88 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



on the Harz mountains one good and one minor seed year 

 are expected in every six years. Seed years can be foretold 

 by the flower-buds, and the twigs showing these, broken off by 

 squirrels and birds which feed on - them. The ruddy-brown 

 seed ripens in the October after the flowering, and is 

 scattered from the cones in spring ; it is somewhat larger and 

 heavier than the greenish-black or brownish seed of Scots 

 pine, and is reckoned good in quality when test experiments 

 show a germinative power of seventy-five to eighty per cent. 

 It thus has not only a greater germinative power than the 

 Scots pine, but it retains this somewhat longer, especially 

 when kept in the cone. Each cone has 200 to 250 seeds, 

 and one pound contains from 55,000 to 60,000 seeds. 



Liability to suffer from External Dangers. As an offset 

 against its many excellent qualities, spruce has unfortunately 

 to contend with many external dangers at all periods of its 

 existence, here of course to a greater extent, and there to a 

 less, according to the soil and situation. Sharp, biting 

 winds hinder reproduction at high elevations, except under 

 the shelter of protective standards. Frost is only liable to 

 damage the young growth at its earliest stage. Accumu- 

 lations of snow, and of ice formed after rain on the heavy 

 foliaged branches, bend down saplings in thickets, break the 

 poles in young forests, snap off the tops of trees, and make 

 large holes here and there in the canopy, especially at 

 moderate elevations (on the Harz mountains, particularly 

 those between 1700-2300 feet) where the snow is larger in 

 flake than at high altitudes. Dense forests suffer most from 

 snow, whilst a larger growing-space increases the danger 

 from hanging ice. 



No other species of forest tree is less able than the spruce 

 to resist the violence of storms. Its shallow root -system, the 

 long lever formed by the bole, and the purchase obtainable 

 by the wind on the dense crown of foliage near the summit, 



