 

 clay, etc., vegetation cover, condition of soil, whether mineral or covered 

 with humus, duff, or litter, and amount of charred logs and slash on the 

 ground. Number and age of each species of seedlings present were recorded 

 with conditions under which each individual or group of seedlings was 

 found, as to soil, shade, or protection by logs or slash. 



The following detailed report of an area studied in northern Idaho 

 shows the methods used: 



Designation Kaniksu-Fidelity Lumber Co., March 18, 1907. 



Location Sec. 26, T. 57 N., R. 5W., Boise M. 



Topography Rolling, traversed by Pine Creek a non-drivable s 



and the West Branch River a drivable stream, blopes 

 and ravines shown by map. 



