FOREST TREE SEED AND SEED COLLECTING 95 



From the comprehensive study of Scotch pine and other Euro- 

 pean species, it appears that stands having poor growth form due to 

 adverse soil and climatic conditions and to the use of seed from the 

 wrong locality are not suitable for the collection of seed for use in forest 

 practice. For each locality the indigenous spontaneous species are 

 the best sources of seed for use in that locality. 



The germination and early growth of Douglas fir grown from 

 seed collected over various parts of its range have been studied 

 recently by Berg and reported by Zon. 1 The results show marked 

 differences in general appearance, growth and hardiness of the 

 seedlings raised from seed from different sources. 



Wide-crowned, short-boled, thrifty trees growing in the open 

 are usually very prolific seed-bearers. As they owe their unsatis- 

 factory form wholly to the light conditions under which they 

 grow and not to inherent characteristics due to climate and soil, 

 seed collected from them is equally as good as that collected from 

 trees of superior quality in commercial stands. 



Where a species of a given locality has defects which are trans- 

 mitted through the seed, while in another locality it is free from 

 them, a change of seed may be desirable. Thus the Jeffrey pine in 

 the mountains of southern California is seriously injured for com- 

 mercial purposes by spiral fiber in the wood. 2 



6. The Size and Weight of Seed in Relation to Quality 



Within a given species large seed is, as a rule, of higher quality 

 than small seed. In species of wide range, however, as illustrated 

 in western yellow pine, burr oak and red oak, the average size of the 

 seed in one portion of the range may be fully twice as large as in 

 another. In these and similar cases, size alone is not necessarily 

 a measure of quality. When size, however, is not dependent 

 upon range but rather upon local conditions, large seed possesses 

 a greater germinating power and produces more vigorous seed- 



1 Zon, Raphael: Effect of source of seed upon the growth of Douglas fir. 

 (Forestry Quarterly, vol. XI, p. 499. 1913.) 



2 In 1901 the author collected seed of Pinus jeffreyi from trees with spiral 

 fiber in the San Bernardino Mts., California. This seed was sown at New 

 Haven, Conn., and a record of the seedlings kept during the first year. Out of 

 750 seedlings, spiral fiber developed in approximately 3| per cent during the 

 first year. A well-marked twist was evident below the cotyledons in a number 

 of the seedlings. This experiment at least suggests that the tendency to spiral 

 fiber may be transmitted through the seed. 



