C. Comparisons Between "Light" and "Dark" Trees 



There was an attempt to discover whether foliar analysis could point up a 

 measurable difference between "dark", or green trees, as against "light", or more 

 yellowish green trees on individual plantations, both groups appearing healthy 

 and commercially acceptable but with the market advantage to the former group. 



Three locations (all in Coos County, northern New Hampshire) contributed 

 five dark and five light trees to the sampling for a total of thirty trees. A soil 

 sample was also taken at the tree. An additional pair, one light and one dark 

 tree, was sampled at a fourth location in the same general area. 



By Munsell color chart, the trees on the locations compared approximately as 

 follows: 



Dark Light 



Location I 7.5 GY 4/6 7.5 GY 5/6 



Location II 7.5 GY 4/5 7.5 GY 4.5/6 



Location III 7.5 GY 4.5/6 5 GY 5/8 



Location IV 7.5 GY 4/6 5 GY 5/6 



This would indicate among the first three locations with five samples in each 

 classification, that Location II offered relatively little visual difference between 

 the categories. The averages were computed for the dark and light categories and 

 presented in Table 9. 



Upon statistical analysis, the apparent differences in the tabular presentation 

 between nitrogen percentages in dark as against light foliage proved significant 

 for Locations I and III but not for Location II. This was anticipated in view of 

 what was already indicated as to the relatively subtle difference in color in 

 Location II, with light trees approaching the color of dark trees at Location III. 



As in the Growers' Plots analysis, an attempt to correlate foliar content and 

 soil sample content for specific nutrients failed. There were no apparent correla- 

 tions when the dark and light groupings for Locations I, II, or III were compared. 

 Table 10 is the soil data summary which can be compared with the chemical 

 foliar summary in Table 9. Although group, rather than tree by tree results are in 

 the tables, analyses by individual tree also produced no hint of consistent 

 relationships. 



D. "Standard" for typical balsam, fir, fall sampling in northern New 

 Hampshire and Vermont 



The preliminary work on chemical foliar analysis makes available the data 

 presented within Table 11 as an indication of what may be expected with 

 typical balsam fir of marketable Christmas tree size. The data used to develop 

 Table 11 was obtained from 52 trees sampled between September 29 and Novem- 

 ber 9th during 1965. It is expected that some of these trees were growing under 

 conditions of less than ideal nutrient availability and were deficient in some 

 nutrients, as the ranges encountered would suggest. Nevertheless, although some 

 trees were rated relatively "light" or "yellowish green" within their plantation or 



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