CHAPTER VII 



FOREST TREE SEED AND SEED COLLECTING 

 1. DEMAND FOR FOREST SEED 



THE demand for forest tree seed has rapidly increased with the 

 development of forestry in the United States. Less than a decade 

 ago the seed of the greater number of our forest trees was seldom 

 found in the market and that offered was usually in limited 

 quantity and sold at an inordinately high price. With the rapidly 

 increasing demand of recent years, responsible seed dealers are 

 offering in quantity seed of practically all the species that are 

 likely to be grown in seeding and planting operations. 



The forest tree seed industry is, however, as yet so new in this 

 country and there is so much uncertainty on the part of seed col- 

 lectors and seed dealers as to the demands of the market that 

 prices are very uncertain and, on the whole, very high as com- 

 pared with those prevailing in Germany and other European 

 countries where the artificial formation of woods is an old and well- 

 established practice. As our market becomes more firmly estab- 

 lished and seed collectors and seed dealers are more certain as to 

 future sales and have developed better methods for the collecting 

 and cleaning of seed, prices will become lower and much more 

 uniform. 1 



1 List of dealers in forest tree seed in the United States: 

 Thomas Meehan & Sons, Dresher, Pa. 

 North-Eastern Forestry Co., Cheshire, Conn. 

 Conyers B. Fleu, Jr., Germantown, Pa. 

 Otto Katzenstein & Co., Atlanta, Ga. 

 J. M. Thorburn & Co., 33 Barclay St., New York City, 

 Forest Nursery & Seed Co., McMinnville, Tenn. 

 American Forestry Co., So. Framingham, Mass. 

 D. Hill Nursery Co., Dundee, 111. 

 F. N. Crayton & Sons, Biltmore, N. C. 

 Barteldes Seed Co., Denver, Colo. 

 Iowa Seed Co., Des Moines, la. 



90 



