No. 22. THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE. 22ft 



the ground has been kept cultivated and free from weeds each growing 

 season. In July, 1897, the seedlings were thinned out to prevent 

 excessive crowding among the plants. Observations were recorded 

 from time to time of the growth, vigor and maturing of the young 

 trees, and some of these will be found in the tables of this report. 

 The items called for by the Division of Forestry have all been noted 

 and presented herewith. They are: the tallest tree of each sample, 

 average height of each sample, effect of spring frosts on seedlings, 

 date of fall of leaves. 



At the close of the first year instructions were received to "trans- 

 plant ten trees of all kinds of which thirty or more seedlings grew, 

 and five trees of those which produced a smaller number of seedlings. 

 These should be set, if possible, where they can remain for several 

 years." This work was not done, but at the close of growth in the 

 second year, the seedlings were all thinned out in place, giving the 

 entire original space to a maximum of eight black walnuts and five 

 of every other kind. This treatment was adopted because of the 

 unintentional neglect of transplanting seedlings at one year, and 

 because extra ground was not available. It had the advantage of 

 leaving the young trees undisturbed to pass through the severe winter 

 of '98- ? 99, which proved so disastrous to the walnut, bur oak and 

 white ash. 



It was a part of the original plan to duplicate the plantings of seeds 

 annually for five years, but the difficulty of obtaining the seeds was 

 greater in the second year than in the first, and instead of 80 samples, 

 as in the first year, we received only 55 samples for the second plant- 

 ing, of which only 33 were exact duplicates of the former. Several 

 chestnuts and pecans were included, but the chestnuts were too dry 

 when received to possess any vitality, therefore, no seedlings were 

 obtained. In the tables which follow, the states are marked with as- 

 terisks (*) to indicate that a duplicate will be found in the second 

 years' tables. 



Table I. There are twenty-one samples of walnut (Juglans nigra), 

 gathered from regions representing as great a variety of climatic 

 conditions as we may find in the United States. The seeds were all 

 gathered from native trees with the exception of those from Cali- 

 fornia, Colorado and Nebraska. The nuts from California were nota- 

 bly small, not more than one-half the size of black walnuts ordinarily. 

 Germination varied from May 26 to June 21, taking the record from 

 the first appearance of the seedling through the ground. The plant- 

 lets continued to appear in some instances until July 9. 



The loss of young trees on account of winter killing as indicated in 

 the last column of Table I, is most remarkable, for these trees were 

 well established two-year old plants with their tap roots deep in the 

 soil. Of the 134 best trees left standing by the thinning out of Oc- 



